General FAQs

We also have Registration FAQ's

What's this all about?

This is a one day mini-conference, aimed at practioners who are working with Lean, Agile, or Systems Thinking techniques. The primary audience is the Melbourne practitioner community, although you're also welcome if you are from out of town. The day will be participatory, and collaborative. Workshops, activities, and discussions are favoured ahead of one person speaking at the front of the room in front of a slide deck.

The event is being run by practitioners from the Melbourne community. 2013 is the second year that this event has been held.

Why LAST?

LAST stands for "Lean, Agile, Systems Thinking".

Our day is inspired by the Agile Tour, the inaugural Australian instance was held in December 2011, in Sydney. The organisers of LAST, felt that the Melbourne community could really benefit from something similar, and so LAST Conference was born.

With the naming of the event, we wanted to provide a broad remit, so that the full scope of practice could potentially be covered.

Who should come?

The event is not aimed at beginners, but rather for people who have worked in the field, and want to extend their knowledge, and share their experiences with other practitioners in a collaborative and interactive environment. 

This may include but is not limited to: Developers, Product Managers, Business Analysts, Product Owners, Designers, UX Designers, Iteration Managers, Testers, Scrum Masters, CTOs, Project Managers, Trainers and Coaches. Technical and non-technical practitioners are welcome.

If you are a beginner, there may be some things that go over your head, but you may also find the day useful. So come along if you want to, it's up to you.

What is the structure?

The sessions for the day will be announced in June. We want to encourage activities and workshops, and also discussions about real world experiences (both positive and problematic). There will be multiple sessions running at the same time, so you'll have a choice in what session you want to attend.

There's too much on at one time!?

It's meant to be like that. We like limiting work in progress, but want to have as much learning and inspiration in progress as possible.

We liken the schedule to that of a film festival; there's so much going on, that you can't possibly see everything that you want to, but the sessions that you do go to are so great that it doesn't matter. 

Our aim is that by the time people get to the end of event drinks, people will be tired, yet buzzing with inspiration.

Will there be stress balls/t-shirts/bags/schwag/tchotchke?

Not really. Our view is that there is too much useless and wasteful tchotchke at a typical conference, so we aren't having any. If you have a lanyard holder from a previous event (and we bet that you've got a few), please bring it. Otherwise, your name badge is self-adhesive, so stick it on your shirt!

Similarly, you'll probably have your own bag, so you don't need another one, right?

Don't worry, we still love you though, and we have thought of your really important needs. Courtesy of DiUS Computing, you will be getting some free coffee, . You'll get some Axil chocolate covered coffee beans, and also redeem your DiUS voucher at Axil in Burwood Rd for a free coffee. It's only 400m from the venue, and is one of the most renowned names in the Melbourne coffee scene.

Will there be food?

This year, we are having a pre-event breakfast/talk, presented by Readify. It's a separately ticketed event (only $5). Arrive for a 7:30am light breakfast (pastries, fruit salad or bircher muesli, tea, plunger coffee, juice). Brett Maytom from Readify will then run a session, on how Scrum and PRINCE2 can work together, at 8:00am.

realestate.com.au are sponsoring lunch. You'll be adequately fed and watered at lunch, and morning and afternoon breaks. 

There will also be a post-event gathering, with Rally Software buying you a drink! Make sure you allow time to stick around and engage in stimulating follow up conversations about the day!

When will Registration open?

Registration will be in a series of releases. The first release of places will take place in mid-May early June. There will be a number of discounted places available for engaged and eagle-eyed community members…our Earliest Birds.

When those places are gone, there will be further releases, for "Early Birds". 

Remaining places will then be available in 2 waves, until sold out.

Can I send someone else or get a refund?

Find out about substitutes and refunds on the Registration FAQ page.

What is Lanyrd?

We are using Lanyrd for session and speaker details. It can be used it to track sessions and speakers, and find follow up coverage. Here's what it looked like for the 2012 Google I/O conference and for LAST Conference 2012.

They provide an HTML5 mobile version for various mobile devices, and an iOS app for iPhone or iPad They both allow for offline access…and they are free.

Easy Twitter, LinkedIn or username/password sign in will also allow you to meet other attendees, and find out about other events that you might find interesting. Don't worry if you don't have a Twitter or LinkedIn account, you can still use Lanyrd to view event info.

Who's organising it?

There is a burgeoning Agile and Lean community in Melbourne that holds regular evening user group events throughout the year. Ed Wong and Craig Brown, co-organisers of the Melbourne Agile and Scrum group, the Agile Business Analysts group, and experienced practitioners, decided to make it happen. Ed and Craig are also founding members of the Tabar network.

We were inspired by the Agile Tour event in Sydney in 2011, here is Ed's writeup of that event. He also explains "Why I started LAST Conference".