London’s South Bank was basking in glorious sunshine on Tuesday the week before last, as 550 associates and employees from across the globe descended on County Hall for the annual Equal Experts conference. As the Thames glittered outside the magnificent Baroque windows of the County Suite, two things were happening.

Sharing knowledge, making connections

Über Coworking (our largest coworking event of the year) saw everyone come together for meetings, conversations, or just to work side-by-side with team mates they know well but rarely see in person. The atmosphere was buzzing as people shared coffee, handshakes, hugs and laptop chargers. But if you looked closely, what you really saw was insights being swapped, knowledge being shared and relationships being built. 

Meanwhile, G[=]K24 – a series of tech talks led by our consultants for the practitioner community – was underway and our Expert community kept audiences enthralled all day. It was standing room only for the three AI talks and Brett Styrdom had everyone spellbound as he described living with visual impairment, to bring alive for us how important accessibility is. 

The one everyone had been waiting for came at the end of the day, and it was a packed house for the G[=]K24 keynote talk by software engineering legend Dave Farley and father of continuous delivery, who got everyone thinking about the question “what does ‘quality’ in software really mean?”

In his talk, “Modern Software Engineering: Building Better Software Faster,” Dave shared personal insights on what it takes to succeed in our field. From foundational principles to advanced practices, he covered 10 key ideas that can revolutionise your approach to software development.

“I love the way Dave Farley boils down software engineering to such simple and universal principles.” 

If you want to know more, Dave’s book, Modern Software Engineering is the best book written in the last decade on the topic. 

After the buzz of the day, it was time for a stroll over to the stunning terrace of 1, Old Billingsgate for a Champagne and Mojito reception and dinner before really getting down to celebrating the last year. Rhyd Lewis got us started with a brilliant depiction of our ‘Haven’ as a harbour for Experts to regroup, share knowledge and build relationships, before Thomas and Ryan introduced the evening and kicked off the panel Q&A with the Trust members – more on that in another blog post!

The dizzy heights of staying flat

Thijs de Blok, CEO of Buurtzorg, a pioneering healthcare organisation with next-level self-management, delivered a keynote that had our conference Slack channel chattering about flat structures and how we can support each other even more:

“Brilliant evening, venue and the keynote speech by Thijs was such an inspired choice.   Looking forward to going down a few rabbit holes after that” 

Buurtzorg was heavily featured in “Reinventing Organisations,” one of the books that has influenced the shape and culture of Equal Experts.

As an organisation, Buurtzorg scaled very quickly across the Netherlands from 1 to 850 teams. They achieved this through next level self management which has allowed them to scale to over 15,000 employees globally and influence healthcare across the world.

It’s all about the connections

And finally, the sun set over the river Thames, and while some of us continued our conversations on the terrace, and others threw serious moves on the dance floor, the connections continued. Thank you Equal Experts people, for being who you are and making this day so great!

Last week saw our annual global conference in London.  This is always an awesome event, with so many from our network coming together to connect (or reconnect), work and plan for the future.  This year’s event saw more than 560 of our employees, associates and alumni converge on Camden’s famous Roundhouse, which provided a truly rock ‘n roll backdrop for our celebration of the wonderful work that’s been done in the last 12 months. 

Our Head of Data, Simon Case, kicked things off in style, warming up the audience with his boisterous MC skills, followed by my own thoughts on the incredible amount of talent who have found a haven in Equal Experts. 

A truly global event

You came from all over the world, with more people travelling from India, the US, South Africa and Australia than ever before – India even brought our Travelopia customer Sree Balakrishan, who was gracious enough to give his insights on our panel discussion, alongside precious feedback from Christian Mason from AXA.  Emma Payne (Consultant/Advisor for Equal Experts), was our host, and it was a joy for myself and Ryan Sikorsky (Co-Founder), to hear our customers talk about the value of Equal Experts’ ownership of our work and our products, and how much our people are loved by teams on the ground. Seriously, they think you rock! 

How will Generative AI change humanity?

That was Nina Schick’s theme as she delivered the final keynote speech on how she thinks humans’ relationships with machines are about to change the way we view the world forever.  It was a thought-provoking idea, within which Equal Experts are poised to play a key role as society and technology become immersively enmeshed. 

And there was no better example of the perfect marriage of good humans with good technology than the magnificent performance given by The Git Clones.  Made up of our very own Brian Blignaut, Marco Vermeulen, Rhyd Lewis and Reuben the drummer, with a special guest appearance by Rob Barrett.  The band totally made the evening with a fantastic mix of rock and humour. That’s entertainment! 

Check out some of our favourite highlights below: 

Thanks to everyone who came, and congratulations to the amazing team who knocked it out of the park once again to produce the best Equal Experts conference yet!

Our UK annual conference brought together more than 400 people from across the Equal Experts network, including employees, associates and alumni.

It was a chance to connect in person, share ideas and celebrate our successes over the last year.

We were blessed with an amazing venue for our event in the London Science Museum, a venue that managed to be almost as fascinating as some of the presentations on stage. Guests enjoyed wonderful views across the city skyline and private access to the museum’s Wonder Lab – a thoroughly inspiring collecting of mind-bending physics and chemistry experiments.

The highlights of the conference can be seen in these video highlights:

 

The keynote speaker was the enormously inspiring Suzie Imber, astronaut, associate professor of planetary science and mountain climber. Suzie’s fascinating presentation reminded us that whether you’re developing supercomputers or developing training for future Astro-tourists, it’s all about teamwork, managing risk and having a willingness to learn.   

This year has been an important year for Equal Experts, and founders Ryan Sikorsky and Thomas de Cad’oro Granier were on hand to explain why and how Equal Experts is changing as the company turns 15. In particular, they discussed how the decision to change Equal Experts’ ownership structure to become 100% employee owned will help us to continue to deliver long-term value to our people, our partners, and our customers.

It was fantastic to bring together so many of our people in one room and share our excitement for the next 12 months. We’d like to thank everyone who attended and hope you agree that the conference was a resounding success. Same time next year?