One conference that I’m really looking forward to this year is Agile 2009, which takes place in Chicago, August 24 to 28, and is run by the Agile Alliance group. The number of stages and topics covered is absolutely amazing, and there is a very I’m helping out Michael Hüttermann with the Tools for Agility stage, and have submitted a few talks. One of the cool things about this conference is its emphasis on real-world, first-hand experience – there will be a lot of User Experience stories and hands-on workshops, which is often what you really need to get started with Agile. It’s also a great way to find-tune your techniques if you are already familiar with Agile.Judging by the submissions so far, it’s going to be a very exciting conference! It’s also not to late to submit your own talks – check out the stages and see if any topics come to mind! This conference has to have some of the best speaker benefits of any conference I’ve been to – not only is entry free for speakers, but accommodation is paid for, and on top of that some speakers even get paid (see Speaker Compensation). Java