Implementing Graph Search with Neo4j & Building a successful agile company

* * * Presentations will be starting at 6.50pm, rather than the usual 7pm as we have some more events to tell you about and a bottle of Champagne to give away! * * *

Mark Wightman: Building a successful agile company – people first, software second
@markwightman75 (https://twitter.com/markwightman75)

When we talk about agile we often concentrate on process and technical practices, but to achieve greatness you must focus on what matters most – your people. If you can harness their energy, intellect, passion and creativity effectively then success will follow.Red Gate Software is a successful ISV based in Cambridge. We are proud to have been in the Sunday Times “Best Small Companies to Work For” list for six years in a row. We’ve also won the Special Award for Innovation in Engagement Practice and have won numerous other employer awards.

Over the last five years Red Gate have adopted and evolved agile development approaches at a team and company level with great success.

In this talk I'll share what we’ve learnt, with a focus on practical tips and techniques that you can take and away and use in your own organisations. Amongst other things I’ll show you how we build high-performing teams, how we empower them, how we encourage innovation, how we manage individuals and teams, how we drive continuous improvement at every level of the company – all with an agile mindset.

I aim to inspire you to make your staff a primary focus in your adoption of agile and give you some practical techniques you can adopt to make your workplace a great place to work.

Mark is Head of Development at Red Gate Software. He has previously worked as a developer, project manager and development manager. Mark has introduced agile and lean development practices to a number of companies and has over a decade of agile experience. In his current role, Mark is responsible for challenging Red Gate's development teams to become truly world-class and supporting them by building a culture of excellence and was delighted to see them recognised at the UK Agile Awards 2012.

Ian Robinson: Implementing Graph Search with Neo4j
@iansrobinson (https://twitter.com/iansrobinson)

In this talk I'll show how to build a Neo4j-based graph search application. I'll start with a brief introduction to the Neo4j database itself. We'll then look at how we design an expressive graph model and associated queries based on agile user stories. Finally, I'll show how to implement your data model and queries in a test-driven fashion.

Ian Robinson works on research and development for future versions of the Neo4j graph database. Joining Neo Technology as Director of Customer Success, he has worked extensively with customers to design and develop graph database solutions. He is a coauthor of 'Graph Databases' and 'REST in Practice' (both from O'Reilly) and a contributor to 'REST: From Research to Practice' (Springer) and 'Service Design Patterns' (Addison-Wesley). He blogs at http://iansrobinson.com and tweets at @iansrobinson (https://twitter.com/iansrobinson).