Online: Monthly Meeting

· Welcome (start 18h00)

· Session 1 (start 18h10) - 20 min

· Session 2 (start 18h30) - 40 min

Title: Data Science and AI as a Discipline: Breaking down the state of AI

Historically, data scientists have been expected to be the be-all and end-all of AI solutions. But we’ve realised how difficult and complex the AI and technology landscape is and we haven’t changed our approach across various aspects from hiring to implementation. This talk aims to bring these problems to the fore and discuss what the future holds for software development professional across the data science and AI value chain.

Facilitator: Daniel Wertheimer

Daniel is a lead data scientist and machine learning engineer at Absa where he leads and supports a global team of data scientists and engineers. He has delivered and supported the delivery of valuable solutions across the bank through collaboration across the entire value chain. Daniel has also been acknowledged globally as a 30 Under 30 Future Data & Analytics Leader.

Title: What the Comrades Marathon tells you about Digital / Agile Transformations

The Comrades Marathon is the largest and oldest ultra-marathon in the world. Every year 20,000 runners line up to subject themselves to 90 (very hilly) kilometers of pain, anguish and mental torture - a lot like organisational transformations. Whilst the Teslas, Amazons and Googles seem to have agility built into their DNA, most of us are like the 'average runner' battling through to finish Comrades in the final hour before cut-off.
The presentation combines human interest stories and statistical analysis from the Comrades Marathon to refute several organisational change management misconceptions; demonstrates how the Comrades Marathon applies to the Agile Manifesto (and how this practically applies back to enterprise transformations); and concludes by 'proving' that anyone can run the Comrades Marathon (and therefore any organisation can have a successful transformation!).
Whether you’re a finely tuned athlete or a comfortable couch potato, this is a talk packed with powerful examples to help prepare and sustain your organisation’s transformation into the digital age.

The talk combines statistical analysis and inspirational stories from the Comrades Marathon to provide humorous, practical and appropriate insights that relate to your enterprise agile transformation. Real data, anecdotes and photos are used to illustrate each point.
· Change management fables versus practical facts
· The importance of getting the pace of change just right
· The importance of goals to drive the transformation journey
· Conquering the most difficult aspects of organisational transformations
· The most important metrics to focus on during organisational transformations
· The role of leadership in organisational transformations

Facilitator: Stuart Mann

Agile Coach at Vitality Group

Stuart Mann is a reformed waterfall guy who is now a passionate Agile Coach. He is a father (two girls), husband (one wife) and a trainee feminist. In his spare time, Stuart is a compulsive marathon runner having run over 250 marathons and ultra marathons. He is a prolific writer with a popular blog (http://runningmann.co.za/), monthly column in South Africa’s largest running publication (Modern Athlete) and a regular contributor of athletics articles to News24.com. Stuart’s lifetime ambition is to secure a beer sponsor.

Stuart is a frequent presenter at local and international conferences where he typically provides a different perspective on traditional topics. If you’d like to connect with Stuart you can do so on LinkedIn or Twitter (work profile @StuartDMann & running profile @runningmann100).
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(https://www.meetup.com/DeveloperUG/pages/Monthly_Meetings/).