What a pleasure it was for our Chapter to have three speakers featured at the BAPW2020. This conference took place from Monday, 26 October 2020 to Friday, 30 October 2020. With a total of 51 speakers from all over the world, including several CEO’s, it was a great honour for IIBA-SA to also showcase the talent we have in South Africa.  Ryan Folster, the former President of IIBA-SA, spoke on ‘Simplicity: The art of doing less’. When asked about his experience of  the BAPW2020, this is what he had to say

‘It was great to be able to participate in BAPW Australia this year as a speaker, the lockdown has had a positive impact on the ability of local South African’s to participate more widely in conferences around the world.  The conference hosted by IIBA Australia was incredibly well run and it was a privilege to participate alongside fellow colleagues from IIBA-SA and thought leaders from all over the world.  Participating in this conference led me to understand the power of the Business Analysis community and the impact we all have on the world we live in today. It is in this power of the collective, that the value each person individually adds to their organization, that we as a community can contribute to a better world for all. I thoroughly enjoyed presenting on simplicity which is something that has become a pertinent skill during this time of crisis.  I also look forward to further engagement with the Australian community that I met while participating as a delegate of the conference’

The current President of IIBA-SA, Edward Ngubane, was also part of the trio that represented IIBA-SA at the BAPW2020. The topic of his talk was ‘Attaining Individual Agility – the secret is in wings’. This talk, Edward says, was inspired by the agility of the wings of an airplane and the critical role they plan in enabling the airplane to manipulate the air around it for take-off, cruising and stability in the skies as well as landing. He uses this analogy to draw parallels with how individuals in Agile teams can attain agility as individuals to be better team members. On his experience about the BAPW2020, this is what he had to say ‘I genuinely enjoyed the conference. I must say that, from my side, everything was professionally organised and run. 

The support team was on point and ready to respond to any questions that I had. The OnAir platform worked so well - I wish I had more time to engage with it. The only thing that deprived me of full participation was the huge time difference between SA and Australia. Nevertheless, I did what I could within these constraints. The participants/delegates were, to my surprise, pleasantly engaging. They really demonstrated their eagerness to learn or share their views. This was great, especially seeing that the session was virtual and pre-recorded. Initially, I thought the Q&A was not going to be that busy, but it got remarkably busy and interesting. Lastly, I am glad that the South African Chapter was given such a fantastic opportunity (with three representatives) to work closely with the Australian Chapter. May this relationship grow from strength to strength’.

Our third representative, Olu Asuni, the current Secretary of the IIBA-SA Board, presented on ‘Gamification: Fad or new reality’. Olu argues that gamification – the application of game design principles and mechanics to non-gaming environments – is increasingly gaining popularity. But with the popularity comes skepticism about the true benefits of gamification to businesses and their stakeholders on the one hand and on the other hand is the risk of poorly executed gamification application exercises. When asked about his experience at the BAPW2020, Olu had this to say

‘The organisers of the BAPW2020 were quite professional. From their handling of the response to the call for papers through to the support received in the preparation for my presentation and during the presentation – everything  was splendid and left nothing to be desired. However, the highlight for me was how engaging the audience was – I had more questions than I could answer during the presentation and we continued on email and on LinkedIn afterwards. Given that this was an online conference, one can safely assume that the long lockdown experienced all over the world acceleration effect on the adoption of technology, may have schooled people in the art of living and working online, thus the level of engagement I highlighted above’.

Undoubtedly, this was a splendid opportunity for IIBA-SA to collaborate with other community members at an international level. This can augers well for us and proves that on par with the rest of the world.  We are proud of Edward, Ryan and Olu.