Press Release

ThoughtWorks champions social agenda and diversity in IT industry at QCon


London, UK – 2nd March 2010 - ThoughtWorks, a leading IT consultancy and pioneer of Agile, will deliver a call to action at the upcoming QCon London 2010 conference being held March 10th-12th at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre. ThoughtWorks has always been a company with strong social awareness and values – supporting many social causes and charitable projects by providing expertise as well as financial support. During its ‘IT - More than Tools and Technology’ track on Thursday 11th March, ThoughtWorks will ask attendees to contribute time and skills to the ‘Rapid FTR’ project on which it is currently working with New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Programme. The project enables aid workers to reunite families following disasters using a mobile phone and connection to a secure database. For more information, visit: http://rapidftr.com .

Here is an overview of the core talks in the ‘IT – More than Tools and Technology’ track:

  • Martin Fowler , Chief Scientist at ThoughtWorks, will address the opportunities that IT professionals have and will deliver a call to action about the responsibility which the industry has towards society. Martin will stress that the industry needs to engage with the consequences of its work, both for enterprises and broader human society.
  • Jeff Wishnie, Director of Social Engagement at ThoughtWorks, and Merrick Shaefer of UNICEF Development will jointly describe how IT can play a role in aid and development through the ICT4D collective and the challenges they face. They will explain how we have reached the point where software can provide massive new efficiencies and exponential increases in social impact, due to recent technological developments.
  • Rebecca Parsons, CTO at ThoughtWorks, will stress the importance of diversity for teams to be truly original and effective. With just over two weeks before Ada Lovelace Day (24th March), Rebecca’s talk is particularly topical. She will focus on how diversity helps to solve problems, focusing on how these dynamics can be applied to, and impact on, development teams.

ThoughtWorks is one of the few companies which has increased its investment in the charitable and socially responsible activities which it believes so strongly in and which are core to its culture. Jeff Wishnie was hired by ThoughtWorks in 2009 as Director of Social Engagement to define and deliver a comprehensive programme of support, which is well underway with projects in Uganda, Iraq and at many of the ThoughtWorks global offices.

Martin Fowler, Chief Scientist at ThoughtWorks, said: “A large part of the thinking of the software profession is that we are hired guns - we do whatever our customers want, and don't reflect too much on the consequences of that. This ignores the fact that software has had a profound impact on human society in the last few decades and we have the ability to influence the direction of that impact.”

ThoughtWorks has emerged from the recession in a very robust position. Over the last 18 months, the company has successfully grown its global employee base by 30%, firmly established its Manchester office as well as opened four new offices around the world, and signed up a whole raft of customers across a variety of sectors. In 2010, ThoughtWorks will continue its global expansion through an ambitious recruitment drive and the opening of a further two new offices in Europe and Australasia.

Note to editors

Press passes can be arranged for media and analysts who wish to attend the ThoughtWorks track at QCon London 2010 – please contact Lennard van Otterloo at MS&L (contact details can be found below).

About ThoughtWorks

ThoughtWorks, Inc. is a global IT consultancy providing Agile-based systems development, consulting and transformation services to Global 1,000 companies. It has pioneered many of the most advanced and successful Agile methods and best practices used in the industry today. At its core, ThoughtWorks helps CIOs maximise investment performance across a portfolio of complex, business-critical applications, while reducing time and risk. Its products division, ThoughtWorks Studios, offers tools to manage the entire Agile development lifecycle through its Adaptive ALM solution, comprised of Mingle, Cruise and Twist. ThoughtWorks' 1,300 professionals serve clients from offices in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, India, the United Kingdom and the United States.

For further information , to speak with ThoughtWorks about the track or to arrange a press pass to attend the track, please contact:

Lennard van Otterloo
MS&L for ThoughtWorks
+44 (0)20 7878 3210
lennard.vanotterloo@mslworldwide.com