Hosting over 1,600 people this year, the Agile 2011 conference shows that not only is the agile development movement alive and well, it's growing. 

Todd Little, conference chair for Agile 2011, and Phil Brock, managing director of the Agile Alliance, said that this is one of the largest conferences to date. 

Little said that in 2004, the conference hosted about 200 people, with the same interactive sessions the conference will be hosting this week. 

As the movement has grown, so has interest among the business side, which Little and Brock attribute to the growth of management and corporate teams attending this year. Little said that some corporate teams – ranging from 30-50 members or more - have attended for the past several years. 

Lean, as many of my articles have said on SDTimes, is also picking up within the community. "The Agile Alliance is not closed; we're open to any new ideas about advancing the state of software development," Little said. 

The first conference in 2003, two years after the signing of the Agile Manifesto, was held here in Salt Lake City and Little said as part of the celebration it's being held here again. Fifteen of the 17 signatories are attending the conference, with a special Park Bench Open Jam session, open the entire week. 

If you didn't get a chance to attend, Little and Brock said you will be able to re-live the events through the 75 hours of video being shot at the sessions. Brock said some videos will be available for free while others will be available to conference members and still others will be available for a fee. These videos, and the active Twitter feed (@Agile2011 and #Agile2011) are meant to serve as a way to continue community interaction during – and beyond – the conference. 

Another movement in the agile community is the interest among project managers and the business side, something Little said is part of the diversity among companies. 

Most companies live in a distributed world, Little said, and the geographical distribution is evident in the types of sessions being held here this week.