Why you shouldn’t miss EuroSTAR 2010

Two weeks from now you will find me in trendy Copenhagen, proud home of the world’s best restaurant (Noma) and Hans Christian Andersen’s Little Mermaid. But the real reason for my trek up north is not sightseeing or spending money on Tørret kammusling og biodynamiske gryn: Copenhagen is also the host of the 18th edition of the annual EuroSTAR testing conference.

If you’re not yet familiar with Europe’s biggest software testing conference, you should definitely check them out. If you’re still hesitating about attending, there’s no need to. If you’re thinking of going, do go. Here’s why:

• First and foremost: the Content.
  • The programme committee assembled a promising line-up, centered around the main theme “sharing the passion”. Track session categories include test management, exploratory testing, virtualisation, techniques, Scrum, inspiration, education, Lean, MBT, people and automation, among many others. L’embarras du choix.
  • Keynotes, anyone? Antony Marcano, Rob Sabourin, Bob Galen, Dino Patti and Stuart Reid. Recent history teaches us that wherever Stuart lays his hat, controversy and discussion automagically appear. I’m confident that his keynote “When Passion Obscures The Facts: The Case for Evidence-Based Testing” will be no different. 
  • I especially look forward to the tutorials. Rob Sabourin will run a full-day tutorial on “Just In Time Testing – Effective Testing Strategies“. Michael Bolton will be doing a half-day tutorial on Test Framing (read his blogpost that coins test framing here). But that’s not all. There’s Lee Copeland too. And many, many more. L’embarras du choix, revisité.   
• Test Lab.
  James Lyndsay and Bart Knaack will run their on-site Test Lab for the second consecutive year. They will be assisted by Henrik Emilsson and Martin Jansson, 2/3 of that restless online blogging collective called The Test Eye. The other 1/3 is Rikard Edgren, who is part of the programme committee this year – I guess you could say that Eurostar is TestEye-infected. From what I experienced last year, the test lab is a really unique experience. Live testing at a testing conference! Theory put into practice, and maybe some weekend testing sessions, testing dojos or katas. Anything goes, really.
• Inspiration.
  Hearing all these different viewpoints, new ideas, talking with the experts, engaging in discussions… It’s a savory buffet full of food for thought. Attending conferences is intellectually stimulating, and you’ll probably learn more during these couple of days than you do during most ‘regular’ training courses. I see EuroSTAR as a multi-dimensional training course that as such deserves to be on every company’s training calendar.
• Get Primed.
  Any problems you are facing at work – you just might see them differently when you get back. Things you hear at the conference and  people you talk to often trigger other ways of thinking. Conferences tend to broaden your perspective on things.
• Reach out to the testing community.
  This year’s theme is ‘Sharing the passion’, which should make it easy to meet like-minded people who share the same interests. In his 2009 book “The Element”, Ken Robinson calls this “finding your tribe”: connecting with people who share the same passions and commitment (your “tribe”) helps in finding and developing your “element” (which is the place where passion and skill meet). Members of a passionate community tend to stimulate each other to explore the real extent of their talents. Whenever tribes gather in the same place, the opportunities for mutual inspiration can become intense.
• Meet Testing Tweeps.
  Twitter has been doing brilliant things for testers already, community-wise. It’s a great way to interact with testers worldwide on a daily basis. It has also proven to be a very useful, fun and informative way to cover conferences, especially for the people missing out (watch that #esconfs hashtag for some conference goodness). If you’re on twitter, EuroSTAR will also be a good opportunity to meet numerous testing tweeps in person and to take your twitter-conversations with them to the next level.
• Hallway/Bar discussions.
  In an earlier blog post, C is for Conferring, I mentioned that conferences are for conferring, and that the most interesting things often happen in the hallways, in between sessions. Or in the bar. Or somewhere totally unexpected. Make sure there are blank spots in your busy schedule to invite serendipity.
• One word: Copenhagen.
  ‘Nuff said. But did I mention that the place of action is the Bella center? Last year, the Bella center hosted the first sustainable, international political summit – the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP15) – attracting over 33,000 people. No worries, Eurostar Conferences assured me that Eurostar 2010 will be more succesful than its flunked climatic counterpart.
• Interactive Panel Session.
  On wednesday morning, Lee Copeland will facilitate a Hot Topics Panel Session. The expert panel is there to address *your* burning issues, so if you want to ask the EuroSTAR Panel a question, you can do so via facebook. Yes, the Social Network goes testing.
• It’s fun!
  By focusing on all the content, the learning and networking, I almost forgot to mention that above all, it’s fun. All of the above takes place in a fun and relaxed athmosphere.Fun sessions for the weary testers are foreseen as well (I’ve been told that the supertesters are something to look out for).

This concludes *my* list. Rob Lambert wrote about attending EuroSTAR too, in his post EuroSTAR will rock. Eurostar Conferences has also listed their Top 10 Reasons To Attend EuroSTAR 2010! And if you need to make a case for attending the conference, the 10 ways to convince your boss to send you to EuroSTAR 2010 article may be able to help you with that.

I hope to see you in Copenhagen. I’m @TestSideStory, by the way. I’ll be roaming the hallways – feel free to come and talk to me. I’ll be the one with that thorny rose clenched in the teeth.

Short service announcement: tomorrow, October 16, programme committee member Peter Morgan will present a webinar especially for first time attendees. It is called “Getting The Most Out Of EuroSTAR“. More info and a link to register for the webinar can be found here.