On September 13 last year, EuroSTAR went virtual for the very first time, without really knowing what they ventured themselves into. They called it a virtual conference, and it was exactly that: plenty of talks with Q&A after each presentation, discussions between attendees in the networking lounge, a test-tools virtual expo and a test-related resource centre. It turned out to be a huge success. People kept lounging in the lobby, engaging with others and sipping virtual cocktails. Actually, I made that last one up. But it would have been nice, wouldn’t it?
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the EuroSTAR conference, and preparations for the actual conference are in full swing. The programme was announced on May 3rd, and we do hope you like it enough to pay us a visit in beautiful Amsterdam later this year. But November is still half a year away, which is an eternity in these connected times. So why not give you something to warm up to, testing-wise?
A virtual conference, you say? Why, that’s a splendid idea!
The Eurostar team thought so too, and that’s why I recommend you save Wednesday May 16 in your calendar. That is the date of the second virtual conference, and it promises to be finger licking good. It marks a pivotal moment between past and future of the Eurostar conference.
• The conference will look back at the 2011 Manchester conference by featuring Bryan Bakker (Sioux Embedded Systems), who ranked among the highest scoring sessions last year. Bryan will talk about model driven development and its impact on testing, using results of a case study to illustrate his story.
• The virtual conference will also take a sneak peak at the future, by offering two of our Eurostar 2012 keynote speakers, Alan Page (Microsoft) and Alan Richardson (Compendium Developments), the opportunity to share their amazing ideas with the community (no, you didn’t have to be named Alan to secure a keynote spot, but it helped). Alan Page (co-author of “How we test software at Microsoft“) will discuss where (testing) ideas come from, and how anyone can use learning, creativity, pattern recognition and pragmatism to discover and apply new ideas anywhere – especially in software testing. He also has a blog – Tooth of the Weasel – that is very much worth checking out. Alan Richardson (the author of Selenium Simplified, of which a second edition was published recently) will share his experience of thinking visually in software testing – using models and diagrams to help his test planning and communication of testing. Alan is a also a hypnotizing tester – or was it a testing hypnotist? – who blogs and tweets as Evil Tester.
• James Lyndsay (Workroom Productions), who concludes this all-star line-up, symbolizes the present of the conference: he is a valued programme committee member this year and never short on great ideas on testing. In the beginning of the year, he published an impressive blog series on managing exploratory testing, which he will try to condense/transform/shape into a talk called “There are Plenty of Ways to Manage Exploratory Testing”. Yes, I am curious about that as well.
But this is not all: apart from these four thought-provoking presentations, you’ll get the opportunity to get acquainted with the latest new tools and services in the expo, and get a chance to mingle and discuss with like-minded individuals.
Come get inspired, learn and share your knowledge with your testing peers. Get a taste from what’s to come in Amsterdam. And sip that virtual cocktail if you like.
Test Side Story 