…..what do those faces tell you?

What are the benefits of attending conferences?

I won’t lie to you, conferences can be a lot of fun, but they can also be a drag. There are lots of things that make up a good conference experience, including:

• Good presenters
• Good venue
• Relevant topics
• Fostering a sense of community

So, why do I attend conferences? Will anything change at work when I go back to the office?

I touched upon conferences in an earlier blog, All I know is I’m lost without you….

not only had I never attended any conferences or meetups, but that I had absolutely no awareness of the wider software testing community, practices, ideas, heuristics, blogs or anything that is so cool about being a part of the software testing community.

With the greater awareness of community, not only is there a sense of belonging to something bigger than just your own local environment, but also a wide resource of help, support, information, sounding boards and so on. Ministry of Testing has Slack which is a great resource, but nothing can beat human interaction.

This year I’ll be attending TestBash Brighton, for two days, structured as two half-day workshops and then a single stream of talks.

From last year’s conference I took Lego Automation back to my office, as I touched upon on World Book Day, I’m not afraid, they can read all about it…..

I also learned about Test Mobbing and Pairing, and we have tried that here too, blogged about here – One thing I can tell you is you got to be free…..

Not to mention a whole smorgasbord of new Tweeters to follow.

Essentially, conferences should be there to provide recharging of batteries, new ideas, reassurance and a fresh testing perspective.

If you don’t get that from the conference you attend, you should try another.

Blog post title lyrics from: Faces – by 2 Unlimited.

Find all the songs from my blog posts at this Spotify playlist.