Test:Fest happened for a 5th time. Let’s take a look at what happened during the conference.

The Atmosphere & Networking

I can’t explain it but Test:Fest has a unique atmosphere for me, I can’t say if this is Home Field Advantage. But I always feel more comfortable here than at any other conference…

And this leads to the highlight of the conference for me – all the networking all the people I met.
I had opportunities to spend times with my friend from the different part of Poland: Emila Lendzion, Aleksandra Kornceska, The Pacias, The Szulces and many others. Ability to talk with them was Most important to me, cause I could discuss with them a very targeted problem I had.

Here I will give Kudos to Katarzyna Wolszon and Piotr (sorry I don’t know surname) – I wasn’t on her panel but she gave me a lot of good ideas on how to improve communities. I am currently planning how to use them.

The Talks

This time I will talk about 3 slots. One that disappointed me the most, One that made me think the most, and my own.

The Dissapotiment

DIY: Build a Robot by TOMASZ DUBIKOWSKI

Tomek Is perfectionist his presentations are always very well planned and so far he always got a reward for best presentation. Last year I was complaining that he is basically a keynote and yet he takes part in the competition for best presentation. So this year he was a keynote. Kudos to organizers.

So what was my problem? This presentation was a joke. The sarcastic joke about how to be good robot how to act as an uninspired, unmotivated worker. The idea is solid, but for lighting talk not for 40 minutes presentation. Probably after 5 – 10 minutes you already could guess what is the point at the end. And you would be right. This presentation could be useful for juniors that are just starting. And Tomek said this is his target. The problem is – Test Fest shared data about attendees one month before the conference.

As you can see juniors (yellow part on the second diagram) is around 1/4 of the audience. And here is the problem. I had also talk with some juniors that were there, most of them were disappointed. In their opinion, this presentation was a collection of truisms. So I think even in this case Target was missed…

Tomek has great style, he is a great presenter, so it was still fun to watch. But the material itself was weak.

The one that made me think

Devices and Desires: as humans how do we experience software? By ISABEL EVANS

Fun fact Isabel is also presenting with bare feet. When she had workshops. People were sending me messages „Maciek you are not only one!”.

But I want to talk about her presentation. She changed my view on accessibility. So far I was treating accessibility as a way to help people with disabilities to use the software. She showed it not all there are a lot of people even in the richest countries who don’t know how to use a computer at all. She talks about hill farmers who were committing suicides due to the fact the online system made it impossible to earn their leaving.
This story was most shocking for me. I worked with Farmers; I have been instaling for them the latest and greatest machine. I completely forgot that there is also colossal diversity in technology levels for farmers.

So what did I do?

I have lean coffee during lunch.

I won’t go into the details of the format. But the idea was to have something in a drop in drop out model so people can come whenever they want and leave whenever they want. So the audience will have something to do during lunch break.

We started with collecting ideas on sticky notes we had a lot of good ones.
And then we voted on them.
This part needs improvement if I am going to do it next time I will probably split people into smaller groups so we could do it faster, it took a lot of time for all people to vote.

But what important all subject were carried by the audience. My role was that of moderator I had to mostly make sure that people who want to speak can speak. I didn’t have to do One man discussion panel, and that was great.
I haven’t even realised when my time has ended.

I want to thank all of the participants for a great discussion!

So what topics did we cover?

1. What should we ask about when changing job or Project?
2. How to communicate in remote teams.
3. How to help new mebers join the team.
4. How to help people with leaving fear of failure behind.
5. Traits of a good tester.

Unfortunately, one problem with this format is none of this subject was fully exhausted. But It was also great we could continue discusion later.

If you read in polish. Author of Bugfree was in audicence and wrote about it in his relation.

That all from my test:fest adventure.

I am happy I was here. And I hope to be again in a year. 🙂
Huge thank you to the Team
Marta, Anna, Dariusz, Tomek, Mateusz and Żaneta.
Same to all volunteers who made the whole event run smoothly. You all rock!