Let's Test 2015 - reflections

Where do I start?

I presented and participated at the test conference Let's Test 2015 this week and in short - it was awesome!

I have only been to shorter test "conferences" prior this one, but regardless of that I had very high expectations for Let's Test.

I have been following tweets, blog posts, youtube clips etc during the previous occasions and I understood that this conference was something special - and it was.

So let's test Let's Test 2015:

• The presentations and workshops - World class 
• The venue - Beautiful and away from distraction
• The logistics - Flawless 
• The food and beverages - Excellent, but as a Swedish citizen I apologise to all foreign participants for the pricing of beer and wine 
• The atmosphere - Magical 
• The people - warm, welcoming and testers 

So, no conference bugs found and the "product" was fantastic.

With that being said - what about my own presentation?

I can now reveal that I am not that experienced in presentations in front of large groups of people. I have done it occasionally and my last in English was back in 1999 in Seattle when I worked for a MedTech company.

So how come I sent in a Call For Proposal for Let's Test - probably the best and most respectable conference about testing to date?

Here are some reasons:

• I thought I had something worth sharing
• I want to be better at presenting
• I wanted to challenge myself
• This clip from Martin Hynie on youtube
• They had some slots for first time speakers which increased the chances of being selected

But perhaps the most important reason - I was getting a bit fatigue on testing and I wanted to check my emotions about it and my hope was to have a restart at the conference.

So one late sunday evening not far from deadline I sent it in and later on it was on the program.

I remember that I did an early version just a week after the confirmation mail but due to ordinary work load and my other blogging and tweeting about pensions and the Swedish stock market - I did not touched it until just a few weeks ago. I found it not being that good so I started all over again from scratch.

A new version evolved and it was tested internally on friday prior the conference. I got valuable feedback so major modifications was done on sunday and I did a lot of rehearsal later that day and on the day before my presentation.

How did it go?

Hard to judge by myself but it felt like it went quite ok and the moderated discussion afterwards was full of questions so I am satisfied with my performance even if there is lot of room for improvement.

About the presentation I hope I can arrange some sort of material to publish later but I cannot promise anything at this point.

Anyway, Ruud Cox was kind to draw a fantastic sketch which hints about the content.

(c) Ruud Cox 2015

Will I do a conference presentation again?

If I have something valuable to share and the timing is right, I probably will.

Do I still feel a bit fatigue about testing?

No, my motivation and drive "battery" is now recharged and I hope I will continue enjoy testing (the must fun occupation ever) for another twenty years.

A special thanks to Johan, Henrik, the crew, facilitators, presenters, sponsors and all the other great people involved and participated in the conference - you rock!

So I guess the conference slogan "for those about to rock" fits perfect for us first time participants since the others already does.

photo from rock bar in Creete/Greece

See you next time.