Last month, I had the chance to be part of EuroSTAR conference, it was an incredible experience, you can read more about it in my previous post my 1st EuroSTAR conference.

In this blog, a flashback through the eyes of 10 participants from different countries with whom I co-write this blog in interview format to share their journey including the experience, new learning and their takeaways from this conference.

interview #1: Chris Armstrong from the UK (@christovskia)

  • Tell us about your background and your motivation to join EuroSTAR conference? 

I’ve been a tester since 2004, but it wasn’t until I was brought along to EuroSTAR 2013, in Göteborg, that I really saw testing as a career and as a wonderful community, a place where I could feel like I belonged.
I have volunteered in the Community Huddle for the last six editions of EuroSTAR and I love the engagements, the people and helping people get the most from their conference experience, because I remember how lonely and intimidating I found it when I had my first.

  • From remote to onsite events again? What are the things you enjoyed the most in this edition ?

Oh my goodness, I knew I missed in-person events a lot, but I didn’t realise how much. The remote conferences were brilliant and they kept me engaged and in touch and we made some brilliant connections. But, I get my energy from being around other humans and I was overwhelmed with joy at being around testing people again.
This edition was not only special because it was the first in-person conference I had attended in 831 days, but also because I was speaking, and I knew so many amazing speakers were too and I coludn’t wait to speak with and support them.

  • What was your favorite moment? 

It is incredibly hard to pinpoint one favorite moment, but maybe the one that brought me the most joy was when Sophie Küster’s talk ‘You don’t talk about THAT at work!’ was voted by the attendees as the best talk, that should get to be done again. My talk was on at the same time as hers on the Wednesday and I was gutted that I didn’t get to attend it, so selfishly I wanted to see it, and I was so pleased that I did in the end, and my goodness was it a fantastic and brave talk, I needed to see that.

  • What are your new learnings and takeaways?

I think I have two main ones, from a speaker’s perspective, feedback is so important, so I tried to make a point of giving some feedback, the kind I know I would appreciate. I think in the past, I was worried that I would be annoying or whatever, but I think it’s important and new connections are always welcome.
The other part is the value is sharing ideas with people, we are a big community in testing, even with vendors, and we all want to do better, so why not build each other up rather than compete?

I’ve spent a lot of time in my career being asked to commit to work, estimate efforts, and provide ‘best practices’ – the more I have spent with this, the more I have understood that not only is context key to enable us to be effective in the workplace, but also that so much of that context is a human thing. I had many struggles in the past and I had developed a sort of coping mechanism that enabled me to move from surviving to thriving, even though contexts changed, the questions and tools required to move on from surviving were there for me to call upon, and if I could help just one person with my talk, then surely it was worthwhile?

  • Is there a question I didn’t ask you, you would like to answer?

I guess I wonder about things that I wished I could have done while in Copenhagen for this conference. There were many more people I wished I had spent time with, I just hope there will be more opportunities soon.

  • A last word you want to share with the global testing community

Our community is great and we are all in different seasons and phases right now. I hope that you are well, if you think you have ideas and stories to tell, believe me that yours is unique and I want to hear it, there are hundreds of wonderful humans and platforms to share these ideas.

The end quote in my talk was from Isaac Newton:

“If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”

And thank you to anyone who I have spoken to that have supported me, I appreciate it more than you know.

interview #2: Michael from Switzerland

  • Tell us about your background and your motivation to join EuroSTAR conference? 

In 1998 I came into Software Tester as a Hardware Developer in a Startup Company and they needed their Software tested – but not as a Software developer. A bit later I started testing mobile entertainment products for the National Telecom Operator over here. Being the team leader of the test team for a self-built and successful IPTV application I changed from a classical test approach (which I was never a fan of) to an agile way of testing which meant enabling the whole team to test the success of the product. This included technical tests with the developers but also customer use data analysis and all that stuff in the middle – and hardware testing as well. Only then I became aware of quality as a whole Team or even Value Stream effort with Testers as specialists for Quality is a more sustainable way to develop products. After the experience with IPTV I got more interested in international software quality conferencing and went to my first EuroSTAR 2016 in Stockholm. 6 EuroSTARS later I still very much appreciate the international crowd of like-minded people, the quality of the talks and keynotes and the organization. Especially I like to highlight how the human and ethical side of testing is reflected.

  • From remote to onsite events again? What are the things you enjoyed the most in this edition ?

The remote events I did not enjoy so much personally because with EuroSTAR location is part of the event. Other conferences might have it easier because they are also structured in a different way. At home I was not able to focus too much on the content of a quality as life and work tended to interfere. However, I absolutely appreciate that many people from all over the world who are not able to travel to Europe for example during the pandemic had the chance to join our community from countries who don’t host such a conference. So I ‘met’ people who I would not have met in any other way. 

  • What was your favorite moment? 

Rikard starting his keynote. Was like ‘it’s really happening’.

  • What are your new learnings and takeaways?

To be honest technically not much was new to me. What resonates is the human aspects of testing, the openness of the presenters, reflections about the way of working in the future, some useful pics about how quality is seen, and a kind of astonishment that everybody is still talking about test management.

  • Is there a question I didn’t ask you, you would like to answer?

Which stickers I put on m:-)

  • A last word you want to share with the global testing community

Go out! Leave your desk, leave your work space, take an open person from your company and go to the next international conference. Learn something new and something else and see another context of your work – which hopefully is what you really like to do.

Interview #3: René van Veldhuijzen from the Netherlands (@Revelzen).

  • Tell us about your background and your motivation to join EuroSTAR conference? 

A Testing Specialist since 1998, with a background in Healthcare. I have been working in testing, teaching TMap and testing principles, managing professionals, working in test automation and speaking at international conferences since then. Speaking at EuroSTAR has been a wish since 2018 and I was very happy and surprised that my abstract was chosen this year. And after attending I am very honored I was given this opportunity and want to stay a part of this community.

  • From remote to onsite events again? What are the things you enjoyed the most in this edition ?

Meeting people in realtime is much more rewarding as the interaction is far greater and personal. Also you can engage with people who are less proficient in talking with strangers and/or engage in conversation with groups.

  • What was your favorite moment? 

There are too many moments to choose from. Individual meetings with new friends, delivering my talk, interesting keynotes, excellent talk (especially Sophie’s), the Award Gala evening…………………

  • What are your new learnings and takeaways?

There are many things I wrote down during talks and conversations during breaks, however Ensemble Testing and Contract Testing have raised my interest.

After engaging in the ISTQB CTAL Test Automation Engineer certification program, I really got interested in Test Automation Architecture and how companies are struggling with Test Automation efforts. After many workshops with customers I devised an approach which I wish to share with the testing community through my talk.

  • Is there a question I didn’t ask you, you would like to answer?
    Q:     Will you be at EuroStar Antwerpen next year? A: Most definitely! 
  • A last word you want to share with the global testing community

With everything you do within testing, not just Test Automation, ask yourselves why you want to do things or why you are doing things. Keep thinking and keep your testing mindset open……………………

interview #4: Andrea Jensen from Germany (@AgentAJay)

  • Tell us about your background and your motivation to join EuroSTAR conference? 

I stumbled into testing in 2011 by coincidence and stayed because I was and I am still enjoying (most of the time) what I am doing. Almost the same happened when I actively got involved with the testing in early 2020. Somehow one thing led to another, I was joining my first (online) conferences and again as in the start of my career I was enjoying it and I challenged myself to submit a talk to EuroSTAR which was accepted. Seeing all the fabulous speakers in the line up I am feeling very grateful that I was invited to talk at EuroSTAR in Copenhagen.

  • From remote to onsite events again? What are the things you enjoyed the most in this edition ?

Seeing people in their full size including their feet. Meeting some people for the first time in real life was incredibly good that I am at a loss for words.

To me the connections I made are some of the best and precious moments at conferences.

  • What was your favorite moment? 

There were way too many great moments big and small, that I cannot pick one. 

  • What are your new learnings and takeaways?

I’ve attended lot’s of interesting talks and captured my takeaways in half of a notebook. That helped me re-learn the joy of sketchnoting which I stopped doing for a while.
Another thing that stuck with me during my way home from the conference and still loiter around in my mind is a conversation I had with Jørgen Lund, that we as testers need to share our stories, views, and experiences not only with the tester community but also beyond our own bubble with the world. I am pondering around this idea and how I can contribute my share to it. 

I gave a talk about Remote Ensemble Testing, a topic that is very near and dear to my heart.
As a tester in a cross functional team it is not always easy to get support or heard on testing or better said quality matters. Starting to test as a team helped to vocalize advocacy for testing in our team and I wanted to share this story with other testers.
May they be in the same situation I was once in or may they just be curious in trying something different to keep the way of working interesting. 

  • Is there a question I didn’t ask you, you would like to answer?

Yes, “Did you take the slice at the Danish Architecture Center?”
Of course, nothing would stop me! And I think slides are just a proper way of going a level down rather than stairs. 

interview #5: Gabor Zsom from Austria

  • Tell us about your background and your motivation to join EuroSTAR conference? 

I am a Product Engineer and a Scrum Master in our Research and Development Center in Vienna and we are developing an Indoor Positioning System mostly for hospitals, warehouses, airports and shopping malls. I attended the Eurostar Conference in Copenhagen not only to seek for new softwares that would help to increase the efficiency of the testing in our branch, but to gather meaningful ideas about the software testing itself. I also tried to observe how the other speakers behave and how they try to deal with their emotions and mistakes during a speech and I would say all of them were outstandingly professional.

  • From remote to onsite events again? What are the things you enjoyed the most in this edition ?

Well, the networking part obviously. It was amazing that I had a chance to speak with testers, test engineers and managers from around the whole continent. I was trying to use every opportunity to get to know more and more about everyone around me and luckily everything went well. I also enjoyed the booth because I saw many great ideas and innovations about testing.

  • What was your favorite moment? 

I cannot pick one, but the best day was the first when I learnt the basics of test automation with SpecFlow, which was presented by Gáspár Nagy.

What are your new learnings and takeaways?
As I mentioned above, the test automation in SpecFlow was really useful, but I also found Andrea’s speech useful and we are seriously thinking about implementing her idea into our lifecycle. 

  • Is there a question I didn’t ask you, you would like to answer?

What did I like about the city?
I loved to cycle around the city and I really enjoyed that I was able to visit every single part of the city with my rented bicycle. They really respect the community and they are having meaningful rules that should be applied to other countries as well.

  • A last word you want to share with the global testing community

Start with Why? Why should I test this feature? Why was it implemented? Why is it important for the end users? Why should I attend the next EuroStar conference?
Always try to find out the root cause and you will become much more successful in not only manual testing, but in test automation too.

interview #6: Cristiano Cunha from Portugal (@Melioth).

  • Tell us about your background and your motivation to join EuroSTAR conference? 

I started as a developer and evolved towards testing more focused in automation. I’m a true believer in pipelines and was part of an Infrastructure team building a custom pipeline solution. Overall I like everything that enables you to deliver faster and with more confidence. I see myself more like a quality evangelist: Spreading the good word of testing into the world 🙂

Why EuroSTAR? Well if you can only go to one conference in Europe this is the one, great locations every time, great set of speakers and most of all an incredible audience to interact with.

  • From remote to onsite events again? What are the things you enjoyed the most in this edition ?

Indeed, the remote events were great and I continue to learn a lot from them but I missed the corridor talks, the conversations over a drink and the friendships we create with the awesome persons that attend these conferences. This was my second onsite experience of the year and, so far, the greatest, with great speakers, a great place and this special aura. Everyone is there to learn, share and have fun along the way and that makes me feel safe to share, to interact, to expose myself and grow.

  • What was your favorite moment? 

The moment I entered the first keynote of the conference (I was a bit late), when I entered the auditorium and saw it was so full that I had to sit on the stairs, at that moment I felt that this is going to be an awesome conference, look at so many people that I can talk with! And the keynote about how everything is connected and how those connections can impact the way we look at things and to the way we address testing.

  • What are your new learnings and takeaways?

Quality is a necessity everywhere and everyone’s responsibility, it is up to us, testers, to lead the way and be active in changing mindsets towards this new reality assisted by awesome tools and an incredible community.

  • Is there a question I didn’t ask you, you would like to answer?

How was the Award dinner? Oh my god, This was my first but if the others were like this one I have been missing quite a lot!! It was a great culmination of the conference and incredibly entertaining! Great choice!

  • A last word you want to share with the global testing community

Sometimes I get asked if going to conferences is worth it? It is truth that you can learn all that information online but you will be missing one important part of your job that is the social part, there is a “je ne sais quoi” about going to conferences….Knowing other professionals that share the same challenges and be able to interact with them about different solutions. The reassurance to see that we are all in the same boat and can learn with each other when sharing experiences. 

Having a feeling on how the testing area is going  from the ones that work on it on a daily basis has no price and if we can do it in a spectacular place even better! Conferences for me have two beneficial effects: work as seeds planted in my head that will flourish along the way and get me energized for the rest of the year to contribute and learn more about testing!

interview #7: Leela Putten from Mauritius (@leela_putten).

  • Tell us about your background and your motivation to join EuroSTAR conference? 

Started my career as a software developer in 2007 and after further studies, I switched my career to software quality assurance in 2009 and focused on technical testing disciplines such as security testing and performance testing. From that time onwards, I explored multiple disciplines of testing and branched out  into scaled agility and devsecops as well as training. I have always had this dream to connect with the global community and Eurostar is deemed as one of the most amazing platforms to participate in. Since this was my first submission to Eurostar as a speaker, I decided to talk about my favorite subject which is security testing. My colleagues also encouraged me to apply and I am forever grateful for my support system. 

  • From remote to onsite events again? What are the things you enjoyed the most in this edition ?

I guess remote events are more accessible for people like me who live quite far away and it may not always be financially viable. I hope for a hybrid where both are available. However, I must say that I enjoy being onsite the most. Connecting with people and picking on people’s live energy and movement is something I miss. It is such a different experience to be in a room full of eager listeners and participants. It was also great to just move around and greet different people from different cultures, countries, etc during the connect sessions between the talks. I made new friends and left the conference feeling inspired and re-energized. 

  • What was your favorite moment? 

Difficult to pinpoint one, I would say it’s between the opening with the first keynote and the gala ceremony. The whole conference was a blast for me.

  • What are your new learnings and takeaways?

learnt a lot on accessibility testing and the need to cater for more context driven testing. The need to factor in more heuristics in the way we approach testing. I appreciated the general consensus that we need to talk more about valuable in person testing and computer aided testing instead of preaching test automation as the silver bullet and manual testing as the bane of our existence!

When I started in IT, I have always been interested in anything related to law enforcement as my maternal and paternal grandfathers were both in that field and I was fascinated by the stories my parents shared with me. So cyberlaw, cybersecurity and forensics have been core subjects that I immediately connected to and I feel excited to talk about. Application Security Testing is a subject that is poorly covered in my experience and I simply wanted to bring it home to our software testing community. 

  • Is there a question I didn’t ask you, you would like to answer?

Lots of questions we could answer but I am happy with your list. I chose to participate in this interview as it’s been great seeing your way of bringing people together and love your warm approach to it. Thank you Emna!

  • A last word you want to share with the global testing community

We are constantly evolving as a community and I wish all of us the resilience to power through with our passion for testing and to keep coming up with great ideas to empower ourselves and our community.

interview #8: Paco Lorca from Spain (@pacolorca_).

  • Tell us about your background and your motivation to join EuroSTAR conference? 

It happened during a Rapid Software Testing Managed I was attending. Everybody was telling their story about why they were attending the class, and in my turn, I explained my story. It was about how I started a team from scratch, moving from ad-hoc testing, through test cases until I found out about Exploratory Testing and Rapid Testing. What happened is, James Bach told me it was a good story worth sharing, and I should share it at some conference, or whatever. I thought, yes, that is a good idea, and I also wanted to do some public speaking as well. I found out EuroSTAR was the biggest testing conference in Europe, so I thought, let’s dream big. That was my motivation to join the EuroSTAR conference, and I am really happy I did.

  • From remote to onsite events again? What are the things you enjoyed the most in this edition ?

Knowing new people from different countries was great! You can share some stories and personal experiences related to testing that normally you don’t with other types of colleagues, such as programmers, or people from outside IT. I also enjoyed going to beautiful Copenhague for the first time as well, of course!

  • What was your favorite moment? 

I think my favorite moment was the dinner at the circus. I say so because I had a lot of fun! it was an incredible show. But If I think harder, my speak was my most memorable moment for me, I prepared for it big, during many many weeks to make it right and it was finally worth it. But I had more fun during the show 🙂

  • What are your new learnings and takeaways?

One of the key takeaways is to continue improving what we have in our team. Knowing other ways of testing around the globe, or other kinds of experiences enriched my motivation for testing, and for the improvement of my testing team. I also think that after the pandemic, everybody is more prone to know other people, and I liked that people were mostly very approachable and kind to each other.

  • During EuroSTAR conference, you gave a talk “Shaping a Test Team” why did you choose this topic?

I think the answer to this question is explained in the first question 🙂 The topic “Shaping a testing team” was a good fit for the theme of the conferences, “Shaping testing”. I believed a lot of people could’ve benefit from my learning as test manager. And I was suspecting that many other attendees were going to be testing managers as well. People that may encountered the same challenges I encountered. I wasn’t wrong. The track talk I did was the most attended of its kind! which made me feel ecstatic about it.  🙂

  • Is there a question I didn’t ask you, you would like to answer?
    Good questions so far! 😀
  • A last word you want to share with the global testing community

If you haven’t gone to a conference event, of any kind, since the pandemic started, do yourself a favor and go to one. Push yourself a bit to do so. Even if it is just for one day, it will make your worth, and will give you a breath of fresh air in your day to day, professionally and in your personal life. I also would like to encourage others to be brave and apply to be a speaker. It was our first time for many, and never spoke before in public! So you are not alone! I can assure you, attending as a speaker it is a richer experience, and you will meet very interesting people, like Emna! 🙂 Cheers and thanks!

interview #9: Jane Nash from Denmark (@JaneMNash1).

  • Tell us about your background and your motivation to join EuroSTAR conference? 

I am a mathematician by education and I started my career in IT in 1998. Back then I was an Oracle developer and I actually absolutely hated testing! 🙂 However around 2006 things started to change for me, and I saw the benefit of testing – and I have never looked back since then.

My motivation for attending EuroSTAR is getting new inspiration and new information. But most of all, where else can you meet with that many people being passionate about the same thing as myself?

  • From remote to onsite events again? What are the things you enjoyed the most in this edition ?

Meeting people! Getting connected with old friends and getting new friends. The atmosphere was really friendly.

  • What was your favorite moment? 

Unfortunately I did not attend the dinner at the Circus; I’ve heard that was good. 

Nancy Kelln’s keynote. I always like to hear strong women telling their stories. And meeting colleagues from around Europe.

  • What are your new learnings and takeaways?

    “The Binary Disease” I love it !

And Bolton made me think, which is always good. He said that “If you are using code-less automation, you are using someone else’s code”. And even if you have to do the code yourself, there is still code embedded in the tool. I believe many who are doing test-automation tend to forget this.

  • Is there a question I didn’t ask you, you would like to answer?

Would I like to go next year? Yeah!

  • A last word you want to share with the global testing community

SAFe, agile, test automation, you name it are all just part of the journey. New times will bring new “isms” and new methodologies. The world in IT is ever-changing.

If you haven’t jumped on the automation-bandwagon yet, don’t despair. Things tend to come back like big wheels turning. The last months job ads searching for “functional testers” have started popping up.

So yes, things change, but things do come back again 🙂

interview #10: Jihad GHANDOUR from Lebanon (@J_Ghandour).

  • Tell us about your background and your motivation to join EuroSTAR conference? 

Well I’ve been a QA member in Murex for the last 9 years now, and still enjoying every bit of it. I like to understand what is happening around me, and testing things is my favorite way to reach this understanding. One of the things that I cherish the most is collaboration, and this is what motivated me to join conferences, hear others, learn, and grow. When you are interested in conferences, nothing beats Europe’s largest testing conference, EuroSTAR. This is my second time in a row as a speaker at Eurostar, and this time my presentation was rated as the second best track talk, which felt quite nice to know 😀

  • From remote to onsite events again? What are the things you enjoyed the most in this edition ?

while I enjoyed presenting during last year’s remote conference, I definitely prefer the onsite format this year! The stage, interacting with fellow testers, seeing and connecting with my attendees, the Gala, the speakers event, the Expo, … it was a memorable experience.

  • What was your favorite moment? 

My favorite moment is when I was presenting. Being able to see attendees laugh at my jokes, agree with my message, and further connect after the presentation, it was simply amazing.

  • What are your new learnings and takeaways?

We need tools for testers, not for their managers. We need an ITE!

  • During EuroSTAR conference, you gave a talk about collaboration called “Mama Said My Shape Was Okay“. Why did you choose this topic?

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. I care way more about learning, and building the thing right through collaboration, than building my thing. I started a collaboration movement at my company and it had amazing results. I was never a fan of I T X, and always rooted for having a shape that is best for me and my community, so this is why I chose to talk about this topic at EuroSTAR.

  • Is there a question I didn’t ask you, you would like to answer?

The list is pretty nice 🙂 thank you!

  • A last word you want to share with the global testing community

I T and X are no longer enough, forget about fitting in any shape. Be your own shape, have your own set of skills, and fill the gaps in your community. 

Enjoy being that perfect Tetris piece!

Adding my answers to my own questions =)

Thank you everyone for being part of this blog, and for sharing your experience ! I appreciate reading all those inputs, it brings the conference vibes again 🙂

some of you asked me what about my answers to those questions, well maybe I covered some of them in the previous post but let me add a short answer to give you a precise answer from my perspective.

interview #0: Emna Ayadi from Tunisia (located in France) (@emna__ayadi).

  • Tell us about your background and your motivation to join the EuroSTAR Conference ? 

I’m a computer eneigneer, started my first job as a tester 7 years ago in 2015 and after few years I discovered testing communities and I find out that learning from and within communities is much more valuable and effective, and joining different testing communities makes me discover the conference world in 2019. I find it super interesting all the exchanges you can have with people doing the same job as you do and learning from experts in the field.

This was actually my first edition of EuroSTAR ! my motivations are: I’m part of the program as a speaker, my first time in Denmark, lots of new learning from the incredible program, meeting my colleagues from other countries for the first time in person, brining new ideas to my team …

  • From remote to onsite events again ? What are the things you enjoyed the most in this edition ?

In remote events you can’t have the chance easily to talk with other passionate testers.

In this edition, it was quite magical at every break between sessions or lunch break, you meet people you know from the online world or new ones you don’t know and I like customizing your badge with mini stickers that are about YOU !

Also starting the session with a morning YOGA was gold, to start the session with deep focus. this can’t happen in online events.

  • What was your favorite moment ? 

When I’ve been asked with my friend Sophie, to introduce the testing excellence award winner during the gala dinner, which a magical evening.

  • What are your new learnings and takeaways? 

I’ll put them into another blog coming soon to not take a lot of space and keep it long read answer.

This topic means a lot for me, after our research and publishing the book “21st century skills for testers” during the pandemic with Ard Kramer, we wanted to make the essence into practice how can we improve testing just by using softskills.
In fact, machine learning, robots and artificial intelligence can’t solve every problem faced by the human and even if it does we need the human brain to test it. Besides that, in any case we need the human brain to test those machines. So to make a difference you need those softskills.

The takeaways from our workshop is how can we improve those softskills as testers, different tips are shared in every round, we are also thinking to create an appendix and share it to the community with all those tips.

  • A last word you want to share with the global testing community

Always people ask me, how you find time to do things outside your job (blogging, conferences, sharing content, reading …). well in reality when I travel to those conferences, my passion to testing increases even more and I come back with new battery full of motivation to do more testing related work beyond my project.

So my word to the everyone reading this, If you have the chance to attend an international conference in your field, go for it !! 1 per year or more and you will see how much motivation and learning will be added to your day to day job.