[Retrospective] EuroSTAR Conference 2023

Just a week has passed since the EuroSTAR conference 2023 concluded, yet its impact lingers on, igniting a newfound enthusiasm and determination among its participants.

From thought-provoking discussions to invaluable connections, from fun to various learnings.. the closing of this conference marks the beginning of a journey fueled by the memories and lessons that will shape our future endeavors.

In this blog post, I asked 8 participants to share their experiences and takeaways (Thanks to the Whova conference APP thread “how to overcome the conference blues” where I suggested to make this retrospective in a written format).

So let’s START :

interview #1: Lina Zubyte from Germany

• Tell us about your background and your motivation coming to the 31st edition of EuroSTAR Conference ?
  I’ve been working as a QA for almost 10 years now. I have attended various conferences, but EuroSTAR has always been one of the biggest and most respected conferences in Europe on testing. The first time I spoke there many years ago as a new speaker – it opened so many doors to me. I met some friends for life, appreciated smooth organization, and learned a lot, so I was definitely looking forward to experiencing all that again. 

• What are the things you enjoyed the most in this edition ?
  I loved the theme of the conference – Software Development is a Social Activity. In the end, software development is indeed not a one person show, and the talks absolutely reflected that. Not only this, but also as usual – people are the main part of the event, and I loved (re)connecting to people and learning from them.

• What surprised you ?
  The community was in the heart of the event: the app was very actively used by attendees to connect: be it meetups or discussions. Usually I struggle with event interactions, but EuroSTAR did a great job this year. I met people for dinner even before the event started!
  
• What was your favorite moment ?
  I’d have to name a personal one: winning the best paper award! I was so happy to be rewarded it. Coming back to my awards dinner table, we cheered for that win. A truly special moment in my career in general. My paper “How Minimalism Helps Build High-Quality Products and Teams” is going to be released as an e-book soon!

• What are your new learnings and takeaways? 
  Main and most important takeaway I have is this: testers are there to stay, but we do need to expand our knowledge and do our work much better in times of change. It’s not about staying the same, to be more useful to teams who embrace testing more, we also need to adapt and grow.

• During the EuroSTAR Conference, you gave a talk “How Minimalism Helps Build High-Quality Products and Teams“, why did you choose this topic ?
  I spoke about minimalism and high-quality products: “How Minimalism Helps Build High-Quality Products and Teams” because as tempting as it is to hope for one silver-bullet, one “best practice”, use that new shiny tool to solve our problems – it’s frequently even overengineering and overcomplicating our life. Minimalism concepts like clarity, purpose, and intentionality can be and should be used if we want to build much better valuable products. In this talk (and paper! :)), I go into the parallels between minimalism and great product development, and provide concepts and tips to improve, including evolutionary architectures or 5 whys technique.
  
• A last word you want to share with the global testing community
  As many talks of EuroSTAR stated: instead of just sitting and being upset with the changing software development, expand your knowledge, grow, and test better.
  
  

interview #2: Chris Armstrong from the UK

• Tell us about your background and your motivation coming to the 31st edition of EuroSTAR Conference ? 
  I’ve started testing professionally in 2004, but didn’t really recognise it as a career until I was first dragged along to EuroSTAR in 2013, in Gothenburg. Attending a conference full of passionate and inspirational testers opened my eyes to the community are large and I am forever grateful. I returned as a volunteer in 2017 on the Huddle and have continued in that role ever since, additionally having the pleasure of speaking last year and this. I look forward to each year’s edition, to meet old friends and new, to try to help others get the most out of their conference experience and to learn so many new things from all these inspirational speakers and attendees.

• What are the things you enjoyed the most in this edition ?
  I loved the casual vibe around the conference, as the weather kind of forced more of a dress-down culture and everyone was much more calm and comfortable, it was great. The venue was spectacular and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing such a feeling of inclusion and acceptance, wonderful diversity in talk topics.

• What surprised you ? 
  Even though I always go into a conference with the expectation to meet new friends, I’m always so delighted to meet new and interesting people each and every year.

• What was your favorite moment ?
  Almost the entire week was a highlight, but if I were to pick just one, seeing an old colleague in real life for the first time and their awesome talk on Dungeons & Dragons, Tara was awesome.

• What are your new learnings and takeaways? 
  Honestly this year, thinking about the conference as a whole, it really dawned on me how difficult it can be to strike that balance in presentation, topic, target demographic. It is impossible to please everyone, but this year’s committee did a wonderful job!

• During the EuroSTAR Conference, you gave a talk ”Growing Pains ~ Lessons Learned from the Incredible Rise and Inevitable Collapse of WCW” and a panel session “9 out of 10 Testers Find These Things Most Annoying…”, why did you choose these topics ?
  It’s fair to say that on the face of it, my talk didn’t have the most to do with testing, but actually the motivation was to demonstrate the art of abstracting lessons from unrelated topics and industries and applying lessons learned as a heuristic for those of us working in software development. Many of the stories I shared, I chew on and take with me as accessible stories when I speak with clients and colleagues. Talking about software quality in a coherent manner to those who aren’t testers by nature is a skill that I’m constantly trying to improve and I hope that some of what I spoke about on stage will have resonated with the audience.
  With the 9 out of 10 testers panel, we chose a lot of things to discuss,  but we were very motivated to address the negative use of the word “woke” in Slido comments for the keynotes, I’m glad we were able to address that on the stage.

• A last word you want to share with the global testing community
  Thank you for being you, for attending, reading, participating and giving feedback, the community wouldn’t be the same without you.

interview #3: Russell Craxford from the UK

• Tell us about your background and your motivation coming to the 31st edition of EuroSTAR Conference ? 
  I’ve been in software Testing for 15 years, working in various roles from charity, finance, consultancy and now government. I love coming to EuroStar and have been involved in the last 5 helping run and support the Test Clinic. In effect a community ran AMA to help other testers out. I love collaborating with attendees, helping them along with learning from them and the speakers. I’ve some great friends who I have met from EuroStar. 

• What are the things you enjoyed the most in this edition ?
  The people, too many people to mention but so many great conversation sometime challenging ideas sometimes confirming 

• What surprised you ? 
  Having been to a few EuroStars in the past I have to admit I didn’t find much surprising, the people are always great. Only surprise was how some of the talks this year didn’t have any room, I don’t recall that in previous years. 

• What was your favorite moment ?
  So either Michael Bolton falling onto the stage to talk about next year or 9 out of 10 Testers session at the end of the event ranting amusingly about testing and working in software.  

• What are your new learnings and takeaways? 
  I’m not the only one who thinks models get used as ‘laws’ when they’re not and that people are the focus of how we build software whilst tools are important it’s people that use and drive them. 

• Is there a question I didn’t ask you, you would like to answer? A last word you want to share with the global testing community
  Just to say that events like EuroStar remind me of the value of community, sharing ideas and supporting each other. It’s an amazing event where people from various places come to share, be it the speakers or just the attendee’s.

interview #4: Michael Krause from Switzerland

• Tell us about your background and your motivation coming to the 31st edition of EuroSTAR Conference ? 
  I work as a Technical Agile Coach with a focus on Quality for Swisscom, Switzerland’s leading telecommunication company. This has been my 7th EuroSTAR and also the first one where I was able to bring more than 4 colleagues with me, most of them Developers who see Quality topics as part of their job. The conference always touches relevant topics and networking in this community is very valuable. It is important to leave work for a week and explore what is going on in the World. I trust it benefits not only the company but also each person individually.

• What are the things you enjoyed the most in this edition ?
  Well, all the talks about various topics and networking. It is great that there is a big diversity of topics in focus. There are more ‘technical’ topics and ‘human topics’. Great to mix those. I was delighted that ‘Accessibility’ gained visibility and got space in the program. Also I enjoyed the strolls in the Zoo. Actually, I found this year’s destination city, the zoo atmosphere and beautiful halls like the Darwin hall outstandingly great. And of course it is enjoyable to be part of this community.

• What surprised you ? 
  After so many years there are not so many surprises. But the topic of Jo’s Keynote was definitely one. On the other hand I had a feeling that the latest and apparently fast developments in ‘AI’ were treated a little bit like an ‘elephant in the room’. In earlier conferences that topic sparked emotional discussions. This year I did not witness those either in talks or in debates among delegates. I feel we should talk more about it again. On a brighter side I won a Lego set and was surprised when it happened. But then I remembered that I put my name in a lottery box the very first morning.

• What was your favorite moment ?
  Hard to single one moment out. The first stroll in the Zoo was unexpected. The discussions with colleagues, other delegates, sponsors are very important and a great way to find and see different perspectives. The ‘big reveal’ is always a great end to the conference.

• What are your new learnings and takeaways?
  Ethics are becoming increasingly relevant in a World that appears more and more complex and chaotic. I think it is important that we as a community care about ethical topics in Software development, so that the products we build can not be misused or used in criminal ways.

• A last word you want to share with the global testing community 
  A fabulous community of curious and caring explorers. Thank you for being there! See you next time!

interview #5: Willem Keesman. from The Netherlands

• Tell us about your background and your motivation coming to the 31st edition of EuroSTAR Conference ?
  My name is Willem, 38 years old and father of 2 lovely daughters and I’m from the Netherlands.I’ve been working in the field of software testing for roughly ten years now, but deep in my heart I’ve always been a tester. Just found out much later in my life that the profession of software testing exists. My motivation for coming to Eurostar was to learn, but in a way that can’t be done by Udemy or attending courses.
  
  By listening to inspiring people and their personal experiences. Also by stepping out of my comfort-zone and attending talks that I would normally not attend, such as the talk of Sophie Kuester, which really was an eye-opener for me and had a powerful message which I think more men should hear.

• What are the things you enjoyed the most in this edition ?
  From the moment we boarded the train, we met the community. Both Fieke de Vreede and Krista Noor from DUO were on the same train as me and my colleague Arnoud Gorter. This already sparked off interesting conversations and led to a group dinner in the evening. From this point onwards it got better and better.
  • The workshop on building pipelines using the CI/CD card game was definitely one of the highlights of the 2nd day. I met a lot of new people and just loved the fact that it was such a good mix of theory and practice.
  • Some of the talks such as “Which isn’t good for the hive isn’t good for the bee” by Sanne Visser really touched me, because of their personal note, lots of companies that claim to be a great place to work just use the same spreadsheet-management methods as their peers. A highly competitive environment can be stimulating but also has a dark side. I loved the suggestion of rewarding the most helpful employees.
  • Lina’s talk about “How minimalism helps to build high quality products”  was also one of my favorites, as testers we tend to overcomplicate things. Which was made clear to us painfully when we tried opening the Jetbrains vault 😀 Sometimes the answer/bug is right in front of you.
  • Besides these talks i enjoyed Kimberly’s talk on automating usability, i’ve got a feeling that a new automation framework will see the light in 2024 🎉
  • Gaspar Nagy’s talk on self service quality and what we can learn from open source QA was also engaging. One more example of how strong communities are beneficial to quality. 
  • And last but certainly not least, Sophie’s talk; “One of the lads, Things I’m tired of hearing about women in tech” Which should be made mandatory for some (senior) management colleagues i’ve worked with in the past. 

• What surprised you ? 
  Everyone is extremely approachable, from speakers to veterans in the industry.    They didn’t mind having casual talk and exchange experiences. Loved this.
  Besides this a big shout-out to all the booth owners, because instead of just going over their sales pitch they were genuinely interested in you as a delegate. Especially the people from EPAM, XRAY, Maveryx and Curiosity come to mind.
  Also the fact that the universe works in mysterious ways, when you’re adding book recommendations to your wishlist on Thursday night and you end up winning an Amazon voucher in a raffle the next morning which covers these book expenses, is this coincidence? 🙂

• What was your favorite moment ?
  I really loved the brief walk in the zoo, this for me exemplified that Eurostar is really about the community. Even though you only met people a few minutes ago, you can talk with them as if you’ve known them for years. 

• What are your new learnings and takeaways?
  The 3 major learnings and takeaways
  • Collaboration is key
  • A strong community can overcome the biggest challenges.
  • Life is so much more fun if you step out of your comfort zone. 

• Is there a question I didn’t ask you, you would like to answer?
  Nothing comes to mind, but i did see there is an animal conservatory in Stockholm.https://skansen.se/en/this-is-skansen/
  So let’s meet up, once more 🙂

• A last word you want to share with the global testing community
  I loved meeting you and look forward to meeting more of you in Stockholm or during other events. Thank you, for being you!

interview #6: Joppe van Noort from The Netherlands

• Tell us about your background and your motivation coming to the 31st edition of EuroSTAR Conference ?
  My name is Joppe van Noort (she/her) from The Netherlands. I have somewhat more than 15 years experience as a tester/test coordinator/test manager and worked in QA some years earlier also. I have two kids, a cat and a husband. I started last October as testcoordinator at BOIP (Benelux Office for Intellectual Property), we register brand names and logos for the Benelux countries (Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg).
  I was for one day at the EuroSTAR in Maastricht, I think something like 7 or 8 years ago. Then I changed jobs to a very small company that didn’t have the budget for large conferences. During the Corona pandemic I could attend, since the digital conference was a lot cheaper. And then, last year before Copenhagen, I discovered it was possible to volunteer, thus being able to attend even when there was no budget.
  I love learning about developments in our craft and I’m always happy to connect with other testpeople (of any shape and gender, of course Sophie 🙂). So I felt so lucky to be able to volunteer again this year! I personally think being active instead of “just” attending is even more satisfying, because you are part of a group of active members (EuroSTAR crew, speakers and volunteers) right away.

• What are the things you enjoyed the most in this edition ?
  I absolutely loved the combination with the Zoo. And I enjoyed reconnecting with people I met the previous year in Copenhagen. I especially enjoyed Track chairing some talks, was a first time for me but so very nice to do! Of course I’m delighted that the talk from Sophie was chosen as do-over, and that I could track chair it again at the “big stage”. She had such an enlightening talk, even for me, recognizing a lot of the issues. But pointing out that we as women shouldn’t feel obliged to change, but our environments should accept us as we are, that was something I hadn’t really thought about yet.
  Oh yeah, and playing a game of Rummikup with Isabel Evans, teaching her the rules of this game from my youth (brought by the great Rik Marselis, it used to belong to his mother). It was a nice, quiet moment on a very busy day.

• What surprised you ?
  I was surprised by the utter beauty of the conference venue. All spaces were stunning, but of course especially the Darwin hall. Even though it was a bit hot…

• What was your favorite moment ?
  My favorite moment was gaming and going to dinner with “the girls” (three other volunteers). We had such a good time.
  And of course when the workshop of Adam Matłacz, where me and Mandy helped out, won the prize for best tutorial. We felt so proud of him!

• What are your new learnings and takeaways?
  I have at least two things that I want to look at further, the accessibility unit testing and the Fabric of knowledge. And of course the learnings about inclusion and leadership that I took some personal learning points from.

• Is there a question I didn’t ask you, you would like to answer?
  I would absolutely love to see all of you again next year in Stockholm!

• A last word you want to share with the global testing community
  I feel very thankful to be a part of the community and hope to be so for a long time to come!

interview #7: Cynthia Maes from Belgium

• Tell us about your background and your motivation coming to the 31st edition of EuroSTAR Conference ? 
  Hello, I’m Cynthia and I’m 28 years old. I have been working as a test engineer for M2Q for 9 months and started on my first project 8 months ago. As a background I have always been working in customer service and satisfaction of which I can bring a lot to my testing. My main reason for attending Eurostar 2023 was mainly to learn and meet and network with other testers/people in the testing world.
  
• What are the things you enjoyed the most in this edition ?
  Seeing that there is a very real community in the testing world and that everyone is open to starting a conversation and sharing their experiences. I also found the talks very inspiring and interesting and I learned a lot from the interactive workshops.
  
• What surprised you ?
  Isabel Evans’ keynote gave me tremendous insights of the stakes of teamwork and recognizing strengths. In turn, Kristel Kruustük’s keynote gave me tremendous insights on the what and why of the things we do and that we need to be mindful about them. I also learned a lot of new automation tools from the different exhibitors. I also learned a lot about taking good notes through Nicole Vanderhoeven and learned about a nice tool through this; Obsidian. 
  
• What was your favorite moment ?
  Apart from learning a lot from the talks, my favorite part was that I got to meet a lot of new people. Thank you to all those who gave me new insights. I also found the Lego workshop a very nice experience. I learned a lot from Geosley Andrades and his talk on Gamification. I will definitely put much of this into practice. 
  
• What are your new learnings and takeaways?
  I recommend everyone to go to Eurostar for more than one day, there is so much to see and explore that you barely get around. Emna Ayadi and Geosley Andrades really inspired me to dig further into gamification. 
  
• Is there a question I didn’t ask you, you would like to answer?
  If it’s possible I would very much like to attend next year’s Eurostar conference of Eurostar in Stockhölm and hope to meet a lot more people. 

interview #8: Yaroslava Mazepina from the UK

• Tell us about your background and your motivation coming to the 31st edition of EuroSTAR Conference ? 
  I’m a QA engineer, Test Consultant and Mentor with more than 10 years of experience. I was working in different areas and domains – messengers, social networks, consulting and finance just to name a few. It’s my first EuroSTAR. I visited a few other conferences before and even was a speaker in some of them. But EuroSTAR to me it’s about scale: speakers, organisation, tutorials.

• What are the things you enjoyed the most in this edition ?
  In many tutorials different speakers have been saying about 1 main thing in testing – the importance of communication skills. And I also enjoyed the following tutorials:
  • Behaviours of Effective Employees (Rob Lambert)
  • The New Test Manager’s Survival Guide (Kevin Harris)
  • How to Prevent your Next Software Release Ending in Disaster (Andrew Brown)
  • Moving Cheese: The Art of Persuasion for Testers(Thomas Shipley)
  • Make Yourself Future Proof while Improving your Soft Skills (Emna Ayadi, Ard Kramer), and especially follow up talk with Emna after the workshop. I have got a lot of information to think about. And to read 🙂

• What surprised you ? 
  Community. I was surprised that a lot of people were open to talk. And really wanted to share their thoughts or experience to help you.

• What was your favorite moment ?
  I won the AirPods from Inflectra 🙂 from the conference itself – measuring the chair during Michael Bolton’s workshop.

• What are your new learnings and takeaways? 
  • don’t give just numbers for management – tell them story
  • Always remember about helicopter view in testing.

The end

Thanks for reading this blog post! Special Thanks for all participants for sharing their insightful experience with us. I’ll comeback with another blog post to summarize my experience and share some sketchnotes I was able to draw during the conference. Follow #ExploreWithEmna for more content and various adventures in software testing.