Thursday, December 6, 2018

Testing United 2018 - My First Keynote

Right after returning home from Agile Testing Days 2018 I packed my things again and went to the lovely city of Bratislava for Testing United; the conference that invited me to give my very first keynote. A colleague of mine accompanied me for the conference. We arrived the day before, got welcomed by the organizers and enjoyed a nice lunch together with two other speakers. The evening offered a private sightseeing tour through the old city of Bratislava as well as a lovely speakers dinner where I could already get to know further people. My keynote was scheduled as second session of the first conference day and I was really glad about having it early. On the one hand this helped calm my nerves, and on the other hand I had caught a cold the week before, so I wanted to get the keynote done before it got too bad to deliver a proper talk. The day came, and indeed felt nervous right before the keynote, however, I always did before any of the sessions I gave so far. What I learned on my speaking journey is to prepare for that and that I am then able to cope with the situation on stage. For the first keynote, it was exactly the same. And then it was done! I felt really relieved afterwards. I mean, achievement unlocked, right? It was great to get some nice feedback on it from the people I talked with during the rest of the conference. My job was not done yet though. For the second conference day a panel discussion with all keynote speakers was scheduled. Honestly, I do not like panel discussions as they provide lots of uncertainty how they go. Also, my cold had grown worse. But well, I made it through, and then I was finally really done! Now, what about the rest of the program? I made quite some sketchnoting experience on the last three conferences and I was committed to keep at it. So here are my notes of the sessions I attended. Well, the conference was over - so what to do? I found a nice small dinner group with Raluca Morariu, her partner and Roy Boven and really enjoyed our conversation in a low key setting to close the conference in a personal way.

What I really liked about the conference was that they provided plenty of opportunities to socialize and have conversations with the people. The venue was great for that, breaks had a perfect length, they offered a free networking party on the evening of the first conference day - and all that was always accompanied by amazing food, and plenty of it. (Yes, I will remember the food at any conference.)

In case you'd like to get further impressions yourself, check out the official photo album or the talk recordings that will get published on the Testing United YouTube channel.

4 comments:

  1. Always so detail descriptive in your approach. Thanks for sharing and glad it was a great success.

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    1. Thank you! You're feedback is much appreciated as you know :)

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