The People

The thing that hits me when I attend a test bash is the enthusiasm, energy, engagement of everybody. It hits you in the face the amazing people who attend, speak and organise, the people are infectious they make you better, they teach you things. They make you want to be better, they make you want to see them again.

 

The people of test bash become friends who look after each other, you forge a bond with them. I feel I can ask these people for help and they can ask me for help share ideas, Collaborate and listen.

 

The people who attend test bash have passion, they live life to the full, they turn up time and time again to learn, talk, discuss, debate and party! Go you

 

Quality

The quality of the whole test bash experience is high from the amazing t shirts (proud owner of a gold test bash t shirt). The challenge, the amazing swag. Well done to Richard, Rosie and the team.

The quality of talks was absolutely superb. James Bach thought provoking social and critical distance was informative thought provoking and funny. Excellent stuff, this was my first experience of James and I very much liked it. I hope for more. Limit your social distance but leave space for critical distance.

 

 

 

Kim Knup spoke from the heart about a very personal issue of positivity and journey which I have traveled too. Journaling for Kim had been a tool which helped her towards positive psychology approach I have used this also and can’t talk enough about how useful it is. Writing and drawing 3 positive things from the day, one thing I am grateful for and one thing I am excited about has been a game hanger for me.

There were many other really good talks, BDD, training testers. The amazing Gwen Diagram swore her way through 30 minutes of test environment advice which is gildust. I think this lady will write the bible of test environments one day if she has time.

 

Public Speaking

practice practice practice – I practiced a few times but not as much in the past. One thing I found really useful was to video myself and watch it back. This was a useful tool to notice

Remember your glasses. I forgot my glasses and couldn’t read the notes I had written for myself very easily. This ended up meaning I needed to take what I thought were like long pauses, the feedback was that they were ok.

Pauses aren’t that bad, previously I have been maybe too familiar with the material and the nervousness has caused me to have a high words per minute ratio.

Lessons learnt, speak from your heart about something you are passionate about! It’s much easier to talk about something you have experienced or something you really care about. I love listening and think the power of being listened to is important.

 

Listening an essential skill for testers version 2 is already in the research phase.