The EuroSTAR 2024 Call for Submissions is open, and Programme Chair, Michael Bolton, is calling for the testing community to submit their talk suggestions for the 2024 programme.
In this blog post, Michael shares his changes to the 2024 track talk format.
Greetings friends,
There is one minor change to the EuroSTAR 2024 programme layout. Instead of the previous track talk timing, we’ll be going with 60-minute sessions to afford more time for presenters to tell their stories (up to 40 minutes instead of 30), and more time for discussion afterwards (up to 20 minutes instead of 15). The goal here is to provide more time to present the idea, and in particular, more time for discussion, reflection, and alternative perspectives.
That means as a speaker, you’ll need be prepared for comments and questions. You might find that some of those questions may be challenging. That’s normal. You’ll be talking to a room full of testers! It’s our job to learn, to notice when details are missing, to recognize inconsistencies. As testers, our work and our findings will be challenged too. Consider a presentation less as a fashion show and more like a trip to the gym.
Imagine yourself an attendee sitting in the audience. What would you like to hear (or not)? What would make you feel your time was well-spent? Share your powerful ideas, case studies and the most innovative initiatives, solutions, or projects. Be useful! The EuroSTAR audience will want actionable content – learnings they can apply or make a difference with when they get back to their jobs. What have you learned that can be useful to them? How can they apply it? Advanced sessions perform well at EuroSTAR and usually draw larger audiences.
Of course, as testers, it’s also part of our job to be respectful and helpful to people who have created things, and a conference talk is no exception. EuroSTAR has its own code of conduct. In addition, I’d like to add to that by borrowing from my colleague Ilari Henrik Aegerter: Philosopher Immanuel Kant’s Categorical Imperative offers suitable instructions on how to act: “Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law”. Or, if that sounds too wordy, here is a simpler general heuristic:
“Always act in a manner your parents/mentor/spiritual leader would approve of”
Thanks for reading. I’ll be sharing more tips shortly and in the meantime, the EuroSTAR team have added some helpful guidelines below.
Michael
EuroSTAR 2024 Programme Chair
Every year there are hundreds of submissions so to help guide you when considering what to propose, the EuroSTAR team have gathered their top tips of what the audience have told us they want in a Track Talk.
EuroSTAR Track Talks ideally:
- Tell your stories of trials and triumphs, successes & lessons learned
- Detail the methodologies or approaches that have helped individuals and organisations
- Bring new information, emerging and/or innovative approaches or techniques
- Introduce case studies of real projects
- Show how you’ve addressed technical or non-technical pain points
- Avoid sales pitches
- Allow for discussion time – this is where a lot of the learning takes place
- Include actionable takeaways for attendees and their teams
Start your Submission
If you’re inspired to submit a track talk – or indeed, one of our other talk types – check out the Call for Speakers details.
Here are some dates to bear in mind:
- Call for Speakers deadline: 17 September 2023
- Speaker selection notification: Late November 2023
- EuroSTAR Conference: 11-14 June 2024 in Sweden
We look forward to reading your submission, and if you have any questions, please get in touch with us.