EuroSTAR Conference

Europe's Largest Software Testing Conference

EuroSTAR Speaker Checklist

The countdown is on to #EuroSTARConf 2021!

Ceád Míle Fáilte (a hundred thousand welcomes in Irish) to you all.  We’re pleased to welcome you all on our 2021 conference journey.  If you are a first-time speaker, a very special welcome to you!  We look forward to bringing you together online this September.  If you have any queries throughout the year, you can contact me at any time via email.

The following is a checklist and some guidelines to help you (and us) prepare for the conference. As it is online, there are some added tips to help you give your best talk. Here is a summary of actions to take over the coming months.

1. Have you submitted a short video? 

If you haven’t done this to date – it’s worth taking the time out to do so. Help us to promote your talk by recording a short video – here are a few tips:

  • Use Zoom, Teams, your smartphone (horizontal) or ask someone to record you
  • Keep it less than 1 minute – attention spans are getting shorter!
  • Please record it in landscape (horizontal) format
  • Introduce yourself – who you are & company name
  • What are the top 3-5 reasons a delegate should attend your talk
  • Make it as fun or quirky as you like
  • If you would prefer us to record you, we can hop on a Zoom call any time!

DEADLINE: Please upload your video to our Dropbox as soon as possible. The earlier we have it, the more we can promote you!  Thanks to those that have submitted already.

2. Spread the word – share your talk link

You have received an email from me with your personalised graphic, EuroSTAR presentation template, and committee member contact. 

We are sharing these graphics on social media for each of our speakers. It would help spread the word on your talk if you could share these on your own channels. Perhaps your company might consider posting a blog announcing your speaker slot? – we’d be happy to share this so please do get in touch or tag us in social media.

We also would be delighted to share more technical blogs on EuroSTAR Huddle so if you have views on testing techniques or new technologies let us know!  Best contact for this is Suzanne in our Community Team – she will be happy to help with speaker blogs on EuroSTAR.

3. Prepare your presentation

Our production company has requested that all presentations are formatted in 16:9 widescreen and preferably in PowerPoint so it will display correctly during your recording.

Presentation Tips

  1. Please save your file with your name and official title from the programme – this helps us locate the correct file!
  2. Use fonts that can be read relatively easily on a presentation screen – think of people on a variety of devices!
  3. You may include your own company logo on the inside but please limit to one or two slides.
  4. Please do not use running footers or headers in your presentation. This is a requirement. If the slides are not in the correct format, we edit them. Please save us the time.
  5. Don’t use too many slides – track sessions are required to have 20 min presentation and 10 min Q&A / Discussion – approx. 10-15 presentation slides max.
  6. Time your presentation in advance & leave time for questions. Sometimes the best session scores are because of the lively Q&A facilitated by the speaker.
  7. If you are nervous about Q&A – prepare some questions in advance and ask your track chair to start the questions with one of these.
  8. Practice in advance – Track Sessions will be pre-recorded. Time yourself and ensure you are speaking for max. 20 minutes if a track session. You will be recording in one take so this is an essential step. It is easy to record yourself on Teams or Zoom and will help you to be more comfortable when recording for the conference.
  9. Please use the first and last slides of the EuroSTAR PowerPoint presentation slides that have been provided.  These slides are part of the recording set up. Please do not change the front slide. Add your contact details to the last “Thank You” slide.
  10. Ask for help – each speaker has a designated Committee member who are happy to help you with your talk. We have sent your committee contact with your social media graphic.

PRESENTATION DEADLINE: Please use the EuroSTAR template provided & upload your presentation to the  EuroSTAR Dropbox by Friday 27th August.

This gives time for the presentations to be checked by the committee before recording dates.

4. Recordings

Our recording schedule is decided by the production company depending on studio and technician availability. At present, we are booked to record all speakers from Monday 6th – Friday 10th September 2021.

Please ensure you are available and I will be in touch to schedule your recording time.

Let us know in advance if you have any company, job title or name changes so we can ensure your details are displayed directly.

5. Best Paper Award

The EuroSTAR Best Paper Award is open to all speakers. The winner is announced as part of the EuroSTAR Software Testing Awards and receives the recognition of this prestigious award from the entire community. The winning paper is also released as an eBook on EuroSTAR Huddle and shared with the wider testing community.

To Enter

  • Submit your paper to [email protected] in Word format
  • Use ‘Best Paper Submission 2021‘ in the subject line
  • Include a title, full contact info (including phone number)
  • Add a short abstract (70 – 80 words)
  • References and footnotes should be included at the end of the paper.

Need some inspiration? Here are a few links to previous winners of the Best Paper Award:

BEST PAPER DEADLINE: Best Paper Deadlines must be submitted by Monday 6th September.

Thanks for reading!

We are here to help so if you need anything please contact me.

Siobhán