The EuroSTAR 2024 Call for Submissions is open until 17th September, and our Programme Committee, Michael Bolton (Chair), Ru Cindrea, Bas Dijkstra, Baldvin Gislason Bern, and Tanja Vos. are calling for testers, developers and quality professionals to submit their talk proposals for the 2024 programme.
In this blog post, Michael shares tips on what style of talks he’s keen to add to the line-up.
Greetings friends,
Here are a couple of things that you might want to consider for EuroSTAR 2024 that could help your submission to fit the theme, or otherwise to be successful.
People are hungry for stories, so that’s what we’re looking for. The theme is a question “What are we doing here?” and that isn’t quite the same as “What have we done?” Consider stories about the testing that you’re doing at the moment, even if it’s work in progress.
Either way, your story need not be about successes. Your presentation can be failures you’ve experienced and problems you’ve encountered, whether you managed to resolve them or not. Some of the most interesting and compelling conference talks I’ve attended have involved trouble and getting around it. Others have ended with “to be continued”. You may even have attendees coming to you with suggestions afterwards!
“What are we doing here?” could be about something that’s happening, at the conference, in the room where we’re gathering. Whether you’re doing a tutorial, a workshop, or a track talk, consider something experiential: a quick exercise, a role play a game, or a puzzle to work through. Give people a chance to meet, chat, and collaborate.
Moreover, the EuroSTAR community is an enormous resource. Hundreds of people with diverse skills and rich experience are eager to share their ideas with you, and to offer help with puzzles and problems that you may be trying to work through. During the discussions, after your story of what we’re doing here, you may get terrific insights on what they’re doing there.
Before you submit, it can help to ask a colleague or friend to read your abstract and learnings, so you get immediate feedback on whether it engages them and captures their attention. Below you’ll hear from the EuroSTAR team as they give you insights on the overall programme selection process.
Until next time,
Michael
EuroSTAR 2024 Programme Chair
How are talks selected?
The EuroSTAR programme process is as transparent as possible. Once all the submissions are in, they are independently reviewed by a team of 40-50 community reviewers. Reviewers are members of the testing community that volunteer their time to help read a selection of talks and then score them for:
- Engagement – Does the talk appeal to you? Will the attendees engage with it?
- Original Ideas – Has it all been heard before or are there new ideas that will excite and energise the listeners?
- Scope & Relevance to the theme – is it in keeping with the 2024 theme “What Are We Doing Here?”
Reviewers see only the talk details (not the speaker) so every submitter has an equal opportunity. If you are unsure of how to write a good submission, get in touch and we’ll help guide you.
Each talk has 5 reviews and then the scores are averaged. The top scoring talks will be the main basis for the programme. There will be some invited speakers (like all conferences) but the majority of talks come from the above blind review process.
If you’d like to be part of the review panel, please contact our Programme Manager, Siobhán.
If you are thinking of submitting a talk proposal, check out the full Call for Speakers detailing potential topics and what the EuroSTAR 2024 Committee are looking for.
Over 55% of the speakers at EuroSTAR 2023 were speaking for the first or second time, that’s in 31 years of EuroSTAR Conferences so there is always a mix of voices on the EuroSTAR stage. If you’ve submitted before and didn’t make the programme, don’t be afraid to reach out and ask for help.