Conferences, events and meetups are all things I enjoy. I have been an organizer, speaker & presenter, host and volunteer at many events. When 2020 started, I had big hopes and plans of travelling to speak at multiple international events and also had a few local Bangalore events lined up. But the world had to face a pandemic and everything came to a screeching halt.
As many of you, I was disheartened too. But I still hoped for things to get better, thinking we might get to some of the events at least. Things are different now. We now know that this lifestyle is here to stay. We have been working, learning, recruiting, networking and meeting remotely and might have to continue to do so for a while.
But where does this put the life of a ‘speaker’ – someone who enjoys speaking, being invited to attend and talk at events?
Well, I would like to highlight how I have been pleasantly surprised by the state of our events and their emergence from all the cancellations, losses and hearbreaks!
In the past 6 months, I have spoken at more events I would have normally! I have had the chance to connect with multiple events in various ways and all of them have shown me the resilience of our community.
TestBash Home 2020
It started with TestBash Home. Since TestBash Detroit was cancelled where I was to speak in April this year, I was invited to speak at the Testbash Home. It was a unique and fun event handled superbly by the MoT team. I have written in detail about the event and my experience here – https://testwithnishi.com/2020/05/07/my-experience-speaking-at-testbash-home/
TribalQonf , STeP-In Summit, Test Leadership Congress 2020
I was invited by Mahesh Chikane to speak at the TribalQonf which was a great opportunity. I presented about Adopting a Risk Based Test Approach and my talk was appreciated for which I am always #grateful !
The event was organised well and I am glad to be a part of this superb round up video along with some awesome speakers!
Test Masters Academy – Test Leadership Congress 2020
I presented a fun and interactive Agile Gaming session at the Test Leadership Congress online. It was something I have worked on in the past as a live game but I was so glad to be able to create, preset and run it online with a set of excited delegates!
Session – “Analyse the State of your Agile”
Some great feedback it received https://twitter.com/Aneegc338/status/1290612277763174402
Panelist on a Round Table Conversation
I was also a part of a Round Table Conversation on “Challenges of Remote Working” which was a lot of fun!
I got a number of opportunities to speak about my company’s tool Sahi Pro and present a live demo on the latest “Business Driven Test Automation” at various events.
Here is me demonstrating Sahi Pro at Test Leadership Congress – during their Pre-Conference meetup week.
STeP-In Forum 2020
The STeP-In forum was a huge event that brought together many international speakers and I had the opportunity to represent Sahi Pro there too with an hour long demo-
Participating in an online Workshop
I attended a workshop on Sketchnoting by Louis Gibbs which was so much fun! I learnt more about the art of visual note taking and designed some good sketch notes ! Another fun opportunity brought by an online event!
Organizing Online Meetups
As a part of my work for Sahi Pro, I started the initiative of organising free online meetups for testers where we discussed challenges of test automation, learnt a bit about business driven test automation and ran them through a live demo too! They were so well received and we captured the live reactions of the testers too!
Online Events by 1.21GWs
I also presented about Sahi Pro at other events like those organised by our partner @1point21GWs which are smaller, meetup-style online events.
>Online DevOps Summit >Online TestingConf and such
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So, overall, the last 6 months have brought us more frequent opportunities to connect, speak and learn together.
People are more eager to connect and network in the absence of in-person interactions. I also see more audience engagement now that they know that this is the only way to connect!
On top of that,I do not think anybody would have the energy to plan, run or participate in as many events in person as we can online. Do not get me wrong, online events are not at all easier to organise or run. Just that we taking away the time of travel, physical space venue and food organisations, booking hotels and flights etc. So, the entire focus is on the event, the content and the experience people have! I also think we are being greener now by taking away the travel for events, so it is good for Mother Nature. (Although – confession – the traveller bug in me is getting stir crazy 😛 and I might be back on a plane as soon as it is possible! 😛 )
I have enjoyed being a part of all of these events and hope that in light of the current situation, our community grows stronger and brings more such opportunities to everybody interested in ‘Speaking from Home’! 🙂 🙂
Cheers
Nishi
