UKSTAR Conference 2019 – Call For Speakers

Do you have a great story to tell? Are you passionate about sharing your knowledge and helping people solve common (& often uncommon) challenges? If the answer is yes, well then the UKSTAR Software Testing Conference is looking for you!

UKSTAR is back from 11th-12th March 2019 and is already shaping up to be a truly amazing conference with an excellent selection of Keynote Speakers. Our goal is for testing professionals to come together to Experience, Explore and Learn! Through continuous collaboration, by questioning beliefs and bringing new ideas to the fore we know that UKSTAR is the ideal conduit to help advance the craft of testing.

We, the committee are seeking speakers both new and experienced to share stories, skills and knowledge with your colleagues. We are looking for your ideas, experiences and lessons learned across 3 core themes:

Themes of UKSTAR 2019

Firstly and foremostly, we are looking for sessions on the topic of Automation, that help us understand how are we using automation to help solve testing challenges; perhaps over-reliance on automation, what lessons have we learned, how do we use automation to help us test smarter, faster, and sharper.

Secondly we are looking for sessions around the idea of the “ Modern Tester ”. What are the skills required to thrive as a modern day tester in Agile, DevOps and Waterfall type projects. Can you share your experiences of testing technology trends such as AI systems, Blockchain, VR/AR or IoT?

Finally, and importantly Leadership. How to we lead the development of such skills, processes and technologies? What are you and your organisation doing to support the learning and adoption of such technologies and skills? How has the role of leadership been impacted by automation and what are your organisations doing in anticipation of increased automation?

Diversity

The Programme Committee is committed to encouraging and increasing the diversity in our programme. We welcome submissions from new and experienced speakers from diverse backgrounds. To support our commitment we and increase diversity we have partnered with SpeakEasy and have allocated one talk to a SpeakEasy candidate. If you would like take the next step in your personal growth and begin speaking, SpeakEasy can help do that. In particular we are looking for new speakers from diverse backgrounds.

Sessions Types

There are several types of sessions at UKSTAR that you can submit to speak at. These include:

1) Demonstrations and Deep Dives

We have a small number of extended sessions (1.5 – 2 hours )ideal for practical demonstrations of ideas and offer you the chance to go deeper and more interactive than you normally can in a traditional talk.

2) Talks

The traditional presentation style. A 35 minute talk with 5 – 10 minute allocated afterwards for Q&A.

3) Conversations

These sessions are 45 minutes long and are made up of two speakers talking for 10 minutes each , followed by a moderated discussion between speakers and audience. We will pick pairs of speakers with enough common ground to easily understand each other’s decisions, and enough difference to learn from each other’s choices. We don’t expect the conversations to be a debate, rather a way of understanding different points of view. We will look for pairs of speakers who do similar work in different contexts, who use different tools to achieve parallel aims, who have similar problems but alternative solutions. Two people may submit together for a conversation track, but you don’t have to have a conversation partner to submit.

4) Storytelling

This new type of talk will last for just 8 minutes per speaker . These smaller talks allow you to very quickly present your core ideas and experiences.