1. The importance of making sure your message is received as you have intended and that you fully understand the message being given to you.
2. The importance of being mindful about different personas and being culturally aware.
3. Being aware that non-verbal clues can send an unintended message, and to be mindful of body language and gestures.

Steve Watson

Steve is a Test Manager with over 28 years of experience in Banking, Futures & Options Trading, Vehicle Leasing, Automotive Information and B2B publishing. His role combines being a Test Manager with Product Management for a leading brand within Reed Business Information. He manages a team of 9 permanent testers, directing the overall testing strategy and approach and coordinating the testing effort across a number of projects. He also co-runs a 'QA Chapter' to bring testers together from different RBI brands to promote best practice and encourage knowledge sharing. His blog can be found here.

Bhagya Mudiyanselage

Bhagya is a software testing enthusiast who is currently works for Reed Business Information (RBI), part of Reed Elsevier. She has a lot of experience working as an offshore team member and knows how much the experience can differ when it comes to on-site teams. Bhagya also co-hosts the RBI Global QA-chapter to help herself and other testers share experiences. Bhagya blogs on testing can be found here.

Good communication between colleagues and business contacts is vital, but there are many pitfalls. We are working more globally than ever before with people from many different cultures and backgrounds.

Bhagya and Steve will be using some humour to get across the serious message about good communication, and will show how verbal jokes, slang, sayings, quotes, and sarcasm can cause some interesting misunderstandings, plus how non-verbal communication can be a minefield. They will demonstrate how to bridge the communication gap and suggest some practical steps that you can take to become more cultural and communication aware.