PotsLightning Announcement for 2012

We are happy to announce another great community event for Agilistos (agile interested persons).

In November are the Agile Testing Days in Potsdam, Germany and it has become an ever increasing stream of participants, which is fabulous in itself.

For those interested for discussions not covered by the conference and with the opportunity not to be limited by a time-boxed session, we coined „PotsLightning“.

It is a Low-Budget, Non-Profit, Free-Entry peer event.

What does that mean?
Most conferences or workshops have entry fees, which often is out of budget for regular folks. Getting your employer to pay for it is also often difficult.

Secondly the tracks are pre-defined by the organizer and might or might not cover your interest.

We decided to organize an alternative form.

There will be no entry fees in any form. Each participant will cover their own expenses, be it accommodation, travel or meals.

We as the organizers will take care of the room, soft drinks (or the odd tray of German beer 😉 ).
So far we always found a sponsor for the room; which most often is the biggest cost.

We also draft a rough vision, what we think could be the topic for the workshop.
Experience shows, that this focal point helps some people to create ideas for their contribution.

And that is another major difference: Each participant is expected to contribute.
Be it in a talk, a presentation, a puzzle, test or code challenge or any other interesting work.

That way we try to ensure, that the workshop will be active and interesting.
It is “by the people for the people” (borrowed from Abe).

So here it is:

PotsLightning (Pre-ATD workshop)
18th of November, 2012
Dorint Hotel (venue of ATD)
Potsdam, Germany

Theme:

• The role of the tester in agile;
  or why do testers have their own conference
  and do not go to general agile conferences
• Training and coaching
• Transition to agile –
  approaches, obstacles, practical experiences?
• Agile pitfalls, common reason for “failures”;
  lessons learned, etc.

Deadline for contributions: 30th June 2012

You will find more detailed information on the GATE homepage over the course of the next months.

Feel free to contact us if you are unsure. We will be most glad to provide you feedback.

Comments:
The GATE workshop started in 2011 by Markus Gärtner and Maik Nogens.
The second GATE workshop will be held in Munich this September.

While I am the “main face” for the PotsLightning, the initial idea bouncing was with some passionate Agilistos:

• Meike Mertsch
• Zeger Van Hese (aka TestSideStory)
• Huib Schoots
• Jean-Paul Varwijk (aka Arborosa)
• Markus Gärtner

Seeing the DEWT and GATE people work together gives me some great ideas for the future. 🙂
Who knows, next time we pair with the Danish (DWET) and Swedish (SWT) folks…