Organizing TestBash Germany

It started with a wish — it would be so nice if we could have a TestBash conference here in Germany...

After I founded and ran a few times a Test Paradies MeetUp in Jena, the wish turned into an idea — I could organize a TestBash in Germany! Scary? Eleanor Roosevelt once said: “Do one thing every day that scares you.” Challenge accepted! I talked to Rosie and the rest is history.

TestBash Germany core team is Patrick and me, we are supported by Marcel, Vera and Daniel. Patrick was so nice and agreed to my crazy idea just few days after he started a new job. We both have day time jobs and families, but we benefit from others greatly and this is our way to give back to the testing community.

It is March. Call for proposals ended in February 14. In two weeks we five of us managed to review 131 submissions. Wow - good job everyone! Still with fresh impressions from the review process, we planned all to meet in Munich on first weekend in March (I live in middle of Germany, 4h by the train). On our agenda we had the following topics:

· check the location

· discuss catering menu

· shortlist from reviews, discussions in team about possible program

Patrick had found an AMAZING location in the middle of Munich — the old artist house with a very nice atmosphere. There is space for up to 280 people and it is just 5 walking minutes away from Munich’s central station; parking and subway are right next to it. But most important — the main hall — so beautiful! Take a look yourself!

I like this location very, very much. I think we will have great conference in there.

Than we talked about menus with the in-house catering service. Patrick and me we like to have warm lunch, but in the same time we want that people are able to keep socializing during lunch break. It is hard to cut the schnitzel if you are standing and talking with somebody. In the same time we want to offer little gourmet journey in southern German kitchen. We came up with an idea and we hope you will all enjoy it!

After that we left our festive location and found a place in a bar downtown to work on our shortlist of submissions. If you ever participate in a review, you know how it looks. Based on an abstract with a few sentences and takeaways you have to decide — do you want to hear this potential talk or not. But if you work on program, it is even more difficult. Do all those talks, what we think could be interesting, build a coherent program? We all are professional testers, so is this program interesting for beginners as well? What about mobile, embedded, waterfall, and agile testers? We still work on our program, but at the moment I can say that westill plan to announce it by the end of the month. After that we will start to sell the tickets.

At the end of our come-together we checked out our location for open space day. I cannot reveal yet, where it will happen, but you will see Alps from there.

If you trust us blindly that we will put the best possible program, than I have a warm recommendation: book your hotel now. Munich is a very busy city with ongoing events and tourism. It can happen that hotel prices increase rapidly.