We need great speakers who rely on an inspiring theme that help them bring out the best. I struggled with the theme. There have been at least seventeen themes and most good words have already been used. I was considering Adding Value II (first theme again), but it wasn’t new enough. I think diversity is important for testing and so is creativity, which can be found by thinking in new and opposite directions. That is how – after some hard work – I found the theme for EuroSTAR 2018:
je ne sais pas

Might be better known as ”I don’t know”, ”ich weiss nicht”, or ”jag vet inte”, but it sounds quite a lot better in French!

Not knowing things is the foundation for software testing; if we already knew, we wouldn’t need testing and curious testers. “I don’t know” is followed by ”but I want to find out”, which is the basis for conferences and most learning activities.

The ”I” in the theme is important, it’s all about people, and subjectivity is what brings testing (and other things) to life.

”I don’t know” is also a sign of the humility I have seen in many great testers; we don’t have the final answers or the right to decide, but we have important information regarding quality that we can share.

”Je ne sais pas” can also mean ”I can’t”, which isn’t the intention of the theme, but it also highlights the ambiguity of language, which is a trademark of testers to resolve.

Actually, I am somewhat surprised the theme hasn’t already been taken!

These are my thoughts around the theme, but of course we are looking for yours as well, so we all can go from “I don’t know” to “now I know” (a bit more).

I can’t decide what the real theme next year will be; the content is created by you, it lies in the conversations between people, who have different testing experiences and testing challenges. So I want you to have a feeling of something you need to share with the rest of the testing world. I want you to articulate your thoughts and ideas in an inspiring way, so we will grow as a community.

If you are relatively new and feel uncertain and intrigued, great! I bet you feel like that because you have something important to say, and conferences need new voices.

We are looking for the usual stack of sessions: tutorials (half-day, full-day), workshops, track talks, special sessions (surprise us!) or a keynote if you have something very, very special.

You are free to submit a talk about a method that will save the world, but you will have a better chance of being accepted if you tell the story about what you did and how it turned out. An experience report is always interesting; it is your story, and it is unique.

I hope to meet many of you in The Hague 12-15th November 2018, and don’t forget to do good testing until then.

Rikard Edgren,

Programme Chair