After the resounding success that was TestBash Home, I wanted to focus a post on the way the virtual event was structured. I’ll write a separate post covering the sessions themselves.
On 13th March, just over a week before the UK went into lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it was announced that the Ministry of Testing’s (MoT) TestBash Brighton was due to be cancelled.
As someone who was due to attend this event, I was gutted. I wasn’t just gutted to be missing out on the conference itself, but I was gutted for the amazing MoT team who had put a lot of hard work into organising the conference over the past year.
However, instead of taking it lying down, it didn’t take long for the bosses at MoT to react to the ongoing crisis and pivot. At the beginning of April, TestBash Home was announced. Home was going to be a virtual conference, running for 24 hours from 8pm(BST) on Thursday 30th April right through until the evening of the 1st May.
The idea was that this conference would span all timezones, although some did see it as a challenge to stay-up for the entire 24 hours! When the time finally came for me to sleep (I forced 4 hours between 4:30am and 8:30am), I could rest easy in the knowledge that anything I missed would be available for me to watch on MoT’s Dojo. Adding to the accessibility of the event, the low ticket price of £50 meant those who may not have been able to attend a TestBash in the past, could now do so.
A Unique Event
Anyone who has attended a TestBash before will confirm that the MoT community is unique. The conferences are the most inclusive events I have attended and the energy and enthusiasm that is shown by organisers, speakers and attendees alike is hard to describe.
I logged into TestBash Home intrigued (and slightly apprehensive) as to how the MoT team were going to replicate this community feel with a virtual conference. I didn’t need to worry. As soon as the first host, Vernon Richards, appeared on screen you could tell that the MoT team weren’t going to let the barriers that come with hosting virtual events from dampening that community spirit. Every single host after Vernon (Tristan Lombard, James Espie, Bart Knaack, Jenna Charlton and Gwen Diagram) did a great job of keeping the energy and conversation going for the entire 24 hours.
There were some really nice touches throughout the conference, that made the event feel unique. Hallway crowd noises were played during the breaks, applause noises were played after talks, a PA announcement sounded five minutes before the next session was due to begin, hosts interacted with attendees through Crowdcast and Slack chats, the bosses at MoT had “Meet the Bosses” sections, attendees were able to present 99 Second Talks and there was even a virtual game created by the MoT team which allowed you to adopt an avatar and interact with other attendees.
At first, I was worried that all the different methods of communication would be overwhelming. We were told about the MoT Slack workspace, the chat and question areas in Crowdcast and The Club (MoT’s forum). But each of them added their own value. Crowdcast was great for interacting with people during the talks and for asking questions for the Q&A sections, Slack provided a way to interact with people during the breaks and Slack’s replying and threading capabilities meant people could have longer conversations than on Crowdcast and The Club was a place for unanswered questions for the speakers to be answered at a later time.
Of course, with it being MoT’s first time hosting a virtual conference, there were a few very minor technical hitches. For me, these technical hitches added to the raw energy and enthusiasm that came from the event. In a strange way, it wouldn’t have felt right without them.
I really liked the pacing of the event. MoT took full advantage of the 24 hours they had. There were plenty of breaks which gave me an opportunity to grab food, stretch my legs, or take a power nap. There were also extended Q&A sessions with the speakers, which was an added bonus.
Next Year?
Over 1000 people signed-up for the inauguralTestBash Home, and at Crowdcast’s peak, 750+ people were watching the event live. For the majority of attendees, it was their first ever TestBash event. Going by the reaction on The Club, it was as great as an experience for them as my first TestBash was for me in Brighton in 2018.
There are already people asking if the event will be reoccurring next year. We can’t predict what conferences will look like next year, or whether in-person events will resume in the near future, but I believe that there is a place for the pivot of TestBash Home to be included in MoT’s permanent conference calendar.
