Just Because I Can't be at PNSQC, Doesn't Mean You Shouldn't be There

As part of my recuperation, I had to make some tough decisions. Without a clear idea of how far along I'd be, or how I'd be able to move (and so far, that movement is still very little), I had to come to grips with something this past week... I asked to have my name withdrawn as an presenter at the Pacific Northwest Software Quality Conference for 2011.

I am quite bummed about this, as this was going to be my first "full talk" at a conference. I did a 20 minute Emerging Topics talk at CAST in Washington last month, but this would have been my first full talk presented at a conference and published with the proceedings. On the bright side, I did receive a piece of good news; even though I have to drop out of presenting the paper due to physical limitations, they are going to publish it with the 2011 proceedings, which makes me rather happy.

My paper is titled "Delivering Quality One Weekend at a Time"... would anyone care to venture a guess as to what the topic is ;)? Yeah, OK, no more teasing... yes, this is a paper specific to the lessons that I have learned from facilitating Weekend Testing here in the Americas, as well as participating in the Europe and Australia/New Zealand chapters.

But just because I am not going to be at PNSQC, if you are on the fence and considering whether you should go or not, I say GO!!! The program committee has put together a great group of speakers, ranging from Goranka Bjedov from Facebook, BJ Rollinson from Microsoft, Marlena Compton from Mozilla, and OK, I guess I can mention that one dude, Michael Bolton, who is one of the invited speakers :). Seriously, it's a great program with a lot of cool topics and interesting tracks. It's taking place October 10-12, 2011 at the Portland World Trade Center (very close to Pioneer Square and easy to get to via light rail) and it promises to be a lot of fun.

Believe me, if I could be there, I would be, so if you are still thinking about going, but haven't pulled the trigger, please go over to http://pnsqc.org/ and Register. It will be worth your time. Oh, and you better believe I'm going to come out swinging for 2012 :)!!!