TESTHEAD On The Road

It seemed like such a little thing at the time :)!

Note, I'm not complaining, I'm happy to have the opportunities that come with being a passionate advocate, but sometimes I wonder when and how my reality got to be this packed so close together.

First, I'm very excited to be doing my first facilitation of a peer conference. My friends Lynn McKee and Nancy Kelln invited me to come up and act as facilitator for The Calgary Perspectives on Software Testing Workshop (POST). It's an annual peer workshop for software test practitioners, most attendees are from Canada, but some others are traveling from elsewhere. I'm excited to have been asked to participate, and I'm looking forward to being of service.

I'm home for just a couple of days, and then I fly out again to New Orleans for the Board Meeting for the Association for Software Testing, and while I'm there, I'm hoping to see if there's something I can do that Monday so that I can get to know some more people in the Software Test Professionals' Community attending STPCon (it's a tutorial day, and I'm not officially signed up for the conference, but I am hoping I'll be able to get involved some how for a little bit and get to meet and talk with people there.

I get a to week respite, and then it's of to Orlando, Florida for STAREast. I'm excited for this because of two reasons. First, I'm honored and privileged to have been chosen to present, but additionally, it's my second chance to present my talk on Weekend Testing that I couldn't present due to my broken leg last year (I had originally written it for the Pacific Northwest Software Quality Conference in 2011 in Portland, Oregon). Lee Copeland liked the content of the talk and asked if I'd be willing to present it at STAREast, to which I said yes, and thus, I'll be there to do so.

Truly, that's more traveling in a five week period than I have ever done before. It's been a challenge getting the rest of my life to align with these realities, but it's also a thrill that I have these opportunities in the first place. I've often joked that one could find opportunities in many places if they were willing to lift up the rocks and look for them. In many cases, when people know what you are up to and what you are willing to do and represent, they will also seek you out and give you the chance to make good on participating in those opportunities. I feel a bit overwhelmed at the immediate moment, but it's a good overwhelmed. It feels like I'm needed, and that people want to hear what I have to say and what I can contribute to the greater cause of testing. For that, I am both excited and grateful.