This year, the 7th edition of TestingUy was held fully online for the first time. From the 2nd to the 7th of August, we gathered once again, this time on a virtual stage with more than 55 speakers from all over the world and participants from 28 countries.
As in previous editions, all of the activities were free of charge for participants. This is possible due to the efforts of each one of us in the organization team and the companies who have joined us every year as sponsors.
2021 Sponsors
- SUT: Abstracta
- Platinum: ACTotal, Brightest, Crowdar, DataArt, Globant, Lacnic y Pyxis
- Gold: Blue Trail Software, Consultores Informáticos, CPA, Endava y Onapsis
- Silver: Agesic, Bantotal, Ecosinfor, Qualitas y Rootstrap.
- Bronze: Arbusta, GeneXus, Kleer, Sonda, Switch, Taurus, TowerHouse Studio, Workfit y Xmarthlabs
In addition, we were supported by 4 media sponsors and 34 communities and organizations who helped us broadcast the event.
In this edition, we kept the collaborator scheme we had during the previous edition, and their collaboration and participation was crucial for the event to take place.
This year, we also had the invaluable support of Monica Sum in the organization of the event with all things related to the management of sponsors and suppliers, among other things.
Merchandising
Because this year’s event was online, we wanted to be present in a different way. For that purpose, the first 250 people to register for talks residing in Uruguay who entered their address correctly… received a box at home with merchandising!
The logistics involved were very interesting, and included everything from defining which types of items could be sent (because the shipping costs depended on both the weight and volume), to gathering the delivery addresses, and assembling and sending every box, among others. The effort was well worth it!
The days before the event, we sent over 250 boxes with merchandising to almost every corner in Uruguay! I loved seeing the related Instagram stories, Linkedin and Twitter posts, and the impact it had on participants! In my opinion, it generated a close-knit environment with awesome vibes to start what was a week packed with testing.
Online Mode
The event was done online, which made it possible for us to be closer and more connected than ever. The event being online allowed for people who could not join the event before to do so remotely this year. During the talks and workshops, we had more than 5,000 connections!
Connections by country: Uruguay (3,151), Argentina (671), Peru (256), Colombia (147), Mexico (134), United States (107), Bolivia (97), Chile (95), Venezuela (87), Paraguay (82), Ecuador (65), Spain (32), Brazil (13), India (13), Tunisia (12), El Salvador (10), Panama (7), Nicaragua (6), Switzerland (4), Dominican Republic (3), United Kingdom (3), Japan (2), Taiwan 2), Ireland (2), Israel (2), France (2), Germany (2) and Costa Rica (1).
We learned a lot in this edition. We added several tools to have an excellent experience with the online event. We also learned more about the management of our social media, and digital marketing.
As with every year, one of the things that makes TestingUy so special remained stable: the good vibes of our speakers and participants which make the experience feel closer and much more fun while still remaining a learning experience.
Talks and workshops
Overall, we had 19 talks, 12 lightning talks and 12 workshops with speakers from Germany, Argentina, Ecuador, Spain, United States, India, England, Japan, Mexico, Paraguay, Taiwan and Uruguay. A very varied and high-level agenda.
For some speakers, this was their first experience giving a talk or holding a workshop. I love that this was during TestingUy because it is a part of its core, sharing as a community in a learning context for everyone involved, for those of us who organize the event, and for the speakers and participants.
In this edition, each talk had a space of one hour with a 30-minute presentation format and 20 minutes for questions. Personally, I believe this made for a much richer experience because the questions made it possible to explore what was presented in depth. Also, the questions other people ask usually make us think things from a different perspective, and this is always very valuable.
I also really liked the dynamic of the lightning talks. These short, 10-minute talks invited us to reflect upon any technical aspects and experiences related to testing.
For the first time, we had two blocks of English talks during the conference.
In the following weeks, all of the recorded talks will be published at our YouTube channel. Stay tuned!
Moderators
There was a moderator for every talk and workshop. For many of them, it was the first time they were moderating an activity, and I loved that they took a chance to do so in TestingUy.
We had several rehearsals before the event; we defined checklists for the talks and workshops depending on the language they were being held in, we wrote scripts to use as guides, and we supported each other as much as we could during the week of the event in a private Discord channel.
2021 Moderators: Anibal Banquero, Claudia Badell, Diego Gawenda, Facundo de Battista, Flávia Cardoso, Guillermo Skrilec, Gustavo Guimerans, Gustavo Mažeikis, Lucía Rodríguez and Ursula Bartram.
Discord
In this edition, we added Discord to stay in touch in real time, and to use it for all announcements before and during the event. We created several channels, and 905 people joined us for the event.
The raffles were done through Discord using a bot (GiveawayBot), which made the dynamics a lot easier. Overall, we had 16 raffles where several sponsor companies and companies within the organization generously donated prizes for the raffle. Thank you Abstracta, CES, Crowdar, DataArt, Ecosinfor, Endava, Globant, Jigso Labs, Pyxis and QAlified for the prizes!
The Challenge
This year, we added the TestingUy Challenge, a new initiative which took place during the conference. From the 6th to the 7th of August, 140 teams tested a real-life system for 24 hours with the goal of detecting the most important issues and bugs. Finding them was an important part of the challenge, but so were the defined strategy, the decision-making process and the quality of the work they did.
As you read this, we are still evaluating the work submitted by the first 100 teams to send the final reports and the bugs along with 28 testing experts from all around Latin America. We will be announcing the three winning teams on Friday, August the 27th. We hope you can join us at 7 PM UY (GMT-3)!
In Summary
A week with lots of knowledge exchanges, learning, collaboration, and good vibes. 🙂
