How to Tell Your Manager Why You Should Attend TAU Conference 2023

Have you registered for the free virtual Test Automation University (TAU) Conference 2023 yet? This two-day event is an amazing opportunity to improve your software testing skills. There will be speaking events and hands-on workshops from industry leaders and test automation experts. We also have networking sessions to connect with the speakers and your software peers.

While this event is free, it will take time out of your day to attend and participate in the activities. Getting buy-in from your manager for you to take this time is crucial to ensure you can get the most out of the event. We’ve written this guide to make getting this buy-in a breeze.

Hone your automation skills

The workshops and conference sessions are curated with career development in mind to help you learn new skills and stay up to date with trending technologies.

Attend hands-on workshops

The first day of the conference is full of hands-on workshops led by thought leaders and experts. These workshops are filling up quickly! If your first choice is full, you can select something else. You’ll have access to all recordings on-demand after the event.

• Head-to-Head Web Testing Part 1 with Cypress: Filip Hric from Cypress will guide you through the first steps to start using Cypress and set up a project on your own.
• Introduction to Performance and Load Testing with k6: Leandro Melendez from k6 will share the importance of performance testing and how to use k6 for performance testing.
• Getting Started with Visual Testing: Anand Bagmar from Applitools will explore the importance of automated visual validation and how to integrate Applitools Visual AI into your Selenium-Java automation.
• Head-to-Head Web Testing Part 2 with Playwright: Andrew Knight from Applitools will guide you through setting up a Playwright project with the same tests as Filip’s workshop.
• Going Beyond Unit Testing from the Inside: Tariq King will recap his TAU course Testing from the Inside and go deeper into the world of unit testing and other related code-based testing approaches.
• An Introduction to API Automation with Javascript: Julia Pottinger will cover automating common API requests, negative tests for your API, error handling with your APIs, and automating API workflows.

Listen to live sessions

On the second day of the event, we have speakers giving talks that can help you find your fire to pursue your career goals with confidence. Each session has a live Q&A with the speaker at the end. This gives you a chance to get clarification or even expand further into a topic that’s more specific to your team’s challenges.

• From Washing Cars To Automating Test Applications: Rex Jones II from FieldRoutes will share his career story of getting into software testing and the challenges he faced on the way.
• A Holistic Approach to Testing in Continuous Delivery: Lisa Crispin from Lisa Crispin Consulting LLC will explore the useful experiments her team used to overcome common challenges in continuous delivery.
• Bigger than the Box: Erika Chestnut will provide the closing keynote of the conference. She will share her experience breaking out of the box to expand the role of quality in her organizations.

Attend shorter lightning talks

A few of our speakers prepared lightning talks to teach concepts in a short amount of time. Some of these talks include:

• What the QA Position Will Look Like in the Future: Rafaela Azevedo from Crytpacademy will explore how testing roles are evolving.
• Supercharging Your CI Workflow with Java and GitHub Actions: Nikolay Advolodkin from Sauce Labs will share how to use Java and GitHub Actions for continuous integration.
• The Role of Automation in Mobile Continuous Testing: Moataz Nabil from Bitrise will discuss using automation in continuous testing of mobile apps.

Network with other experts

This event is so much more than a series of webinars. Both days of the virtual conference also include networking breaks to connect with the speakers and other attendees.

The first networking break of the event will have following speakers:

• Filip Hric from Cypress
• Tariq King from EPAM
• Anand Bagmar from Applitools
• Julia Pottinger from QualityWorks Consulting Group
• Leandro Melendez from k6
• Rafaela Azevedo from Cryptacademy

The second networking break will have the following speakers:

• Moataz Nabil from Bitrise
• Rex Jones II from FieldRoutes
• Carlos Kidman from Stealth Startup
• Nikolay Advolodkin from Sauce Labs
• Rafaela Azevedo from Cryptacademy

The third and final networking break will have the following speakers:

• Erika Chestnut
• Leandro Melendez from k6
• Lisa Crispin from Lisa Crispin Consulting LLC
• Carlos Kidman from Stealth Startup
• Tara Walton
• Dan Gorelick

Get inspired about test automation

Even though this event is virtual, we don’t want it to feel like you’re just watching. We have activities, quizzes, and prizes to get you excited about learning more and growing your skill sets.

If you join the event a few minutes early at 8:45am PT on March 9th, you can watch the pep rally, hosted by Joe Colantonio from TestGuild. Throughout the day, you can participate in testing games and quizzes. You can hear even live algorave performance by Dan Gorelick at the halfway show.

Join us for the event

We hope this guide helps you align with your manager on attending TAU Conference 2023. To make it easier to share with your manager, we’ve provided an email template. Be sure to edit to fill in your responses, add your own voice, and include other reasons you want to attend.

Register for your virtual spot to join us March 8–9. If you can’t attend the full event, don’t worry. All registrants have access to the on-demand archive of recordings after the event.

See you there!