What do you prefer to attend: a software testing conference, workshop/tutorial or meet-ups?

[Ronan Healy]

So after the week that was EuroSTAR last week. What do you think? If you were at EuroSTAR and it was for the first time, how did it compare to Workshops or meet-ups that you might have attended before?

Which events do you find are best to attend? Which do you think you get the best value out of?

[Derk-Jan de Grood]

Really curious to the responses if they get posted. I see that your questions aims at people that attend the conference for the first time. I liked the tutorials quite a bit, en enjoyed the conversations I had with fellow participants. I heard some good tracks, some I did not like very much (but hey they can’t all be alike, and some topic are relevant but maybe more of interest to others). But the interaction stands out the most for me

[Alin]

Hi Ronan,

Generally speaking, all of them have important advantages. Conferences have a large variety of topics; workshops/tutorials are very hands-on, focused on a specific topic and provide detailed information about it; meet-ups are frequently organized, without (or reduced) costs for attending and offer an easy access to share knowledge inside the community and quickly get new information.
Personally, from all these I prefer conferences because there are a lot of topics and you can decide which presentations you want to attend. You also get in touch with many people from around the world and you can find new approaches for different testing activities and possible new solutions. Talking directly to speakers with experience in testing is also a big advantage. Attending conferences gives you a good overview of the latest trends in software testing.
Workshops/tutorials are useful and focused on a topic. They are hands-on and focused on practice. But, from my point of view, sometimes the time is very limited (they usually take only some hours or 1-2 days including breaks) and there is not enough time to have more information.
Meet-ups combine the other types of events. On meet-ups you can find some presentations like at a conference and workshops/tutorials can also be organized. But attending a conference is still on top because there are more topics, access to larger community for interacting with people and a better overview of software testing.

Regards,
Alin

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