Speaking policy

Speakinga at event worldwide is one of my favourite things to do. I love to share what I’ve learned an also learn from others.

Every year I attend more and more events, and while I appreciate being invited, I’m not able to say "yes" to every invitation. In this post I’d like to share some of the principles I follow when I decide on whether I accept the invitation.

If you are reading this as a conference organizer, let me first and foremost say thank you for considering me to speak at your event. I appreciate the trust you’ve put in me to create a valuable event for your attendees.

Things I talk about

I like to make sure that the audience I talk to finds my talk relevant. In the past, I’ve talked mostly to people involved in test automation, more specifically to those that test web applications. This of course also includes web developers but also other people as web development and testing is never isolated from the rest of the team.

I generally create up to 4 talks a year and I usually create my talks around topics that I’m actively involved in, or those that I find relevant to the audience.

I really love to do live coding and demos. I have a world-wide experience and I’m recognized as an international keynote speaker and workshop author. Beside highly technical talks and inspiring keynotes, I’m happy to provide a half-day or a full day tutorial on various topics in test automation.

I don’t create topics on demand. I usually offer up to three topics so that organizers can choose which one fits the most.

Here are some examples of my previous talks:

• Test like a developer, develop like a tester (keynote)
• Full-circle testing with Cypress
• Blink and you’ll miss it: Stories from discovering most annoying bugs and test flakes

Honorarium

When travelling to a conference, the minimum I require is a reimbursment for the travel and accomodation.

Depending on the conference I might require another form of compensation such as a speaking fee. Conferences that have transparent financing make my decision process much easier.

While online conferences don’t carry the burden of travel and accomodation, I still think it’s fair to offer some sort of compensation. If providing an honorarium is not a technical possibility for the event you organize, we can negotiate an alternate approach.

For example, I’m more than happy to speak for free at a an online meetup in countries where tech scene is in early stages of development, or for under-represented groups in tech.

An example of an opposite case are internal company events. I approach these as professional consultations where my expertise is transformed into value for the company.

Diversity and inclusion

I don’t feel comfortable taking part in events where the speaker line-up is a stereotypical group of IT guys. I value conference organizers that make the effort to include under-represented groups in tech and I believe they carry the responsibility to make sure that the speaker line-up is diverse. While I’m not a member of any under-represented group, I’m more than happy to help with this effort.

Contact me

If you have any question or if you are considering me for you upcoming event, feel free to contact me through your preferred social network or directly via email.