February 24, 2017

New Meetup Event: Wed. March 29th, 2017: Come share your QA Knowledge with the "99 Second Testing Talks" with the Ministry of Testing - Boston @ iZotope, Cambridge, MA!

Is your manager at work forcing you to step up and lead technical discussions about testing, QA, or automation? Are you scared of public speaking? Need the practice? Come and volunteer to give a “99 Second Software Testing Talk”!

Never gave a talk before? This will be a wonderful way for you to learn by doing!
  • Jot down a topic you want to share in the comments section of the event page on the Meetup site. 
  • Rehearse your talk a few times between now and the time of the talk. 
  • Feel free to show up with 3 x 5 cue cards if needed! The purpose of this event for members who may be uneasy speaking in public to get practice. 

Sounds Great! Where do I sign up?


New Group: Ministry of Testing - Boston 


Where to Meet:

The event will be held at iZotope’s office https://www.izotope.com , in their spacious lunch room. It is an eleven minute walk from the Kendall / MBTA Red Line stop. For Directions, see https://goo.gl/maps/Dx28yK8zLmB2 … signs inside will direct you from the front door to the lunch room.

T.J. Maher is 5 foot 7 with short brown hair, blue eyes, a “Hello My Name is T.J.” nametag and a red MEETUP sign attached to his black messenger bag.

Agenda:

6:00 pm to 6:30 pm: Meet and Greet: 
  • iZotope can provide the location but unfortunately not the catering. 
  • Feel free to grab something beforehand at The Friendly Toast, Mamelah’s Deli, Bon Me, The Smoke Shoppe, or any of the many places at One Kendall Square and bring it along. iZotope’s public area has many tables where we can gather. 
  • Directions for local takeout places are listed on the event.
6:30 pm onward: The 99 Second Testing Talks Begin!
  • The first five people giving a talk can line up at the front of the room. 
  • T.J. Maher will have a clipboard, where he can collect the name of speakers, the name of the talk, and any information participants want to exchange with the group (their website, Twitter handle, LinkedIn profile name, etc). 
  • One by one, going through the first set of speakers, after being introduced, let’s cheer the them on as they launch into their talk. 
  • When the stopwatch app on my iPhone reaches 80 seconds, I’ll signal the speaker that time is almost up. 
  • After 99 seconds, the person’s talk ends. We applaud wildly! 
  • We go to the next person in line, and that person gets introduced. 
  • Has everyone spoken? The next five speakers who want to can come up, and the process continues. 
  • Anyone else want to give another 99 second talk? Come on up! 
  • Inspired by another talk you hear? Improvise a talk on the spot! 

Need examples of 99 Second Talks?

Origin of 99 Second Talks:

From Scott Berkin’s Blog post, “99 Second Presentations”, Nov 18, 2012:
“A running joke in the world of presentations is: how short can they be? They used to be an hour. Then TED went to 20 minutes, Pecha Kucha to 6, and Ignite to 5. The trend of short presentations has been on the rise for years and one wonders where it will stop.

"But then consider TV advertisements: they’re 30 seconds long. The good ones communicate many ideas well in a very short amount of time.

“Years ago I ran an event at Microsoft called Design Day. Each year we’d experiment with different formats and one year we tried 99 second presentations. It went well and we did it the next year too. Unlike most speaking events it gives the audience a real chance to participate.

“ [...] It’s a small commitment to get someone to speak for less than 2 minutes. They can practice their material 10 times in half an hour. The surprise of short format speaking is it forces speakers to get to the good stuff”. 

About iZotope: 

From their site: https://www.izotope.com/en/company/about-us.html

“iZotope makes innovative products that inspire and enable people to be creative. Based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, iZotope has spent over a decade developing award-winning products and audio technologies for professionals and hobbyists alike. Used by millions of people in over 50 countries, iZotope products are a core component of GRAMMY-winning music studios, Oscar and Emmy-winning film and TV post production studios, and prominent radio studios, as well as basement and bedroom studios across the globe. iZotope also powers products made by industry partners such as Adobe, Avid, Microsoft, and Sony. iZotope was recently honored with an Emmy® Award for Outstanding Achievement in Engineering Development for its flagship audio repair suite, RX®”.



Happy Testing!-T.J. Maher
Twitter | LinkedIn | GitHub

// Sr. QA Engineer, Software Engineer in Test, Software Tester since 1996.
// Contributing Writer for TechBeacon.
// "Looking to move away from manual QA? Follow Adventures in Automation on Facebook!"

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