Funny thing Happened at STP in Nashville

Testers, I must find the time to catch up on my back log of posts.  I thought I would start out with an embarrassing tale.

Once upon a time there was a tester, Carl, who had signed up for a work shop at the STP conference in March 2011 at Nashville TN.  It was a beautiful day and the coffee was flowing.  Carl happened to be running late for the workshop.  All Carl knew was that the work shop was labeled Pre-5.

Carl raced up the stairs (very hard to do with a tender knee).  There at the top of the stairs on the right was Pre-5.  The instructors name was Bob.  Carl remembered his instructor's name was Bob.  The title of the work shop was Quality Monitoring and Coaching.  For some reason Carl seemed out of place. 

Everyone introduced themselves.  Of course I introduced myself and why I was there.  What did I say?  "Hi I am Carl Shaulis and I am a Test Manager at HomeAway.  I recently have been working close with Customer Service to facilitate quality and I am here to continue learning on how to bridge the gaps between our two teams."  Wait one second, that does not sound right.  Carl pulls out his conference brochure.  As he thumbs through the pages Fiona walks into the conference room.  Oh Carl knows Fiona from STP Las Vegas.  Carl must be in the right place.  Carl finally finds the work shop he should be in called "Creating and Leading a High Performance Test Organization" by Bob Galen.

Panic sets in!  I am in the wrong room.  I just gave a great introduction on how this presentation could benefit me.  What should Carl do?

Carl quickly packed up his gear and headed out of the room.  Carl found his intended work shop and enjoyed Spring STP Conference 2011.

Carl did get some friendly ribbing and crap from Abbie and Fiona.  Deservedly so!  The secret was out of the bag that there were two concurrent conferences  Contact Center Conference Expo 2011 and Software Test Professionals.

The really fun part is that Carl probably would have learned a hell of a lot if he had stayed in the incorrect work shop.  However, interacting with the testers and learning from Bob Galen was the right move.

Happy Testing!