F14-11/6: STPCon Presenter Mentoring: Speaker Invitation and Orientation

We know there have been times when you’ve sat in the audience and thought to yourself: “I could get up there and share my experience and tell a story about testing, better than that person!” If that sounds familiar then we are welcoming you to this session to learn more about becoming a speaker at STPCON. We’ll talk about how to prepare an idea for a session, write up the proposal, and get prepared for hosting the session with your colleagues. There’s a huge benefit to your professional development as you learn more about public speaking and professional presenting. And there are unique challenges when it comes to talking about testing topics, both as a practitioner and as a manager or leader – especially when presenting to non-tester audiences. That’s why STPCON is a great place to practice your presentation skills around the testing topics, in the company of trusted peers and fellow testers. As a bonus, all attendees will be invited to pair up with existing mentors from the STPCON pool of frequent presenters and speakers to help prepare a proposal for the next STPCon.


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Please Note: The presentations are intended for attendees only. The presentations page is password protected – contact info@softwaretestpro.com for verification of attendance and the password to access the presentation.


Session Speakers:

Mark Tomlinson – Performagician, West Evergreen Consulting, LLC
Mark TomlinsonMark Tomlinson is a performance engineering and software testing consultant. His career began in 1992 with a comprehensive two-year test for a life-critical transportation system, a project which captured his interest in software testing, quality assurance, and test automation. That first test project sought to prevent trains from running into each other — and Mark has metaphorically been preventing “train wrecks” for his customers for the past 20 years. He has broad experience with real-world scenario testing of large and complex systems and is regarded as a leading expert in software testing automation with a specific emphasis on performance. For the majority of Mark’s career, he has worked for companies as a testing practitioner and consultant using the leading products for performance testing, profiling, and measurement. He has also consistently established close ties and relationships with the major vendors who create these tools. Mark worked for six years at Microsoft Corporation as a performance consultant and engineer in the Microsoft Services Labs, in the Enterprise Engineering Center and in the SQL Server labs. His efforts to foster the success of Microsoft’s top-tier Enterprise customers were focused on their early adoption of Microsoft products as part of mission-critical operations. In 2008, as the LoadRunner Product Manager at HP Software, Mark led the team to deliver leading innovations for performance testing and engineering as part of HP’s suite of performance validation and management products. Mark now offers coaching, training, and consulting to help customers adopt modern performance testing and engineering strategies, practices, and behaviors for better performing technology systems.

Speaker Details:

Mark Tomlinson – Performagician, West Evergreen Consulting, LLC
Twitter: @mtomlins
Facebook: Mark Tomlinson
LinkedIn: Mark Tomlinson
Website: PerfBytes.com
Blog: MTomlins.blogspot.com
Past Events: STPCon, STAR East, STAR West, TestBash, CAST


Mike Lyles – Sr. QA Architect, AIG
Mike LylesMike Lyles is a Sr. QA Architect with over 21 years of IT experience, gaining exposure through all aspects of IT in various roles – tech support, software developer, PMO, development manager, and, ultimately, testing/QA. He has led various aspects of testing: functional testing, Test Environments, SCM, Test Data Management, Performance Testing, Test Automation, and Service Virtualization. In his current role, he is responsible for defining and implementing tools, processes, and methodologies to support the QA (Functional, Regression, Infrastructure, Test Automation, Performance), Release Management, and Incident Management teams. Mike is an international/keynote speaker at multiple conferences, and is regularly published in testing publications and trade magazines. Mike’s passion to help others improve and grow in the field of testing, leadership, and management is his key motivation.

Speaker Details:

Mike Lyles – Sr. QA Architect, AIG
Twitter: @mikelyles
Facebook: Mike Lyles
LinkedIn: Mike W Lyles
Website: MikeWLyles.com/about
Blog: MikeWLyles.com
Past Events: STPCon, STPCon, QAI QUEST, QAI TesTrek, SDLC Summit, QA Summit