South West Test

🎉South West Test - 10th Anniversary Event 🎂

This May marks 10 incredible years of South West Test , and let’s be honest, not every meetup gets to say that 💚 To celebrate a full decade, we’re making this event a little bit special.

Join us for an evening of lightning talks, pizza (of course 🍕), drinks, and great company. Whether you’ve been with us from the start, dropped in once or twice, or are completely new , we’d love to see as many South West Test attendees as possible, past, present, and future.

Thanks to our amazing sponsors for the evening SR2 – Socially Responsible Recruitment, we’ll be fully fuelled with refreshments and there will be lots of Amazon voucher giveaways on the night!

Here’s how the evening will run,

Feel free to turn up from 6pm. We'll have a selection of pizza, soft drinks & alcoholic drinks available, all free of charge thanks to SR2 💛 Grab a slice, mingle with our friendly crowd, and make some new connections or take a seat ready to get started.

Around 6:30 we will then move on to our lightning talks which are shorter snappier presentations than our usual longer ones ⚡

Talk 1: Kate Darbyshire : Testing safety critical software - When testing really matters!
When the software you're testing is going to be used to stop aircraft crashing mid air or trains colliding, it becomes even more important to ensure testing is thorough and complete. In this talk I’ll give an overview of how we test safety critical software in Capgemini and some of the new methods that can be used to speed up traditionally a very costly process.

Talk 2: Jack Proudman: Oh cr*p, I'm being made redundant.
In 2024 I (and a significant number of my colleagues) was made redundant from my job. This talk aims to go through how I approached the redundancy and the subsequent job hunt, in the hopes it can be useful to others facing similar circumstances.

Talk 3: Russell Blandamer: Misadventures in test automation
"I’ve been automating tests for well over a decade and I’m pretty accident-prone — a born tester, you might say. I’ve learned a lot from my mistakes and I’d like to take you on a whirlwind tour through some of the worst ones: this will be a quickfire list of what not to do and how not to do it: avoid these traps and you’ll have a better chance of producing automated tests that are sustainable and add real value.

Talk 4: Garima Sharma - Mobile Automation Testing.
In this session, I’ll walk through what Mobile Automation is all about—why it matters, the tools we use (like Appium, etc.), and how it helps us save time while ensuring our mobile apps work smoothly across both Android and iOS platforms. I’ll also share real-world examples, common challenges, and tips to make automation more effective in our day-to-day testing.

Talk 5: Dan Billing - Talking About My Regeneration - Rebuilding a Career in Testing
This is is a personal, experiential talk about reigniting your career in testing after facing challenges like the impact of COVID, redundancy, health struggles, personal and professional setbacks. I’ll be sharing my own journey of getting my testing career mojo back on track. This talk is for anyone who feels like they’re stuck in a rut, or looking to grow. There will be practical insights on how to restart your learning, overcome career doldrums, and move forward with purpose. Plus, I’ll share some techie topics that played a key role in my own regeneration process.

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Our meetups are open to absolutely anyone with an interest in Software Testing, whether you are just getting started, a seasoned QA, or a Developer curious to dive deeper into the world of testing. Many people come on their own and we always make sure the atmosphere is friendly, inclusive, and welcoming 💚 No cliques, no pressure , just good conversation, shared learning, and a great community vibe.

Please do share the meetup details with your friends, workmates or anyone who you think would love to attend.