SeleniumConf Chicago 2023 Speakers Announced

The SeleniumConf Chicago 2023 Program Review Committee and conference organizers are finalizing the agenda, but in advance of this here is what you can look forward to.
By Bill McGee |
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As many of you know, the Selenium Conference returns to an in-person event next March 28-30, 2023 in Chicago, IL. The Program Chairs & Committee, as well as the Extended Program Review Committee, have been hard at work putting together an outstanding lineup of speakers and workshops, and we’re close to releasing the full agenda and a completely re-branded conference website - stay tuned! In the meantime, we wanted you to be among the first to know who will be presenting, announce a new, additional pre-conference workshop, and provide you with some important updates. Here we go!

Keynote Sessions

There will be four plenary keynote presentations across the 2-day conference. Selenium Core Committer Diego Molina will open the conference on Wednesday with the “Selenium: State of the Union” presentation, followed by Quality & Leadership Coach Erika Chestnut presenting “Bigger Than The Box”, where she shares how she has crossed the aisles to elevate and expand the role quality in the organizations that she has worked for. Day 2 kicks off with Mark Winteringham, Ministry of Testing OpsBoss, presenting “What Exactly Do You Do In Test Automation”. The final keynote session will be a Q&A with the Selenium Committers panel.

Confirmed Track Session Presenters

Following the opening keynote presentations, there will be two separate track sessions running in parallel. Here are the confirmed speakers to date and the presentations they will be giving:

New Workshop Added - State Model-Based Testing Using Selenium

We’re pleased to announce a new addition to the optional pre-conference workshop day, State Model-Based Testing Using Selenium, led by Ru Cindrea, Managing Partner and Senior Test Consultant, Altom Consulting & Alex Rotaru, Co-owner, Altom Consulting. If you haven’t yet heard of State Model-Based Testing (SMBT) is a testing technique that allows testers to visualize their applications and to generate and automate test flows by using different models of the application under test, thus obtaining a large number of test scenarios. When certain paths of the application are changed, the benefit of using SMBT is that you will only have to modify the states and transitions that apply to that change.

This workshop rounds out the core pre-conference workshop offerings, which include a Selenium Deep Dive session led by Selenium Project Core Committer, Titus Fortner; Driving Observability with Selenium Grid 4, led by Manoj Kumar, VP, Developer Relations at LambdaTest and Selenium Project Leadership Committee member, and Advanced Appium 2.0, with Srini Sekar & Sai Krishna, Lead Consultants at Thoughtworks and long-time Appium workshop instructors.

Workshops are one of the most popular offerings at any SeleniumConf and because class sizes are limited they invariably sell-out. Early Bird ticket sales have closed, but you can still find openings for any of these awesome day-long sessions. Register today and make sure you get a seat at the Conference + Workshop session of your choice.

Wait, Wait - Where is the Fix a Bug, Become a Committer Workshop?

If you’re a long-time follower of past Selenium Conferences, or just happened to attend the July, 2022 virtual SeleniumConf, you may be familiar with the long-standing workshop offering “Fix a Bug, Become a Committer”. This workshop is a bit different in that the goal is to both enhance your own Selenium experience while offering the ability to contribute back to the project. With this, it’s not a learning session, per se, but more of a doing session, and we thought we’d take a different approach this time and make it available at no-charge (other than buying a conference ticket) to a limited number of applicants. If you are familiar with Selenium and want to extend your conference experience an extra day we encourage you to apply. Scholarship applicants (more below) are also welcome to apply.

Announcing the SeleniumConf Chicago 2023 Scholarship Program

The mission of the Selenium project is to educate the QA and developer communities about Selenium, the importance of quality assurance, and automated testing in general. Both the Selenium project and the SeleniumConf organizers very much want everyone to be able to attend the conference, but we know that not everyone’s personal or financial circumstances make this possible - so, we’re setting aside a number of free tickets, and covering travel expenses, as part of our SeleniumConf Chicago 2023 scholarship program.

The program aims to support individuals from underrepresented groups in tech and those facing economic or social hardship so they have access to SeConf content and networking opportunities. If you’re an aspiring software professional looking to use Selenium, or a current one without access to the funds to buy your ticket, you should apply. We will award tickets to people who can show that the knowledge gained will be useful for their ongoing career. The application form will be posted in January, 2023.

Ready to Go, But Your Manager Needs More Convincing?

You’ve now seen the keynotes, the current roster of speakers, and the awesome hands-on workshop descriptions, but you still need more to convince your manager? Download this “Convince Your Boss” email template and tailor it to your specific rationale using the details you’ve gleaned from this post. We’d really like to see you next March in Chicago - so register here!