CAST 2011, Day 1 A Brief Summary

I had intended to write this last night.  Alas, I was far too exhausted and flopped into the hotel room with the telly and the lady-wife, and promptly fell asleep. 

So, Yesterday was an astounding day.  I met a scad of people in person I had previously only met cyberly.  That, if for no other, is an astounding reason to attend a conference. 

The Who's Who I met...  Ajay Balamurugadas - Yes, the fellow who came up with Weekend Testing, the point-man/advocate for self-education and training in India.  Lanette Creamer - Testy Redhead, bright and enmthusiastic ball of energy.  Johan Jonasson - from Sweeden, an enthusiastic and crazy smart advocate of context driven testing.  Elan Houser who I met in a BBST course - really great thinker.  Simon Schrijver - SimonSaysNoMore on Twitter - an astoundingly intelligent thinker.  Neil Thompson Anna Royzman, Todd Mazierski, Robert Berqvist, Geordie Keitt, Ben Yaroch, Felipe Knorr Kuhn all were speakers in the Emerging Topics track I was helping moderate and helped coordinate.

I had an amazing dinner with Neil Thompson, Fiona Charles, Anne-Marie Charret, my lady-wife and ... EGADS!  I've forgotten the name of the other lady/diner/participant!  I'm Sorry!  It was a fantastic conversation with little to do about testing, but EVERYTHING to do about testing. 

Michael Bolton gave a Keynote yesterday that was thought provoking and interesting in developing thought ideas.  Part of his theme was picked up in Geordie's ET session at the end of the day yesterday.  It will be revisited later today with a track session with James Bach and Doug Hoffmann discussing the idea that the Schools of Software Testing is a divisive idea, or not. 

There were other crazy smart people, HOWEVERR - I'm going to bail and write more later.  BECAUSE!  Sitting next to me right NOW is Markus Gaertner, Michael Larson, Matt Heusser and Ajay Balamurugadas and discussing the Tester Challenge they participated in last night.  An astounding display of self-evolving thought.