Last month I went to Madison, WI for the CAST 2103 test conference. It was a great conference at a cool venue with good topics and speakers and an audience from all around the world.
Now that I’m back with a head full of ideas and thoughts, how can I handle this information overload and make sure I get the most benefit from going? This is my plan:
- Follow people I met at the conference on Twitter so that I can keep the offline connection that I made with them. I can also check to see if they have blogs and will read their posts and offer feedback. Not only does this offer them encouragement to keep blogging, it’s also a way of practicing your critical thinking skills.
- I have my own personal blog and will be posting my thoughts and ideas from the conference, as well as the follow-up actions that I intend to take. This is a way of making sure you reflect on your experiences.
- The local GR Testers user group has organized a meetup where the people that went to the conference will talk about their experiences. This is another way to make you look back and reflect on what you learned, any lessons you are taking away, and what the main experiences were.
- I will also be doing a brown bag session at work on my experiences and takeaways from the conference.
How do you deal with the overload of ideas and thoughts that a good conference produces?