Welcome to Software Testing Unleashed, the podcast for testers developers and all software people who want to create best quality software. My name is Ritchie. I'm a software-quality coach author & keynote speaker And happy to bring you an episode live from The Hustler Conference in Budapest. Hustef is one of the greatest conferences I've ever been to. Top quality talks, amazing people and that unique mix of friendly and intense atmosphere you only find at truly great events!
If you have ever get a chance go there seriously – You will love it! My guest today's Attila Fekite. On the one side he was the program chair for Hustafs' twenty-twenty five and created an amazing programme with great speeches on all three stages with a very high quality standard. On the other side he's deep in the organization of Hustef, He spends so much time organizing stuff behind-the-scenes getting into contact with his speakers and what I like most about that.
all you can always go to him ask questions and get help. We talked about The Hustep Conference About history why it is such an amazing conference today bringing together people from around the world in the area of software quality. He gave some insights into special topics off-the-conference and an outlook to next year's conference too, so now enjoy episode! Hi Attila, great to have you on the show here. You too! Great to have in your program. so we are both happy.
Yes yes it's a good win-win for the speaker of the conference and for the audience as well. And the four-tribune Quattrovin Yeah its' great to be here. It is my first time at the Hustaf Hopefully not last time? No I'm so happy that there was such an awesome community. So now i really enjoy it. Now you're part of it? Yeah That's cool! I am part of history or family. Yeah, yeah.
And I had just my talk one hour before and there were so many questions afterwards... ...and people want to discuss about it! It's really a great intense experience. And the room was full actually? Yes. I've seen..it was a little funny because front row is empty first. I think three. Yeah. Alike in The University. I remember university auditorium. First few rows Empty, back rows full. Yeah I know some organizations. they removed the first row. after that people are sitting there.
So maybe it's for next week? You should do that! I put on an improvement list But then is not much to improve here. The Hustef is a celebration today. The fifteenths Hustep Just get us into. how does this start all? and we're getting here. Believe or not. We started in small and actually we had no big dreams, you know Back in twenty eleven.
Yeah fifteen years ago Stuckey started it she brought it he brought into life And as a local event You know the whole idea was to let people local test engineers to meet and share their experiences? After some time people started to show up and showed interest. And that was when we realized, you know... We need to take it seriously then be higher Chilla who's actually begin two conferences big into project management sales marketing and finance. and from there You know? It was all up.
Actually Yeah! Here are here and after the pandemic is a decision of us To make more international codes prior to pandemic. So the speakers were international, like ninety-five percent International five percent local people but now between forty and fifty percent. even the audience is international. Yeah here yeah. And uh Now we are here fifteen years later. Can you give us some numbers? How big is the conference already? so this year We have sold seven hundred five tickets. Wow all together.
Back then, I think we were like hundred and fifty. We are five times more than before. so it's a dream you know? You still can't believe that! That is why you're so excited. It's not the business for us... ...it'a love project..you see probably because.... You could say me i'm busy but keep on smiling cause i enjoyed so much. Yeah, I think that's also the spirit of this conference. That's practically the whole idea.
So it is a conference, you feel like your coming home so that basically our brand we are carrying about the people, speakers and audience. You're coming home so you will see next year... ...you are going back like an old friend! That's a whole point because that is the idea or DNA? The uniqueness in Hustef I think. What do you think when we look at the content side of the speakings and tutorials? what does the USP from Hustef have to say? What are your unique selling points?
I think the unique selling point is definitely we have quality content. having each and every year fresh perspective. Unique is also we have this first-time speaker initiative for a long time so probably you've seen that. but ten percent of the people who are on the program, our first-times speakers yeah! And even do coaching. it's part pre-pandemic, so in twenty nineteen. That's one of the uniqueness I think. second thing you know we are really living together with the speakers. You remember?
i moved into the hotel. So basically We booked a whole Hotel for the speakers and Im there from early morning. This is all thinking. Public speaking might be stressful. Anyway it would like to perform. It'd like To be best off your life. So third Why not make it comfortable So you can be the best of yourself. I think this is a unique thing, and otherwise it's completely objective and transparent. so we don't do any favor.
as you can see We have a review board And we score an objectively decide who is in there or not. So yeah, I think that's important and we are independent. Yeah That is one of the very positive attitudes which Is a spirit not driven by company or something like this but really from passion And community side. The whole thing should be like that I saw in the program there were some specialities Like the masterclass. Can you tell us about it?
I believe if we ask for feedback, We should do something about it. So you know past couple of years? We had comments like session talks are too short. We don't have enough keynotes. senior folks told us that You know how mean i don't Have anything to watch because there's thirty thirty twenty five minutes talks are not enough For me. so we address those kind of issues, so we extended the regular talks.
We had this extra five minutes and we have these hundred minute long deep dives to call it the master class To offer something for senior folks And even decision makers. as you can see The program will have a little bit of non-functional testing A little bit AI. on the masterclass side You also have leadership because Andrew Brown is going talk about modeling how we can use that to improve processes and predict the outcome. So, uh...that's the whole thing! And what else? What else?!
As you can see there is a lot of entertainment here or Odin has really asked for this You know..a lot of fun. and what else I mean? People like come together here. The speakers corner is an innovation because people were asking Okay....you stop us asking questions Because usually have time. three four questions We try to address, I think that's important. Listen to the people and listen to speakers because they were telling us that twenty plus five minutes is not enough.
so now we are playing with twenty-five plus five maybe next year even longer sessions depending on your feedback. you can give us feedback. That's great! And there was one point a career clinic. What was it? So how started? We have a bunch of coaches here. Peter, Mike is doing coaching and Mike was I think the PC chair when we were thinking about what to do What extra add-ons?
And you know...we said A lot people are somehow stuck with their career Not necessarily switching company maybe within the company career progression. Last year we started this coaching and we took it to the next level because last year We had these short slots during the lunch break, but we even have a tutorial on day one So you can talk to these dudes. Mike is super experienced. Yeah And actually he teamed up with Hannah Who's from the HR side so?
The whole thing is not only how beauty improve technically But also how you manage your career progression. Yeah, I think this is so important because in testing usually there's a lot like a glass where it cannot go further into the career. So i think its very important to talk with testers about these topics. It´s important cause. I have seen lots of people disappointed You know? I can't achieve what I want and actually teach them how to do it, you know? How to write your CV.
Uh...how to act on social media! How to build up your uh. online presence. You know what we expect from an interview?! How to design your CV so it gets to HR cause. these days AI is everywhere and actually they have AI power tool To screen those TVs. And if you don't know the tricks yeah Yeah This pretty much like search engine optimization. It's CV optimization, so you get to because if the tool drops your CV... I mean come on! Very very good initiative. yeah.
and i think also that part with uh that you're promoting new speakers. there are some sessions around it before the conference to help new speakers come to stage. even we have coaching. sorry The whole thing will not only pick them give them opportunity but we also have coaches. We do online coaching sessions, slide reviews and this kind of stuff. I think it's important because you know... It is a trap! You don't make the program because you don't have enough experience.
So okay so you turn down. But you know, it's an endless loop. Yeah that's true! That is the whole thing and I remember how difficult was to be a public speaker The first time i sent in a lot of submissions. they were keep turning me down. Yeah, it could be very frustrating. It's good to have somebody discuss these things... So I still remember human beings and that is why we had the first time. so we call it rising star keynote yeah!
...so its pretty much the same not first-time speaker but first-times keynote speaker because thats also a mission impossible sometimes cause. you know there are those big names out there. oftentimes conferences become Yeah, great thing to promote all the young stars too. I liked it very much. We care about people! It's important and we also helped them be successful because you know would be easy just let them fail.
but whole point is that i have seen one of the first time speakers and guy was amazing And you have good content and quality assurance for your own conference. It's now the fifteenth birthday. today, in the evening there is a birthday party. Can I tell us what we can expect? We split the fun activities a little bit because the birthday parties won't be here. So as you see here we've got giant Jenga, this table sucker we have this selfie, the infinity spinner over there.
We will actually start with a little light round table with XPC chairs. nothing serious a bit of fun. Then we will have a party DJ dancing and in a separate room. We'll have a lot of activities like PPT karaoke And this kind of stuff. A little bit of quiz for those folks who don't like dancing. Yeah, obviously there will be a large terrace. It's. it's in the downtown Where people can have a cigarette Have a drink and enjoy the rest of the night. So yeah This year will be special.
Okay I'm looking forward to the question. There is actually big interest. so Chilo told me She expected less people because we run a poll. Turned out, uh... We need more space! Yeah it would be fun. and yeah after the who stuff is before the next two steps what are your plans or what are you ideas to improve for in the future? Future. so there's a lot of things going on here. probably what will improve ...we have mobile app.
It's very cool but that much posting over there, so probably important stuff like notifications and these types of kind. What else? I have a plan to... So sometimes you know Hungarian market. they may not know these names like yourself You know. And the plan is somehow to build up those brands who.
maybe in the future we will have online mini event To provide people potential speakers Because we have realized that sometimes it's difficult to sell even tutorials with good names because the local market, you know Most of the Hungarian testers aren't traveling that much. Yeah So so unless we bring here international folks They just haven't a clue who these people are say. So one of this will be have a pipeline. Who would like to work with? build up their brand?
Like you maybe if I invite for a minute whose staff twenty minute online talks just to introduce you to the Hungarian market? because still half of, a little bit more than half of the folks attendees are from Hungary. Otherwise it's international. so forty-something percent is international attendees. Wow there're lots of plans for the future. bigger which is an issue because we don't have many venues here in Budapest, that can accommodate us.
But there's another option to have a conversation with them as they've already started planning. next year! One year later you'll have to plan up front... It's very intense and actually never take a break. There's nothing like it Sounds great. I'm hope, i am coming back next year. Thank you very much for the insights here For the community and they will join maybe in the next two step too. Yeah!
And yeah thank-you for having me with this podcast Looking forward to have another great conference day Here! And I hope that your return next year. Now we are part of family. Yes now im a part of it.