Building Momentum: How Testing Talks 2026 Prepared Me for the Next Big Leap

Photo by Lisa Pfitzner

There is a particular type of quiet that happens moments before starting something you have prepared for over the course of several months, yet remain slightly unsure of how it will unfold. When I was invited to host the Technical Workshop at Testing Talks 2026, I was both excited and nervous. I had hosted sessions internally at my workplace, but this was my first time stepping entirely outside company walls. I was expecting to deal with diverse technical backgrounds, company practices, opinions on AI, and different hardware setups or limitations. I also wanted to ensure that the attendees got their money’s worth as a $100 ticket on top of the conference fee is nothing to sneeze at!

Looking back now, I am overwhelmingly grateful for the experience, not just because the workshop was a success, but because of the momentum it has given me for the future.

Facing the Real Challenge

Internal workshops always have their own challenges, but they are usually solved quickly as most of the hardware is standardised and people are generally easy to contact. External workshops, on the other hand, are a completely different animal. Different hardware meant different problems. Windows, Mac, Linux, package managers that didn’t agree. Node versions that had their own opinions. All these resulted in variables you simply can’t rehearse for.

To mitigate this, I implemented the following:

• Minimal installation requirements — I kept the recommended tooling to the bare minimum that most people would either already have installed or most companies would already be using. As an example, most companies I have worked with likely use VSCode and have a GitHub Copilot licence.
• Setup instructions PDF — This had installation instructions along with links to the official documentation to cover for different operating systems.
• Optional Slack Workspace — For attendees to receive real-time updates and have a space to discuss further after the workshop.
• Universal concepts — The majority of the concepts did have examples with the recommended tooling. However, I did ensure to highlight to the attendees that the concepts were applicable across most tools and AI vendors, although the configuration would be slightly different.

Conversations Were the Real Product

The unpredictability was exactly what made the experience so rewarding. It forced me to adapt, listen actively, and facilitate rather than just lecture. One of the absolute highlights of the workshop was the depth of the conversations we shared. The diversity of the room elevated our discussions, particularly when it came to how to better utilise AI agents.

Because the attendees weren’t constrained by a single company’s perspective, we were able to debate real-world applications, share unique friction points, and brainstorm innovative ways to integrate these agents into our daily workflows. For attendees already working with Playwright MCP, the most valuable takeaways came from these broader conversations.

Grateful, and a Little Surprised

I am incredibly grateful to Cameron Bradley and the Testing Talks team for giving me the opportunity to host this workshop and for making all of this possible. Thank you again to the wonderful attendees, who showed up curious and stuck through the setup pain to get to the good stuff. I was surprised by how interested everyone was in the topic and the positive feedback I have heard from the attendees.

The Next Big Leap

After the workshop concluded, I felt a real rush of energy. Testing Talks 2026 was a massive proving ground for me and it inspired me to do much more:

• More workshops — refining them based on the lessons I learned about setup, pacing, and leaving more room for discussion.
• Deeper material — implementing a complex multi-agent orchestration example, diving into security concerns, and strategies to implement AI at scale with reduced cost.
• My own talk — hosting the workshop externally was quite the leap and standing up to the main stage to deliver a talk is the next one.

This experience definitely gave me the momentum to do more and to reach further. I am energised, I have my roadmap for deeper material, and I am ready to take the leap from the workshop room to the main stage. I will see you there.

Originally published at https://avgjoe.dev on August 11, 2026.