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Gary Hawkes

Head of Engineering

He/Him

Software QA Lead and tester who loves to see people grow, processes continuously improve and help organisations understand and support Quality Engineering. Recently promoted to Head of Engineering (Jul 2026).

Open To

Write

Mentor

Podcasting

CV Reviews

Attending MoTaCon 🤝

Ambassador

March 2026

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Engineering Management Chapter

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AMA about The MoTaverse

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Test cases are no longer crafted nor unique

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This Week in Quality

Recommend an item for the MoT Observatory

Calm Delivery Systems

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From Bodybuilding to Systemic Quality: Why My Life Squiggle Made Me A Better Quality Professional

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Should QA exist

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Why software testers should write documentation even if no one else reads it

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AMA about project management (with a tester's hat)

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This Week in Quality

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Joined Engineering Management Chapter chapter

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4.2.0 of MoT Software Quality Engineering Certificate

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4.1.0 of MoT Software Quality Engineering Certificate

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AMA Answer: How would you store any context engineering templates so they can be re-used?

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This Week in Quality

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Joined AI Chapter chapter

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AMA Answer: How would you store any context engineering templates so they can be re-used?

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AMA Answer: How would you store any context engineering templates so they can be re-used?

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What do you think are the pros and cons of a podcast being an audio-only medium?

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Quality Engineers do their best work when a team is forming

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Foundations favour the AI brave

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Sources of Testing / Tech / AI Information

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Do you MoTafirst?

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Can you give 3 practical examples of how marketing has contributed to building a better product?

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To say something worth saying is not to be a genius, it’s to be brave.

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The medium matters

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How do you communicate confidence in quality to those outside QE, when the confidence is beyond just the correctness of what was built?

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AMA Leadership Answer - How do you lead if your position has no authority?

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AMA Leadership Answer - How did you figure out what kind of leader you wanted to be, what was the turning point?

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What are your do's and don'ts to producing a quality podcast?

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Testing In The Time Of AI

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When Effort Isn’t Enough: A Systems Approach To Leadership

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How Long Contexts Fail

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Is a tech community worth your time?

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What are your do's and don'ts to producing a quality podcast?

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There are a number of tools like Axe as the tool we use to assess accessibility. Where do the tools fall short?

Added to a Moment, expanded the MoTaverse

There are a number of tools like Axe as the tool we use to assess accessibility. Where do the tools fall short?

Added to a Moment, expanded the MoTaverse

What are your do's and don'ts to producing a quality podcast?

Thanking contributors

How do you communicate confidence in quality to those outside QE, when the confidence is beyond just the correctness of what was built?

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6 leadership mistakes that made me a better leader

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AMA Leadership Answer - How do you lead if your position has no authority?

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AMA Leadership Answer - Do you have any book recommendations?

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AMA Leadership Answer - How did you figure out what kind of leader you wanted to be, what was the turning point?

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AMA Leadership Answer - How do you lead if your position has no authority?

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AMA Leadership Answer - Do you have any book recommendations?

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AMA Leadership Answer - How do you lead if your position has no authority?

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AMA Leadership Answer - Do you have any book recommendations?

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AMA Leadership Answer - How do you lead if your position has no authority?

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AMA Leadership Answer - How did you figure out what kind of leader you wanted to be, what was the turning point?

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AMA Leadership Answer - How did you figure out what kind of leader you wanted to be, what was the turning point?

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99 Second Talks – Day 1 – TestBash Brighton / MoTaCon 2025

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99 Second Talks – Day 1 – TestBash Brighton / MoTaCon 2025

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How do you communicate confidence in quality to those outside QE, when the confidence is beyond just the correctness of what was built?

Added to a Moment, expanded the MoTaverse

How do you communicate confidence in quality to those outside QE, when the confidence is beyond just the correctness of what was built?

Thanking contributors

If testing and quality were individual snacks, what would they be and why?

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AMA Leadership Answer - Can you share a story about an early days leadership lightbulb moment?

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AMA Answer: How would you store any context engineering templates so they can be re-used?

Added to a Moment, expanded the MoTaverse

AMA Answer: How would you store any context engineering templates so they can be re-used?

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Progress over time

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AMA about Podcasting

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The Sticky Tentacles of AI

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Link - Guardian of the MoTaverse

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Luna & Munja (Flash) - Guardians of the MoTaverse

Contributed to This Week in Quality

It depends - Ask MoTaverse Anything - Ep 128

Participated in This Week in Quality (TWiQ)

Thanks for joining the stage during TWiQ. Great to hear from you.

Participated in This Week in Quality (TWiQ)

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Participated in This Week in Quality (TWiQ)

Thank you for joining TWiQ today!

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This Week in Quality

Learner read your Insights article

The high cost of stagnant pull requests: moving towards collaborative Quality

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The high cost of stagnant pull requests: moving towards collaborative Quality

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AMA about Leadership

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6 leadership mistakes that made me a better leader

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The high cost of stagnant pull requests: moving towards collaborative Quality

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AMA about Leadership

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AMA about Leadership

Learner read your article

6 leadership mistakes that made me a better leader

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AMA about Leadership

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Looks Good to Me Culture

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AMA about Leadership

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AMA about Leadership

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AMA about Leadership

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AMA about Leadership

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From frustration to Skynet: building a lightweight UI automation helper

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AMA about Leadership

Added to a Moment, expanded the MoTaverse

AMA about Leadership

Added a moment

AMA about Leadership

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MoT Netherlands at Squerist

Thanks!

Thanks for the question on my AMA, Gary! I will think about this and get an answer back to you.

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Why I change my in-house job title to match the testing I’m doing

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The high cost of stagnant pull requests: moving towards collaborative Quality

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The high cost of stagnant pull requests: moving towards collaborative Quality

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The high cost of stagnant pull requests: moving towards collaborative Quality

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Coaching with code: using AI to learn how to automate tests

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The high cost of stagnant pull requests: moving towards collaborative Quality

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The high cost of stagnant pull requests: moving towards collaborative Quality

Contributed to a MoTaverse Insights article

The high cost of stagnant pull requests: moving towards collaborative Quality

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Quality Engineering: From Assurance To Engineering Confidence

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Stop Testing "Login Pages": Security-Aware Auth Testing From Real Scenarios

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The problem with non-deterministic inputs and outputs

Inspired conversations

Thanks for the great chat today at the Call For Insights recording!

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Why Publicly Appreciating Quality Thinking Builds a Stronger Quality Culture

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Quality Engineering with AI

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Product-minded testing: choosing what matters when everything feels important

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If your exploratory testing uncovers an area that may be an ideal candidate for automation, what steps would you go about communicating that to the developers/automators to get it done?

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AMA about Context Engineering

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AMA about Exploratory Testing

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This Week in Quality

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Create a Moment: Ask MoTaverse Anything

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The Quality Cost of the AI Vampire

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A year ago - Journey through Motaverse - Those 5 months in Motaverse!!

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Peerscon - Quality is a Ballet

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Peerscon - What a welcome!

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Peerscon - Quality is a Ballet

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My Collection #5

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Who supports and manages quality engineers?

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Peerscon - Insight with Jesse

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Peerscon - Quality is a Ballet

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Peerscon - Quality is a Ballet

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Peerscon - Quality is a Ballet

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Demi's Demo Luck

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Peerscon - Insight with Jesse

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Peerscon - Insight with Jesse

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This Week in Quality

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Peerscon - What a welcome!

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Brag Board Template (How to Make Your Work – and Achievements – More Visible)

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Peerscon - Insight with Jesse

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Peerscon - Insight with Jesse

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Peerscon - Insight with Jesse

Added to a Moment, expanded the MoTaverse

Peerscon - Insight with Jesse

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Peerscon - Insight with Jesse

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Peerscon - What a welcome!

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Peerscon - What a welcome!

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Peerscon - What a welcome!

Added to a Moment, expanded the MoTaverse

Peerscon - What a welcome!

Added a moment

Peerscon - What a welcome!

Registered for an event

This Week in Quality

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MoTacon Singers

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Outdoor gym, test passed.

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Outdoor gym, test passed.

Added to a Moment, expanded the MoTaverse

Outdoor gym, test passed.

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I vibe coded a website and I spent half of my time doing quality checks

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Blog launch: Weave - Threads of Software Quality

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Mind the QA of the gaps

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Stop delegating your thinking: Using 5 whys to check AI documentation

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Everyday accessibility: 7 ways to do a little a11y every day

Visited an Observatory link

You Ship It, You Own It.

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Lessons learnt from gardening

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Outdoor Gym - Basic Accessibility Test Failure

Recommend an item for the MoT Observatory

Engineering Leaders Shape How Change Reaches Customers

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One to one interactions spark community curiosity and confidence

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Pranav Pandit - Orchestrating AI driven quality engineering

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Friction has a complex relationship with quality

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Speed without guarded verification is risky business

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Outdoor Gym - Basic Accessibility Test Failure

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The morphing MoTaverse

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99 Second Talks – Day 1 – TestBash Brighton / MoTaCon 2025

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Big smiles everyone!!

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Outdoor Gym - Basic Accessibility Test Failure

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Outdoor Gym - Basic Accessibility Test Failure

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Outdoor Gym - Basic Accessibility Test Failure

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Start capturing for your brag book!

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Celebrating 1999 Community Stars

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MoTaverse team at MoT London

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Testers have fingers in all the pies

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Exploring Friction in Quality Engineering

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Is GitHub Agentic Workflows putting exploratory testing back in the CI spotlight?

Participated in This Week in Quality (TWiQ)

Thank you for making the chat an awesome one

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You are a Sat Nav

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Moments now support formatting 🎉

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This Week in Quality

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Catching up on the train

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This Week in Quality

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Catching up on the train

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Catching up on the train

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Catching up on the train

Expanded the MoTaverse

Catching up on the train

Added a memory

Catching up on the train

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Gabrijela facilitates an open space session

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Happy Holi to the MoTaverse

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Creating new layers of care for Professional Membership

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Delivering quality and deploying on time when your team is small

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The shift-left is not shifting-lefting

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What is software quality?

Learner watched your talk

99 Second Talks – Day 1 – TestBash Brighton / MoTaCon 2025

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99 Second Talks – Day 1 – TestBash Brighton / MoTaCon 2025

Attended an event

RiskStorming: Artificial Intelligence

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Stop selling gold when all you've got to offer is a process

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Welcome to Mount Stupid or The Illusion of Expertise

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What I actually do when I walk into a team with no QA at all

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Ducks, Toilet Seats, and Eggs, oh my!

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900+ Stars in MoT

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🤔 What would your life had been like, without your Pro Membership Ady Stokes?

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They often say getting started is the hardest part.

Participated in This Week in Quality (TWiQ)

Thank you very much Gary for joining us on stage last Friday in This week in Quality show. Thanks for sharing your story, your daughter's story and showing us how support can make people's dream come true.

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