TestBash Brighton 2020 is Cancelled

The week of hard knocks for our events team continues. TestBash Brighton 2020 is cancelled and will not be happening in March. This is disappointing news for everyone, we’ve been looking forward to delivering a great TestBash experience, and we’re sure you were looking forward to attending.

Why?

As I’m sure you are aware, the world is facing a tough challenge right now. And while there are differing views of the dangers of COVID-19, the impact it’s having cannot be ignored. We are seeing speaker cancellations, attendee cancellations, forced cancellations due to travel bans, flight cancellations, the fear of forced or self-isolation, impact on sales, increased costs and a whole lot more. 

We faced our first ever event cancellation this week with TestBash Detroit. Still feeling the pain from that wave, we woke to an inbox full of speaker and attendee cancellations. On top of this, the UK government announced that we were entering the delay phase of their plan which included more encouragement to isolate based on mild symptoms. We held out hope that it wouldn’t come to this, but it became clearer and clearer each day that it would be irresponsible to run a TestBash during this pandemic, therefore cancellation is the correct approach. 

It hurts to cancel a TestBash, let alone two in a week. However, with cancellation comes a sense of relief. The pressure on team MoT has been compounded each day, as it has with attendees, so this decision hopefully relieves some of that pressure, knowing that you will still get that TestBash experience sometime in the future.

Next Steps

If you were registered to attend TestBash Brighton or any of the training planned before the conference, you should have received an email from the Brighton team containing all you need to know. However, for your convenience, we’ve included it all below.

For Ministry of Testing, we are going to take some time to recover and allow the team some time to recover from what has been a very difficult three weeks. We request you only contact team MoT if it’s imperative to do so. We hope the questions below answer all your concerns.

Questions you might have

What do I need to do to get my new ticket?
We will keep a record of all orders for Brighton. You’ll need your Brighton ticket reference which has been emailed to you. Once you’ve picked the event you’d like to transfer to, simply email us with your Brighton ticket reference and details of which TestBash you'd like it transferred to.

What alternatives did we consider?
Continue ahead - Up until yesterday this was our plan, but with the announcement from the UK government about its approach to delay COVID-19 and the increase in travel bans and encouraged isolation, it became clear that it would be irresponsible to run the event.

Postponement - Our only available time for a reschedule was early June, but with the evidence from the UK government suggesting the UK peak is still ten weeks away, so, we would have likely had to cancel that as well. Then in September, we have TestBash Manchester in the UK.

Hybrid/Online Conference - TestBash is unique for its vibe and energy, the buzz of the single-track format and the famous 99-second talks. Those things just don’t directly translate to an online format.

I can’t attend another TestBash in 2020, what can I do?
We will honour your ticket until June 2021. Between now and then we hope to have at least five TestBash events, so we hope you can make one of them. We also plan to regularly host training from September, so there should be several opportunities to attend training.
If you really can’t attend any, you can transfer your ticket to another team member.

I’ve already booked flights/hotel. What can I do?
Please check your terms with your airline and hotel, many are giving extra courtesy at this difficult time.

Can I get a refund?
We aren’t issuing refunds, as mentioned your tickets are valid for a future TestBash or training course until June 30th, 2021.

Will the conference be in the same location?
Testbash Brighton will indeed be in Brighton. If we’ll be in the same venue is unknown, but it would be in central Brighton. Other locations include Manchester, Netherlands, New Zealand and the US.

What happens to the program?
Topics move rapidly, so it’s unlikely that we’ll run an identical program at TestBash Brighton 2021, but we’ll be exploring options with the planned speakers to share their insights in some medium throughout 2020.

I have already contacted you to cancel my ticket, what happens now?    
As the event is now cancelled, your original request falls into the flow outlined above.