Thanks to everyone who took part in MoTaCon 2025 (previously known as TestBash).
Here’s a fun challenge:
Name one thing you took away from MoTaCon.
Just the one for now. Perhaps the replies spark more individual topic posts and discussions for later. Think of this topic thread as a super high-level list of takeaways.
In person events and conferences, like MoTaCon, are special and bring a wave of energy to a community that helps us spot and create patterns way beyond the actual event itself.
I had an amazing conversation with a woman who works for the MOD, and being in my little ‘ed tech’ bubble, as much as I think our software is interesting/ cool/ helpful, discussion with her about what her tech does made me super excited about tech again- loved our discussions about accessibility, and maybe this is what MoTaCon is about!
Everyone I met for the first time felt like an old friend. I’ve never experienced such a genuine caring community. By far the biggest takeaway 
Stickers, and a surprisingly difficult Spot The Difference.
I’ll echo what @ghawkes said above.
It felt like a culmination of all the community building I’ve been doing this year.
It was so nice to walk into a building and feel immediately comfortable because I’m surrounded by people I’ve built relationships with across the year.
On top of that, meeting so many new, like-minded people was really nice as well 
For me what stood out for me was just the amazing support all of us have for each other within this community. Whether its giving someone the encouragement and confidence to present on stage (in many cases for the first time), supporting those who are currently going through a tough time or those looking for a new testing opportunity.
It was really great to get to meet in person those folks I’ve got to hear and chat with during This Week in Quality calls and Testing Live sessions. And as always just so nice to catch up with folks from previous years at Testbash! 
Supporting all the great workshops on day 1 let me see the enthusiasm of the attendees up close. Every single person who came threw themselves into every task, joined in, asked questions and made the whole thing a wonderful experience.
One at my top List: Meeting and Greeting awesome People
It was great to meet few people for the 1st time, few 2nd time and others 3 times but there was no difference in the vibes. It was so comfortable to meet and talk to awesome people and exchange our views, thoughts and ideas.
Tried to capture most of the moments in my camera
Tricky to limit it to just one, but I’ll plump for a quote from Joep Schuurkes’ talk:
Quality is many small things done right
Just how wonderful it was to talk to everyone! The feeling that everyone was genuinely interested in what people had to say gave me the courage to get on the stage for the first time. Now that I’ve learned about it from @cassandrahl , that’s definitely something I’m putting on my brag board!
Aside from what other people have already said it was nice to just feel extra encouraged about the QA role and the positive impact it can have.
I’ve come away with a renewed enthusiasm for what we do after connecting with loads of awesome people.
There was a great quote during @barryeh’s talk/workshop in LwQ:
If you act like a quality gate, people will treat you like a quality gate.
Excellent! That’s definitely an achievement worth bragging about.
Reassurance. I’m a single tester in my company, where I also started this path. And that was the first time I was able to have so much passionate discussions with interesting peers. I’m now reassured about how I work and my vision is broader. Confirmed I want to work deeper in quality. Quality is everyone’s responsibility but as testers it’s our specialty (99s talks) and I’m looking forward playing a bigger role in it.
IDEA-T by Isabel Evans.
As always there was lots of wonderful insights from speakers in areas that I love exploring that I’ll take on board to make me better but I tend to stay away from tools topics. However I attended both of Isabel’s sessions and it helped me understand how I can get involved in tool adoption without having to pretend that I care.
100 percent this! For someone who is self-taught and works as the only tester/quality person in my company, the motaverse and especially these in-person events are invaluable! They provide reassurance and give a real confidence boost. On top of all the learning and inspiration 
I would definitely say what i took away is the relationships i continue to build with people in this industry.