Having recently attended and presented a keynote at my first Agile Testing Days in Germany, I wanted to respond to the sad news that Agile Testing Days US has been cancelled “due to the current political situation in the USA.” I had heard the rumors and  as they had invited me to come to Boston and support the  event, I reached out to the conference organizers to see if there was anything I could do to change their minds. Unfortunately there was nothing that could be done to salvage the conference as speakers had already pulled out and attendees were either concerned about getting into the US or had already changed their plans. As well, AgileTD has a very strong commitment to diversity and out of respect to their values a principled stance against discrimination needed to be taken.

As  heartbreaking as this is for me as a testing professional and American, I completely understand and support this decision. Elections matter. What is going on the US political environment and in a broader cultural sense has consequences, and unfortunately I don’t think we’ve seen the last of cancellations like this. Personally, I would have loved to see the conference go on as planned and damn the torpedoes of hate and oppression, but it wasn’t my decision to make. I fully support the organizers of AgileTD and have offered my support in any way for their future events. Best of luck to everyone in these troubling times and stay safe.