New Chapter for Chapters: Why In-Person Community Events Still Matter - TWIQ Ep 122

Why It Matters

Integrating in‑person chapters with a digital star ecosystem deepens engagement, turning community participation into measurable professional growth and expanding the market for quality‑focused services.

Key Takeaways

• Ministry of Testing launches Multiverse, linking profiles, chapters, events.
• New star badges reward participation and memory tagging across chapters.
• Moticon conference now included in professional memberships, boosting value.
• Chapter migration from Meetup consolidates local meetups into unified platform.
• Upcoming MOT London event features authentication matrix speaker, enhancing testing depth.

Summary

The February 6, 2026 episode of This Week in Quality spotlighted the Ministry of Testing’s evolving community strategy, emphasizing why in‑person gatherings remain vital. Host Simon welcomed back co‑host Deanna Dromy after maternity leave and used the platform to roll out a suite of new digital tools that bind the community’s online and offline experiences. Key updates included the launch of the “Multiverse,” a unified profile system that ties individual members, companies, and local chapters together. New star‑based badges now recognize contributions such as tagging memories, attending events, and sharing knowledge. Memberships have been upgraded to include access to the Moticon conference, and the migration of Meetup‑based groups into official “chapters” centralizes event management and content archives. Highlights featured Deanna’s enthusiasm for the new features, Chris Pratt’s preview of the MOT London meetup, and speaker announcements like Biola Aoba’s deep dive into authentication testing and Jagarit’s take on the shift from quality assurance to quality engineering. The conversation underscored real‑world examples of how the star system and memory posts keep remote participants connected to live events. The rollout signals a stronger, more integrated community that drives professional development, networking, and knowledge sharing. By blending digital recognition with tangible meetups, Ministry of Testing aims to increase member retention, attract new talent, and reinforce the business case for investing in quality‑focused events.

Original Description

In this episode of This Week in Quality, Simon welcomes a returning legend to the virtual stage as Deanna comes back from maternity leave and dives straight into everything that’s evolved across the MoTaverse. Together they turn the chat into a rapid-fire “what changed while Deanna was away?” tour, calling out highlights like Into the MoTaverse, My Reports, company pages, thank-you stars and badges, membership updates, SQU(e)C, and the growing momentum behind chapters as the next evolution of local meetups.

The conversation then zooms in on why chapters matter and what becomes possible when in-person events connect directly to MoT profiles, memories, recordings, and the star system. Chris Pratt, a new organiser for MoT London, shares behind-the-scenes insights on stepping into a fresh organising team, raising the bar after a strong year, and what to expect at the next London event. He previews talks that reframe everyday testing work, including one on authentication that treats login as an adversarial system and another on how quality assurance is evolving into quality engineering, plus a call for potential event sponsors to support food and drinks.

Deanna also invites Mat on stage to reflect on community moments he’s enjoyed, including the MoT Christmas quiz, and to share the real-world grind of job hunting in 2026. Mat talks candidly about being asked for “commercial experience” with specific tools, using that pressure as fuel to keep learning, and leaning on the community for momentum. Building on that, Simon encourages professional members to book recorded one-to-one insight conversations that can be published back into the MoTaverse, and hints at future ambassador-led conversations as the programme grows.

Later, Ady Stokes shares an energising update from the Leads chapter, describing an “I Am Remarkable” workshop focused on self-promotion without the cringe. The session helps people push past imposter syndrome, recognise their achievements, and practise saying them out loud. Sean Ye joins from Ottawa with a practical quality win of his own, containerising APIs for on-demand sandbox environments to enable automated integration and regression testing, and using AI tools to navigate dense AWS documentation more effectively.

The episode wraps with a wave of excitement about how fast the platform is evolving, how following and activity feeds help you stay connected, and why showing up, online and in-person, keeps the MoTaverse moving.

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https://www.ministryoftesting.com/