As part of the start of the PNSQC 2026 Call for Papers, we’re excited to invite the community to a full day of free, in-person workshops in Portland. Held the day after the PNSQC Quality Jam, this Free Workshop Day is designed to sharpen practical skills, spark new ideas, and bring the QA community together for hands-on learning and connection.

Join us for an interactive day led by experienced practitioners and thought leaders, featuring two workshop tracks with sessions offered in both the morning and afternoon. Whether you’re strengthening your core testing skills or exploring how AI is shaping modern quality practices, there’s something here for you.

Registration on the PNSQC website is required.

You can register for the full day, or choose only the workshop options that fit your schedule. Space is limited, so we encourage you to register early and help spread the word.

Morning Workshops (8:30 AM – 12:00 PM)

AI Orchestration: Dual Stewardship with John Cvetko. Explore how humans and AI can collaboratively manage quality, risk, and decision-making in modern systems. QA Re-Bootcamp with Heather Wilcox & Bhushan Gupta. Refresh foundational testing skills and examine modern quality practices through engaging, activity-based learning.

Afternoon Workshops (1:00 PM – 4:30 PM)

Integrate MCP into your workflow with Joe Petsche. We will work with a variety of MCP servers to connect your quality apps and find ways to do your job better and faster. Come with your apps and we will connect in to your scenarios too. Writing Practical Test Plans, Fast and Easy with Wayne Roseberry. This workshop teaches a pragmatic, lightweight approach to writing effective test plans—fast.

There will be morning refreshments, and we'll take a group lunch, giving you plenty of time to connect with fellow quality professionals throughout the day.

Get ready, because PNSQC and Innovate QA are hosting their first annual Testathon Bug Bash! Join us for an exciting and fun-filled event, where QA engineers and testers from Portland and Seattle will go head-to-head in a thrilling hunt for the most interesting issues found while testing an interactive web application in alpha/beta testing! Whether you're a seasoned tester or just starting out in QA, this is your chance to showcase your exploratory testing skills, compete with fellow testers, and—most importantly—have a blast while discovering quirky bugs.

The event will kick off with a brief introduction, followed by 1-2 hours of exploratory testing, where you'll work together with your fellow testers in your city and "compete" against the testers located at the other location. There are no time limits, so take your time, dive deep, and see if you can uncover all the potential issues that might be lurking beneath the surface! At the end of the session, we'll gather to share the coolest and most impactful bugs found, celebrate the most creative testers, and award some fun prizes.

It's all about having fun, learning from each other, and embracing the thrill of finding bugs in a collaborative, friendly competition. Will Portland reign supreme, or will Seattle come out on top? Bring your passion for testing, your curiosity, and your competitive spirit—let's find some bugs and make this Testathon one to remember!

This event will be held in-person at both a Portland-based and Seattle-based location, and some light dinner will be included at both locations. PNSQC thanks Trimble for generously donating their space for this event! See the event posted on Innovate QA's Meetup group for details about the Seattle venue.

The 43rd Pacific Northwest Software Quality Conference will be held October 13-15, 2025. The conference theme is "QI: Increase your Quality Intelligence" - many aspects of quality go beyond testing. Quality is relevant to design, manufacturing, code, applications, user experience, writing/prose, and many other areas that may not be obvious. We invite everyone to submit talks on a broad range of subjects and issue this challenge along with it: "What can I do to increase the overall quality intelligence of myself, my team, and the greater community?"

PNSQC 2025 is both an in-person and online event, even offering a FREE virtual track to watch our keynotes and invited speakers. Early bird pricing for our full conference lasts until September 15th!

Register online at: https://pnsqc.org/register

Tracks Include - Quality Engineering (Process & Methods, Tools & Technologies) - Management, Leadership, People & Enterprise IT Quality - AI and Emerging Technologies

Our industry learns from working with education, healthcare, manufacturing, government sectors, and more. What can those other industries learn from us? Come and find out at PNSQC 2025.