Call for Papers

We are excited to announce that the Call for Papers for NTD 2026 is officially OPEN!
CLICK HERE TO SUBMIT YOUR PAPER!!

Each year, NTD brings together passionate professionals to explore the evolving landscape of software testing and quality. In 2026, we’re placing a spotlight on quality at every level—from strategy and leadership to hands-on engineering and automation.
Whether you’re pioneering new QA methodologies, refining testing frameworks, a developer passionate about quality or leading teams through complex quality transformations, we want to hear from you. Share your expertise through engaging talks, interactive workshops, and practical tutorials.
Let’s shape the future together—submit your proposal and be part of the movement driving excellence through quality.

The call for papers is open until December 31, 2025 and the conference takes place June 3–5, 2026 in Tallinn.

What are we looking for?
Our mission is to deliver real value to our audience—skills they can apply, insights that challenge their thinking, and experiences that stick.
We’re especially interested in:
Hands-on workshops that teach practical QA techniques
Sessions on automation frameworks, tooling, and test architecture
Explorations of AI in testing—the good, the bad, and the misunderstood
Case studies on scaling quality practices in agile/devops environments
Talks that challenge conventional thinking and introduce new paradigms
We also welcome stories on:
Leadership in QA and testing
Quality coaching and mentoring
Team dynamics and collaboration in quality-focused teams
Note: We do not accept promotional content for tools, products, or services.

Who Should Submit?
We invite proposals from:
Test Managers
Quality Engineers
Software Developers with a passion for Quality
Quality Coaches and Consultants
Toolsmiths and Framework Creators
If you're committed to raising the bar in software quality, we want you on our stage.

Conference overview

NTD 2026 will be a 3 day event: day 1 is for tutorials, days 2 and 3 are filled with talks and workshops.
We welcome people to join our conference onsite. Some of the content as video recordings will be available after the event. As a speaker you need to be aware that your presentation might be recorded.

Track
Workshop
Tutorial
24 minutes talk
5 minutes Q&A
Unlimited participants
2 or 4 hours (incl break)
50+ participants
Full day
(incl breaks and lunch)
Min 20 participants

Track talks

Track slot in the schedule is 30 minutes in length. 1 minute for introduction, 24 minutes for talk, followed by a 5 minute Q&A session.

Workshops are 2 hours or 4 hours in length with a break in between. We expect at least half of the workshop time to be taken up by practical exercises and the rest of the time to be spent on explaining, discussing and expanding on the practical stuff. Keep in mind that previously there have been around 40-50 participants at the workshops. If you have specific limits to how many people can attend, please make sure to include it in your proposal. We may not be able to have complete control over the number of participants in the room, so please plan accordingly. Please be prepared that we may ask you to run your workshop 2 times during the conference (once on each day) since workshops have always been extremely popular.

Tutorials are meant to be full-day tutorials with breaks and a lunch break in between. We expect tutorials to be filled with plenty of hands-on activities and opportunities to dig deep, learn new skills and/or tools. Let’s leave verbose lectures for another time.

Requirements for proposals

The Abstract

The abstract should explain concisely and clearly why your topic is relevant and what will be covered during the talk/workshop/tutorial (outline). In case of workshop and/or tutorial, describe how you want to carry out the workshop (including technical setup) and what kind of practical activities have been planned.

Key Takeaways

List three most important takeaways you expect the attendees to walk away with (which will also convince them to attend your talk, workshop or tutorial in the first place).

Difficulty Level

Speakers assign a difficulty level to their talk or workshop in order to make it easier for attendees to decide if the talk or workshop was appropriate for them. In no way do we discourage people from taking a “deep dive” workshop in something they never heard of. We’re trying to address the problem of having both new and experienced people at the conference.

Therefore, we will use the concept again for NTD 2026. We are very much looking for deep dive talks, workshops and tutorials!

We encourage you to consider deep dive talks and workshops since this is what NTD attendees have shown most interest in.

Explanation of the levels:

Getting your toes wet	Like a fish in the sea	Deep dive
For beginners and people with no prior experience with the topic; basic concepts covered, explained, evolved.	For folks to be familiar with the concepts covered in the talk or workshop and/or have a specific set of skills, and the ability to discuss and apply them; speaker can state more explicit expectations as well.	Assumes extensive experience, skills and knowledge about the concepts; the speaker is welcome to state more explicitly what is needed.

Limitations

If you already know that you need some kind of special arrangements (like soundproof room, specific equipment to be set up) or there are any other limitations related to your presentation, please mention them, too.

For workshops, please describe in general which setup or prerequisites will be required from participants. Please keep in mind that a lengthy pre-setup decreases interest of the workshop.

Selection process

Here’s what you need to know about the process:

The content team will review your proposal and evaluate it on its own merit and also in the context of other proposals.

The content team will review recordings of your talk (can be other than the one you proposed) if you have provided them.
If your proposal has passed the initial round of reviews, a member of the content team contacts you to set up a 10-15 minute Google Hangouts video call. The goal of the call is to discuss your proposal, ask and answer any clarifying questions we or you may have.

Remuneration

The table below contains information about the costs covered. Costs will be covered after the presentation/workshop has been done.

In case there are less than 5 participants per Tutorial (8h) we will cancel the tutorial. If this risk becomes a reality we will contact you a month in advance.

Type	Fee	Travel	Accommodation	Conference + Party	Speakers Dinner
Track talk	-	Up to €350	Yes - 2 nights	yes	yes
Workshop - 2h or 4h	-	Up to €350	Yes - 2 nights	yes	yes
Tutorials	€1000 for 10 participants. €50 for every next participant	Reasonable costs covered by NTD (e.g. flying in economy class)	Yes - 3 nights	yes	yes

In case of multiple presenters:

Track talk - all costs covered are per track to be divided between presenters
Workshops - all costs are covered per presenter, up to 2 presenters in total
Tutorial - fee is divided between presenters, reasonable travel costs covered per presenter

Travel

The conference organizers cover travel costs for speakers as shown in the table above. Tutorial and keynote speakers will also have travel costs and fees individually arranged and paid by the organizers.
The preferred method of remuneration is an invoice from the speaker. Other options are available and need to be negotiated individually.

Accommodation

The conference organizers will provide accommodation at the conference hotel for speakers as follows:
Tutorials - 3 nights at the conference hotel (in case of multiple presenters, each presenter gets a separate room).
Tracks - 2 nights at the conference hotel (in case of multiple presenters, we expect the room to be shared).
Workshops - 2 nights at the conference hotel (in case of multiple presenters, each presenter gets a separate room).
Accommodation includes breakfast.

Access to conference

Speakers who deliver tutorials will get free access to 2nd and 3rd conference days.
Speakers who deliver workshops and talks will get a free ticket to the 2nd and 3rd conference days (excluding tutorials to which they can buy a ticket).

Timeline of Deadlines
December 31, 2025 - call for papers closed.
January 7, 2026 - proposal acceptance notifications are sent out
January 14, 2026 - proposal acceptance notifications are sent out for waiting list proposals
January 21, 2026 - confirmation of acceptance from the speaker expected
February 8, 2026 - preliminary conference program announced.
May 22, 2026 - conference presentations to be submitted.

The conference team is very much looking forward to your proposals! Please spread the word and come join us in Tallinn in June 2026!
To see all the pictures from previous conferences go to Facebook, and follow us on LinkedIn for the news.

SUBMIT YOUR PROPOSAL