Who is René van Veldhuijzen?
Strategic Consultant
René van Veldhuijzen, aka Testimist, firmly believes that the Test profession is the best within IT. As a Test Specialist he helps customers with their need for a grip on quality, processes and products. Next to that he wants to learn from his peers, and pass any knowledge he has on Testing, Automation in Testing and other skills to the community. René has been active as a Test Specialist since 1998.
With various non-Testing roles such as Academy Coach, Business Manager and Oracle Alliance Manager, his passion has always remained Software Testing, from politically sensitive projects in Test Management roles to creating Test scripts using Test Automation. As the Strategic Consultant at Squerist, he performs high end consultancy at customers, provides workshops, assessments & training and is the catalyst for many initiatives in the companies quest to become a strategic partner to a diversity of businesses. René calls himself a Test Positivo, combining ubiquitous testing principles with Automation in Testing and Robotic Process Automation into integrated automation solutions for customers.
Talking about Testing and Automation in Testing has brought René on stage at venues like Accelerate (Tricentis in Austria), SeeTest (Romania), Test Automation Days (Netherlands), Testing United (Slovakia, Italy), EuroSTAR (Danmark and Scotland), TestCon (Lithuania), Targeting Quality (Canada) and as a keynote at TAPOST (Latvia).
As the Testimist, René is the propagator of the Fun Driven Testing methodology, which is reflected in his work and presentations. As organizer of the Dutch conference TestMass, René found a positive way to spread knowledge about Testing. As organizer of the Ministry of Testing Netherlands chapter meetups and co-organizer for the 29th Dutch Testing Day, he makes a modest contribution to a healthy Testing climate.
What will René van Veldhuijzen be discussing?
1664: The World of QA if the Dutch had resisted selling New Amsterdam
What if the Dutch had never ceded New Amsterdam to the English in 1664? What if the United States had become de Verenigde Staten van Amerika, Dutch was the global language, and AI prompting defaulted to “Schrijf een gedicht over kaas”? This talk explores an alternate timeline where Dutch culture shaped the digital world — and draws a sharp parallel to the essence of Quality Assurance: asking “What if…?”
In this playful yet thought-provoking session, we will examine how unexpected user behavior mirrors historical unpredictability. Just as history did not follow the script, neither do users. Requirements often assume a linear future, but QA thrives in the nonlinear, in edge cases, in leap years and the 0.00 euro transactions.
We will reframe testers as alternate history detectives: reconstructing what could go wrong, asking the questions no one dared to ask, and preventing the bug wars of tomorrow. Through absurd visuals, Dutchified metaphors, and real-world QA scenarios, we will discover that testing isn’t about confirming expectations…it’s about challenging them.
In a world shaped by “What if?”, Quality Assurance becomes a discipline of foresight. This session invites you to explore how historical counterfactuals illuminate the unpredictable nature of users, systems, and assumptions. By challenging the default, testers build resilience into the digital landscape. Not by confirming what we expect, but by preparing for what we don’t. Join to reimagine QA as the architecture of adaptability, where every klomp-shaped insight reminds us: the future belongs to those who test it.
