Each edition of QA&TEST turns Bilbao into a meeting point for professionals who share a common challenge: ensuring the quality, reliability and security of increasingly complex software systems.
And if there is one thing the registrations we are receiving for QA&TEST Embedded 2026 clearly reflect, it is the international and cross-industry nature that has characterised the conference throughout its 25 editions.
This October, we will welcome professionals to Bilbao from numerous European countries, from the Iberian Peninsula to the Nordic countries and Central and Eastern Europe, as well as from Asia and the Americas.
Different places of origin, different markets and different business realities, but many technological challenges in common.
One conference, many industries
The diversity is not only geographical. The professionals who have already confirmed their participation work for organisations operating in a wide variety of fields.
We find specialists from the financial sector and payment systems, alongside professionals from medical technology and diagnostics; companies working in railway and mobility, industrial automation and energy, and the development of semiconductors and electronic components.
Other fields represented include robotics and autonomous systems, agricultural machinery and technology, instrumentation and measurement systems, technology services and consulting, as well as companies linked to software, digital platforms and online entertainment.
These may appear to be very different sectors, but they share a common reality: software plays an increasingly critical role in their products, services and processes.
When testing challenges go beyond industries
What can a payment system have in common with a medical device? A railway solution with a digital platform? An industrial automation system with an intelligent agricultural machine?
Probably much more than it might seem.
The growing complexity of software, automation, the incorporation of artificial intelligence, the need to ensure system reliability and increasingly demanding requirements mean that many of the challenges related to testing and quality are now shared across multiple industries.
That is precisely why one of the key values of QA&TEST lies in looking beyond one’s own industry.
A methodology applied in an industrial environment can offer a different perspective to a professional in the healthcare sector. A strategy developed for a highly regulated system can inspire new ways of working in other environments. And an experience from a purely digital company can open up new possibilities for industrial organisations.
Sharing these experiences is what allows knowledge to travel from one industry to another.
An international community coming together in Bilbao
Since its first edition in 2001, QA&TEST has aimed to provide a space for sharing knowledge and experiences in software testing and quality. Twenty-five editions later, this community continues to grow, bringing together professionals from multiple industries and countries.
In 2026, the programme addresses some of the challenges currently transforming the sector: AI applied to testing and the testing of AI-enabled systems, automation, critical and regulated systems, quality management, new testing techniques and sustainability, among others.
But QA&TEST is also about what happens between sessions: the conversations between professionals who would probably never cross paths in their day-to-day work.
For three days, Bilbao will once again bring together experiences from different countries, industries and technological cultures around a common language: software testing and quality.
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