I call it a Conference season because we just had 6 Ruby conferences in four consecutive weeks on three continents. And that's wild!
This is just a testament to how vibrant and healthy the Ruby community really is.
The conferences
Wroclove.rb started the season on September 15th in the beautiful city of Wroclaw, Poland.
Euruko 2023 happened between 21-23 September in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Friendly.rb was next on the 27th and 28th of September in Bucharest, Romania.
Rails World happened on October 5-6 in Amsterdam.
Rocky Mountain Ruby happened at the same time on October 5-6 in Boulder, Colorado.
Ruby Conf Thailand quickly followed on October 6-7 in Bangkok, Thailand.
The Triathlon
I was able to attend Euruko, Friendly.rb, and Rails World, alongside 8 other cool folks. We jokingly named ourselves "The Triathlon Nine". It's silly, I know, but we did it anyway.
Euruko
I was in contact with Ali and Sergy for most of the past year and I know how many hurdles they had to overcome to make this event a reality.
Euruko is a traveling event organized annually, every year in a different European city chosen by the participants. It has a legacy from 2003 and it has to be just right.
I think they did it right.
The venue was pretty cool, the Technical University of Vilnius. It was mainly one large track with a secondary stage for sponsors, and others that wanted to present their work.
This year's edition also introduced an unconf format where participants submitted talks and then voted on who they wanted to see on stage. I was super happy to get the chance to talk a little bit about internal tools, and Avo.
The talks were pretty varied with guests from all over the globe.
Another cool surprise was a talk from Matz delivered through video and a live discussion panel, live from Japan.
After the first day, we had a train waiting for us at the train station to take us to a nice brewery where we partied, courtesy of Appsignal. You heard that right. A train full of Ruby developers (on rails)... pun intended.
I met many cool folks and put some faces to those Twitter profiles.
Friendly.rb
This is very dear to my heart because I am one of the hosts. I and my co-hosts worked for the better part of the last year to ensure this first edition is going to be memorable.
We knew that all eyes were on us.
The venue was incredible. Apollo 111 is an independent theatre with an adjacent bar. Just perfect for what we needed. Located in the heart of the city close to many food places and the Old Town.
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The photo and video crew are professionals. I chose them because they do events much bigger than Friendly.rb. I wanted to ensure that the quality of the deliverables was top-notch.
The photos are available on Flickr, and the videos are coming soon.
The line-up was sublime! We managed to do what we wanted and have famous speakers and bring newcomers to the stage. Xavier Noria, Elena Tanasoiu, Jeremy Smith, Jason Swett, Nick Sutterer, Tom de Bruijn, and Ayush Newatia were gracious enough to accept the invitation to speak.
The talks were various from Ruby, to general tech, to non-tech, mental health, and even a cool talk from Julian Cheal where he did a live-coding session producing music on stage.
The attendees had plenty of break time to talk and create connections which is the most important thing we wanted to achieve.
Rails World
Rails World was more of a festival than a conference. Amanda and the organizers went all out. The venue was stunning! The swag was great, the sponsor booths were nicely designed, but most importantly the attendees were very passionate about Rails.
If there were such a thing as "The Oscars" for Rails, then Rails World would have been it.
There were many famous folks from the Rails community and most of the Rails core team was there.
The conference started with DHH's keynote where he spoke a little bit about the past and the future. He showed a sneak peek of Turbo 8, Strada, Kamal, and a few other things.
Next came a good round of talks going a little more in-depth with all of the new goodies coming soon. I personally can't wait for the new morphing feature coming to Turbo 8.
My buddies Yaro and Marco also took the stage to speak about the future of Hotwire, show off some tools, and a few cool techniques.
There weren't many after-party activities planned by the organizers but Amsterdam has plenty to offer. Somehow... most of us ended up at the Beer Temple. If you were there, you know what I'm talking about.
Next up
I'm still looking forward to Helvetic.rb on November 24th to properly close off the Ruby Conference season.
This has been an amazing year with many travels on my part. I met wonderful folks and made new friends which I will miss until next year.
One thing is for sure. The Ruby and Rails community is not dying, but witnessing a renaissance with new tooling, new events, and new talent.
