Chronicles of a Woloxer in the RailsConf 2016
Three weeks before RailsConf started, my friend and CTO of Increase, Agustin, suggested we should go to the conference. We had just talked about ways to get involved in the Rails community a bit more, so, it was perfect. I have always watched other conferences through online videos, so I thought how much better would it be to see in person! The only uncertainty I had was brought on by the distance of the trip, from Buenos Aires to Kansas City. However, after some online research, I was easily convinced we couldn’t miss it, we were both super eager to go and have the full experience. It was time to step away from the computer screen and see the talks in person.
This is my full guide to the RailsConf, what we saw, learned and experienced over the three astonishing days and the main attraction weren’t just the speakers you see online. Maybe after you read it, you will also make the leap!
Day 0
We arrived to Kansas City (KC) the day before the RailsConf. So, we did some exploring. While we walked around, I was constantly checking Twitter for updates under a popular hashtag for the conf. (Which is my first tip, make sure you have an active Twitter account to stay in the loop). People were talking about meeting up in a bar, so we willingly went to check out the action. As we entered the bar we immediately saw a bunch of people that seemed just like us, wondering around a new city, excited and ready to experience their first conf in USA. Even some of the conf speakers were winding down with a beer, chatting and networking like the rest of us.
After some drinks and a few hours of getting to know people and their different experiences from all around the world, we were buzzing with happiness and thought: what’s the best way to finish the day in a ‘KC way’? Have the best barbecue ribs in town.
During that delicious meal we couldn’t stop talking about all the different things we learned that night and prepared for the long day that was coming.
Day 1
We were ready and excited with big smiles on our faces as we walked through the doors of the KC Convention Center. We took a quick photo to update people in Buenos Aires, only to realize later, we were photobombed by the unique and stealthy Richard Schneeman.
How can I explain the feeling of being in the same room of so many Rails Celebrities? Never being to a USA conference before, it was exciting and overwhelming. As you would rarely see people you admire from the Ruby community in Argentina, we felt like we were at the Rails Hollywood Red Carpet!
The timetable for the day had many talks scheduled at the same time (with different topics every day). The first day it was Hiring & Retaining, Junior Dev, Behind the magic, Sponsored and Workshops. The week prior, we had printed the timetables and divided the talks between us: according to those that had the best content according to our needs at Wolox and Increase. After the first few hours we wished there were more of us to see all of the interesting speakers. Also, there were many awesome workshops that had caught our attention, but we didn’t want to miss the talks.
After the first session was over, we followed the group to get a caffeine fix and muffins. But, that wasn’t the best thing about the coffee break. I saw many people around that I was following on Twitter, Github and have seen in many videos and pull request comments. So, I just had to introduce myself to all of them, or at least shake their hand once! And that’s what we did.
Our first day was full of interesting talks, interesting chats and lots of networking with people from all over the globe. From developers, that have just started using Rails, to the #1 contributor of Rails.
At 6pm, it was time for drinks. There were 3 after parties going on (that’s not a typo, I meant 3!). We were up for all of them, because we just wanted to experience everything. The first one had excellent speakers, including Mike Perham from Sidekiq and we had some free snacks, drinks and games. Then we went to the other after parties for more drinks and socializing. And we kept meeting awesome people.
Day 2
Almost every developer, or non-developer, like to have their computers full of stickers and to have some awesome merchandise. It was the day of Sponsors stands. Imagine two kids walking through the gates of Disneyland, well…Yeah, that was us. The place was filled with Sponsors stands as far as the eye could see. And every one of them had something different, from silly games with awesome prizes, free coffee, shirts, VR Cardboards, raffle prizes and much more! At each one, cool people shared information about their service or product.
These are just the few stickers we collected from our day:
For Sponsor day, be prepared to carry your usual backpack and 3 more bags. You will want to bring stickers for all your friends back home, something for your partner and cool stuff for the office.
Another cool thing about this day is that, if you missed the chance to present a proposal to be a speaker, there are some lightning talks the last day on the main stage where anyone can give a 5 minute talk, so be ready for that! You’ll just need to sign up on a special board in the main corridor.
A similar day, as the previous one, continued. Packed full of talks and lots of networking.
Between talks, I was on top of what was going on Twitter. Lucky I was, as there was a talk from Sandi Metz in one of the free rooms in the Convention Center that was not scheduled in the main timetable. So, I ran there, I just couldn’t miss it.There were only a few of us, I couldn’t believe it! I was so happy to have such an opportunity, getting to meet Sandi and took this selfie:
There was a Live session where they talked about several cool things. During the Q&A at the end, everyone were too shy to ask anything, so, Sandi asked us “Why aren’t you giving a talk right now in the other rooms?”, she then gave us some tips on losing the fear to talk in public, and thanks to that, I’m back home, ready to submit a Proposal for the RubyConf in Colombia.
Day 3
Day three came with lots of talks on different topics and we kept on meeting new people. My advice here is, don’t be afraid of saying hi to people and share your thoughts, you have one shot here, everyone is open to listen to you and share their own experiences too.
Summary
So, going back to my original debate about going or not, the answer is: DEFINITELY GO! The talks you are able to see online of the Conf are not even the best part of it, and they are quite good!.The real Conf experience happens in the coffee and lunch breaks where you have the chance to meet and ask everything you want to speakers or attendees. If you don’t want to ask something in front of everybody, after each session the speakers stay around for you to meet them and have a second chance to ask your questions. Don’t waste this opportunities!
And to sum up, here are some other things I have taken from those 3 days with some tips for your next RailsConf:
- Back home, you will want to dedicate all your time to contribute to every open source projects people talk about. And you should do it! There are lots of talks about the ways of doing it. There are many things the community gives us and you should do the same starting with a comment in a PR, an issue, etc.
- Don’t forget your personal business card and take lots of stickers with you! And ask for cards from the people you meet. You might want to ask something one day and you will regret not having their email. And people love stickers, so they will love having yours too!
- Don’t be afraid of talking to those geniuses that you think have super powers because they push code into Rails. They are just like you, with a bit more of coding in their hands, that’s all.
- Give it a try and submit your talk in the Call for Proposals. There are many kinds of talks, simple, complicated, for juniors, for non tech people. And if you don’t know what to talk about, Sandi told me to take note of everything I learn and think if yourself from one year ago would love to know that, then that’s your talk!
- Remember to prepare something short for the lightning talks before hand. You don’t usually have the opportunity to speak in front of many people, even for 5 minutes! It’s totally worth it.
- Keep updated with the Twitter information going on with the main hashtags.
- If you come from a city like ours where the community is quite small, it’s a good opportunity to know more people with the same interests.
- Try leaving everything tidy, back home, to avoid having to work during the talks. Time flies and you’ll want to make the most of it.
Hope I see you in the next RailsConf, in the meantime don’t hesitate to contact me for more info about my experience!
Post by Esteban Pintos, CTO at Wolox, @egpintos (esteban.pintos@wolox.com.ar)
