On this episode of Ruby for All, Andrew attended RailsConf 2023 and talks about his experience at it, how he focused on socializing with friends and co-workers, and attended fewer talks than before. There were some great talks he heard and keynotes he really enjoyed, especially Aaron Patterson, who proposed the idea of Rails shipping its own LSP for Ruby and Rails. Also, a highlight was that this conference had a greater focus on early career developers, offering headshots and resume reviews, which was super cool.   Next year’s conference will be in Detroit, and RubyConf 2023 is coming up in November in San Diego, so Julie and Andrew are both excited to attend this one and Andrew will have stickers in case you missed out. Hit download to hear more cool stuff!  

[00:02:16] Andrew kicks things off telling us about RailsConf and seeing his crew.

[00:04:25] Andrew mentions he attended fewer talks than before and focuses on the social aspect of meeting his friends and expresses his interest in learning more about asset management in Rails. 

[00:05:58] Julie asks Andrew about Sprockets, and he explains. 

[00:07:54] He talks about the sponsor exhibit hall at RailsConf, and talking to people from Crunchy Data, a Postgres service, and the RubyMine people from Jet Brains, which he wants to start using again. He mentions the RubyMine IDE and its features. 

[00:11:48] Andrew highlights Eileen Uchitelle and Aaron Patterson’s keynotes, with Aaron Patterson proposing the idea of Rails shipping its own Language Server Protocol (LSP) for Ruby and Rails.

[00:13:38] Andrew also enjoyed attending talks by his co-worker Vincent and Drew Bragg, which was a ton of fun.

[00:15:16] Did Andrew go to any cool events? He hung out with some people for dinner, but was having major social anxiety, which caused him to stick by his friend Jason.

[00:19:12] This year’s RailsConf had more focus on early career developers, and he spent more time with them.  Also, Andrew met a lot of people who listen to the podcast. 

[00:23:26] Julie liked that the conference was focused on early career devs and wishes there was a regional conference that was geared solely to early career devs. 

[00:24:11] Next year RailsConf is in Detroit, and Andrew and Julie are looking forward to going to RubyConf 2023 in San Diego which will be Nov 13-15.

[00:24:54] Yes, Andrew did pass out stickers at the conference, and many people asked for more. He also thanks all the sponsors that made it a success. 

Panelists:

Andrew Mason

Julie J.

Sponsors:

Honeybadger

GoRails

Links:

Andrew Mason Twitter

Andrew Mason Website

Julie J. Twitter

Julie J. Website

Sprockets Rails
Shopify-Ruby LSP Rails

Crunchy Data

Jet Brains-RubyMine

Ruby Conferences 

• (02:16) - RailsConf highlights and socializing with friends
• (04:25) - Interest in learning about asset management in Rails
• (05:58) - Andrew explains Sprockets
• (07:54) - Visiting sponsor exhibit hall and highlights of Jet Brains
• (11:48) - Keynote highlights from Eileen Uchitelle and Aaron Patterson
• (13:38) - Enjoying talks by co-worker Vincent and Drew Bragg
• (15:16) - Dealing with social anxiety at the conference
• (19:12) - More focus on early career developers at RailsConf
• (23:26) - Andrew met listeners of the podcast at the conference
• (24:11) - Upcoming RailsConf and RubyConf dates
• (24:54) - Stickers and sponsor thanks at RailsConf