Episode 491: Reflecting on Rocky Mountain Ruby with Bekki Freeman
Oct 11, 2023
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Bekki Freeman, a Ruby and Rails expert, reflects on organizing the Rocky Mountain Ruby conference, discussing challenges like ordering T-shirts, selecting proposals, and smooth conference management. They highlight the smooth operation, enjoyable aspects, and express gratitude towards the organizer and sponsors. Additionally, they mention their absence from social media and provide alternative ways to connect.
The Rocky Mountain Ruby Conference provided ample networking opportunities during the two-hour lunch breaks, allowing attendees to engage in meaningful conversations and build connections.
The conference had a good balance between personal and technical talks, with speakers presenting practical insights and creating an enjoyable experience.
Deep dives
Rocky Mountain Ruby Conference Experience
Becky Freeman shares her experience as an organizer of the Rocky Mountain Ruby Conference. She highlights feeling energized by being around people after working from home for a long time, but also admits to feeling exhausted afterwards. The conference had a smooth registration process and a well-structured volunteer area. The two-hour lunch breaks provided ample networking opportunities, with attendees enjoying conversations and getting to know each other. Becky also mentions the possibility of giving a talk at next year's conference and expresses gratitude to the conference organizer Spike and the sponsor Gusto.
Highlights of the Talks
Becky and Elise discuss their favorite talks from the conference. They mention the opening keynote on making scary choices, which resonated with Becky's own experiences. They also enjoyed talks on modularizing Rails monoliths using pack work, and caching strategies. The speakers were praised for presenting practical insights and engaging the audience. The balance between personal and technical talks, as well as the serendipitous thematic connections between talks, added to the enjoyable conference experience.
Networking and Community Building
Becky and Elise discuss the importance of networking and community building at conferences. They appreciate the extended lunch breaks, which provided ample time for meaningful conversations and connections among attendees. The positive and friendly atmosphere of the Ruby community was highlighted, including the willingness to support each other and engage in discussions. The speakers were encouraged to submit talk proposals for future conferences, and Becky also expresses a desire to see an organized happy hour event to further facilitate networking.
Bekki Freeman has been working with Ruby and Rails for 8 years. Recently, she helped organize the Rocky Mountain Ruby conference. She joins Elise this week to reflect on the conference, talk about what it was like organizing, and make some karaoke plans with Elise
Rocky Mountain Ruby T-Shirts: In the show we said we'd include a link, but then found out there is a minimum order quantity. If you didn't get a shirt and would like one, reach out to Bekki on LinkedIn and she'll try to get a group order together.
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