I was thrilled to get to attend RailsConf 2023 in Atlanta this year. It was my first RailsConf, and my first national in-person conference post-covid and close to my one year anniversary at thoughtbot.
thoughtbot at RailsConf 2023 ATL
We had two people speak, hosted an informal outdoor event, and sponsored as a supporting level sponsor.
Our Speakers
First up was Joël Quenneville, The Math Every Programmer Needs Slides Here. I made everyone take a selfie with me as we waited for Joël to begin.
Joël’s talk made sense even if you don’t know anything about code or math which I really appreciated.
Great way to celebrate 10 years of working at thoughtbot by speaking at RailConf to a packed house!
Aji Slater presented on Hotwiring My React Brain, with truly impressive graphics and comedic timing, who is also celebrating an annivesary at thoughtbot of 1 year.
If you love this kind of Rails content be sure to also check out The Tightly Coupled Book Club Podcast, where Mina and Aji read Rails Guides and discuss them in a book club format. I also made them take a selfie with me and in fact made them walk over to the window so we would get that natural light.
thoughtbot socials
After spending a day indoors we held a casual hang in the Centennial Park. We got lucky with the weather AND for having recently hired Sally Ladrach, a local Atlanta resident, who brought us all snacks and lawn games. We had over 100 people sign up and over 80 attend.
My favorite was hearing from people who have either learned, worked with or for thoughtbot and had real positive affect on the career and/or product trajectory. For me it’s also important to have events that are family friendly, and even though we were technically playing lawn beer pong I promise there was no alcohol involved.
Ok we’re only through the first day and there was a lot of other great content and events happening at RailsConf! Here are just a few highlights. There were SO many great talks, and I am planning on going back to watch a few more once they’re available.
Other Talks and Highlights
- Opening Keynote - Eileen M. Uchitelle, The Magic of Rails (Slides here). How starting off attending RailsConf led to being a core contributor, for the community and the future.
- The Power of Improv: Unlocking Your Creative Potential as a Developer, Gary Ware, My favorite part about this was learning to say “ta-da” after you make a mistake.
- A Brewers Guide to Filtering out Complexity and Churn. Alan Riddlehoover and Fito von Zastrow Alfonso - how rehydrating your DRY code can help you reduce complexity - Cisco Meraki is hiring!
- Hacking Your Emotional API John Sawers about the super hard skills of feeling your emotions
- Next Gen Image in Rails App, JP Balarini People suggested after the talk this could be a nice addition to Rails, and so this Rails PR PR ports some of the gem’s functionality.
Final shoutouts
Special thanks to the organizers, volunteers, and other sponsors who made this event happen. With thoughtbot being fully remote it was super nice just to get to hang out in person with other people.
At the end of RailsConf this year Jonan and Ruby Central launched the Ruby Central Membership Program for \$25/month.
Also check out the Ruby on Rails podcast RailsConf 2023 !
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