My fifth RubyConf AU! I have attended all of the RubyConf AUs, except the 2017 one :(
This year RubyConf AU 2018 was held in the picturesque Pyrmont Sydney. Which coincidentally just 5 minutes walk from my work 😃
This particular conference was special to me as I have the honour to be one of the volunteers. I have had an amazing time working with the organisers and the other volunteers - they were just really a bunch of lovely people. I personally saw a glimpse on how much time and efforts (and tears?) that the organisers had put in to make this conference possible.
About the conference itself, we had about 400+ attendees, pretty good turn out I’d say. I saw a lot of new faces which is a sign of healthy community, I have observed this with the Sydney RORO meetup itself.
Some of the highlights for me:
- Sandi Metz - what an awesome person that she is. She came quite early on the first day and she shook hand with every single volunteer and thanking each one of us.
- Sandi again - her keynote is about (my paraphrase) persuasion - changing yourselves so you can change other. Have a strong opinion but weakly held.
- Katie McLaughin’s talk made me want to ridicule JavaScript less, languages’ quirkiness are there for good reasons.
- Michael Morris’s talk on Ruby and Mario Kart - my oh my, some people just have too much time on their hands - but awesome project, the most entertaining talk for me.
- Ken Scambler’s talk, this is the one that I want to watch with my team, it’s about how to successfully introduce a new technology to a team (my paraphrase). Actual title is A human approach to Functional Programming.
- Lauren Tan’s talk, how Netflix uses Ruby - I bought this book: Designing Data-Intensive Application that she recommended.
- Alaina Kafkes’ talk on tackling technical writing makes me want to write more.
The biggest highlight for me was the opportunity to catch up with old friends as well as making new connections and even more awesome connecting people with other people.
It dawned on me, networking, OK scrap that word, connecting with others and helping people is something that I enjoy doing and it should be a focus whenever I go to conferences or meetups, sure I will learn a thing or two - but I reckon the relationship is what matters.
Keep being awesome Ruby community!