Closing Day 1

by Andy Croll

In the video "Closing Day 1" of RailsConf 2024, speaker Andy Croll reflects on the first day of the conference and provides an overview of what attendees can expect for Day 2. He expresses gratitude towards those who appreciated his earlier session during the British Invasion and encourages community engagement through mentoring, particularly highlighting the Ruby Friend website. Croll emphasizes the importance of mentorship in the Ruby community, urging experienced developers to support early career developers.

Key points highlighted include:

Mentoring Opportunities: Croll shares a personal anecdote about receiving thanks for the Ruby Friend website initiative that pairs mentors with junior developers.
Day 2 Preview: He outlines the schedule, mentioning a keynote from John Horon, and describes the environment that attendees can expect, including a transformed room layout that will incorporate natural light.
Hack Day Information: The upcoming hack day will feature notable open-source maintainers, allowing participants to collaborate on projects and make first contributions to the Rails ecosystem.
Workshops and Collaboration: Croll informs that workshops do not require prior signups, encouraging attendees to prepare in advance through Slack channels for optimal experience.
Social and Networking Events: He outlines various social events planned for the evening, including a dinner, a game night, and opportunities for informal discussions in Birds of a Feather sessions, creating spaces for attendees to connect over shared interests.
Pitch Party and Networking: Attendees are invited to pitch their project ideas to gather teams for rapid project creation aimed at enhancing engagement and collaboration.
Office Hours: There will be sessions where developers can receive consulting and support from experts to address any project-related queries.

Croll concludes by encouraging attendees to actively participate in the events, highlighting the supportive and collaborative nature of the Rails community. Overall, he promotes an inclusive environment geared towards learning, collaboration, and community building within the developer ecosystem.

00:00:11.000 All right, there we go. Welcome back, everybody. I'm back. You could say that day one of RailsConf is signed, sealed, and delivered.

00:00:27.920 I would like to thank all the folks who enjoyed my efforts during the British Invasion this morning, and equally thank those who didn't enjoy it but were kind enough to politely ignore me. So, thanks for that. Tomorrow, Ufuk will be doing the introductions, so you'll be spared my nonsense unless you specifically seek me out for conversation.

00:00:49.079 While I'm up here, I was reminded in the corridor when someone stopped me and thanked me for the opportunity they had to mentor as part of the first Ruby Friend website that I put together a couple of years ago. It’s an opportunity for folks in our community to help early career developers who are not in their workplace. Even if you're not super experienced, you would be surprised at how useful you can be to someone who's only a year behind you. I would recommend that you sign up to be a mentor and encourage any junior developers you happen to meet. This is my attempt at weaponizing the friendliness of the Ruby community, and I know a bunch of people in this room have done this, so I thank you very much for your efforts.

00:01:34.720 We can always do more. Now, for day two, I’m going to give you a little bit of a preview before we get onto our final keynote of the day. There will be more information tomorrow; I don't want to overload you as there’s a lot happening. Breakfast is happening again tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. The show starts with Ufuk doing an intro, followed by a keynote from John Horon, and then the hack day begins.

00:01:53.000 That wall behind you will disappear. I mean not in a magic way; they roll it back, but it will. The wall will disappear and this room will open up. We will open all the doors, and there’ll be natural light from the far side. It’s going to be great. There’ll be workshops downstairs and various other bits and pieces I’m not going to get into now.

00:02:21.400 A few high-level things for you to think about as you're having a civil dinner this evening. After we’ve done the hack day, which lasts most of the day, there will be a working lunch in the middle of it. There’s a social event on the balcony, which is on the other side of the room where we all had lunch today, and evening entertainment including game night.

00:02:42.879 There’s going to be a bunch of open source maintainers here tomorrow working on their projects. You can work side by side with notable maintainers and pair with experienced open source contributors to make your first pull requests to the Rails ecosystem or maybe just build something. As for the workshops, you don’t have to sign up if you want to attend a workshop, but I do recommend getting in the Slack channels for any pre-download to get yourself ready so that you can hit the ground running tomorrow.

00:03:11.400 Everyone, please put your phones down. People are still taking pictures in front of the QR codes. There is also a pitch party, so bring a project idea and pitch it to the audience to gather a team to quickly create something and make it a reality. Those pitches will be at 10:30 after the keynote in Room 141 downstairs.

00:03:30.760 There will also be a demo session at the end of the day, so if you're thinking about doing something like that, have a think about it now. Additionally, there will be Birds of a Feather sessions, which are impromptu attendee-created topics for discussion such as career advice, new technologies, old technologies—anything you want really. We will just get out of your way if you want to chat about something.

00:03:54.680 We’ve reserved six spaces downstairs for the Birds of a Feather discussions, which are effectively little cardboard family table-type setups. There will be easels, pens, and stuff for you all to have your discussions. You can arrange them in Slack or just roll up to an existing one that seems to be happening. Lastly, I want to talk about office hours. You can bring any project or problems, and the consulting Rails experts at Evil Martians can help you out.