Another point to ponder (that has also been raised before, but is worth re-raising IMHO) - what technologies would such a conference cover? And related to this, what would you call it?
The "Rails" community now includes a lot of people who do very little Ruby on Rails - or even if they use it to pay the bills, it's not necessarily what makes them enthusiastic. It's a useful brand for the community, and I wouldn't consider renaming RailsCamp to anything else, but a conference is a bit different, as you want (presumably) to attract speakers and attendees from outside the core community. You could do a "Ruby" conference, but then would you include: - Node.js / CoffeeScript / other neo-javascript stuff - Mongodb / Couchdb / other NoSQL stuff - Html5/Css3/Browser-land stuff - Iphone / Ipad / Icrutch / Android / Other phone stuff - Erlang / Clojure / Ioke / F# / Go / Other poly-language stuff I guess you could restrict it to Ruby/Rails - but I for one would love a conference that covers a bit more. Yow! is the closest fit we have, but it's kind of pricey for the average developer. (Still looks awesome - take a look at the speakers http://yowaustralia.com.au/melbourne/speakers/index.html ) - Korny On Wed, Jun 9, 2010 at 11:28 AM, Pat Allan <[email protected]> wrote: > As Ben's pointed out, this isn't the first time the topic has been > raised... I'm often quite vocal about it, so apologies to those who've heard > me go on about this before, but here's a few things to consider: > > * Putting on a Rails Camp is a lot of work. Putting on a conference is a > level beyond that. Who is going to pay for your time? I definitely think > whoever runs the conference (and don't try and do it yourself - you need a > small team!) should be paid at least something for putting it together, but > conferences are also most certainly not money-making ventures. > > * Speaking of Rails Camps - we have two of these each year. Granted, > they're a little different, and not everyone's cup of tea, but I think it's > still worth asking: why do we need a conference? I'm not saying we > definitely don't need one, but just want to get the thinking laid out. > > * Many regional conferences are quite informal affairs - something I feel > Rails Camps cover quite neatly. So, if a conference was to happen, I think > it should be a grand and special event - more like a FutureRuby or > NordicRuby than a RailsConf. Great food, catered parties, quality speakers. > Especially if we want to attract overseas speakers and attendees. This is > not the cheap path, though. > > For what it's worth, I've gotten to several conferences over the last few > years, and FutureRuby was far and away the best one. Happy to expand further > on why if anyone's truly interested. > > * There are a lot of Ruby and Rails conferences around the world already. > Europe had four in May! Yes, we are pretty remote, so most of us don't get > to these conferences often (or at all), but the same will apply for those > outside of Australia who we'd like to have come along to our conference. > > * The previous point is important because a good part of the Australian > Ruby community see each other regularly as it is, via monthly meets and > Rails Camps. We've got a pretty amazing community here, and I want to share > that with the world - but it's not going to be easy. > > > I don't want to put an end to these discussions, because I think there's > great potential for an amazing event, and I'd love to help out, but I'm also > wary that with regular Rails Camps, we've got community events kinda covered > already, and want to make sure there's a need. And, should this happen, I > just think the target from the start should be to run something a cut above > normal. Hell, a cut above great. > > -- > Pat > e: [email protected] || m: +614 1327 3337 > w: http://freelancing-gods.com || t: twitter.com/pat > bounce: http://trampolineday.com || skype: patallan > > On 09/06/2010, at 10:48 AM, Luke Chadwick wrote: > > > Hey Everyone, > > I discovered, in a discussion last night at the Sydney Meetup, > > that there has never been a Ruby/Rails Conference in Australia. I find > > this to be sad, and want to rectify the situation. > > > > I am happy to take a hand in starting to organize an event if there is > > interest in actually seeing it happen. > > > > To get the ball rolling, can I get a show of hands who would attend a > > RubyConf in Sydney? > > > > Regards, > > > > Luke > > > > -- > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Ruby or Rails Oceania" group. > > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]<rails-oceania%[email protected]> > . > > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/rails-oceania?hl=en. > > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Ruby or Rails Oceania" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]<rails-oceania%[email protected]> > . > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/rails-oceania?hl=en. > > -- Kornelis Sietsma korny at my surname dot com kornys on twitter/fb/gtalk/gwave www.sietsma.com/korny "Every jumbled pile of person has a thinking part that wonders what the part that isn't thinking isn't thinking of" -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Ruby or Rails Oceania" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rails-oceania?hl=en.
