It has been a while since I’d attended a conference that gave me such an energy boost that I feel compelled to write about it, but that’s what happened at Rails World 2023 back in October.

I’ve been to conferences before, but Rails World was something different. For starters, I went alone. I was meeting a friend there once I arrived but apart from that everything was completely unplanned, which is very unusual for me. Typically when I’m at a conference I’ll watch a few talks and then keep myself to myself, hanging around with whoever my crowd is that’s there with me. When you’re going it alone though, you either dive in or run away. So I went for it.

I honestly can’t remember most of it because it was such a blur of activity. I know I only went to 3-4 talks, but I feel like I did nothing but talk and absorb information the entire time. From meeting new people, to meeting people I’ve known or seen around for a long time, the entire conference was a huge success for me personally, and by all accounts everyone else thought it was hugely successful too.

Before Rails World I would have said there are only two reasons people go to conferences: networking and talks. But Rails World gave me something else:

Inspiration

I don’t even think anything has necessarily changed, but I’m looking at this strange career we call programming in a completely different way, especially as a Ruby programmer. The entire event was inspiring, even if the day-to-day hasn’t changed yet.

Here’s to you Rails World for energising me in a way that coffee never could.