We’re back from Ruby Fringe.  Everyone who was there declared it the best conference they have ever attended.  There were a huge number of highlights, the speakers were awesome, and I can honestly say I walked away both educated and inspired.

The spirit of the conference was very positive.  There was no official back channel, because the people running the con felt that it promoted cynicism.  There was, however, an unofficial back channel, and it was filled with positive comments and constructive criticism.

The difference was, absolutely, in the speeches.  With a few exceptions, very few people talked about their products, and those that did managed to make it interesting.  I walked away with a download list a mile long.

Those people who didn’t talk about products, but instead talked about their business and their life and their interests, really did a good job of it.  Even those people pitching a product managed to do so without sounding like they were shilling.

Really, though, so much of it was “you had to be there.”  I mean, how many other conferences have people whipped out their backlit cell phones and waved them in sync while the presenter did a musical performance with some software he had hacked together?

Yeah.  That’s how a conference should be run.

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This entry was posted on Friday, July 25th, 2008 at 4:25 pm and is filed under Ruby. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.