BenCurtis.com

In my last post about RailsConf, I announced my intention to donate $1,000 to Ruby Central. I’m going to do that by donating $4 for each of 250 business cards I give away at the conference to people I meet there. To give you a little extra incentive to find me, take a card, and even hang on it to for a while, I’ve made it a collector’s item. :) Take a look:

The front…

...and the back:

See you in Portland!

For me, there are two reasons to go to conferences like RailsConf: to learn cool stuff, and to meet cool people. I have no doubts that this year’s RailsConf will be great on the content side. I am a bit worried that it will suck on the people side, though. It’s not that I think the people there won’t be cool, it’s just that there will be so many people to meet!

Canada on Rails was a fun, single-track conference where I got to meet a bunch of great people for the first time (in person, at least). RailsConf06 was similarly fun, but on a bigger scale. It was a bummer to have to miss out on some of the content because of the multi-track format. RubyConf06 was fun like Canada on Rails was. The content and people were excellent at all three, but there is something to be said for having a smaller crowd.

So, I want you to help make RailsConf not suck (at least, for me), and I’m going to give you an incentive to do so. I want to meet you. Really. I’ve probably chatted with you on IRC, or exchanged emails with you on the mailing list, or maybe you just read my blog. At any rate, I want to put a face with a name, and with 1,200+ people at the conference center, that’s going to be a bit of challenge. I want you to find me.

Why should you bother? Here’s why: If you find me, introduce yourself, and take one of my business cards, I will donate $4 to Ruby Central. I’m going to print up a batch of 250 cards just for RailsConf, so if I meet 250 people and give away all these cards, I’ll donate $1,000 to Ruby Central.

Here’s a pic of me so you can find me. I’m looking forward to meeting you. :)

Just a reminder, now that RailsConf registration is now open… don’t forget to create your account at the RailsConf 2007 Meetup site. The password is “chunky bacon”.

Update:

If you created your account before today, go back and update your profile to add URLs for your site and your feed, if you have them.

I just launched a ConferenceMeetup site for RailsConf 2007. As I wrote in my post announcing ConferenceMeetup, this was an app inspired by what I wish I would have had when I attended RailsConf 2006 and RubyConf 2006, and I hope others attending RailsConf this year will find it useful.

If you’re planning on attending RailsConf this year, you’re welcome to create a page for yourself at the RailsConf 2007 ConferenceMeetup site. You’ll need to enter the conference password to create your account. The password is “chunky bacon” (without the quotes). With the huge turnout that’s expected to be at the conference, this may be the best way to “bump into” the people you’d like to meet while you’re there.

If you have comments or suggestions about the site, I’d love to hear them. Feel free to let me know what you think.

RailsConf was a blast—I’m so glad I was able to go… thanks to my employer for paying my way. Giving a presentation was very exciting, and the great feedback I got is appreciated. It was fun to meet Tobi of Shopify and ‘talk shop’ a bit. :) I also got to meet the first person who purchased my Rails e-commerce book, and that was cool (he even gave me some great feedback on material to include in the next release of the book). It was so much fun that I can see the appeal of being a professional speaker, except for the travel that that would require.

I have put up my slides from my presentation, but I don’t know how useful they will be without actually hearing the presentation, since most of the content was in what I said, not in the slides.

Most of the other presentations were fantastic—there were only one or two where I felt like my time would have been better spent elsewhere. The people I met were also fantastic. It is such a pleasure to be a part of this community. I would say the trip was definitely worth it, even if would have had to pay my own way.