{"id":34,"date":"2008-11-20T21:13:03","date_gmt":"2008-11-21T01:13:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/lianaleahy\/?p=34"},"modified":"2008-11-25T15:46:17","modified_gmt":"2008-11-25T19:46:17","slug":"voices-that-matter-professional-ruby-conference-wrap-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/lianaleahy\/2008\/11\/20\/voices-that-matter-professional-ruby-conference-wrap-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Voices That Matter: Professional Ruby Conference Wrap Up"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n
\"Photo<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Photo by Sebastian Delmont<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

I’ve been to a few conferences in my day, and I have to say that I am a true fan of the\u00a0single track, short 30 minute presentation thing. \u00a0RubyConf was an intimate gathering of super friendly folks. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Usually, I just hang out in the back and watch. \u00a0At rubyconf2008, I was engaged and talking with everyone and at the end I felt like I was a part of something special. \u00a0I learned a lot and made a few friends and it was the best conference evah!<\/p>\n

Monday, I was scheduled to attend the\u00a0Fluent In Ruby: Getting Beyond The Basics<\/a>\u00a0workshop taught by\u00a0Russ Olsen<\/a>. \u00a0Unfortunately, my babysitter (a.k.a. MIL) went to the hospital (she’s fine now, thanks) a few hours before. \u00a0Not wanting to miss a class I was really looking forward to, I thought I’d try bringing Lilli and see what happened. \u00a0She’s a very easy going baby and I figured I could always step out and go home if she was fussy or otherwise bothering people. It was worth a shot since I live only 25 minutes away.<\/p>\n

I felt very “cosmo-mom” bringing my baby to a conference. \u00a0Of course, these events tend to be male dominated and I wasn’t sure how the guys would feel to have a pregnant lady with a baby in class. Some of the 20-somethings didn’t know where to look, but many of the attendees were fathers themselves. They made it a point to smile, ask my baby’s name and tell me about their own kids.<\/p>\n

Our speaker, Russ Olsen was a little taken aback when he heard “moaning” in the back of the room during his talk but then was pleasantly tickled to discover that it was just the coos of my little girl. \u00a0He should be flattered. \u00a0Lilli was engaged in his talk for over 3 hours. \u00a0All in all,\u00a0everyone was very kind. \u00a0And while I did feel a little awkward, Lilli enjoyed herself immensely. \u00a0That’s my girl! \u00a0<\/p>\n

Most notably, I had lunch on Wednesday with\u00a0Jon \u201cLark\u201d Larkowski,<\/a>\u00a0Tammer Saleh,<\/a>\u00a0Pat Maddox<\/a>,\u00a0Sandi Metz<\/a>,\u00a0Sophie and Carlisia. \u00a0Sandi, Sophia, Carlisia and I had sat down at a table to chat girl geek talk since we were the only four female coders at the conference. \u00a0We were engaged in a very lively discussion about gender and technology when Jon, Tammer and Pat sat down with us and joined in. \u00a0I was really pleasantly surprised that these guys weren’t intimidated by our conversation but rather were willing to hear us rant and answer our pointed questions. \u00a0<\/p>\n

In particular, we asked what kind of developer does your company prefer to hire and would adding a female coder significantly change your company culture. \u00a0Not surprisingly, ruby folk tend to prefer well rounded people who have lives away from their laptops. \u00a0And yes. \u00a0Women in the workplace does change the atmosphere but for the better in many ways.<\/p>\n

For me, the theme of this conference was community, an inclusive community of geeky hipsters where all are welcomed to contribute with their own unique viewpoints and talents. \u00a0Nice job, Obie. \u00a0And thanks for linking to me on your blog<\/a>. \u00a0Can’t wait for next year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photo by Sebastian Delmont I’ve been to a few conferences in my day, and I have to say that I am a true fan of the\u00a0single track, short 30 minute presentation thing. \u00a0RubyConf was an intimate gathering of super friendly folks. \u00a0 Usually, I just hang out in the back and watch. \u00a0At rubyconf2008, I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1911,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2403],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ruby-on-rails"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/lianaleahy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/lianaleahy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/lianaleahy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/lianaleahy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1911"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/lianaleahy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/lianaleahy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/lianaleahy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/lianaleahy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/lianaleahy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}