I'm in Matsue-Shi, Shimane-Ken for Ruby World 2013 and it's been great. This is my first large conference and I didn't know what to expect. I need some time to process the experience but I'm just going to throw some random thoughts out here while they are fresh in my mind.
#Local Support Shimane-Ken and Matsue-Shi are really getting behind Ruby in particular and IT in general. There was a big advertisement for the event at the airport and there are apparently Ruby themed Ramen noodles and some Ruby themed Japanese style sweets. A large part of the cost of the conference was also paid for by the local government. I found out later that the local government is trying to get more IT companies into the area with subsidies and cheap office space. (One of the people I talked to at the reception was saying his company is planning to set up an office in Matsue)
Here's Aaron Patterson tweeting about the sign at the airport:
Found @yukihiro_matz and @mojombo at the airport. pic.twitter.com/WLncFj2xJI
— Aaron Patterson (@tenderlove) November 20, 2013
#Suits There are a surprising number of people in suits! It looks like quite a few people have been sent by their companies. Naturally I'm aware that Ruby is used by companies but I don't remember seeing people in suits in any of the conference videos I've seen from overseas. I suspect that this is more of a Japanese thing but who knows? There was a bit more of a formal atmosphere than I'm used to with the smaller local events I've attended. Many business cards were exchanged.
#Length of Presentations I actually expected the presentations to be 45 minutes or an hour long but apart from Matz's keynote they were all fixed at half an hour. This does seem like the right amount of time though as I don't remember feeling sleepy during any of these presentations (probably because they were all so interesting!)
#Famous for Five Minutes Matz retweeted one of my tweets!
I took notes during Matz's keynote presentation and then tweeted a link to them with the #rubyworld hashtag. Lots of people picked up on it and retweeted it until Matz himself retweeted it too! Feeling pretty awestruck really.
#Reception There was a reception after the conference finished for the day with some very fancy buffet food and lots and lots of people attending. This was the most difficult part of the day for me as I'm not really comfortable just going up to people and talking to them. I went round the different booths and talked to the people there but the big help for me was when one of the older gentlemen in a suit came up to me and started introducing me to lots of other people. He was from sales and much better than me at keeping the conversation going.
That's all I can think of right now. Lets see how tomorrow goes!