Nordic Ruby News

Our talk selection process

2012-03-08T09:00:00+01:00

The interest in speaking at Nordic Ruby has been overwhelming this year. We received 113 proposal, more than twice as many as last year. I thought I’d tell you a little bit about what our process looks like for selecting the 12 talks that get accepted.

In the last two years, we’ve used a Ruby script that generates a PDF with each proposal on its own page. We’ve then printed that PDF and taped up all the pages on a big wall, and let everyone at Elabs and some friends write their names on the ones they like. With more than 100 proposals this year, we’d probably run out of but tape and wall space pretty quickly, so we decided to try something different.

This year, we’re using Trello as our virtual wall board. Each proposal is a card in Trello, and everyone in the team can log in, add comments, and vote on the ones they like. It works great.

Another thing we’re doing differently this year is that we’re starting out with anonymous proposals. Each card in Trello just shows the proposal’s title and description. No information about the speaker. We do this to avoid bias in the first stages.

We use the archive feature to remove the proposals with the least votes. We’ve narrowed it down to 34 now. We’re doing another round of voting to get it down to about 25, and then we’ll add the speaker information.

Ultimately, the way a talk is presented is just as important as the topic, so selecting speakers that we think will do a good job and do their topic justice is something we think is important. At a bigger conference, with several tracks and with more talks crammed in each day, you can afford to take more chances on speakers. With only 12 slots available at Nordic Ruby, we don’t have that luxury.

That said, we still try to take some risks, and select some speakers that aren’t very well known. At Nordic Ruby 2010, Keavy McMinn presented her second conference talk ever, with great success. She went on to become a very popular speaker, speaking at many, many conferences since then. At Nordic Ruby 2011, Joshua Wehner gave one of his first talks at a Ruby conference, and it was one of the most popular talks that year.

We’re very excited about the proposals we’ve received this year. There’s some great stuff there, and we can’t wait to announce it next week.

/ CJ

Same procedure as last year – fantastic coffee

2012-02-17T12:00:00+01:00

We might have a new venue this year, in a new city, but some things are staying the same.

First of all, we’re of course keeping the format that has been so well received the previous years. A single track of 30 minute presentations, each followed by at least a 30 minute break. This forces speakers to really focus on the essence of their talks, and leaves plenty of time for discussions. The “hallway track” is built right into the program.

We’ll also have the same great coffee as last year. Two talented baristas making excellent espressos, lattes, cappuccinos, etc. for the whole conference.

Last year we had two baristas from Da Matteo, our favourite coffee shopin Gothenburg. One of the baristas, Camilla, has started her own company — Coffee and Memories — and she’ll be back this year to make sure the coffee is just as amazing as last year.

Camilla held a great coffee tasting event with us at Elabs last week. We learned a lot of fun stuff, she has a great knowledge and passion about coffee which she likes to share.

We will of course also offer some good tea for those of you who prefer that. The conference is in a Japanese spa after all.

PS. Only two weeks left until our Call for Proposals closes. Want to speak at Nordic Ruby? Submit a proposal now.

Stay extra nights at the spa

2012-02-09T12:00:00+01:00

In addition to getting many questions about bringing your partner to Nordic Ruby, we’ve also heard from a lot of people that want to stay a couple of extra days at Yasuragi. Who wouldn’t want to spend a few extra days at a Japanese spa?

If you want to stay additional nights at the hotel, for example arriving on Thursday or leaving on Monday, you’ll have to contact the hotel.

You can call: +46 8 747 64 00, or email: privat@yasuragi.se.

When you talk to them, make sure to tell them the event booking number 708583, or just tell them you’re with Nordic Ruby.

You will pay for the extra nights and food when you check out.

The cost for a single room is: 1226 SEK/person excl. VAT (about 182 USD).

The cost for a shared room is: 926 SEK/person excl. VAT (about 138 USD).

The price is for the room alone, meals are only included during the conference.

Please contact us if you have any further questions.

Bring your partner to Nordic Ruby

2012-02-08T12:00:00+01:00

Since revealing the venue for this year’s Nordic Ruby we’ve had a lot of questions from attendees who want to bring their partners along to the conference. We think that’s awesome, so we’ve put together a special ticket that gives your partner:

2 hotel nights (sharing a room with you)
All food and parties during the conference (together with you and the rest of the attendees)
Full access to the spa facilities (so there’s no shortage of stuff to do while you’re geeking out at the conference)

The price of the partner ticket is 500 USD excl. VAT. Book now!

Sharing a room with your partner of course means that you can register the cheaper Shared room ticket for yourself. Make sure to enter your partner’s name in the roommate field when booking your ticket, and vice versa. That helps us make sure that everyone gets the correct room.

If you have any questions, let us know. We hope to see both you and your partner at Nordic Ruby in June!

PS. Kids below 16 aren’t allowed at the venue, so unfortunately there are no tickets available for kids.

Welcome to Nordic Ruby 2012!

2012-01-27T10:00:00+01:00

I’m very excited to finally announce some of the stuff that we’ve got planned for Nordic Ruby this year.

Held in Stockholm…

After two great years in Gothenburg, we felt it was time we shook things up a bit. Since many of our attendees are from Stockholm, we thought it’d be nice to take the conference to them this year.

…at a Japanese spa…

Moving to Stockholm of course meant that we had to find a new venue, that’s at least as nice as the one we’ve been using in Gothenburg. I think we’ve succeeded. The conference this year is going to be held at Hasseludden Yasuragi, a Japanese style spa on an island in Stockholm’s beautiful archipelago. A perfect environment for a very inspiring couple of days.

…with accommodation and meals included in the price!

Another change this year is that the conference is all-inclusive. Your ticket includes 2 hotel nights at the spa, full access to all facilities there, and all meals during the conference. Quite a deal!

You can find out more on our location page.

I think this will be the best Nordic Ruby yet, and that’s saying something.

/ CJ Kihlbom, conference chair