Do you know what Euruko means? European Ruby Konference. It is one of the oldest conferences in the world focused entirely on Ruby. The very first edition, back in 2003, has been hold in Karlsruhe, Germany. The latest one has been organized in September 2023 in Vilnius, Lithuania.
For the first time ever we took part in Euruko! We organize rubyday, an International conference dedicated to Ruby that takes place every year in Verona, so we have decided to take a look at what’s going on outside of the Italian territory, meet new people, and discover more and more about the world of Ruby.
Vilnius also has delicious pizza
First of all, a quick note about Vilnius. It’s a beautiful city, with a charming atmosphere, plenty of historical buildings, a nice river and a sparkling nightlife. We loved every single moment we spent strolling around the city. We tried Šaltibarščiai the famous cold beet soup! It was delicious. Also, we spent a few hours in the Republic of Uzupis and we tried one of the best Italian pizza we have ever eaten. That’s definitely a place to go once in a lifetime!
To reach the conference it was necessary to travel outside the city, near the beautiful forests of Lithuania. In fact, Euruko 2023 was organized in a very modern venue, the Gediminas Technical University, which is easily accessible by bus.
Euruko’s atmosphere made us feel at home
The focus of the conference was clear “What’s the future of Ruby?”. Most of the talks were focused on future developments. A bunch of epic speakers took the stage.
What impressed us the most?
- Listening to “Matz,” aka Yukihiro Matsumoto, the man who invented Ruby! The title of his talk: “30 Years of Ruby – History of ruby and lessons we have learned from it.”
- The keynote by Steven R. Baker, the man who developed RSpec, was very inspiring to us.
- Catching up with Hana Harencarova, who was our speaker on stage at our rubyday a few months ago.
A very important part of Euruko was the so-called “unconf” part, the time when anyone could take the stage for a couple of minutes and propose a topic. The top vote-getters would have a chance in the afternoon to take the main stage for 30 minutes and present their talk!
We too took the stage for our 2-minute pitch entitled “Is there an alternative to being a web-developer? Hot to build an unusual career path.” A case study that analyzed what the alternatives to being a web-developer were and what alternative career opportunities there were.
Our pitch was not voted on; the audience preferred to prioritize more technical topics.
The city pitch: the most anticipated moment of Euruko
The conference was great, the atmosphere was very relaxed and all the people were very friendly and eager to get to know the other participants better. The networking moments were key, there was a lot of sharing of stories, experiences and ideas for new projects.
Tensions, however, skyrocketed when the City Pitch was held on the third day of the conference. This is the time when anyone can propose a city to organize the next edition of Euruko!
In fact, the peculiarity of this conference is that since 2003 this conference has been held every year in a different city and the decision of the next venue happens on the very last day of Euruko.
Our bid pointed to Verona, we were competing against Manchester, Helsinki, Tuzla, Warsaw and Copenhagen. For the 2024 edition, the winning city was Tuzla in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Congratulations! You bet, in 2024 we will go to Tuzla with lots of stickers, a new pitch for the unconf and our proposal to bring Euruko to Italy in 2025!
In the meantime, we are working hard to organize the next edition of rubyday, which will take place in Verona the 31st of May 2024!
- Apply to the Call for Paper: it will close on 31st of January 2024
- Buy a ticket and reserve today your seat at the lowest price: the availability of very early birds is limited!
See you in Verona!