Bugsnag sponsored its first conference ever this year, Madison+ Ruby, and I don’t think we could’ve chosen a better event. Madison+ Ruby is a 3-day, single-track conference in Madison, Wisconsin that is self-proclaimed as being “more or less about Ruby.” I agree with that description - there were a few Ruby-specific talks, but rather than being hyper-technical, most were geared towards community and felt more personal.

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The organizers were very thoughtful about creating a safe, inclusive learning environment, and put an emphasis on diversity and openness. 58% of the speakers were women. More than half! At a Ruby conference! Altogether, less than 25% were Caucasian men. Madison+ Ruby really nailed it finding diverse, high quality speakers. A lot of speakers said they were hardly nervous because the crowd was extremely inclusive and inviting. Some even mentioned the theatre setup, saying it made speaking feel like a conversation rather than performance.

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In addition to the talks, there were workshops to attend like Railsbridge, Codechix, and GitHub training, and Braintree offered a lounge to pair on open source work. There were also yoga breaks during the day, and crowd participation at times (like impromptu dance sessions!) to keep our brains active.

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And, of course, we did a Madison+ Ruby Friday hug.

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Talks

It’s really hard to choose my favorite talks because they were all excellent. I’d recommend watching all the videos when they’re posted, but I’ll share those that stood out to me:

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Madison+ Ruby was a fantastic conference, and I’d recommend going next year if you can. The community is fantastic, the talks were informative, and I learned a lot from both. My only complaint is that I wish I was seeing these types of talks at other conferences as well (conference organizers - take note). If nothing else, go for Madison’s famous cheese curds and beer.