A special announcement for the Ruby community
We normally announce next year’s RailsConf location at the end of the conference, but this time we are going to do something a little different and share two pieces of news:
We are delighted to announce that we want to involve you all in deciding where we will have RailsConf next year. Please use this Google Form to share your feedback.
We have also decided that RailsConf 2025 will be our final one. Beyond 2025, we will be focusing on RubyConf as our flagship event, as we deepen our involvement in supporting regional conferences, meetups, and open source development.
RailsConf 2025 will be reimagined to be a more focused celebration of the Rails community and the legacy of RailsConf. This means there will be a few changes including less content, and a smaller number of tickets.
A limited number of supporter tickets for both conferences will be on sale starting now:
We know this comes as a surprise to many of you, especially after almost 20 years of producing this conference. Suffice to say, this is a bittersweet announcement to make for those of us who have been involved in running Ruby Central and these conferences for many years.
Why the change?
Ruby Central’s mission is to tend to the resources and ecosystem of the Ruby community which includes running, maintaining, and securing RubyGems and Bundler for the whole community; and organizing conferences. The landscape of the Ruby community, the open source space and the tech industry as a whole has changed — especially for those of us who put on in person events. For one, the impact of the pandemic on RailsConf and Ruby Central has been very challenging, and our community has been slow to return to in-person events. This is very understandable, but has made organizing sustainable events tough.
We also recognize that our community has many new conference choices available, including new Rails-focused conferences and a resurgence in regional conferences here in the US and internationally.
What that means for us going forward
Beginning next year, we will concentrate on RubyConf as our flagship event and dedicate more time to expanding the Ruby ecosystem including exciting opportunities like:
- Expanding our support of essential Ruby OSS projects
- Supporting regional conferences in the US and abroad
- Helping to revitalize our meetup network
- Increased support for underrepresented communities
- Education programs to help developers level up their skills
We will also be procuring and dedicating more resources to our open source work, which has been better funded recently than ever before and has opened our eyes to the expanded ways which we can serve our community. With recent funding, we have achieved:
- A full-time security engineer
- Round the clock support for rubygems.org
- Implementation of modern security measures
- And coming soon: organization-level accounts and conduct a formal security audit
And we plan to do much more.
What you can do
We need your support as we create the future of Ruby Central. If you want to get involved here are the best places to start:
- If you’re at the conference now, come see us at the Ruby Central booth. Tell us how you feel, good or bad, and buy your limited-edition supporter ticket to RailsConf 2025.
- Buy one of the limited-edition supporter tickets for RubyConf 2024 in Chicago, featuring Matz joining us in person for the first time since 2019!
- Ask your employer to sponsor RubyConf 2024 (email sponsors@rubycentral.org).
- Join the Ruby Central Monthly Sustaining Member program.
- Ask your company to sponsor Ruby Central as a core member. Email us at contact@rubycentral.org for more information.
We thank you for your continued support and for being a part of our community – and let's keep the conversation going.