This weekend I attended Ruby Manor, a community driven conference, and while it is targeted at the Ruby community, the chosen talks covered an eclectic mix of topics including Python/Django, Scala, game development, A/B testing and lots of functional programming

It was an incredible experience and nearly every talk gave me something to take away from the day to try out, and every single one gave me something to think about.

It was also an opportunity to meet and chat with people from the community and make new friends. I ended up having lunch with the author of Practical Vim, Drew Neil, which not only covered the editor itself but the joys and trials of writing a book.

These kind of meetings happened all day and especially in the pub afterward as they often do and ranged from MySQL vs PostgreSQL to Lego Star Wars to comparisons of PHP & Ruby web frameworks or artisan coffee.

All in all an amazing experience, and an incredible achievement by James Murray and Tom, who organised and managed the event and all the great speakers who made the day so interesting.

Finally, my take-aways from the day, or maybe todo list for the future: - try out python and django and not limit myself to 1 or 2 frameworks. - write something in scala - create a game in ruby - try and do something with functional (and reactive) programming - a/b test the hell out of something - try out a stack based language

Maybe I’ll update this post if I achieve any of the above.

If you get the opportunity to go to the next Ruby Manor I really recommend you do, you’ll be in for a treat.