David Hill: 0:00

Shout out to GoRails for sponsoring Ode to RailsConf. If you or your team wants to learn the latest Ruby on Rails features Hotwire Ruby and more check out GoRailscom. Use code ODE2RAILSCONF at checkout to get 10% off. You're listening to the Ode to RailsConf podcast, where we reminisce about RailsConf over the years. I'm your host, david Hill, and joining me today is Allie Vogel. Allie, would you introduce yourself to our listeners?

Ally Vogel: 0:30

Allie Vogel. Hi, david, and hello everyone. Yes, I am Allie. I am the operations manager at Ruby Central. In terms of who I am and who is this beast called Allison and Allie and whatnot. So I have a background in education, international politics, specifically like East Asian focus and Japanese. Lived in Tokyo for 10 years during like the primary years of your first adult part of life, and then move back to the States just when the pandemic hit and then had to kind of relearn what it was to live in America for a bit, had a couple of different jobs. Then came across Ruby Central. I joined Ruby Central in 2022 for, specifically, the RubyConf Houston event. That's when I started.

David Hill: 1:30

So before I get back into the Ruby Central questions, I have to take a quick little detour. We met in person the first time at RubyConf in November this past November and during the course of conversation discovered that you were a bit of a theater kid, which I felt an immediate kinship there, since I was also a theater kid in high school. And now I have a second thing my dad was in the Air Force, so we spent two assignment periods, which was roughly three years each, in Japan when I was a kid, and so now I'm just kind of like how do I have so much in common with Allie? We're out of nowhere. This is kind of funny.

Ally Vogel: 2:10

So you were in the Yokosuka area, I'm guessing, or were you in the Okinawa area?

David Hill: 2:16

I am not familiar with the Yokosuka area we were in. It was an airbase called Mesawa, the northern half of the main island. I was also fairly young both times, so I have memories of it but didn't appreciate it, couldn't appreciate it for as cool as the opportunity was, because I was too young.

Ally Vogel: 2:36

Fair enough. I've worked with a lot of expat children when I was there. A lot of times they had the similar kind of feelings. I didn't quite understand the joy and greatness that it was to live there. So an expat life is a little bit different there. So I understand. I don't know how things have changed in the last five years. I heard a lot of things have changed for foreigners and for expats who live there. For foreigners and for expats who live there, living there, was a great experience and I visited again last year. I would love to visit again this year. It's one of my favorite places to just travel around and explore. Japan's a special spot in my heart, for sure 100% agreed.

David Hill: 3:25

I would love to visit there again someday. But back to Ruby Central.

Ally Vogel: 3:30

Yeah.

David Hill: 3:30

You mentioned that you're the operations manager for Ruby Central. What does that mean? What do you do for Ruby Central?

Ally Vogel: 3:37

The best way to describe is overseeing the operations of all programs that Ruby Central runs or is going to run. So I make sure that these things continue to work the way they're supposed to. I make sure paperwork is there, I make sure that we're on schedule and I'm working with all the teams within that space. So I'll work with the OSS team, connect that with the events production teams and events staff. Then I have the meetup and regionals program that we've started and been able to get going here with the grants the meetup grants and there's the sustaining memberships, which would be the Ruby Central members or memberships that you can sign up for. I work with the marketing director to make sure we cover all different types of campaigns and ideas that we want to basically storytell and continue bringing in new life into the Ruby community. So there's a lot that I'm kind of positioned between all of them and making sure that they all function and connect together in some way.

David Hill: 5:04

Yeah, sounds like you're kind of in the middle of this huge spider web pulling all the threads.

Ally Vogel: 5:10

That would be a good visual representation for sure. Me the spider just going like I'm going to nom nom on everything.

David Hill: 5:18

Most of that stuff sounds familiar to me, but there's a couple of pieces of it that are newer aspects of Ruby Central, so I wanted to kind of give you an opportunity to dive a little bit more into a couple of those, especially the meetup grants. I would love for you to talk a little bit more about those, since that's a topic that I've recently moved to an area that doesn't really have, from as far as I can tell, an active Ruby community, and so the idea of starting a Ruby meetup sounds a little bit daunting, and I would like to hear what these meetup grants are and how Ruby Central can help people who want to try and get something going in their area.

Ally Vogel: 5:57

To start off with. We have this regionals slash meetup program and the idea is to help support the worldwide community in a more localized and I wouldn't say intimate. But we're trying to get more out there, because Ruby Central only having a one singular or big event and then the rest of the year kind of we're working on other things. It'd be nice to be able to help support all of these things that are happening worldwide. There's so many organizers out there who are trying to put together things to continue innovating and releasing new information, brainstorming, etc. But that's a lot of the time coming out of their pocket and that can be really difficult, and I know it is difficult in today's time with how things are inflating and it's just more and more challenging to get people out of their home and to gather in person in a place. So what it is we do is not only are we trying to help support them by spreading the word, by saying that there's this meetup group over here, check it out. Our SVPs are open for their meetup in this month on this date. Not only we're doing that, we have on our Ruby Central Community Slack. We have places there for the organizers to promote and also for organizers to get together and share their grievances, share their things that are successes, so that other organizers around the world can learn from each other and make their events more exciting and enticing for people to join, or to even get sponsors to help host their little meetups.

Ally Vogel: 7:59

Now, with the grant where that came into place is grant. Where that came into place is again looking at how most of these organizers are kind of paying everything out of their own pockets we wanted to help kind of alleviate some of those stressors that are involved. So, ruby Central, we work with a lot of our corporate sponsors and we talk with other individual companies and try to say hey, we have these meetups. These are great, amazing opportunities to get to know the community that's local to you. If you're trying to get people for recruiting, this is an incredible opportunity to network directly with your local community. So instead of paying tons of money into your recruitment process, you can kind of go in this route, possibly go into a thing with Ruby Central where we have kind of like a donor bucket donations from these corporate sponsors and different donors can go put their money into that. Then we, as ruby central, are the admin of it. We take care of the grant applications, the application reviews. We also then do all of the agreement processes, putting together the media kits and things that they would need in order to say, hey, this is the sponsor who donated to us today. We also make sure that the banking transfers happen. All that so we take on the admin stuff for these companies, because companies a lot of times they don't have that time to constantly take out of a budget for these small little things. So instead we can work together with those companies or donors and we can do that for you and you'll still get though that recognition, you'll still get that opportunity to show up at these meetups and get to talk with the community directly. So that's kind of what this grant program has evolved into.

Ally Vogel: 10:12

We had a super exciting success with the last grant round. We had 26 grants available and I think we had over 50 worldwide meetup organizers reach out for the application process, which was awesome. I was so excited and this is stretching across several continents as well, countries from all over. I think for all of us at Ruby Central we expected an outcome, but I think we were blown away by the outcome more than anything, and it's been awesome working this time with specifically Fastly.

Ally Vogel: 10:55

They've been the first donor towards this thing because they wanted to see how this works and they are super passionate about also supporting the meetups, because that's actually how the person we talked to. They started that way. They got into Ruby because of meetups, which I think is super interesting and really cool of a story to tell. I hear that actually quite often that a lot of people got really into Ruby or Ruby on Rails because of meetups that they attended at some point. So it really goes to show that these little local events are super important for the longevity and sustainability of the language itself. So, yeah, that's a bit about the regional meetup program. To go on, that is, we're still continuing with the grant process, so we're trying to get some more donors. I'm really excited. It's been doing really well and we're really excited about these conversations moving forward.

David Hill: 11:53

Awesome. So you mentioned you're working on getting more donors for the grant program. Is the grant program currently open for people to apply to now, or is it kind of waiting for more donors to come in so that people can try and apply for this next round of them?

Ally Vogel: 12:07

I have the applications open, but we don't have any funds currently set up at this time. So it would be a once we do, we reach out and we explain, like, what is available, and then go through yet again the application process. It's open in the sense that you can apply for it, but there's no funds currently available at this time.

David Hill: 12:34

Okay, if it was open right now, should we include a link in there so that people can be sent in that direction. But it doesn't sound like that's really necessary right now.

Ally Vogel: 12:43

We will definitely make an announcement, though, once we do have the next set of grant funds available. That is definitely the big plan right Moving forward.

David Hill: 12:54

Okay, so we've talked a bit about Ruby Central and the organization behind RailsConf, but I kind of want to start shifting the conversation a little bit towards RailsConf itself. Do you have any memories or experiences that were memorable or impactful to you in your times attending RailsConf?

Ally Vogel: 13:13

I'm sure people will love to bring up the glorious times of RailsConf Atlanta which was 2023, and the water episode Watergate, as people love to call it but that's not what I'm going to focus on. We're going to learn from these moments, but the things that really stand out to me and it's not just RailsConf, but this particular thing just every time strikes me which is the conversations I have with these scholars that come to our events. Some of them are just wow, so emotional, and I get choked up when they start telling me that how much this opportunity impacted their life and helped them feel welcome and heard and feel like the motivation to work towards their next step in their career goal. That's one thing that is just across the board. Railsconf, rubyconf all of them just so beautiful, but specifically RailsConf for me RailsConf Detroit, which was in 2024, being someone who's from Ohio and I've heard all the wonderful things Ohio had to say for Michigan slash Detroit I didn't know what to expect when going.

Ally Vogel: 14:48

Wow, it was one of my favorite conferences and experiences. The atmosphere was incredible. My favorite part of it all, though, specifically was the outdoor reception and you just had so many people having fun and conversations, having fun and conversations. Some were sitting in a little circle, playing cards on the turf and gosh, it was just so wonderful to see such a joyous moment where everyone just seemed so excited to be around their friends and colleagues and me who just didn't know what to expect.

Ally Vogel: 15:34

Going into Detroit and I enjoyed my site visits as the organizers but to be able to see that my excitement was the same as others. If not, they had more than was incredible. They had more than was incredible and I think that was one of those moments that truly stuck out for me, seeing how well received it was and just seeing the almost like family that was created during that moment. It was just such a good experience and really brought a power to the event and continued that energy for the next few days and onwards. I think it was just such an impact. I was really impressed.

David Hill: 16:21

I don't remember participating in that outdoor reception at all. I think I was just hanging out inside with people and still felt that somehow it was just kind of like everybody was just so jazzed to be there and catch up with old friends, meet new friends. It was a lot of fun.

Ally Vogel: 16:40

I really enjoyed that event so much and I would see people on the PeopleMover the monorail thing going into the city and just going into groups and then sharing that information in the Slack channel and sharing those pictures. It just was so cool and fun to see everyone enjoying each other's company, enjoying the space that was available and also learning Detroit's really rad and cool.

David Hill: 17:15

And there were a couple of things there, the hotel itself almost being like a museum for the auto industry. It took me off guard a little bit. I was like, wow, there's a lot of cars indoors in this hotel. That's kind of different this hotel.

Ally Vogel: 17:36

That's kind of different, I agree. I understand that it was a labyrinth every day to get from point A to B. However, I love that river walk every morning. It was so beautiful so I just kind of I'll bite the bullet. It's fine. I got to take this labyrinth over to work today, but like it was enjoyable. And then you meet people along the walk, which is fun too.

David Hill: 17:59

Yeah, I agree that river walk every morning was really beautiful and there was something that I found incredibly entertaining of just oh, look across the river, that's Canada.

Ally Vogel: 18:10

Yeah, and not only that. We're facing south Canada's south over there, which is just more fascinating to me. It's a brain buster for sure.

David Hill: 18:19

One of the things that I vividly remember was Aaron Patterson making that joke during his keynote, talking about, you know, our friends the Canadians to the south, or however he phrased it. That's messed up, yeah, or however he phrased it.

Ally Vogel: 18:31

That's messed up. Yeah, I remember during the site visits and the tourism department visit Detroit was telling us that point. I think I had a moment of like I think you've misspoke, I think you're needing a bad nap right now. Are you okay?

David Hill: 18:51

So the theme for RailsConf this year our final RailsConf something along the lines of the past and future of Rails, celebrating the history and kind of looking forward to how things are going to continue to hopefully grow and evolve. I'm starting to ask guests on the show if there's anything in particular they're looking forward to with this final RailsConf.

Ally Vogel: 19:16

I know it might be bittersweet for some. I think it's such a lovely idea to celebrate this legacy and I love the theme being. I think it was past, present and the future of Rails present and the future of rails and where we started looking at that history, where we are today and how rails is developing and where we're moving towards. I love the theme. It's brilliant. Now for me specifically, I love storytelling. I love hearing people's stories. I love hearing what inspires them, because I get such a boost of serotonin seeing people talk passionately about the loves of their lives and stuff and RailsConf is one of those things, and I really look forward to hearing stories that people experienced throughout the years of RailsConf. Knowing that it's been over two decades is incredible, so I want to hear those stories.

Ally Vogel: 20:25

I've seen some pictures posted from previous years past, which is just so cool to see, too Makes me remember that no one's phones were as fancy as they are now, so the quality of pictures are of the times, but it's beautiful in itself. There's also the point that a lot of people I hope will be coming are some legacy people who made this even come to life in the first place. We are hoping that they'll be on their way to come, but being able to meet those people and actually get a face to them because I've only been here since 2022, getting an opportunity to meet these individuals would be super cool. Kind of pick their brains as, like what were you thinking? No, I'm joking.

David Hill: 21:18

Charles Colony. Railsconf itself has gone through a couple of very noticeable evolutions and eras of its existence. Having people from those different eras around it'd be really kind of fun to be like how has this changed based on how you were doing things back in the day?

Ally Vogel: 21:37

Really, I've had conversations with previous people who worked on the board or board retirees, veterans or some people who worked on the program committee in long past and they've even said like whoa, this is so different than? Yeah, I know it's different, but it's important to make those changes and those evolutions because things don't stay stagnant forever. We have to continue to shift and change. Being able to kind of look back and meet the people who were involved in those big decisions is going to be super cool. To really put it all together, make that story more complete, because, to be honest, there is information as an operations manager that I'm missing. I don't have some information from the early, early years of RailsConf or RubyConf. I don't have that. We don't have any records of it, so I just have to go based off of storytelling. So it'd be really cool to be able to get some of those fill in the blanks for me.

David Hill: 22:53

Yeah, I could see that that would definitely be really cool. I'm looking forward to trying to meet some of those people too. There's some fun conversations that could be had with some of those kind of old souls in the Rails world that a number of those people just kind of stopped coming to. Like you know, they moved on to other things and it'd be fun to have them back again.

Ally Vogel: 23:14

This is a perfect chance. I love the idea of this being such a celebratory type event. We do have some thoughts on how we're going to put this all together, so the staff has been having so much fun brainstorming a bunch of different ideas. I can't wait till we start presenting some of them. I would say our official website gives some kind of hints, in a way, as to like things that we are trying to show, trying to accomplish.

David Hill: 23:47

Sounds somewhat mysterious there, Allie.

Ally Vogel: 23:50

I'm always going to be so honest and tell you truths.

David Hill: 23:54

Well, I'm looking forward to seeing what those things are and you mentioned before, it's kind of a very bittersweet thing that this is the last one, but I'm not looking toward it with any kind of sadness. I'm looking forward to having a really fun time learning. The talks are always so interesting and I've made so many wonderful friends at RailsConf. I'm just so excited to go see them again and hang out with them and, like you were talking about hearing their stories of what they've been up to and just kind of enjoying and celebrating the community that's grown up around it.

Ally Vogel: 24:30

I can't wait. I can't say things yet because they're not completely in stone, but they'll be announced eventually.

David Hill: 24:40

No spoilers.

Ally Vogel: 24:41

No spoilers today, just soon. It's always a good response.

David Hill: 24:47

Oh yeah, I think it was in the GoRails Discord. Somebody asked a question about when tickets were going to go on sale or something like that, and I responded with soon TM.

Ally Vogel: 25:01

Yes, never mean to be that person and I can give a more definitive answer. But once you ruin the surprise. But I just, but I can say soon, if you look back at all the times we've said soon. There's a time range, you know, but anyway, Thank you, allie.

David Hill: 25:26

So much for joining me on the podcast today. Are there any parting thoughts you'd like to offer on RailsConf or Ruby Central before we call it a day?

Ally Vogel: 25:36

CFP. The CFP submission deadline is coming up very soon. So what I highly encourage people to do is to be aware of that deadline, especially the deadline's time zone, because I don't have control Well, I kind of do, but I don't have control once it switches off. So definitely keep that in mind. Leave all the reminders. So definitely keep that in mind, leave all the reminders. We know a lot of our wonderful listeners love to submit in that last few days. So this is your good old friendly nudge to leave a reminder for yourself. And secondly would be the Scholars and and guides. Applications are open. The RailsConf version, like basically things for RailsConf, we're accepting up until March 18th, I believe, is the deadline. So just be aware. But those applications will stay open. But once March 18th happens, we're basically taking all of those who applied since now and then those are those who will reach out for RailsConf. Anything that comes in after March 18th will be considered for RubyConf 2026.

David Hill: 26:50

Highly encourage anyone listening applying for the Scholars and Guides program. I've loved my interactions with it. Submit the CFP. It's been a lot of great memories coming out of both of those programs for me, so awesome. Thanks again for joining me today, Allie.

Ally Vogel: 27:11

Thank you for having me, David, even though I was just so nervous.

David Hill: 27:13

You are not the first person who has been nervous. I often feel nervous trying to do this type of thing, but we get through it one minute at a time.

Ally Vogel: 27:22

I appreciate you and thank you for everything. You're just such a shining light. I love David.

David Hill: 27:28

He's great.

Ally Vogel: 27:29

Well, thank you.