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 Erin Chapman. Erin, would you introduce yourself to our listeners?

Aryn Chapman: 0:31

Hi everybody. Thank you, david, for having me on your podcast. I'm so excited. I've been looking forward to it for weeks.

David Hill: 0:37

I've been looking forward to it too, so I'm glad you're here.

Aryn Chapman: 0:41

So what can I tell you about myself?

David Hill: 0:43

Well, what do you do? You do stuff for Ruby Central, so let's start there. What do you do?

Aryn Chapman: 0:50

So we are full service corporate event production and we help support all of the event production aspects logistics and programming and scheduling and venue sourcing and all the fun stuff that goes in to the behind the scenes to help make RailsConf happen.

David Hill: 1:09

So, like the setting up of the rooms, the AV setup.

Aryn Chapman: 1:14

Yes, so we start six months in advance or more and working very closely with Ruby Central's event team. So right now that's mostly Allie, who I'm sure most of these listeners know and I think was on your show actually.

David Hill: 1:31

Yeah, she was on the show a couple of weeks ago, so yeah.

Aryn Chapman: 1:33

Awesome, perfect, she's awesome. So we work very closely with her to build out the program framework, so what the actual schedule looks like, where the social activities happen, like the breakfasts and the happy hours and the game nights, and then also the session blocks, the hack day sections when we're going to have lunch. So we build out that framework. We also help find and source the appropriate venue. We have a fantastic venue this year in Philadelphia.

Aryn Chapman: 2:04

I'm very excited about it and then work very closely with the hotel property to put together all of our needs and our space needs and our room blocks. And then we work with the AV teams to get all of the screens and the audio and all of that, the room setups. We produce and create the menus with the venue so that everybody has appropriate lunch, given all of the dietary restrictions. And then this year very exciting we're going to do two days where we're doing lunches off property. So me and my team, we've been calling all of the restaurants within a walking radius of the Sheridan Hotel, which is where the event will happen this year, to not only alert them that all of these lovely RailConf participants are going to be coming, so that they're prepared, so that lines aren't too long but also trying to get some show your badge benefits. So either a cookie or a water or 10% off or some nice little prize, essentially for being one of our participants at their restaurant.

David Hill: 3:12

That's really cool. I've heard Drew go on at length about like all the cool food options that there are in downtown Philadelphia. So that's really cool that the conference is kind of going out of its way to encourage us to go out and see the city a little bit, Because normally for these events I don't see the city very much. I pretty much stick to the hotel that we're at.

Aryn Chapman: 3:37

Right, yeah, I mean, there's a longstanding joke amongst event producers that it doesn't matter what city you're in. A ballroom is a ballroom. You could be in Dubai or you could be in Miami, it doesn't really matter, right? A Sheridan ballroom is a Sheridan ballroom.

Aryn Chapman: 3:51

But one of the things that's really important to me as an event producer, and also for Ali and Ruby Central in general, is to really bring wherever we are, whatever city we're in, whether it's Detroit or Chicago or Philadelphia into the event itself, so that we pick menu items that are local to the area.

Aryn Chapman: 4:12

We try and source local foods as much as possible, but also bringing in local culture as much as possible, like through the graphics and sort of setup of the rooms. But then also, this time we're really focused on bringing our participants out into Philadelphia. So we're working with Visit Philadelphia to create a website that will have whatever they have in terms of discounts and other things that are happening around town, so that you can see the happenings everything from comedy shows to art exhibits, to I mean, you name it and so we're hoping that through that website, even though these aren't discounts necessarily specific to RailsConf participants, they're open to the public, but at least we can make it a little bit more accessible for people to go and check out either before or after nights off, whatever.

David Hill: 5:07

Now I'm looking forward to RailsConf even more.

Aryn Chapman: 5:11

It's going to be a good one. I think it's going to be really good.

David Hill: 5:14

Sounds like it's going to be a really fun, cool experience this time around. I don't think I've ever been to Philadelphia before, so I'm excited to get to experience a little bit of Philly this year. That's going to be a lot of fun.

Aryn Chapman: 5:25

Philadelphia is awesome. I mean, drew Bradka obviously can speak way more to it than I can. I'm local to New York, I'm sure. I'm sure my favorite pieces are, of course. Where our hotel is located is we're right near a lot of public transportation, and I'm also don't quote me on this I'm trying to get a bunch of scooters put out front of the hotel, but don't quote me on that.

David Hill: 5:50

I mean, I'm not going to quote you, but we are recording this.

Aryn Chapman: 5:54

I know, but I'm going to try. No guarantees, let me say that Because, again, we want people to be able to have easy access. So one of the comments that we've gotten over the last events that I've been doing with Ruby Central is how important it is for, wherever the venue is to be, someplace where people can go out into the city or out into the area that they are in, so that it's walkable and has access to the rest of the city. And so this time I think we hit the mark pretty good.

David Hill: 6:28

Earlier, you mentioned that the venue for this year was just really cool. Is that part of what you're talking about? It's location relative to the rest of the city and access to things, or is there anything else about the venue that you're really looking forward to?

Aryn Chapman: 6:40

There's a couple of things. Actually, one of the real challenges at RubyConf for those who were there in Chicago with us will remember a challenge was the distance between the ballroom and the breakout space and the hangout space right.

Aryn Chapman: 6:56

It was a long walk between the two. They were on different floors, they were on opposite sides of the property and it was too far, it was not great. But this time it's going to be stacked right on top of each other. The ballroom and the break house are going to be basically second floor, mezzanine level, and then it's open air into a atrium which is the lobby of the hotel, so there's a lot of natural light. It feels big and open and airy.

Aryn Chapman: 7:27

You can see our meeting space from the hotel lobby, so it's like it'll be easy to find where everything is. So we're going to have almost all of the meeting space. So it's really going to feel like it's just us, which is great, and it'll feel very much like it is a private event. But it's really going to feel that way. And then the space that we're thinking about for some of the receptions and the happy hours and game night is at the very top of the hotel in what they call the Horizons Room, which has a 360 view of the city, which I think at night is going to just be spectacular.

David Hill: 8:03

And the game night that goes to pretty late. It usually goes until they kick us out.

Aryn Chapman: 8:09

So well, and this time I have them holding the room until like 3 am.

David Hill: 8:13

So, oh, really, oh, that'll be fascinating. That'll be fun to actually be able to play late.

Aryn Chapman: 8:19

I can't guarantee that a suit will be available that long.

David Hill: 8:22

I mean, when I'm gaming that late at night, I'm usually not worried about the food. I was like I gotta win this next game. That's fantastic. That sounds like it's. Oh yeah, I'm excited for this. That sounds like it's just gonna be a really great experience.

Aryn Chapman: 8:35

I think. So I'm really excited about it. I feel like we hit on kind of a sweet spot in terms of a perfect venue, both in shape of the meeting space no space is perfect, but I think it's pretty in terms of where the space is in relation to the other spaces and where the hotel is in relation to the city. I mean, it's right down the street from all the major landmarks. You can walk to the Benjamin Franklin Institute. You can see the Fine Art Museum at the end of the street there and I think, in terms of a place, I think it's going to be great.

David Hill: 9:11

So now I'm thinking maybe I need to extend my trip so I have some extra time to go explore the city instead of just staying there for the conference.

Aryn Chapman: 9:20

Thank you, Sean.

David Hill: 9:21

Bring the family. Well, can't bring the family because they have other things that they're going to be getting ready for. So it'll just be me, but still just kind of like. Maybe I'll need to squeak a little bit more time out of my schedule.

Aryn Chapman: 9:34

Well, we are talking about having child care this year, so we're bringing that back. I understand that before my time there used to be offer child care, so we're talking about offering that again. So people should look for that when they register as an option.

David Hill: 9:50

Okay, that's good to keep an eye out for. So, speaking of kind of before your time, then I guess how long have you been collaborating with Ruby Central to do the event planning side of these conferences?

Aryn Chapman: 10:05

I started with RubyConf San Diego, so RubyConf 23.

Aryn Chapman: 10:10

So Allison McMillan actually introduced me to Adarsh and Adarsh and I had started working together on putting together a service that we offer, which is an audit of events.

Aryn Chapman: 10:23

So when events are not performing the way that an organization needs them or wants them to and that can be everything from the ticket sales or not where they need to be to participant numbers are dropping and they don't understand why, we can go back through and look at all of the paperwork and all of the photos and all of the things and try and pinpoint why that's happening and then come up with a strategy on how to fix it. So we worked with Adarsh on doing that and he asked if we wouldn't mind coming and helping support the Rubicon 23, which we did and moving forward from that, he was like we would love it if you guys would stay on with us and help us with these events moving forward, which of course we were thrilled to do, because we had a great time at ruby cop 23 and just fell in love with the whole ruby community and ruby central in general that was gonna be.

David Hill: 11:16

My next question was kind of like how did you stumble into hanging out with these ruby nerds all the time to be?

Aryn Chapman: 11:22

fair. I did have to look up what Ruby was being a completely non-programming person myself, but just truly fell in love with the community.

David Hill: 11:34

And we're really grateful to have you here, because the conferences that I've been to lately, the experience behind them has felt very different and in a tremendously good way. It's like, oh, there's someone here who's kind of making sure everything goes the way it's supposed to go for an event that's supposed to be a really nice big professional event. It's really great, you know, just feeling like, ok, someone's in control here, thank you.

Aryn Chapman: 12:06

I'm not really like, oh, thanks.

David Hill: 12:08

I'll admit I'm probably biased a little bit, since I volunteered at RubyConf and got to interact with you and your team a little bit more than most people might have, and it was like, oh, aaron and Sarah and everybody, they're all just great people and it's super fun working with them and I might be biased but I don't care.

Aryn Chapman: 12:26

Well, thank you, I appreciate it. I think my team is pretty great too.

David Hill: 12:32

We touched on kind of the technical side of the AV and other kind of related topics that you've had to deal with. Have there been any kind of weird experiences or gotchas or things that you've had to troubleshoot before that you could share a little bit about?

Aryn Chapman: 12:48

One of the big cultural shifts for us as a team on event producers was something that's very common it turns out in the programming world, which is the speakers putting their laptops on the lecterns and, yes, I use the word lectern and not podium, because I'm an event nerd, it's okay. So that for me, anyway, that was like a cultural shift, because the events that we do that would not fly, that would just not be acceptable Really.

David Hill: 13:20

And yeah, there's already just like a laptop up there and you've got to like no, there's no laptop.

Aryn Chapman: 13:25

There's already, just like a laptop up there and you've got to like no, there's no laptop, there's no laptop, no laptop, no, the technician at the production booth has the slides and they run the slides and you have a clicker and you can move around the stage as you please. Or you can stand behind the lectern if you like, or you can stand behind the lectern if you like, but you have your notes on a monitor, on the downstage monitor, and you have your slides on the downstage monitor, so you don't have to look behind you, but you have your speech, or you have some notes, maybe on the lectern, but no, you don't have the no.

David Hill: 13:58

Oh, okay.

Aryn Chapman: 14:07

And sometimes there's not really a lectern, but there is like a teleprompter, like the glass that the president used. And again, it's not a value judgment. It was just like, oh, this is how you guys do this. Okay, I have to rethink my wiring charts, because that means something different for the guys at the production booths and the screens and this and that. So that was a paradigm shift for us, and one of the paradigm shifts we tried to and are continuing to try and grow amongst our speakers is the idea of rehearsals.

David Hill: 14:32

Yeah.

Aryn Chapman: 14:34

Which is so important, especially when you're putting your laptop, which everybody has a slightly different laptop. I'm looking around for my Mac, right, like every Mac has a different, different laptop. I'm looking around for my Mac, right Like every Mac, has a different set of portals and ins and outs and right. So it's making sure that your laptop, which you love and is very dear to you, can talk to all of our equipment, right and well, and that all of those things happen without an audience sitting there waiting for you, staring at you, which is nerve wracking for you, it's annoying to them, it's tension rises in the room and nobody's having a good time. We haven't run into too many problems. There was one speaker who, in rehearsal, his laptop was just his processor could not, would not, was like no, wow.

Aryn Chapman: 15:26

So, he had to quickly borrow somebody else's laptop to then put his presentation on and then in the end was fine. But because we had the rehearsal, there was 48 hours for us to figure it out.

David Hill: 15:38

Right Instead of right there in the moment.

Aryn Chapman: 15:42

Yeah, and then in that case he would not have been able to present his slides. The other thing that we've started asking for, which seems new, is that we have a copy of the presentations at the production desk. So whatever the slides presentations are, whether it's PowerPoint, Keynote, Prezi you made your own Canva it comes in every form which is also new for us.

Aryn Chapman: 16:12

It's usually just PowerPoint or just Keynote, but that's fine, we can roll with it. But having that backup, in case something happens to the laptop and things happen right, like all of a sudden a microsoft book will just reboot randomly- yep, or your mac decides it's time for a software update or exactly, exactly right.

Aryn Chapman: 16:36

So this way we can follow along with you in the background, and if it all goes to hell we can just switch, and then you can keep talking and then either say next slide or we keep what we call it's the remote, but we call it a pickle on the lectern, and you can just keep going you call it a what I don't know they call the remote, we call it a pickle.

David Hill: 17:02

I don't know why, though that's got to have an origin somewhere. I'm gonna have to go look that up when we're done. It's like why do they call it a pickle?

Aryn Chapman: 17:10

yeah. So to answer your question, like those are the two things that was like oh, okay, yeah, and it's very unique to this community too, I think interesting because I don't think I've been to any tech conferences outside of the ruby community or even non-tech conferences.

David Hill: 17:24

I don't think I've been to any tech conferences outside of the Ruby community or even non-tech conferences. I don't think I've been to anywhere where I've really paid that much attention to the speakers, and so my attendance at these things was always just like. This is how we do it at a conference you have your laptop with your presentation on it, because that's all I've ever seen anyone do. So yeah, knowing that's not actually the case, that's kind of interesting.

Aryn Chapman: 17:50

Allison was very sweet and she was like you know, tech conferences this is what we do and I was like great.

David Hill: 17:54

Now I know, and like you said before, it's not a value judgment. It's just different than the experience that you've had running events before.

Aryn Chapman: 18:01

Right, yeah, so it was a little. It was like oh okay, Are all the speakers going to do that?

David Hill: 18:08

Allison was like every single one of them.

Aryn Chapman: 18:11

Exactly, that is the expectation. It was like okay.

David Hill: 18:17

Oh, that's great. We've talked a little bit about the prep that you're already working on for this next RailsConf. Is there anything besides what we already talked about that you're really looking forward to, for whether it's the venue or the conference itself, or anything that you could share about what people can get excited about?

Aryn Chapman: 18:36

There's a couple of things. One, yourself included, the program committee this year, I think, is spectacular. Not that the other ones haven't been, but I think we've sort of streamlined in it. We've been internally Ruby Central has been like refining the whole process of picking the co-chairs and then the committee and the whole CFP process. So I feel like we're getting closer and closer to a really nice, streamlined, solid, really potent process. I like processes that are very efficient and good and powerful.

David Hill: 19:13

Right.

Aryn Chapman: 19:13

So I think we're getting closer and closer to that, which is very exciting. So I'm very excited to see what the results are from that, and I know that a lot of CFPs have come through, so I think there's gonna be a lot of fantastic choices to pick from. And the other one is a slightly more granular one piece is that the graphics team that we're working with, which is fantastic, with Jim and Valencia, and their company is called.

David Hill: 19:41

Lagrant.

Aryn Chapman: 19:42

Yes, lagrant is awesome. Valencia is amazing. We're going to have an interactive wall, so it's still TBD exactly what it's going to be, but it's going to be a very large wall. It's going to either have post-its or you can write directly on it, or you can put up a photo or you can. It's going to be great and I'm actually really looking forward to that and the results of that too, and see how people engage with it.

David Hill: 20:09

Nice, I had Jim on the podcast a little while ago and I think after we were done recording he mentioned something about this interactive wall idea and so I've been really curious to see how that materializes when we get there. But that sounds really cool and interesting and kind of down the alley of this podcast where it's like kind of encouraging people to kind of share their stories and experiences connecting to the community and the conference and everything else.

Aryn Chapman: 20:35

Yeah, and I think in an analog way, which is quite on purpose, right, it's going to be very sort of.

David Hill: 20:41

DIY tactile.

Aryn Chapman: 20:42

So I don't know how far we'll go in terms of materials, but in my mind and again, we still have to put all of our heads together on what this is exactly going to be but I'm hoping to have like collage materials and glue stickers and not just post-its but also different kinds of paint, markers and, you know, not getting too toxic or anything. But so if somebody really wants to go to town and really make something like a little art piece, they can and they have the resources to do that. Or, you know, just let people express themselves a little bit in addition to telling their story. So if you don't have somebody who's necessarily a wordsmith but like they make pictures instead, you can have that accessibility.

David Hill: 21:24

I like that. I'm looking forward to seeing that and to see what people come up with. There are some very creative people in the Ruby community with a variety of mediums, I'm sure. So I'm sure we'll see like a very interesting collection of art pieces and word pieces and who knows what else.

Aryn Chapman: 21:42

I'm excited. Yeah, we'll see how that comes together.

David Hill: 21:46

All right. Well, is there anything else you would like to talk about related to RailsConf for Ruby Central and your involvement with them, before we wrap up?

Aryn Chapman: 21:54

I would like to say I'm a little sad that it seems like this is going to be the last RailsConf and so I'm definitely trying to pull out all the stops that the budget will allow me to pull out and really make this one something special for this community. And I hope and I trust that the community will do the same and come and really pull out the stops and celebrate RailsConf this RailsConf, but all the previous RailsComps before it. And we have plenty of space, there's plenty of seats, so come on down.

David Hill: 22:29

The cult action here is come to RailsConf.

Aryn Chapman: 22:32

Come to RailsConf. Come check it out, tell us how we did.

David Hill: 22:35

Nice. Well, thank you so much for joining me today, Aaron. It was wonderful chatting and seeing you again. It's been a while since I got to chat with you and looking forward to seeing you at RailsConf. Am I correct in assuming that, even though RailsConf is ending and there's not a RubyConf this year, RubyConf is continuing? So you and your team are continuing with the relationship with Ruby Central for RubyConf right?

Aryn Chapman: 22:58

Yes, rubyconf 26. We are in the early stages of looking for a city and a venue. So, yes, we will be involved.

David Hill: 23:06

We'll still be seeing you around, it'll just.

Aryn Chapman: 23:08

I hope so. It's not part of RailsConf, because RailsConf is built. Yes, yes, okay, absolutely.

David Hill: 23:13

Great Well, thank you again so much for joining me today, Erin.

Aryn Chapman: 23:20

Thank you, Dan. It's so great to be here. I appreciate you.