I’m going to be at RubyConf Uruguay at the end of this month; there are surprises.
What happened was, I tweeted about the upcoming Latin-America Googlers’ road trip, which includes a Developer Day in São Paulo on Oct 29th, and a DevFest in Buenos Aires on November 2nd. The RubyConf organizers pinged me, saying “our event is the 29th and 30th and we’re in between São Paulo and Buenos Aires, could you come by?” I was delighted to accept; sounded like pure fun.
I assumed I’d probably be the only gringo on the scene, and wondered what they might expect a visitor from Ruby’s home hemisphere to say. To me, Uruguay feels a long way away.
I was astounded, when I checked the speaker list, to discover many of my own Norteamericano compatriots, the kind of people who light up the air at many other Ruby events; real Ruby masters (I’m just an apprentice). So not only do I get to visit a city and country that are new territory, I get to hang out with some of my geek heroes. I have no idea how the conference people managed to get all these rock stars to travel a third of the way around the world, but I’m glad they did.
And here’s an apology... after I picked my jaw up off the floor, I uttered an exremely sarcastic tweet, poking fun at myself and colleagues as “mouldy retreads” and, I thought, back-handedly complimenting RubyConf Uruguay on their recruiting chops. The joke went awry and hurt people’s feelings; my fault, and I’m sorry. The speakers’ list (well, except for me) is completely awesome.
Anyhow, if you’re travel range, drop by and join us at the conference and join me in a glass of, um, whatever Rubyists in that part of the world drink.
Oh, and the next day I get to take the ferry across the Rio de la Plata to Buenos Aires;, which feels totally like an adventure. Thanks for the invitation, guys.
Contributions
Comment feed for ongoing:
From: Carlos (Oct 13 2010, at 04:14)
So you are comming to the android devfest in Argentina?
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From: Santiago Pastorino (Oct 13 2010, at 05:30)
Glad to hear you're excited about coming to Uruguay, I hope we can meet here ;). Seeya.
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From: Fernando (Oct 13 2010, at 06:10)
You should try a glass of "Grappamiel" once you are here in Uruguay :P
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From: Rabble (Oct 13 2010, at 18:07)
In Uruguay we drink yerba mate during the day, and grappamiel, beer, and wine in the evening.
We look forward to having you visit and speak!
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