I think I’ve just about recovered from last weekend’s Rails Camp in the Adelaide Hills. Whether I was hacking or socialising, as the hour got later each evening it just seemed easier to ignore the fact that I was going to pay later for the lack of sleep.
It was worth it though. This was the best attended Rails Camp yet with about 70 Rails developers converging from different parts of Australia. One of the aspects I like about these events is their self-organising nature. The unconference style encourages learning within small groups for much of the event. In my case I was determined to practice using Cucumber, Webrat and Machinist and benefited from the fact that several others were also cutting their teeth on Cucumber.
There are also plenty of opportunities to share with the whole group. At this camp I was fortunate that Pete Yandell, the author of Machinist, was one of those who spoke. I also thoroughly enjoyed the lengthy discussion which was precipitated by Pat Allan’s talk about Freelancing.
Quite apart from the learning opportunities, I appreciated catching up with other Rails developers I hadn’t seen for a while and making new friendships. I’m looking forward to my next Rails Camp already. Hopefully the number of attendees doesn’t increase. I think it has reached its limit for a good unconference.
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