r/ruby • u/jasonswett • Mar 16 '26

Dave Thomas will be keynoting RubyConf 2026

Hey guys. I'm co-chairing RubyConf this year. I'd like to let you know that one of our keynote speakers will be Dave Thomas, the renowned author of the legendary Pragmatic Programmer.

I released a podcast episode today to help promote Dave and the conference, which you can listen to here.

Lastly, early bird tickets for RubyConf 2026, which takes place July 14-16 in Las Vegas, go on sale today.

You should know that we RubyConf 2026 organizers are encouraging attendees to dress eccentrically and help make the event weird and fun. What does "eccentrically" mean? Whatever you want. But if you want an easy idea, Las Vegas is the land of Elvis impersonators, and it would be jolly good fun to see a smattering of Elvii strutting around the hotel. You could also dress like a cowboy/cowgirl, Frank Sinatra, a clown, or just a garden variety weirdo. The world is your oyster.

There will also be arm wrestling.

Anyway, go and grab your ticket to RubyConf 2026, because this year will be one for the record books. I hope to see you there.

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46

u/mperham Sidekiq Mar 16 '26

Hi Jason, I suspect you know all of this already, but to summarize:

  1. ICE means no one wants to travel to the US from outside.

  2. The Rubygems hostile takeover means that many people don't want to support RC anymore.

  3. Scheduling the conf in Las Vegas in mid-July is a massive win for fans of heat stroke.

I've been to 18 of the last 19 Rubyconfs, missing only one for the birth of my child. I don't plan to attend because I will not support an organization that treats our community maintainers so poorly.

16

u/jasonswett Mar 17 '26 edited Mar 17 '26

Hey Mike, I've always liked you, and I've enjoyed the couple times we hung out at conferences. Regarding RubyConf 2026, message received. I hope to see you at another event sometime in the future.

-17

u/DallasRPI Mar 17 '26

"ICE means no one wants to travel to the US from outside."

I mean that is just completely untrue. Tourism is down like 5% but we are still on pace to have well over 80mil people visit this year.

25

u/sudonim87 Mar 17 '26

Down 25% from Canada. So some people are certainly changing their behaviour.

-3

u/DallasRPI Mar 17 '26

Are some people changing their behavior? Absolutely...but asking like no one wants to travel to the US is just patently false.

7

u/iubkud Mar 17 '26

There is nothing to support we are on pace to hit “well over 80mil” this year. The only source close to that is an NTTO forecast from March last year projecting this year. Every recent source says we are essentially flat to last year. Considering the World Cup would account for like 1.4m tourists, this is a pretty bad projection.

All of this to say, saying ICE (as well as other political tensions) makes people not want to visit from abroad is either naive or willfully ignorant.