2014-05-13 : 5K Times

Here are the 5k times, for a fairly brutal course - 211m / 694 ft total climb:

Well done all.

2014-05-11 : Keynote lost - Brianna Wu

Brianna Wu is unable to make it to keynote at this year’s Scottish Ruby Conference. Instead we will be finishing at 17:15 on Monday

Sorry for any disappointment; we hope you can use the time to better enjoy Crieff Hydro and the company of your fellow Rubyists.

2014-05-10 : Buses to Edinburgh

Everyone should have had a few emails including travel to Crief, with multiple links about our coach (bus) pickup points. We have just added more information to the venue. In summary:

• buses are leaving Waterloo Place at 11:00 and 17:00 on Sunday.
• Airport pickup will 30 to 45 minutes later. Phone us if you are just about to make it. Our numbers were on the last email.
• The Airport pickup is from the Coach Park, which is on the opposite side of the multistory carpark to the terminal building. Follow signs to “Drop Off”, which is the ground floor of the carpark, and go all the way through. Do not get confused with the public buses, which stop in a different place.

2014-05-10 : Living Social Sponsors

Thanks, Living Social, for being lovely Gold sponsors. Here’s a word from them.

LivingSocial is the local marketplace to buy and share the best things to do in your city. Our engineers build, measure, and learn, using data to drive decisions and deploying to production regularly. We move fast, live hungry and code happy, and we’re looking for great people like you to join us.

2014-04-30 : Pivotal Labs are Silver Sponsors

Welcome back to our sponsors, Pivotal Labs. Here’s a word from them:

Thanks to Paul and Alan for once again organising the Scottish Ruby Conference. In the last year, the UK’s Ruby community has grown and matured significantly, with last year’s conference contributing. It was a fun time and a great chance to talk with fellow Rubyists. We’re pleased to participate in 2014.

2014-04-29 : Coach times

We have definitive coach times, for travelling to and from Edinburgh. Full details are here. There are also 15% discounts on a wide range of activities at The Hydro, between your conferencing (also see here).

Travel out - Sunday 11 May

Coaches leave Waterloo Place (calling at the airport if requested) at:-

• 11:00
• 17:00

Return - Wednesday 13 May

Coaches leave Crieff for Edinburgh (via the airport) at:-

• 08:30
• 10:00
• 11:00

In other news, there a still a few tickets available for what will probably be the last Scottish Ruby Conference. Come and take part.

2014-03-28 : Notonthehighstreet.com - Gold Sponsors

Our latest Gold Sponsors are Notonthehighstreet.com. Here’s a word from them:

Founded in 2006, notonthehighstreet.com is the number one curated online marketplace in the world. We’re on a mission to find the most original, inspirational products, crafted by the best small creative businesses across the UK and internationally.

Notonthehighstreet.com is changing the face of enterprise by supporting small (and growing) businesses, offering a route to market for designer-makers and manufacturers who would otherwise struggle in the battle with high street giants.

Our engineering team has built a website loved by millions, the tools that give a livelihood to thousands, and the platform to support it all. We’re passionate about great software, agile development, happy collaboration, empowered small teams…and we’re always learning.

2014-03-19 : Arnold Clark - Platinum Sponsors

Big thanks to Arnold Clark, who are our new Platinum Sponsors. And now for a word from them:

Arnold Clark sells cars (lots of cars, actually – around 250,000 last year). But selling cars doesn’t rest solely with our salesmen.

One of the reasons for our continued success is substantial investment in our cross-functional Agile web development team. They may not be able to valet your Volvo or service your Skoda, but they do serve up awesome content to our 1 million+ monthly website visitors.

We build Service Oriented applications using Ruby, Rails and Sinatra, functional languages like Clojure, and cool Javascript technology, including Grunt, Node.js and the latest MVC frameworks. We’ve already delivered some superb projects – and there are far more to come.

Agile development allows us to fully utilize the creative talents of our development and design teams to achieve our business goals. Designers, developers and Product Owners are all part of the same marketing department in a company that is continuing to improve on 60 years’ experience in the motor trade. It’s more ‘think outside the box’ than ‘out-the-box solution’.

We have some really exciting greenfield projects on the horizon, and we have freedom in how to approach these challenges, with the latest technologies at our disposal. Plus, we receive a performance-related bonus of up to 15%, discounts on cars and servicing, a 27” iMac and second screen, and access to a sizeable training and conference budget.

We’re always looking for talented and passionate web developers to join – and enhance – our current team. If you’re interested, , and you can pop in to see what we’re working on.

2014-03-10 : Ticket sales are open again

We have a VAT number, and ticket sales are open again. Yay!

2014-03-10 : Bytemark are Platinum Sponsors

Bytemark have been supporting the Scottish Ruby Conference for years, and we are delighted to welcome them as Platinum Sponsors for 2014. Thanks Bytemark. And now for a word from our sponsor:

Bytemark Hosting has been the “geek hosting outfit of choice” for UK hosting since 2002, because it’s run by a programmer (Matthew Bloch) and network engineer (Peter Taphouse) They have built it from scratch with a goal of technical excellence, writing most of their own software and tools to run the business exactly the way they want. With a staff of software engineers, they are continuing on that trajectory. Their hosting spans £15 per month servers to multi-site managed projects with high uptime guarantees.

Bytemark have two large hosting spaces in Manchester linked by £250,000 of core networking equipment, links down to London, and around ten gigabit connections. This is overprovisioned compared to similarly-sized hosts, but with a goal of being robust in the face of random disconnections or abuse.

Bytemark run a comprehensive managed hosting service, and have host for big national brands like ASDA & Bostik, government departments such as the Department of Health and Central Office of Information, and hi-tech businesses such as travel site dopplr.com and Britain’s largest mystery shopping company, Retail Eyes. They also have loan comparison companies, property search sites, car hire companies and thousands of smaller web developers who trust their clients to Bytemark’s solid infrastructure and understanding of their software.

2014-02-28 : Temporarily suspending ticket sales

More on the whole VAT saga: HMRC have mislaid our VAT application. Our accountant is sorting out, but in the meantime we’ve temporarily suspended ticket sales. Otherwise it could get messy. Normal service will resume shortly.

2014-02-23 : Jim Weirich, 1956 - 2014. RIP.

Everybody loved Jim, and we were no exception. What typified Jim was his unfeigned delight everytime he met you, and the complete attention he gave during a conversation. Being with Jim made us feel important, smarter, and valued. He certainly did his bit to make us more informed and (hopefully) better programmers and people.

Jim was at the very first Scotland on Rails, 2008, and he’s been to every Scottish Ruby Conference since - keynoting in 2010. He was due to speak again this year.

We were priviliged to know Jim, and grateful for his life. He will be sorely missed. He really was the best of us.

(Photos by Fraser Speirs).

2014-02-10 : Crieff Hydro, Child Care, and Spas

Room block expiring

Hopefully you’ve already heard that our accomodation block at Crieff Hydro expires on Friday 14 February. They will still honour the conference pricing after that, but the rooms will probably run out. If you’re coming to the conference, you probably want to stay at the Hydro. It really is the most convenient place and the room prices (£89 single occupancy, £119 double occupancy) are pretty good.

And there’s childcare

Kids are very welcome in and around the conference - there is an additional supplementary charge to the room but you do get access to the facilities and 6 hours of childcare for 2 to 12 year olds in the kid’s club, with the option of an additional 3 hours for £15.

There are also creche facilities for younger children, but this costs £15 and is limited to 90 minutes at a time.

Spa, Leisure, and the other stuff

Seriously, though, you should stay at The Hydro. Check out the spas, swimming pool, etc here and all the other things you can book (for extra cash) here.

2014-01-31 : VAT - We messed up

We messed up, but it’s mostly good news. We¹ misunderstood a converation with an accountant, and the use of the word”alone” in the VAT registration notes. The upshot is that we don’t haveto register for VAT until March 1st. As many of you are not in a position to reclaim VAT, then it would be best to take advantage of this. Here’s the plan:

• We have taken 20% / £40 (the VAT portion) from the ticket price.
• We will refund all those who have bought tickets the £40.
• We have taken the VAT from the sponsorship packages.

On March 1st we will have to reapply VAT to the tickets and sponsorship packages. Until then, we have VAT free.

Sorry for being so rubbish at accountancy.

2014-01-30 : Buses

A number of people have asked about the coaches that we will lay on to take you from Edinburgh to Crieff. Ideally we would like to wait and gather feedback on when people would like to travel, but we understand that many of you want to be booking flights and trains.

Here’s the plan:

• Coach(es) from Edinburgh (city centre, near the station) at 11:00 on Sunday
• Probably another at 17:00 to pick up those who can’t make it for 11:00. We will guage demand.
• Return coach from Crieff Hydro at 11:00 on the Wednesday.

The airport is on the way, so we can easily arrange for extra pick-ups / drop-offs. If there is enough demand for other times, we will arrange those.

2014-01-19 : Gold Sponsors - Engine Yard

Thanks to Engine Yard for coming through once more with a Gold sponsorship. Now for a word from our sponsor:

Engine Yard is the leading Platform as a Service empowering developers to plan, build, deploy and manage applications in the cloud. Providing unmatched control and choice, Engine Yard delivers a trusted, complete application cloud and expert developer support that enables organizations to focus on creating great applications, instead of managing their platform. Thousands of customers in 58 countries, from explosive-growth Web startups to Fortune 500 enterprises, run on Engine Yard.

Headquartered in San Francisco, Calif., Engine Yard is backed by Benchmark Capital, New Enterprise Associates, Oracle and Amazon. For more information, visit www.engineyard.com.

2014-01-13 : Gold sponsorship from FreeAgent

Huge thanks to FreeAgent for their continuing support. We are looking forward to seeing them again in May and are hoping they’ll bring more Jelly Beans. And now for a word from our sponsor:

FreeAgent is one of the UK’s largest and most popular online accounting products, helping tens of thousands of freelancers and micro-companies across the world manage their businesses in a simple, stress-free way.

FreeAgent are also looking for Rubyists to join their team of engineers and designers who are developing with cutting-edge tech at scale, working from our Edinburgh HQ or remotely.

2014-01-07 : Ticket Sales Open

Tickets are now on Sale

Tickets are now on sale. Buy them here while they are still fresh. Current tickets are on sale for £200 + £40 in lieu of VAT.

What the ticket includes

Apart from entrance to the conference, coffees, teas, snacks and other refreshments the tickets also include

• Lunch for both 12th and 13th.
• Dinner for the 12th and 13th.
• Coach travel from Edinburgh to Crieff on the 11th, and return on the 14th.
• End of conference party entertainment. (We’ll surprise you.)

(Breakfast is included in your hotel room, if you stay at Crieff).

Partner tickets are also available for partners who want to join attendees at the evening meals; we are selling those at cost.

Accommodation

We partly timed the conference (May and on a Monday and Tuesday) to keep the accommodation prices down.

Rooms are available on the Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday night for £89 per night single occupancy and £119 double occupancy. You can book here or call Crieff Hydro accommodation on 01764 651680 (+44 7164 651680). Remember to quote the conference to get your discount. Get in touch with us if you have problems.

Our block booking expires on February 14, so we strongly encourage you to book your rooms before then.

Workshops

You have already seen our wonderful talk lineup (thanks speakers), but that’s not all. We will also be running a series of concurrent workshops. We are still deciding on the content, but they’ll be great. You will be spoiled for choice.

Sponsorship

Please sponsor us.

VAT??

Update: We will register for VAT from March 1st.

2014-01-05 : Talk lineup is up

It’s been pretty quiet on the surface recently, but in the background we’ve been working hard. We had 7 times as may talk proposals as available slots: we have had to make some tough decisions.

The talk lineup is now out. Take a look here.

This year we will also be running workshop sessions. The workshop lineup is yet to be finalised.

Stay tuned for news of workshops and the opening of ticket sales.

2013-11-25 : Workshop sessions

In response to some feedback, we have decided to try some workshops sessions during the 2014 conference. The workshops will be around 105 minutes long, and only support a limited number of delgates (around 25 maximum).

Workshops will be more interactive than the standard presentations, and be may technical or not. Please send your workshop ideas .

Do not forgot that the closing date for our standard CFP is December 9th. Add your proposals here.

2013-10-12 : CFP is open

Some of the waiting is over: the Call for Proposals is now open, and closes on 8 December, midnight in the Edinburgh timezone (GMT). Just now, we are taking submissions for talk proposals only.

Here is where you submit: https://cfp.scottishrubyconference.com. Get to it!

2013-08-22 : Ultra Early Bird ticket sales are closed

Well, that was quick! The Ultra Early Bird tickets have now all gone. Thanks all who bought them - we appreciate your trust and it gives us a bit of head-room with pre-2014 conference expenses.

Stay tuned for the opening of the CFP.

2013-08-21 : Ultra Early Bird ticket sales are open

A limited number of Ultra Early Bird tickets are now on sale for £185. You can buy them here.

Accommodation

Discounted conference rooms can be booked here for £89 per night for a person in a room, and £119 for two people sharing a room. Rooms are available for Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday night. You can also book by phoning Crieff Hydro accommodation on 01764 651680 (+44 7164 651680) - remember to mention the conference to get your discount.

2013-08-20 : 2014 Conference Announcement

Mark your diaries. Next year’s Scottish Ruby Conference will happen on Monday 12th and Tuesday 13th of May.

And yes, we’re back at Crieff Hydro again.

Although there were some issues there at the 2013 conference, and it was harder for us as organisers, the feedback we received was overwhelmingly positive and the vibe of a residential conference was hard to ignore.

We’ve addressed the two main issues we had in the 2013 conference, mostly by just getting organised much earlier.

First, Accommodation

We have moved the conference to a Monday/Tuesday. This avoids the “arriving on a saturday splits our busy weekend” problem the Hydro had. That means we have a full allocation of rooms available for all three nights - arrive Sunday, stay Monday and Tuesday, home wednesday. No more having to find a Saturday room and getting an early bus.

We’re also opening of ticket sales much sooner. We have block booked rooms for all three nights and that block booking is guaranteed until January 31st 2014. The Hydro assures us that the dates we have picked (and avoiding Saturday) make it very likely that even after Jan 31st, delegates should have no trouble getting a room for conference.

Second, Transport

After the Royal College fell through last year, we were left with a very short amount of time to organise what is, for us, a remote location. We were in kind of a chicken and egg with the buses, trying to figure out who already had flights booked, and how we could work buses around people. This meant there was a lot of uncertainty on the buses until the last minute. We also didn’t want to lay on buses we didn’t use (due to the aforementioned hotel-room-related cash-tightness).

This year we’ll be booking and organising buses MUCH earlier so will be able to tell you (probably in january, 4 months notice) exactly when and where the coaches will be.

Oh, tickets

After the 2009 conference feedback was so positive that we were able to open 100 2010 tickets for sale months after the conference and sell out. No announced speakers, just a date, a venue, and the promise of 3 tracks and 2 days of amazing talks.

We’re confident enough in the feedback from the 2013 conference that we’ve decided to do the same again this year.

A small number of Super-Advanced Early Bird Saver tickets will be available at noon on Wednesday 21st August via our new ticketing partner Tito.

Follow us on Twitter, or sign up to the google group to keep up to date.

So. For those of you that came last year and had the best ScotRuby ever, and those of you that missed it, and of course those of you who’ve never experienced all the things that make ScotRuby legendary, we hope we’ll see you in May!