Josh Susser has put up a thoughtful overview of the actual presentations at the Silicon Valley Ruby Conference, rather than just the funny stuff and wisecracks.
I sat next to behind Josh on the first day and next to him on the second day, and I know he's a smart guy and he was paying attention - unlike the unknown person who sat at the very front right underneath the podium and surfed the internet and checked mail in view of the whole audience during many of the talks. Maybe he had important stuff to do - but maybe he could have done it where it wasn't distracting to everyone else?
Actually, he was the exception. The great thing for a freelancer from Toronto about going to events in Silicon valley is the chance to meet interesting and intelligent people - and that was definitely the case at the Silicon Valley Ruby Conference. Every break and especially lunch was an opportunity to meet new people and find out what the community is up to. Some people were on their third startup, built on a genius technology they'd built in a day, others were actual Google or Apple employees, while other people seemed to be in awe that I had built my own custom invoicing software for my own business. Almost everyone was chatty and affable, and if they had had gum, they would definitely have shared it.
It's interesting how these days a good conference can echo across the internet, leaving a trail of blog posts and new connections. (I don't know if things that echo can leave trails - well, maybe if I set it up 'def leave_trail' as a mixin?)