--- title: "RailsConf 2024" description: "Last week I went to my first RailsConf in forever (2010). That's a decade and a half (almost)! I saw old friends, met more recent online-only friends (in…" url: "https://www.johnnunemaker.com/railsconf-2024/" author: "John Nunemaker" published: "2024-05-16" updated: "2024-05-22" tags: ["rails"] --- # RailsConf 2024 ![The RailsConf 2024 atrium in Detroit, with RailsConf banners and attendees](https://www.johnnunemaker.com/images/2024/05/railsconf.jpg) Last week I went to my first RailsConf in forever (2010). That's a decade and a half (almost)! I saw old friends, met more recent online-only friends (in person) and made new friends! ## Tuesday Tuesday morning I drove to Detroit. 3 hours is a perfect drive. No need for bathroom stops or fuel and plenty of time to listen to multiple episodes of [My First Million](https://www.mfmpod.com). By the time I arrived at high noon, I was worked into a frenzy and ready to CONFERENCE (amirite). I met up with [Garrett](https://garrettdimon.com) for the first time in probably 15 years. ![](https://www.johnnunemaker.com/images/2024/05/garrett.jpg) *not even happy to see each other* We strolled to the conference center (like to OG's) and immediately ran into [Dan Morrison](https://collectiveidea.com), who I also haven't seen in forever. We had matching whoops (awww cute). ![](https://www.johnnunemaker.com/images/2024/05/daniel.jpg) *whooping it up!* The first talk I went to was Chris Oliver's "[Crafting Rails Plugins](https://speakerdeck.com/excid3/crafting-rails-plugins)". ![](https://www.johnnunemaker.com/images/2024/05/chris.jpg) *craft craft craft those plugins* I learned that `rails plugin new` is a thing. I've always used copy/paste from other projects to get starting engine stuff. Continuing on the GoRails theme, I went to Colin Gilbert's "From Cryptic Error Messages To Rails Contributor" next. He hid golden tickets under two seats. Seeing a hundred rubyists all get on their knees and check their seat was hilarious. I was also inspired to think more about the error messages I see and how I could make them more friendly to those new to Rails. Next up was Garrett Dimon's "[Save Time with Custom Rails Generators](https://speakerdeck.com/garrettdimon/save-time-by-creating-custom-rails-generators)". Do yourself a favor and stop reading this long enough to go buy [his book on generators](https://generators.dev). ![](https://www.johnnunemaker.com/images/2024/05/saving-time-with-generators.jpg) *glad Garrett got off on the right foot this day* Last talk of the day was [Irinia Nazarova](https://speakerdeck.com/irinanazarova/railsconf-2024-keynote-startups-on-rails-in-2024). Loved her energy and this slide. ![](https://www.johnnunemaker.com/images/2024/05/build.jpg) *build and earn money on it* Tuesday night I had an amazing Indian food truck meal with [Ben Curtis](https://www.bencurtis.com), [Josh Wood](https://joshuawood.net) and [Mike Perham](https://www.mikeperham.com). ![](https://www.johnnunemaker.com/images/2024/05/indian-food-truck.jpg) *loaded fries with crispy butter chicken* I discovered that Mike is a watch guy, so we alienated Ben and Josh for 20 minutes waxing about chamfering and the most comfortable watch bands. ## Wednesday Wednesday was the hallway track for me. I'm terrible at hacking on code while at a conference but I'm not bad at chatting the day away. So that's what I did. ![](https://www.johnnunemaker.com/images/2024/05/ben-josh-honeybadger.jpg) *Ben Curtis and Josh Wood from Honey Badger* Wednesday night I went on a [Detroit history tour of Hamtramck](https://www.detroithistorytours.com/shop/meandering-meal-a-walking-progressive-dinner-tour-of-hamtramck) courtesy of the fine gentlemen at [HoneyBadger.io](https://honeybadger.io). It was a blast. Nice to hang with a smaller crew and get outside after 24 hours inside at the hotel and conference center. ![](https://www.johnnunemaker.com/images/2024/05/history-1.jpg) ![](https://www.johnnunemaker.com/images/2024/05/history-5.jpg) ![](https://www.johnnunemaker.com/images/2024/05/history-4.jpg) ![](https://www.johnnunemaker.com/images/2024/05/history-3.jpg) ![](https://www.johnnunemaker.com/images/2024/05/history-2.jpeg) ## Thursday Thursday was more of the same. I went to Cody Norman's "[Attraction Mailbox - Why I love Action Mailbox](https://speakerdeck.com/codynorman/attraction-mailbox-why-i-love-action-mailbox)", which ended up being my favorite talk. First, I didn't realize that ActionMailbox works with the webhooks of many common email providers to make it easier to receive email. Second, he started his truck via email + [HTTParty](https://github.com/jnunemaker/httparty), which led to a near standing ovation from us nerds. ![](https://www.johnnunemaker.com/images/2024/05/httparty-mailbox.jpg) *HTTPartying with remote start* > I somehow managed to keep this as a surprise until my [@railsconf](https://twitter.com/railsconf?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) talk and would like to share the weirdest thing I’ve done with an inbound email [pic.twitter.com/ZD1XevagQY](https://t.co/ZD1XevagQY) > > — Cody Norman (@cnorm35) [May 9, 2024](https://twitter.com/cnorm35/status/1788622399379788165?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) I also enjoyed Chris Winslett's "Using Postgres + OpenAI to power your AI Recommendation Engine". pgvector + openai embeddings are a really easy way to tinker with lower level AI stuff. ![](https://www.johnnunemaker.com/images/2024/05/chris-winslett.jpeg) *Vectors! Postgres! Recipes!* Last, but not least, was Aaron "pun king" Patterson's [keynote](https://speakerdeck.com/tenderlove/feature-number-20425-speeding-up-delegate-methods). I loved it because, well, I love puns. The explanation of object shapes and other bits were super interesting as well. ![](https://www.johnnunemaker.com/images/2024/05/tenderlove.jpeg) *Random puns!* My takeaway was keep writing stuff the way you do and Shopify will make it faster for you. 🤣 But seriously, my actual take away was that the same principles of [fewer & faster](https://fewerandfaster.com/ethos/) apply, regardless of what level you work on in the stack. ## Photo Dump! ![](https://www.johnnunemaker.com/images/2024/05/gallery-1.jpeg) ![](https://www.johnnunemaker.com/images/2024/05/gallery-2.jpeg) ![](https://www.johnnunemaker.com/images/2024/05/gallery-3.jpeg) ![](https://www.johnnunemaker.com/images/2024/05/gallery-4.jpeg) ![](https://www.johnnunemaker.com/images/2024/05/gallery-5.jpeg) ![](https://www.johnnunemaker.com/images/2024/05/gallery-7.jpeg) ![](https://www.johnnunemaker.com/images/2024/05/gallery-8.jpeg) ![](https://www.johnnunemaker.com/images/2024/05/gallery-9.jpeg) ![](https://www.johnnunemaker.com/images/2024/05/gallyer-6.jpeg) *More photos to peruse!* ## Conclusion RailsConf was amazing. I'm extremely glad I went and already look forward to next years (the last one). For those that I didn't get to chat with, *maybe* I'll see you at [Rails World](https://rubyonrails.org/world/) in Toronto. 😎🐬 P.S. - for the curious, hear are my summaries from long ago (sorry for the broken pics, RIP Flickr)... - [2007](http://www.railstips.org/blog/archives/2007/05/23/my-must-read-summary-of-railsconf-2007/) - I discovered Jesse Newland is my twin. - [2008](http://www.railstips.org/blog/archives/2008/06/04/railsconf-2008/) - The profitable programmer. - [2009](http://www.railstips.org/blog/archives/2009/05/03/railsconf-2009/) - Pre conf post. - [2010](https://speakerdeck.com/jnunemaker/dont-repeat-yourself-repeat-others) - Don't repeat yourself, repeat others. P.P.S. - I made a new website about how [exciting rails](https://excitingrails.com) is. P.P.P.S. - We [recapped this and more on Founder Quest](https://www.johnnunemaker.com/founder-quest-railsconf-recap/) for the audio inclined.