BohConf, The Official Unconf of RailsConf 2011

What's New? About When & Where Sessions What is Boh? Ignite RailsConf Organizers

UPDATES AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

The schedule is on the wiki!. There's also a Google Calendar with an ICAL feed that will be updated as the event unfolds.

Questions? Email us or tweet us!

updated 2011-05-15 10:20 PM

Help Make BohConf 2011 the Best Unconf Ever!

It's official! RailsConf is returning to Baltimore in 2011! And so is BohConf!

About BohConf

BohConf is the official RailsConf 2011 unconference. At BohConf, we're going to get our hands dirty writing code and sharing ideas in an open and free-form environment. This hacking-centric event will include community code drives featuring well known OSS authors, barcamp-style discussions, free wifi, free seating, a code retreat and a programming competition. It is free and will run alongside RailsConf in the convention center. Everyone is welcome at BohConf. Registration is free and can be completed at https://en.oreilly.com/rails2011/public/register

You can track updates and developments by following @bohconf on Twitter and by contributing to the BohConf wiki. Your input will shape this event.

Who's representing?

(Updated as of Monday 5/3/11) These fine folks will be holding sessions at BohConf: Gregory Brown, José Valim, Chris Eppstein, Scott Davis, Ron Evans, Jim Gay, Andreas Kollegger, Andreas Ronge, Mat Brown, Luigi Montanez, Nick Gauthier, John Trupiano, Adam Bachman. What about you? Add yourself to the BohConf wiki.

Photos from BohConf 2010

BohConf Posters and T-Shirts

When & Where

BohConf 2011 will be held at the Baltimore Convention Center, May 16-19. O'Reilly Media, the producers of RailsConf, have been kind enough to give BohConf space in the convention center alongside RailsConf - right in the middle of action.

Sessions

Community Code Drive

The Community Code Drive is a place to meet and work with the authors of many popular open source projects. Come to help hack on code, find and fix bugs, or just watch a seasoned developer at work. Check out the wiki schedule to see which OSS authors are participating (and feel free to add yourself)!

Barcamp

A Barcamp is a "user generated conference", so there's structure without an agenda. Bring your own questions and your own answers, and we'll hold our own BohCamp.

Open Government Hackathon

Luigi Montanez of Sunlight Foundation will be organizing and running an Open Government Hackathon. Bring your laptop and be prepared to work on some open government datasets!

JRuby Code Drive

Engine Yard's team of JRuby experts will be hosting a code drive on best practices for JRuby development. All people are welcome - regardless of your level of experience with JRuby. Tom Enebo will be leading the charge.

Guided Exploration

Guided exploration sessions will last approximately 2 hours and will feature an expert in a given technology providing instruction on that technology.

KidsRuby

Ron Evans (@deadprogram) will be running a session for KidsRuby. Many students from Baltimore's own Digital Harbor High School will be in attendance and we DO need volunteers. To sign up as a volunteer please complete the volunteer sign up form. To sign up as an attendee please complete the attendee sign up form. Note that your kids are indeed more than welcome at this program!

What is Boh?

The name BohConf is an homage to the Baltimore institution National Bohemian (or Natty Boh). Every town has their local light beer of choice, and ours is Natty Boh. Make sure to grab one (or several) when you're in town.

Natty Boh's tagline is "The land of pleasant living." An homage to the Chesapeake Bay. The tagline of BohConf is "The conf of pleasant coding." You do the math.

Ignite RailsConf 2011

The people bringing you BohConf are also organizing Ignite RailsConf - the unofficial preparty for RailsConf. Ignite RailsConf 2011 will be taking place on Monday 5/16 at 6:00pm. Ignite will once again be held at the Sheraton Inner Harbor - one of the two official hotels for RailsConf.

What is Ignite? Fast-paced, fun, thought-provoking, social, local, global - Ignite is all of these and more. It's a high-energy evening of 5-minute talks by people who have an idea - and the guts to get on stage and share it with the rest of the Rails community.

Submit a speaking proposal today! Buy your tickets now. Make sure to follow @igniterailsconf for updates!

Organizers / Who's Behind BohConf?

BohConf was first organized in 2010 by the folks at SmartLogic Solutions. SmartLogic is a Baltimore-based Ruby on Rails custom app development shop. We were so excited when we heard RailsConf was coming to town and knew it was incumbent upon us to organize the sweetest RailsConf unconf to have ever existed.

In 2011 BohConf is again organized by SmartLogic and some other local folks. The organizers: John Trupiano (@jtrupiano - works at SmartLogic), Yair Flicker (@yflicker - works at SmartLogic), Nick Gauthier (@ngauthier - works at 410 Labs) and Adam Bachman (@abachman - works at Figure 53). Ryan DeStefano (who works at SmartLogic) is the man behind all the sweet artwork you see.