Blue Ridge Ruby 2023 Recap
Tags: ruby
Published: 2023-06-12 16:34:27

## Blue Ridge Ruby 2023

Blue Ridge Ruby recently wrapped up in Asheville, North Carolina. This post is not intended as a review of any of the talks, but to highlight the variety of great work from all involved. I hope you'll seek out the full videos of all the sessions that interest you once they are available.

## Day 1

### Welcome

Jeremy Smith gave an intro that I hope to see expanded into a full conference talk one day. Maybe after he's not so busy organizing a conference.

![Jeremy Smith at Blue Ridge Ruby](https://kevinjmurphy.com/img/blue_ridge_ruby_jeremy_smith.jpg)

### Enough Coverage To Beat The Band

[I](https://blueridgeruby.com/speakers/kevin-murphy/) had the pleasure to bring the "Ruby's Got You Covered" [world tour](https://kevinjmurphy.com/posts/coverage/) to Asheville. This was my first time sharing this with an in-person audience.

![Kevin Murphy at Blue Ridge Ruby](https://kevinjmurphy.com/img/blue_ridge_ruby_kevin_murphy.jpeg)
Photo Credit: Drew Bragg

### Empathetic Pair Programming with Nonviolent Communication

[Stephanie Minn](https://blueridgeruby.com/speakers/stephanie-minn/) shared a way we can reframe our mindsets and statements in pairing situations and beyond. We reviewed observations, feelings, needs, and requests within the NVC (Nonviolent Communication) framework.

![Stephanie Minn at Blue Ridge Ruby](https://kevinjmurphy.com/img/blue_ridge_ruby_stephanie_minn.jpg)

### Forecasting the Future: An Introduction to Machine Learning for Weather Prediction in Native Ruby

[Landon Gray](https://blueridgeruby.com/speakers/landon-gray/) gave us an appreciation for all the work that goes in to prepare, manipulate, and clean the training data used in machine learning models.

![Landon Gray at Blue Ridge Ruby](https://kevinjmurphy.com/img/blue_ridge_ruby_landon_gray.jpg)

### Who Wants To Be A Ruby Engineer?

Drew Bragg, to the surprise of everyone only paying attention to the schedule on the website, hosted a small version of his popular game show after lunch.

![Drew Bragg at Blue Ridge Ruby](https://kevinjmurphy.com/img/blue_ridge_ruby_drew_bragg.jpg)

### RSpec: The Bad Parts

[Caleb Hearth](https://blueridgeruby.com/speakers/caleb-hearth/) demonstrated how we can use test structures that promote obviousness. Test examples should show what's being tested and how it is being used.

![Caleb Hearth at Blue Ridge Ruby](https://kevinjmurphy.com/img/blue_ridge_ruby_caleb_hearth.jpeg)

### Maintenance Matters: Maintaining Your Rails App and Your Sanity

[Annie Kiley](https://blueridgeruby.com/speakers/annie-kiley/) shared 10 suggestions to keep maintenance at the forefront of your application development process. I liked their ethos to make it easier to do the better thing, and that standards are not standards unless they're enforced.

![Annie Kiley at Blue Ridge Ruby](https://kevinjmurphy.com/img/blue_ridge_ruby_annie_kiley.jpg)

### Making Ruby Fast(er)

[Kevin Menard](https://blueridgeruby.com/speakers/kevin-menard/) ended the day of talks, just as a different Kevin started them. This talk starts with a discussion on Instruction Set Architectures (ISA) on silicon and transitions to YARV optimizations of Ruby code on a virtual machine (VM). Interpreters, parsers, and compilers - oh my!

![Kevin Menard at Blue Ridge Ruby](https://kevinjmurphy.com/img/blue_ridge_ruby_kevin_menard.jpg)

## Day 2

### What’s your type? Generating type signatures with Sorbet and Tapioca

[Emily Samp](https://blueridgeruby.com/speakers/emily-samp/) reflected on her reflection experience. Through this we learned how Tapioca generates RBI files for Sorbet to use. Give this one a watch for her beautiful slide design and expert animations and transitions.

![Emily Samp at Blue Ridge Ruby](https://kevinjmurphy.com/img/blue_ridge_ruby_emily_samp.jpg)

### Digital Identity or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Web3

[Thomas Carr](https://blueridgeruby.com/speakers/thomas-carr/) discussed the concept of a self-sovereign identity. This enables a user to manage their own data.

![Thomas Carr at Blue Ridge Ruby](https://kevinjmurphy.com/img/blue_ridge_ruby_thomas_carr.jpg)

### Go Pro with POROs

[Ifat Ribon](https://blueridgeruby.com/speakers/ifat-ribon/) discussed encapsulation, clarity and simplicity. Starting with a primer on database wrappers and modules, we moved into exploring different patterns where Plain Old Ruby Objects (POROs) apply: services, API wrappers, virtual domain models, and request/presentation objects.

![Ifat Ribon at Blue Ridge Ruby](https://kevinjmurphy.com/img/blue_ridge_ruby_ifat_ribon.jpg)

### Lightning Talks

Fishing, stewardship, CLI tools for generating licenses and CI results, Rails tips, hiring, 1:1s with managers, and accessibility were just a few of the topics covered in these five minute sessions.

### How can I move forward when I don’t know where I want to go?

[Mo O’Connor](https://blueridgeruby.com/speakers/mo-oconnor/) introduced tools to guide decisions on moving forward. Individual Development Plans, applying/interviewing, somatics, pros/cons lists, mentorship, and building relationships were the topics covered.

![Mo O'Connor at Blue Ridge Ruby](https://kevinjmurphy.com/img/blue_ridge_ruby_mo_oconnor.jpg)

## Appreciation

Thank you to Jeremy Smith for putting this idea into the world and making it a reality.

Thank you to Mark Locklear, Karl McCollester, and Joe Peck for helping to organize.

Thank you to the entire Blue Ridge Ruby Team:

* Mark Locklear
* Joe Peck
* Karl McCollester
* Johnathon Wright
* Bryce Senz
* Daniel Bradley
* Jeremy Smith
* Kristy Smith
* Porter Smith
* Jade Smith
* Thomas Carr
* Jay Sanders

Thank you to the sponsors for supporting a fledgling event. Particular thanks to Pubmark for helping support my participation.

Thank you to everyone who I met there. A conference doesn't work unless people show up, and you all made it the event it became. Thanks to everyone for the kind words about my talk. I really appreciate it. Speaking is a lot of work - hearing from people afterwards is what makes it worth it.

Congrats Jeremy; you did it.

![Jeremy Smith closing Blue Ridge Ruby](https://kevinjmurphy.com/img/blue_ridge_ruby_jeremy_smith_close.jpg)