Amanda Perino, Executive Director of the Rails Foundation, shares insights into Rails World's evolution and the foundation's growth strategy for supporting the global Ruby on Rails community. From creative conference elements like the Ruby Embassy experience to strategic partnerships with regional events, Amanda reveals how they're building sustainability while maintaining the community's playful spirit.

• Rails World returned to Amsterdam with continued enthusiasm despite using the same venue
• New elements added this year include a chill-out lounge, Ruby Embassy experience, and Ruby phone installation
• The Ruby passport system will connect global Ruby events with stamps from different conferences
• Rails Foundation partners with regional conferences like Tropical on Rails rather than organizing events in every region
• Balancing conference size (targeting 1100-1200 attendees) to maintain community feel while satisfying sponsors
• Rails Foundation operates with four pillars: documentation, education, marketing, and events
• Current focus includes updating documentation for Rails 8, creating educational resources, and producing case studies
• Foundation plans to grow beyond one full-time employee for long-term sustainability
• Community members can contribute by reviewing documentation PRs or participating in Rails in Focus videos

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Roy Tomeij and Ali Krynitsky join us at Rails World Amsterdam to discuss the European Ruby community's revival and the growing landscape of Ruby conferences across the continent.

• Roy shares his Ruby journey starting in 2005 when his team switched from Java to Rails 0.12
• AppSignal co-founder explains their approach to community sponsorship beyond just recruitment
• Ali details how COVID decimated many Ruby meetups, creating the need for fresh initiatives
• Baltic Ruby conference travels to different locations to revitalize local Ruby communities
• Ruby Europe Foundation connects approximately 20 meetup organizers across European countries
• Both guests emphasize the need for new blood in the mature Ruby community
• RubyEvents.org serves as a central hub for all Ruby conference recordings
• Practical advice for new conference organizers: secure sponsors first and share the workload
• The "Euruko effect" - how hosting the traveling conference often inspires organizers to create their own events
• AppSignal's famous Stroopwafels have become a beloved Ruby community tradition

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Adam McCrea shares how he turned a side project into JudoScale, a Ruby-focused auto-scaler now powering thousands of apps. We discuss his origins in the Ruby community, how he (mostly) bootstrapped the company, and admits he's pretty much living the dream. We also look ahead at new potential features like DinoSniper and proactive scaling.

• Judoscale

Rocky Mountain Ruby is coming up, on October 6th, in Boulder, Colorado. It's a single-track, community-focused conference that always draws an amazing group of people. Tickets are on sale now, so if you're in the area, or if you're just looking for an excuse to spend some time in the Rockies, you should definitely check it out.