Go to a conference!

The Summer of Code is all about contributing and being part of the community. We want you – our students – to explore and experience the inspiring vibe of conferences, user groups and meetups. Of course, in the first place, you should spend the precious work time you have focussing on your work. But we’d also like you to get in touch with the community vis-a-vis, if possible, so you get a feeling for that vibe, too. This will happen not just during the Summer of Code, but also after the program.

Enjoy the great vibe, learn new things from talks, meet fantastic people and get to know the lovely community!

We highly recommend to go and visit evening events like local Ruby, Python or JS user groups. You can ask your coaches about events that happen in your town/city. Additionally, we suggest you to visit a conference. They are an important aspect of the community life and we support you by organizing free conference tickets.

Are you a conference organizer and interested in supporting our students? Please read here for more information.

• The Basics
• How do I Get a Ticket?
• At the Conference
• What About Travel and Accommodation?
• Infos for Conference Organizers
• Conference Sponsors in 2016

The Basics

The RGSoC orga team is in touch with many conference organizers all over the world. We try to provide free tickets for suitable conferences in your area. We are looking for conferences that are related to your main programming language or are well-fit general topic conferences that are beginner friendly. Additionally, we make sure conferences have a code of conduct in place or otherwise make an effort in creating a harassment-free atmosphere where everyone feels welcome and respected.

How do I Get a Ticket?

So, here’s how we do it. We have a list of conferences, you as a team can pick from and apply for tickets. Besides that, you can submit another conference which you think is missing in our list, and we will consider it too. You will be free to choose up to 3 conferences. This will happen on the Teams App, details will be given to you in time.

Please make sure, you only apply for a conference that you are really able to attend! We can’t provide support for travel & accommodation so please keep this in mind and make a responsible choice.

We contact conference organizers and ask for support. All the tickets we get, we distribute between teams based on the following criteria:

• teams’ preferences

• suitability (location/financial aspects, topic of conference)

Usually we recommend students pick local conferences – for financial reasons. However, if you are able to attend a conference at a far-away place, feel free to apply for one.

We announce conferences and teams associated with them in two rounds. After your conference is officially announced, we connect you with the conference organizers. You can then directly talk about the details of how to actually get your personal tickets. Depending on how it’s done, you might need to sign-up somewhere or simply provide your names so the organizers can put you on the list.

Is this also for volunteer teams?

Yes!

At the Conference

If you got conference tickets, we want you to share your experience and write about it on the RGSoC blog. Your post could look like this: RGSoC @ ROSS Conf or Eurucamp Days.

Sometimes there is an opportunity to give a lightning talk, and we encourage you to use it when possible.
Lightning Talks are usually 10-20 minutes long. The topic can and preferably should be your project at the Summer of Code. We check back with the conference organizers, and if they have a LT session at their conference, we will give you more information about it.

We also have in mind that it will probably be the first public talk for you. Scary thought, right? We know. Stage fright is something we all experience, even if we already have held a lot of talks. We will help you in dealing with it! Here’s a start: How to ace your lightning talk.

What About Travel and Accommodation?

Unfortunately, we are not able to provide additional financial support for travel & accommodation. If we see an opportunity, we will ask conference organizers about it, but please consider that providing travel grants is a big effort for everyone involved and doesn’t happen that often.

Many companies support their employees in attending conferences. Ask your coaches if there’s an opportunity at your place!

Infos for Conference Organizers

You are organizing a conference and want to provide free tickets for Rails Girls Summer of Code students? We will forever keep you in our hearts!

Our students are located all over the world. 2016 teams work on various projects using Ruby/Python/JS and other languages. But we are also looking for general topic developer conferences or full-stack conferences.

There are a few things to consider though:

• Your conference should be beginner friendly. That means, talks (or workshops) need to be suitable for people who haven’t done this for years.

• You take care of a welcoming, respectful and harassment-free atmosphere. We expect you to have a Code of Conduct in place and to make an effort in dealing with – let us be plain – jerk behavior. Bonus points go to conferences who have assigned contact persons for potential incidents.

At the conference, we want our students to hold a lightning talk about their project. If you have slots for this, we’d be very happy if a team could use one of them. If not, no worries.

We are not able to support our students with travel & accommodation. If you have any means to financially support people (e.g. a travel scholarship or a diversity program), please let us know about the details. We will inform the students about how it works for your conference.

Interested? Any further questions? Write us an email and we can talk about the details.

Conference Sponsors in 2016

A huge Thank You! to all conferences who support our students and provide free tickets for the 2016 edition.