This Week on Tito: Close to My Heart

This week, there have been a number of events selling tickets that are particularly close to my heart, whether because of the folks organising them, or because I’ll be attending them. Either way, they’re all very special to me.

First up is The Realtime Conference. This was a conference that went from “I wish I could go” to “I have to be there” for me, making the 5000 mile trip less of a chore and more of a necessity. Apart from an amazing lineup, Eran Hammer’s description rings strong: “It’s not a conference. It’s a platform for imagination.” So far, hints of what to expect include a speaker list laid out as a “Cast” and Part One of a leaked novel, which includes a Kindle Edition and an Audiobook.

Next up is LXJS. This is special because I relate so much to the ideals of a small city with a big ambition. Speaking with Nuno Jobs, he told me that one of the most important goals for the conference is to “help Portuguese developers be more aware of the opportunities they have to be happy”. You can literally feel the love and enthusiasm on their site.

I love independent conferences, and I love the proliferation of them. I love Nickel City Ruby for a few reasons. I tend to really enjoy Ruby conferences. This one in particular is special because it’s organised by Nick Quaranto who looks after rubygems.org, which powers Tito’s heart and soul. And I love that even though I’ve met Nick, once, as a fanboy at a Ruby conference somewhere, Nick is simply a customer of Tito, having decided he wanted to use it, not because of me, but because he liked it. That is awesome. They’re also running a Code Retreat after the conference.

Nerdboat is probably the coolest conference of the year. “30 developers, designers, web hackers and tinkerers, Three days on an awesome boat”. I don’t think I need to say any more.

I’ve mentioned his name before, but so many conferences (including Realtime and LXJS above) trace their heritage back to Chris Williams. Chris is running Robots Conf this year, and it’s guaranteed to be a smash hit. There are a number of reasons RobotsConf is exciting for me:

Finally, a quick shout out to Refresh Cambridge. This is special because I just really like the Refresh events. I spoke at one once and … it was a really good time.