RailsConf 2021

1. When does the conference start? When does it end?

RailsConf 2021 will be entirely virtual. We anticipate conference programming starting at 5pm UTC (1pm Eastern Time, 5pm/17:00 UTC) on April 12th-15th and ending around 11pm UTC (7pm ET, 12am/00:00 UTC) each day, with some optional social events happening afterwards.

2. How do I know if I should purchase the Individual or Corporate ticket?

The Individual ticket (less than half of the cost of an in-person RailsConf ticket) is for those attendees who are purchasing their own ticket to RailsConf. The Corporate ticket is for conference attendees whose employer is purchasing their conference tickets. Attendees are free to choose which ticket they ultimately purchase; we operate on the honor system.

Please note that, as a nonprofit organization, all ticket sales for our conference go towards Ruby Central's mission of supporting the Ruby community.

3. What happens once I am registered?

Approximately a week prior to the conference, attendees will receive an email from the organizers of RailsConf to your registered email containing conference information.

4. Are there conference scholarships available?

Yes, we have a limited number of Opportunity Scholarships each conference. If you are interested in applying for this, please visit the Scholarships page for more information.

5. Do you need conference volunteers?

After close examination of our conference needs, we've determined we will not need any additional volunteer help for RailsConf2021. Thank you to those who have reached out seeking to help -- we are so grateful for our community!

6. Does RailsConf have a jobs fair or list?

Yes, we will be conducting a virtual job fair and we will also be featuring an official jobs list. Check the schedule for updated times for the virtual job fair.

7. Will conference sessions be recorded or streamed and will attendees have access to the videos?

RailsConf 2021 will consist mostly of prerecorded talks but will have a strong keynote and chat component. All sessions will be shown on a video platform. Except for live talks, all other session recordings will be made available at a later time and easily accessible to all our attendees.

8. What Virtual Event Platform will be used?

RailsConf has a website that serves as the main gateway to the conference experience. All videos and live streaming will be available from the website. Discord and MUX will be used for RailsConf.

9. What is the event hashtag?

Tag us with #RailsConf2021 and follow us @RailsConf

10. What can I share on social media?

We invite you to take screenshots or photos of the slides and/or speaker content during RailsConf and share them on social media. We encourage utilizing the #RailsConf2021 hashtag, tagging Ruby on social media, and the speaker. To ensure we are keeping our commitment to Data Privacy in 2021, we do not encourage sharing photos of participants which may result in an unwanted social media presence. In addition, screenshots or any information that include other attendees' data or personal information (name, photo, webcam...) without their explicit consent is strongly discouraged. In efforts to ensure RubyConf 2021 our ongoing commitment to the community, we want to ensure participants do not have to worry about their data or personal information being excessively shared. We can assure you that this is a priority for the team leading RubyConf 2021 and we abide by the same standards to protect privacy and data - and that includes yours!

11. What if I want to be featured?

We will be writing on our blog and featuring attendees on social media during the event. If you would like to be featured, please contact us at railsconf@rubycentral.org.

12. How does Discord work?

All pre registered attendees have been given access to our official RailsConf 2021 Discord server. If you’re new to Discord, check out this beginners guide.

We’ll leave the server online for one month after the conference ends.

13. Will Discord be monitored?

We will be monitoring Discord during conference hours only. While Discord will still be accessible during “off-hours,” it is not being actively monitored, and any requests or reports given during those hours will not necessarily be responded to until conference hours start up again.

Attendees all have the ability to create your own Discord channels if you wish.  As always, EVERYTHING in the Discord, including DMs, is subject to the RailsConf 2021 Anti-Harrassment Policy. Please familiarize yourself with this policy before you join us.

14. Will the live sessions be available after the stream?

All live stream sessions will be added as pre-recorded videos after they end so you can enjoy them anytime.

15. How do I join a workshop?

This year our interactive workshops are moving to their own day, April 12th. They'll be virtually held in a combination of Discord and Zoom. No registration is necessary! Please review our program and schedule pages to pick out the workshops you want to participate in. Each workshop has a dedicated channel in the conference Discord where you can learn more and get prepared ahead of the session. In there, you will find a link to the workshop repo that you'll use to get started. By April 12th, the Zoom link for each workshop session will be posted in its Discord channel. 

We encourage you to drop into the workshop channels you plan to participate in and say hi. If you have any questions or run into issues, please use the respective channel. Some workshop presenters will be holding office hours ahead of the conference so check for that.  These workshop channels will continue to be available after the session in case you have any post-session follow-up or want to refer back to the chat.  We are planning to record the workshop sessions but note that any workshop that uses breakout rooms will not include that in the recorded video.  It may take a few days before the recorded videos will be made available.