Montreal on Rails

• Stupid? Check.
• Geeky? Check.
• Funny? You judge.

So, that was fun!

I think it’s fair to say that our inaugural event was a modestly big success. Thanks to all of you who came out and participated in the evening. Thanks especially to Marc-André and Carl who gave sweet presentations. Big ups to you guys.

An administrative request: If you came out this evening, please drop a comment on this post with:

1) Your thoughts + suggestions.

2) Your contact information (if you’d like to share it for networking purposes). We may roll this info up into a “Local RoR Devs Contact Page” on this blog. Is that a good idea?

Some thoughts from my end:

• The room is probably not ideal - I’d like to explore options to find us a bigger space, and one where donut consumption may not be met with such scorn Some people have mentioned the ETS, if anyone else has other suggestions or contacts, please let me know. (I think we’ll have to do it at the same venue for September, because we won’t have time to organize something properly before then. I’m shooting to have something better lined up for the October event)
• Upcoming.org was suggested to be too onerous. How big of a problem is this? We’ll consider a wiki, or other options, but want to make sure it’s a sufficiently big issue to warrant the effort. For now, I’ll just set up a new Upcoming page and if it’s a big deal we’ll switch to a more flexible option. (Upcoming sent me a free tshirt so I’m a fan… what can I say, my love is cheap).
• I’m not sure if the “discussion forum” after the presentations really worked. Should we try again? Have people submit questions in advance? Maybe try a different angle?

Thanks again for kicking off MoR on such an enthusiastic note. Look forward to seeing you next month!

We’re really encouraged to see all the interest that Montreal on Rails has created!

As we get close to finalizing the planning for the first event, we’re enjoying getting to know McGill’s administration machine. We’d like to stress that people come early as the doors to the building will lock tight at 7:00PM (and this is not just a scare tactic - this will be enforced by McGill). Let me reiterate: you will not be able to enter the building after 7PM.

To this end, we’re moving up the event start time to 6:30 PM, and we’ll use the first 1/2 hour as an informal chit-chat/donut-eating period in which we can hang out together before the first presentation begins at 7 o’clock sharp. Sound good?

Also, if you plan to come please ensure that you use our Upcoming.org RSVP page to signal your presence. We have a hard cap on the room capacity, so this is important.

Finally, while the presenters will have access to a McGill guest WiFi account for demo purposes, there will not be public Internet access in the room. If you’re brave, you can live blog it from your cellphone though

I think that’s everything. Enjoy the next couple weeks, and see you on the 7th!