DAVID HILL Happy Wednesday and welcome to the show. I'm your host, David Hill. With RubyConf behind me, I have one more conference that is for sure on my calendar this year, and that's Rails World in Austin, Texas. Joining me today is the director of the Rails Foundation, Amanda Perino, to talk about Rails World. Thanks for joining me today, Amanda. AMANDA PERINO Thank you so much for having me. It's nice that I can come on the show again with a new host. DAVID HILL I'm really glad to have you since this is my first time having you on this show. So thank you for joining me. How is the planning for Rails World going? AMANDA PERINO So I don't know when you're going to release this, but when we're recording it, we're about 58 days out, I believe. Don't quote me on that. So right now, everything's pretty much buttoned up. Yeah. When does it release? Maybe next week? DAVID HILL Yeah. So this will be next week's episode. It'll be the first Wednesday in August. AMANDA PERINO Oh, gosh. So it's even less by then. Yeah, it's coming up. DAVID HILL it's coming up. AMANDA PERINO We'll be almost 50 days out, which is when final decisions have to be made. You put the final F &B order, you order the swag, make sure that all the sponsors are taken care of, they have information that they need. It's really a communication game from this point forward. Stay in touch with the speakers, stay in touch with the sponsors, let the attendees know what to expect and do it in a way that's... giving them the information right before they ask for it. Otherwise you have 50 million questions in your inbox asking the same thing. DAVID HILL Right. AMANDA PERINO So it's buttoned up and we're ready to go. It's going to be quite a fun one this year. In the four years that we've been doing it, it's the first time we've been in the US specifically. We were in North America two years ago, but this is the first US one. DAVID HILL There was two years in Amsterdam and two years ago was in... Toronto. AMANDA PERINO I'm pretty excited about it. I knew it was going to be a little bit different, but... The venue is different than what we've seen before, but the city is really amazing. This is my second event that I've produced ever in Austin. And the city gives so much. Have you been to Austin before? DAVID HILL Only once. Austin was the site of my very first RailsConf, like many years ago. Oh yeah, AMANDA PERINO yeah, that must have been a while back. Yeah, DAVID HILL it was like 2014, I think. AMANDA PERINO Yeah, cool. DAVID HILL Did you have time to go around and see the city as well? AMANDA PERINO you have time to go around and see the city as well? DAVID HILL Not a whole lot. At that point in my career, I was very kind of locked in to I'm going to the conference for the technical content and not for socializing and not for seeing the scene. AMANDA PERINO the scene. And so I was like super locked in at the time. DAVID HILL so I was like super locked in at the time. It was a very different David back then. AMANDA PERINO It's such a cool vibe. And we're trying as much as possible to pull the vibe into the venue because we know it takes a lot of. time to ask people to come like they're mostly on site right so we're trying to echo the city as much as possible we'll have a little bit of live music we'll have text and elements throughout yeah it's really fun because i just got off a call with our production team and sometimes we'll say something like if we need to hang the steer horns where are we going to hang the steer horns and it's like what is this event turning into so yeah we're having a lot of fun with it DAVID HILL really fun because AMANDA PERINO i just got off a call with our production team and sometimes we'll say something like if we need to hang the steer horns where are we going to hang the steer horns and it's like what is this event turning into so yeah we're having a lot of fun with it DAVID HILL Awesome. That's fantastic. I cannot wait to see where you've hung the steer horns. AMANDA PERINO I'm really having fun this time. DAVID HILL So I'm not sure if this falls under the kind of the same category of the planning that we've been talking about, but what kind of things are you looking forward to people encountering as they come into Rails world? AMANDA PERINO Yeah. So I kind of went back and forth on like how much spoilers. I should give because I really like people to be surprised when they come on site. But I also really need to talk about some of the things because I think it's fun. And this is all thanks to sponsors. Like sponsors made this possible. And what's happening is like a sponsor will get in touch and will think about their brand and say like, okay, does this make sense with your brand? Is there anything that your brand can inspire? Because it's like a lot of brainstorming back and forth. Sometimes it's straightforward. DAVID HILL Sometimes it's AMANDA PERINO AppSignal is our platinum sponsor and they're coming in with their Dutch things because they also have Austin headquarters, but they are born in the Netherlands. So they play this game called Shula. DAVID HILL So they play this AMANDA PERINO It's like a tabletop game and they have like full competition. The game that they brought to Rails World last year? DAVID HILL they have like full competition. The game that they brought to Rails World last year? AMANDA PERINO Exactly. Yeah, I played that. That was super fun. DAVID HILL Yeah, I played that. That was super fun. AMANDA PERINO Yeah, so they're doing that for instance. But then other sponsors, another good example is the Buzzsprout. podcast booth. That's how the podcast booth came to be because they were like, hey, we want to support. I was like, well, I think it would be great if we could actually take what you do and put it on site. And then the whole project for the Buzzsprout podcast booth so that podcasters can interview anyone in the community on site. DAVID HILL site. I loved the podcast booth last year. That was such a fun experience. AMANDA PERINO You interviewed me for that too, right? DAVID HILL That was for a different podcast. I think that was me and Marty when we were doing the Ruby Gems podcast. AMANDA PERINO Right. Yeah. Yeah. So we're doing that again. As long as people find it useful, we'll do it. And plus it's just they're fun guys to have on site and it just adds a vibe. DAVID HILL Oh yeah. The whole Buzzsprout crew is so fun to chat with. Yeah. AMANDA PERINO Yeah. But another element that I can tell you about, because I put out a call on social media a couple of months ago and I was like, Oh, I remember that. DAVID HILL was like, Oh, I remember that. Yeah. You got hammered. AMANDA PERINO I've been wanting to thank this sponsor publicly since, and I was like, I want it to be a secret, but I don't want it to be a secret because I need to tell everybody. So basically I had this idea and I put it on social media and I was like, it's in this budget. You got to think outside the box for sponsorship, but let me know if anybody is willing to discuss it. And a couple of people reached out and then a lot of people in the conversation were like, no, and thought, but they were like, Sounds crazy. I'm in. And basically it's a mechanical bull. We're going to have a mechanical bull. I can guarantee you. I don't even have to look in the archives. I don't think a Ruby event has ever had a mechanical bull. I don't even have to look. I just know. DAVID HILL A mechanical bull for display purposes or for people that actually ride the bull? AMANDA PERINO that actually ride the bull? You hop on the bull and you ride the bull. The Thoughtbot bull. So shout out to them because they were like, that's. crazy and weird and we're going to sponsor it for sure. So I love it. I'm pretty excited about that. We have live music as well because it's Austin and Austin's the music city. That'll be in the lunch break. So then there's one or two surprises I will keep as a surprise, but the closing party is at this great place called bangers. Like it's an outdoor place with really Texas feel. that sells sausages. We're going to have a little barbecue, live music there as well. So we're trying to go to Austin and not have barbecue. DAVID HILL go to Austin and not have barbecue. Yeah. AMANDA PERINO Or live music. Yeah. Or live music for that matter. DAVID HILL Or live music for that matter. AMANDA PERINO So yeah, it's just a lot of fun. And then we have the support of some really great sponsors, some returning like AppSignal, like Shopify. They're going to have a lounge on site. A lot of the foundation members are turning up. 37 Signals will be there. Intercom will be there. Clio again. And then we have lots of new sponsors. or at least new to us, they haven't shown up before. For instance, Terminal, PlanetScale, Thoughtbot, TestDouble has the pair programming corner. So if you have a problem, you could want to sit down with somebody to sort it out. One of their engineers can help you. It's more than just tux. We'll have a version of the embassy, so people should bring their passports. Don't forget your passport, your Ruby passport. DAVID HILL I totally forgot my passport at RubyConf. last month. Doggone it. I was going to get my third stamp. AMANDA PERINO I forgot it at Tropical when I went to Brazil this year. So I was just as gutted. I was like, oh no, how could I forget? So I'm going to pack soon and it's going to be the first thing going in. DAVID HILL So I'm AMANDA PERINO in. DAVID HILL Also jealous that you got to go to Tropical because I would love to make it to Tropical RV one of these days. And it's just the expense is a bit much sometimes. AMANDA PERINO Didn't you say you had a, like you lived in Brazil or you used to go there? DAVID HILL there? I lived in Brazil for two years and I speak moderately good conversational Portuguese still. AMANDA PERINO That's cool. That's really, really cool. Yeah, you need to go. You need to go. DAVID HILL Yeah, you need to go. You need to go. I would love to make it there one day, but it's not cheap. AMANDA PERINO For sure. Yeah. And then plus when you go that far, you really kind of want to hang out a little bit as well. Right. DAVID HILL Yeah. It's the same problem. Everyone that I've talked to about Ruby Kaigi, my father was in the Air Force when I was growing up. So I actually spent five years of my childhood in Japan. I was a kid. I didn't have any appreciation for what I was living in. AMANDA PERINO was living in. DAVID HILL I would love to go back to Japan. And everyone I've talked to is like, Ruby Kaigi is amazing. I would love to go to Ruby Kaigi. But if I foot the bill to go to Japan, there's no way I can go to Japan and not go to Tokyo Disney and see other like... sites around japan and if i do that my family will disown me before i get home like if i did not take them with me and so i know i feel like that everywhere though like everywhere there's an event like do i have the time and the funds to stay an extra week just to have fun honestly i say this all the time you could travel 365 days a year with all the events plus AMANDA PERINO if i did not DAVID HILL i did not take them with me and so i know i AMANDA PERINO i know i feel like that everywhere though like everywhere there's an event like do i have the time and the funds to stay an extra week just to have fun honestly i say this all the time you could travel 365 days a year with all the events plus adding a couple of days for yourself. You could just travel around the world the whole time as a professional Ruby event attendee. DAVID HILL Like what Marco Roth does? Yeah, AMANDA PERINO Yeah, Marco. AMANDA PERINO The professional speaker. As soon as I said it, I thought it. DAVID HILL I said it, I thought it. I have never had the travel bug. I've never understood people that just like wanted to travel all the time. Again, my father was in the Air Force. We moved every couple of years. I lived in Japan as a kid. I did two years in Brazil as a missionary for my church. I have traveled internationally, but I didn't understand the travel bug until last year when I went to Amsterdam for Rails World, where I was traveling for recreation. It wasn't traveling because my parents were moving or because I was going on a church service mission. It was like... oh, AMANDA PERINO I was traveling for AMANDA PERINO a church service DAVID HILL oh, this is a purely recreational travel to a place way outside of my normal environment. And it was so fun. And it was so cool to really see a different city and a different kind of culture that grew up around it in that very different country. And it's just like, oh, I get it now. Travel is cool. AMANDA PERINO Travel is cool. Too much travel. Like I could never be a digital nomad because I need my space. I work best when I'm in my space, when I have some sort of set routine. Yeah. AMANDA PERINO And the inclination now that we all work from home or always have for a lot of us is to like work wherever you are. But I don't work best anywhere. I work best at home in my space. I like the pace. Can't always do that. You have your ergonomics set up, which you don't have when you travel. Right. So there's the thing is too much travel, I think. DAVID HILL my space. DAVID HILL Right. So there's DAVID HILL Absolutely. I don't know how Marco does it, AMANDA PERINO I don't know how Marco does it, basically. DAVID HILL Right. Marco's threshold is obviously different than yours and mine. AMANDA PERINO Yeah. How do you do it, Marco? Let us know. Right. Please. DAVID HILL Also, help me figure out how I can do more speaker gigs so I can travel more because that'd be great too. I'm looking forward to Rails World because Austin's a great city and it sounds like you're doing a lot of fun things to kind of incorporate the city's identity under the conference. AMANDA PERINO Yeah, it's going to be a lot of fun. When our last site visit, I went and I met Nathan who did RBQ. I think it was right after RBQ. And I even talked to him and I was like, hey, this is some of the things we're planning. I know RBQ just happens. Like if there's anything that's the same, let me know because I don't want to make it seem like we're coming in and doing the same thing. Steal the thunder in any way like that. I kind of like went through some things with him and he was like, no, it's different enough. Not just scale, but different enough in like the vibe. DAVID HILL Right. There's a couple of things he did because he's from Texas. He lives in Austin now anyway. AMANDA PERINO There's a couple of things he did because he's from Texas. He lives in Austin now anyway. But I was like, darn, I wish I thought of that. To me, I'm just like playing Texan for the week that we're there. I don't know if I'll go as far as getting like cowboy boots and a hat, but I'm definitely thinking about it. DAVID HILL don't know if AMANDA PERINO Because why not? DAVID HILL That's fantastic. Potentially random question that we can cut if you. don't feel comfortable answering the question. AMANDA PERINO Hit me with it, yeah. DAVID HILL Because a little while ago, you put out a call for people to apply to be the emcee for the conference. Yes. Can you reveal anything about how that process went and if a person was chosen or who that person might be? AMANDA PERINO process went AMANDA PERINO be? Two people. Yeah, two people were chosen. I want to make sure I still have to have the conversation with the second one. I can tell you one. DAVID HILL Reveal the one then, yeah. AMANDA PERINO One is, maybe you know her, she was just at RubyConf, is Michelle Yuan. I love Michelle. DAVID HILL Michelle. AMANDA PERINO Michelle. From Chicago, yeah. So yeah, I think she's going to bring a good vibe to the stage. And the other one, I just want to have a conversation first before we confirm. Okay. DAVID HILL I had her on my previous podcast. Great times chatting with her. We kind of kept in touch here and there. She actually messaged me before she applied to be the MC for Rails World and asked if she could essentially use me as a reference. I think you were her recommendation. AMANDA PERINO as a reference. I think you were her recommendation. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think you could. DAVID HILL Yeah, I was like, absolutely. And in the back of my head, I was thinking, oh, Michelle would be perfect. Either you found someone amazing or you're silly to not ask Michelle to do this because she would be amazing. So I'm super glad to hear that she got picked. AMANDA PERINO We'll let the other one know soon. But basically the idea, that's one idea that came from my chat with Nathan when I was in Austin. We were talking about like, I think, because before we've always had it like sponsors nominated somebody or like the first year it was LeWagon Bootcamp. So they had the recent graduates on stage. Last year, it was two people who had done videos for us. So you'd seen them on YouTube. I've always had it in the back of my mind to make it somebody from. You're already organizing events. You're the face of the community around the world. And it's something he said that sparked that like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah. That's what I wanted to do something about. I forget what he said exactly, but I was like, oh, thank you so much because that's what I'm going to do this year. For sure. For sure. DAVID HILL That's exciting. I'm very excited to see Michelle up on the stage. AMANDA PERINO She has a good presence. I had her on the phone just to make sure. Yeah. Great presence and great energy. DAVID HILL presence and great energy. And she's just. Such a positive person that is like having her kind of introducing people. I can't imagine that going anything but well. AMANDA PERINO Yeah, yeah, good. We're set up for success already. DAVID HILL Exactly. AMANDA PERINO Another fun thing is we're having the biggest lightning track that you've ever seen because track one is pretty big this year. The stage itself is this three -part behemoth. Okay. AMANDA PERINO And just because of where track one is located, it's a little bit further away. And the lightning track is open during the breaks. We were like, let's just make track one the lightning track. Like if we can find sponsors and Sorcerer and Judo Scale are sponsoring it this year, one per day. We're going to open the lightning track CFP soon. So if anybody has a talk idea, they can apply. And it's going to be like a massive stage for these really fast talks. I'm pretty excited about that because you're up there and it's. A huge track. DAVID HILL Right. Are you just talking about the physical stage is huge? Yeah, AMANDA PERINO the stage itself is huge. Because if you saw in Amsterdam, it's like this wide. Track one was quite wide. DAVID HILL Yeah. AMANDA PERINO I feel like it's twice the size of that one. DAVID HILL Interesting. AMANDA PERINO It stretches across the whole back of the room. Okay. AMANDA PERINO This is more fun. It's not fun for the community, but it's fun for the planning because we can create this animation that goes across all three tracks for the first time. So all these like little fun things. I'm having a fun time with this one. DAVID HILL But the amount of time and energy that goes into planning a conference, which I have helped put on two Ruby Central done conferences now, the amount of time and energy that goes into putting these things together, you got to find ways to entertain yourself along the way or going to go crazy. AMANDA PERINO Yeah. Once in a while, DHH will be like, how's it going? Is everything good? I'm like, Still having fun. That's my gauge. If I'm not having fun anymore, we're going to have a talk. But as long as I'm having fun, that's the one thing that matters. And also, of course, doing what we sent out to do for the Rails Foundation, that's equally important, obviously, to feel that I'm doing what I was asked to do. But if I'm not having fun, I got to go somewhere where I'm having fun. But so far for four years, it's been amazing. DAVID HILL Speaking of the Rails Foundation, just pivoting maybe away from the conference itself for a minute. If you could just kind of talk a little bit about what the foundation itself has been up to outside of the obvious planning and prepping for the conference. AMANDA PERINO Yeah. So we're going to pivot and talk about a pivot because we're pivoting. DAVID HILL Okay. Lots of pivots here. AMANDA PERINO It's a funny year for the Rails Foundation, I think, like it is for everybody else because this year to last year, is so different. The fabric of tech is so different right now because of AI, DAVID HILL of AI, AMANDA PERINO of AI, obviously. And I think what I do in December, AMANDA PERINO think what I do in December, it's a quiet season. I start to plan for the next year. So December 2025, I was putting together, what are we doing in 2026? What's the budget? What did we do with the budget this year? Does any of that need to change? And so the Realist Foundation mission is to support the community through events, marketing, documentation, education. The message was the first. So I turned those into the pillars. Like, okay, those are four very clear cut things. It's very clear what I'm asked to do when I came in for the executive director. And for years, that's what we did. DAVID HILL Right. AMANDA PERINO And now with AI. So in December, I was doing all this planning going, ah. does this still make sense? And then especially by January, I was like, doesn't feel like it's going to make sense. But I still am going to present it to the board and like, let's talk. And the first thing we did in January, early February, 2026 was what's our mission now? Because marketing has changed thanks to AI. Education has changed thanks to AI. Documentation has changed thanks to AI. We'll see what it's doing with events. We don't know yet. Are people going to want to? gather for Ruby and Rails? Are people going to want to talk AI all the time? So it really changed everything about the mission. No, that's not true. It doesn't change everything about the mission. It changes how we execute on the mission, right? The mission is the same, support the community, help the ecosystem grow. But at the same time, knowing that things are changing for developers and engineering teams, not just for like how you work, but how the product is built, how the roadmap is looked at. So trying to understand what we should be doing now as the Rails Foundation to support Rails developers in this pivot as well has been kind of exciting, a little bit nerve wracking, a little bit like trying to build on a sandy foundation because every board meeting, it's just three months later, we meet once a quarter and it's like, nope, that idea doesn't work anymore because everything's changed already. So it's been a funny year for the Rails Foundation. And we've tried some things and Other things don't work out. So we're figuring it out now, now that things are getting a bit more solid, let's say. DAVID HILL Yeah. That was one piece of feedback that we got from RubyConf was that there were a fair number of AI -centered talks that were on the program. And one of the pieces of feedback that we got from some attendees was they wish there had been less focus on AI talks because... They wanted to talk more about Ruby. AMANDA PERINO one of the pieces DAVID HILL Granted, that's feedback from a specific number of individuals. How representative those individuals are of the overall community is probably impossible to tell. That was just the piece of feedback that made it back to us for the retro meeting that we had. Because you never know how many people are going to want and be invested in talking about AI versus wanting to talk about other things. AMANDA PERINO talk about other things. I did something wrong with the messaging, I'll fully admit, with the Rails World CFP this year, because people got the impression that it was like, AMANDA PERINO got the impression that it was like, we only want to hear your AI talks. I think I had nine topics and it was maybe two or three topics that were added that were new that had to do with AI specifically. But then I thought, okay, across nine, that should pan out to like that many talks in the whole scheme of things, you know, like a percentage. And in the end, we had... 50 % of the talks were AI focused and 50 % were everything else. So in the end, it was everything else that was easier to decide on because there's still interesting topics. Only there was less competition this time because everybody went to the AI side. How it shook out is that almost 50 % of the talks have something to do with AI, but we really wanted it to be AI and Ruby or Rails. Not just solely, but like maybe if you add it to your talk, it's not the main thing. And the way that I have the agenda we just finalized with the board, the way that I have the agenda is that there's never two AI talks at the same time and there's never two other talks at the same time. So if you're not at all interested in AI, then you have a whole day's programming that you can still attend. And if you are interested in AI, then you have it all mapped out for you. DAVID HILL I love it. I love that. AMANDA PERINO And then there's a lot of hallway track that you can design on. And I don't know how the lightning tracks will pan out, but I understand that there's still a need for other talks. There's so much going on in Rails that isn't AI. Like we still need to talk about all that. DAVID HILL Sorry, you just mentioned the lightning track again. I'm hopping back over to that topic now. Because for RubyConf, we had like signups that were done like online, like in advance of the conference to give a lightning talk. And I've seen... Other conferences, it's kind of like signups don't even open until the conference is started. How is RailsWorld going to handle signing up to do a lightning talk? AMANDA PERINO I've seen... AMANDA PERINO We will email all the attendees who have a ticket soon. It's a mini CFP. We run it like a mini CFP because it's only in the breaks. And we also want to make sure that people have time to move from space to space. So the breaks are... It's only in the longer breaks, I should say, 30 minute breaks or the lunch breaks. And for instance, with the lunch break, we want to make sure that people have time to actually go and get food, have a bite to eat, and then go to the lightning talk. DAVID HILL for instance, AMANDA PERINO So it pans out to be about nine lightning talks a day, which isn't a lot. DAVID HILL So there's a whole CFP process for that as well. AMANDA PERINO there's a whole CFP process for that as well. DAVID HILL Is that how you did the lightning talks in Amsterdam last year of having it sporadic throughout the day? AMANDA PERINO It was in the breaks because we don't want it to detract from the main content. So it was in the break, but you then just had to go upstairs. It's on track. DAVID HILL I remember the lightning track room in Amsterdam. I didn't attend many of them, but all the other conferences I've been to always just kind of like, it's almost like a normal speaker block that they just block out for lightning. And so it's having it scattered through the breaks like that is like, I'm having to wrap my brain around it. Cause I haven't thought about them that way before. That's interesting. AMANDA PERINO There's some competition, right? Because people want to talk to sponsors. They're going to want to ride the mechanical bull. DAVID HILL Obviously. They can listen to music, AMANDA PERINO They can listen to music, have a bite to eat. So the fact that it's on our biggest track is going to be quite funny because it'll be a smaller audience. It usually is. But still, it'll be fun. DAVID HILL I'm looking forward to it. It really sounds like there's going to be a lot to see and do, which will be great. AMANDA PERINO Yeah, there's plenty. It'll be good weather. It'll be a little bit warm. So it's going to be in a cool... Darker environment inside, but you can go out because there's an outdoor space with like picnic tables outside, coffee outside, the live music. Right. DAVID HILL We did Ruby Hunt in Vegas this year in the middle of July. So, I mean, it was quite toasty. I don't imagine Austin is going to be that warm. Yeah. AMANDA PERINO don't imagine Austin AMANDA PERINO Well, I think a couple of years ago, they also had like a freeze in September once. So it's really hard to predict. DAVID HILL Texas weather is a mess. It just runs the gamut and you never know which direction it's going to run. AMANDA PERINO It can't be as bad as Toronto. About a month before Rails World, there was a flood and the whole venue was underwater up to like waist high. Yeah, that was fun. That was a panic that I didn't need. DAVID HILL Oh, I'm sure. AMANDA PERINO And the live stream. We're going to have a live stream this year. That's right. DAVID HILL right. You're live streaming the opening keynote this time. AMANDA PERINO Yeah, because we understand that. travel to the States is a little bit expensive right now. So not everybody can afford it. Plus it's a funny year with like unemployment. So we figured if we're going to do it this year for it. DAVID HILL figured if we're going to do it this year for it. I thought that announcement was really cool since there's always some kind of announcement about what's next for Rails that comes out of that. So it'll be nice to have that out and publicly available faster. AMANDA PERINO We normally do it within 24 hours, but this time it was like, okay, let's just make sure everybody has the same information at the same time. And that's actually thanks to Shopify. It's not just a broadcast. There's going to be a little bit of a studio set up beforehand, a little bit of a 20 minute pregame as everybody's filing into the keynote room. The live stream will already be on. The hosts will already be talking to the live stream to talk about what's coming and stuff. DAVID HILL I love that. AMANDA PERINO I'm having fun this year. DAVID HILL You should be, Amanda. You were putting together this huge event. One of the things that kind of among friends we've been chatting about is just kind of like, I'm surprised there are still a Rails World tickets available. And those conversations kind of continued to happen as time progressed. Are there still tickets available or has it finally sold out? AMANDA PERINO sold out? This is the funny thing. It's a huge venue, right? We don't need to put a cap on tickets. So we'll sell tickets up until doors open. Well, that's not true because we need to make sure that we have the badges printed. So like two weeks before, we'll be forced to shut everything down so that we can print tickets. But like I've spoken to event organizers around the world, mostly Ruby, but also I've been paying attention to other events. And there's always like a spike towards the end. And traditionally, when I worked for HashiCorp, this was also how event tickets sold. Slow and steady. And then at the end, a spike. I can tell right now at the two month mark that people are just waking up to, oh, I have to be somewhere in two months. So I couldn't do it. But so many people are late planners. I think we'll be in a good spot in two months. We might have to close tickets earlier than that, but it's my plan to stay open as late as possible and sell as many tickets as we have to, DAVID HILL sell as many AMANDA PERINO to, I guess. DAVID HILL I could never be one of those people. I feel like travel costs and hotel costs. just go up so much when you're that close to the time to actually travel. I was like, no, I want to get a better deal. Since I'm going to be spending all this money, I want to get a slightly better deal of planning it farther out. AMANDA PERINO want to get AMANDA PERINO It's on my list today. I just realized I haven't booked my own flight to Austin yet. So I was like, oh no, here I am telling everybody, what are you doing? Because the hotel blocks are full. They booked up quite a while ago. The Speaker Hotel plus the extra hotel that we had. So we're getting a lot of emails now, people asking about the room block. And it's just like, why didn't you take care of that first thing? And then here I am. I haven't even booked my flight yet. DAVID HILL Oh, I'll do that after this call. AMANDA PERINO do that after this call. DAVID HILL Right. DAVID HILL Well, I think that wraps up all the talking points I had. Is there anything else you'd like to mention before we wrap up, Amanda? AMANDA PERINO Yeah. Well, thanks to Buzzsprout, we are inviting you to come to Rails World as... podcast so that you can interview on site. But I know that you already have a ticket. Right. So what do you want to do with the other ticket? DAVID HILL Can I give it away? AMANDA PERINO I think you should give it away. Do you want to give it away to a listener? DAVID HILL Oh, that sounds like a really interesting idea. Yeah, I think we'll do that. I will record a little something after this call to have all the details of how to enter the giveaway. We'll give the Rails World ticket away to a listener of the podcast. AMANDA PERINO Excellent. Yeah, cool. And then I'll get you your free one as a thank you for all the work you do on the Ruby on Rails podcast. DAVID HILL Oh, this is exciting. This is a wonderful podcast episode. Thank you Buzzsprout. Exactly. Yeah. AMANDA PERINO podcast episode. DAVID HILL Awesome. Well, thank you, Amanda, for coming on the show. Thank you so much for having me. I'll see you in Austin. I'll see you in Austin. This has been the Ruby on Rails podcast. It was a pleasure talking with Amanda Perino today, and I'm really looking forward to seeing what Rails World has in store for us this year. Amanda surprised me today with the ability to give away a ticket to Rails World. If you're interested in attending Rails World and don't already have a ticket, I've created a small Google form that you can fill out to enter the giveaway. The link to the form will be in the show notes, as well as posted on BlueSky, X slash Twitter, and LinkedIn. Thank you again for listening.