, , , and many others. I want to help you—whether you’re a developer, a business owner, or an HR manager—understand why you should encourage your company to sponsor these events.
For Developers:
There are two types of developers: those who have attended a great event and those who haven’t. The first group knows what I’m talking about—they were the ones who sold out Tropical tickets 10 times faster, in just over 6 hours. But what actually happens at these events?
We Learn New Techniques
If you're developing software the same way you did last year, you're likely missing out on productivity, quality, or speed. Rails 7 and 8 have introduced various tools that impact one or more of these pillars. Technical events are where you learn new ‘tricks’ or meet people who are solving similar problems in different ways.
We Meet Inspiring People
At events, you meet inspiring people, and—whether for better or worse—the people you choose to connect with have a greater . To organize Tropical, I need to dedicate about 15% of my annual work time. Tropical is a 100% pro bono project. I've already talked about the , the first sponsor of Tropical in 2024, which sponsors events worldwide; , that proactively reach out to sponsor the event because they know the importance of these events for the community and want to give back to the ecosystem.
Then, we have companies that still don’t understand the importance of events. These are companies that have never had the opportunity to participate or have a very commercial view. Their first reaction is to calculate the return on investment (ROI). Of course, we need to generate value for sponsors, but this ROI isn’t easy to calculate. It manifests as strengthening the “Employer Brand,” “Motivation,” and “Training” of employees and has the collective impact of events, which help attract and retain Ruby developers, ultimately benefiting the sponsor. Some of these companies sponsor the event, while others don’t.
The third type of company understands the importance of events but opts to gain the benefits without effectively contributing. They buy tickets and encourage developers to submit talks but don’t sponsor. It’s okay for these companies to exist; what matters is that we have enough companies of types 1 and 2 to keep conferences like Tropical viable.
I need your help to convince companies about the importance of sponsoring events, not just Tropical. If you think your company needs a better understanding of the importance of events, share this text with leadership or try to explain it to them. If you’re interested in supporting Tropical, send me an email at [email protected]
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