Chicago
September 6, 2025 (9am – 5pm)
Chicago has its own steady rhythm—each neighborhood with something different to offer. This event is for "locals" from St. Louis to Indianapolis who want to get together, learn something, and connect with others who are in search of the same.
XO Ruby is a single-day, single-track conference designed to draw folks in from the city and the region. An approachable $100 ticket price coupled with no need for a hotel or airfare means you can connect with your community without breaking the bank.
Registration / Set up
Welcome
Fish Bowl Game
We Were Voyagers. We Can Voyage Again!
Do you remember Ruby's "Golden Age"? The era of why the lucky stiff, when frameworks like Camping and Sinatra felt like artistic expressions, and every week brought a new, delightful experiment. Ruby was the language of developer happiness, defined by a magical duality: rock-solid productivity on one hand, and playful, creative exploration on the other.
In our collective journey to maturity, building stable, mission-critical applications, has some of that original spark been lost? Have we become so focused on the practical that we've forgotten the "kind of silly"?
This talk argues that the rise of Generative AI isn't just a new wave of productivity tools; it's a chance to reclaim our heritage as voyagers. It's an opportunity to bring back the magic, the art, and the sheer fun of creation.
Scott Werner
Break
A Builder's Guide to Not-for-Profit Ruby on Rails
This talk explores how working with Ruby on Rails in the not-for-profit sector can provide meaningful technical challenges while fostering personal growth, purpose, and sustainability in a developer’s career. Through real-world examples and practical advice, it highlights the unique opportunities, skills, and impact that come from building technology for social good.
Erin Claudio
Perfect is too expensive
Peter Bhat Harkins
Lunch
From fork() to Fibers: Concurrency in Ruby
Yuri Bocharov
The TDD Treasure Map
We know testing is vital and makes refactoring painless. But how to set sail to that TDD treasure? Yarr, we need to test to get experience, but need experience to test. Let’s draw a map with simple strategies for identifying test cases and building a robust test suite. X marks the spot w/ TDD tools for newbies and seasoned pirates alike.
Aji Slater
Break
TBD
Malcolm Newsome
TBA
We're still working on filling this slot. Should you be here? Let us know if you want to speak.
Break
Dystopia: How We Got Here, and What We Can Do About It
We truly live in the worst timeline, but should it really have come as a surprise? Learn the history of our present technosocial nightmare, and find the inspiration to start building what comes after.
Coraline Ada Ehmke
Malcolm Newsome
Yuri Bocharov
Yuri is a Rubyist with a passion for mission-driven work and learning. He loves taking apart the tools that he uses and then teaching others about them. And bingeing on cooking shows. Lots of cooking shows.
Aji Slater
Former circus clown and Ruby developer of 10 years, Aji combines artistic sensibility with technical skill. Key projects span healthcare standards, government modernization, and open-source maintenance. Probably not Banksy.
Erin Claudio
Erin Claudio is a Ruby developer who loves Rails 8's newest features and rock-solid security practices. When he's not crafting great user experiences or tinkering with Tailwind CSS, you'll find him integrating social platforms and generating slick OpenGraph images. Erin believes great software should be secure, beautiful, and fun to use.
Peter Bhat Harkins
Peter is a lifelong Chicagoan who has spent his 25 year career mostly in Ruby doing web dev for startups. He's always up to talk about books, bootstrapping, and teaching cats tricks. He runs the programming forum Lobsters and is starting Recheck as a worker-owned coop.
Coraline Ada Ehmke
Coraline Ada Ehmke is tech ethicist and software engineer working for equity and justice in the technology industry. When she's not trying to change the world of tech, she records and produces experiential music in her fabulous home studio. Coraline firmly believes that kindness is punk as hell.
Scott Werner
Scott has been a Rubyist since 2008 and is now the CEO and founder of Sublayer where they're building an AI agent framework among many other things.
Writer at Works on My Machine and organizer of Artificial Ruby in New York where they're trying to bring back the spirit of experimentation and play with Ruby and AI.
TBA
To be announced ...
Fulton Street Collective
1821 W Hubbard St, Chicago, IL
Venue
Fulton Street Collective is a creative space in Chicago’s West Town neighborhood. With big windows, frequently updated art on the walls, and an open layout, your creativity will run wild.
Transportation
Whether you drive or use public transit, Fulton Street Collective provides flexible and convenient transportation options. The venue is accessible via the CTA Green and Pink Lines. The Damen and Ashland stations are both about a 7–9 minute walk from the venue and bus stops are a few minutes walk away. If you're coming from further away there is a first come first served onsite parking lot.
Nearby
