Getting Employer to Pay for RubyConf

Ruby
1

So I’m just finishing my first year at a real job, and thinking about
asking to go to RubyConf. I really don’t have the money to pay for this
out of pocket. I also know that this company sends TONS of people to
heavy construction conferences every year (it’s our business), so I’m
sure that if I asked right, they would do it for me.

But I’ve never asked for that before. I don’t think I want to do it
casually; to easy for them to say ‘no’, even when this would be really
beneficial. See, that’s another problem, I’m going to this conference
90% to learn Ruby and keep up with the Ruby world, and 10% or so to meet
and hang out with other Rubyists. No offense to the other attendees; if
this conference were in Minnesota in the dead of winter, the office
would know for CERTAIN that there were no other reason for me wanting to
go there. November in Florida? Boss may want to go instead (not a Ruby
user).

Tips?

Clinton Judy

Web D.

Glenn O. Hawbaker, Inc.

2
> if > this conference were in Minnesota in the dead of winter, the office > would know for CERTAIN that there were no other reason for me wanting to > go there. November in Florida? Seems indeed a bad choice LOL.

Anyway you have made it quite clear you have to show that it brings
them more than what it costs them.
With the background information you gave us it is difficult to
elaborate a rationale, maybe you can be more explicit?

Robert

C’est véritablement utile puisque c’est joli.

Antoine de Saint Exupéry

3

This may be a little lengthy.

My office has almost exclusively run Microsoft applications, from SQL
Server to IIS to Windows Server (and all the usual desktop apps,
XP/Vista/Office that aren’t relevant here). My first application here
was to organize and search employment applications. I built the UI in
Flex, and barely hacked together a backend for simple CRUD in ASP. I
told the office I would be researching languages/frameworks for the next
project, and I did a few tiny programs in Perl, Python, and PHP. My
first attempt with Ruby was wonderful though, and doing a small Rails
application got me hooked. I developed our second in-house program, an
app to manage paving crews around Pennsylvania, completely in Rails.
(We’re still attempting to deploy to IIS on Windows Server, and I had to
write it using stored procedures for all database stuff to SQL Server.
But it’s been wonderful otherwise!)

Right before “Paving Scheduler” my boss and several coworkers raised the
concern that we’re supporting too many technologies. I countered that
Ruby and RoR were completely worth it, and I would be happy using it as
my only language for the next few years.

As of today, I’ve all but finished Paving Scheduler, and am working on
the first application for “Phase 2” as I program several features
requested over the previous year. I will hopefully be redoing the
backend to work in Rails, seeing how well Rails works with Flex. Even
though I’m actively encouraged to “stop refactoring when it starts
working”…

Our company isn’t a stranger to sending people away to conferences. Our
report writer is at a Cognos event in Alabama as I write this. But she
was sent there, and it sounds like most of the people who go to
conferences around here wouldn’t really care to go, but their bosses
send them.

…Maybe there’s something subliminal I can do?

  • Clinton
4

Eek! I just discovered how fast the seats sell out! How much time do I
have to register!?

5

Hi Judy,

Clinton D. Judy wrote:

I’m going to this conference 90% to learn Ruby and
keep up with the Ruby world, and 10% or so to meet
and hang out with other Rubyists.

That’s what all conferences are about. Just ask. Don’t pre-judge your
boss. (S)he may not be the a$$hole you’re afraid of.

if this conference were in Minnesota in the dead of winter,
the office would know for CERTAIN that there were no
other reason for me wanting to go there. November in
Florida? Boss may want to go instead (not a Ruby user).

You’re right. Suggest that the boss may want to attend too. Build
support.

HTH,
Bill

Tips?

Clinton Judy

Web D.

Glenn O. Hawbaker, Inc.

6

Now I see the “Voices that Matter” conference, and wondering if it’s a
better idea. Another guy at our Ruby meetup group said the price looked
really steep. And he didn’t know how much relevant content you could get
from 30 minutes per speaker (like the case study of Rails at the NY
Times). And it seemed to be only speakers from Addison-Wesley (though I
love “The Rails Way”, but don’t know about anything else).

BUT it’s in Boston! In November! No one’s going to think I’m just going
for vacation here. Ha ha! Thoughts on VtM?

7

Well seems to me you have had much more success in lobbing for Ruby
than I did, I guess I could have migrated half the project to ruby in
the time they were fighting a religous war if to use C# or Java…
Ok back to issue - obviously I am jealous :wink: - why not use the same
approach you always use and BTW as someone pointed out, if your boss
is really concerned about you using Ruby how could he better decide
than by attending Ruby Conf with you, the bad weather threat
withstanding ;).

Cheers

–
C’est véritablement utile puisque c’est joli.

Antoine de Saint Exupéry

8

I do not know how to ask for this but I have an idea of how you can
discover the method. Find out how the “TONS of people” get to go and
find a way to ask it so that it sounds just like the justification that
you know will work.

GL!

9

On Mon, Sep 15, 2008 at 4:39 PM, Bill W. [email protected]
wrote:

That’s what all conferences are about. Just ask. Don’t pre-judge your
boss. (S)he may not be the a$$hole you’re afraid of.

To be honest, going to Ruby conferences is about 90% a chance for me
to meet up and (possibly) do interesting work with other Rubyists, and
10% learning.

That’s not to say that I don’t learn more than 10% of the time, I’m
just saying I prefer conference that aren’t all about training and
information, or have special sections for that to accommodate a wide
variety of interests.

To be perfectly honest, if you want to spend 90% of your time
learning, you might be better off asking your workplace to send you to
a training session.

-greg

10

Why not suggest that conference OR Rubyconf? The cost alone will
likely sway your boss to let you go to Rubyconf.

–Jeremy

On Tue, Sep 16, 2008 at 7:56 AM, Clinton D. Judy [email protected]
wrote:

Well seems to me you have had much more success in lobbing for Ruby

–
C’est véritablement utile puisque c’est joli.

Antoine de Saint Exupéry

–
http://jeremymcanally.com/
http://entp.com/

My books:

http://humblelittlerubybook.com/ (FREE!)

11

Clinton D. Judy wrote:

So I’m just finishing my first year at a real job, and thinking about
asking to go to RubyConf. I really don’t have the money to pay for this
out of pocket. I also know that this company sends TONS of people to
heavy construction conferences every year (it’s our business), so I’m
sure that if I asked right, they would do it for me.

But I’ve never asked for that before. I don’t think I want to do it
casually; to easy for them to say ‘no’, even when this would be really
beneficial. See, that’s another problem, I’m going to this conference
90% to learn Ruby and keep up with the Ruby world, and 10% or so to meet
and hang out with other Rubyists. No offense to the other attendees; if
this conference were in Minnesota in the dead of winter, the office
would know for CERTAIN that there were no other reason for me wanting to
go there. November in Florida? Boss may want to go instead (not a Ruby
user).

This is a business question pure-and-simple. You’re asking your company
to make an investment in you by spending money to send you to the
conference. You have to justify it by showing how your company will make
a profit on their investment.

So consider, what’s the benefit to your company? I assume that part of
your job is to write Ruby code. (If not, it’s going to be very hard to
explain how going to a Ruby conference will make you a more valuable
employee.) As you said, some of the benefit will be education: You’ll be
attending presentations where you’ll learn about how to use Ruby more
effectively to do whatever it is you do at your company. You’ll learn
about ways to use Ruby in your job that will lower costs or increase
profits. (Lowering costs is good, increasing profits is better, but
since your company is in heavy construction and not software it’s more
likely you’re using Ruby to lower their IT costs.)

It would be nice if you could point to a specific Ruby project that
you’re working on right now, or will be working on very soon, and say
“Boss, with what I learn we’ll be able to complete this project
sooner/make it more robust/do more than we thought we could.” (And
implicitly, “Boss, this will make you look good to your boss.”)

So a large benefit from going to RubyConf is education. There’s another
benefit from RubyConf, and conferences in general, and that’s the
intellectual stimulation you get from just being around like-minded
professionals and hearing about their work, ideas, problems, and
solutions. I almost always come back from a conference full of energy
and ideas about ways to do my job better.

Another huge benefit is the opportunity to make connections. Ruby is
open source and an important benefit of open source is the community.
You’ll be able to meet other Rubyists face-to-face, share a glass, get
to know each other. The community is a great resource for solving
problems and sharing code and ideas.

So, from RubyConf you get education, intellectual stimulation, and
connections. It’s up to you to show your boss that you’ll come back a
more valuable employee, sufficiently more valuable that their investment
in you will be repaid.

Good luck!

12

On Mon, Sep 15, 2008 at 2:18 PM, Clinton D. Judy [email protected]
wrote:

So I’m just finishing my first year at a real job, and thinking about
asking to go to RubyConf. I really don’t have the money to pay for this
out of pocket. I also know that this company sends TONS of people to
heavy construction conferences every year (it’s our business), so I’m
sure that if I asked right, they would do it for me.

If you don’t ask, they definitely won’t pay for it, right? :wink:

Make the best business case for it that you can, and if they say no,
well, at least you tried. The company that I work for doesn’t like to
pay for conferences like these either (unless you’re presenting), but
sometimes they will pay for at least part of your expenses.

13

Thank you SO MUCH! This really helped put my letter in the correct
mindset. Few things first: Paving Scheduler is an app I just finished to
manage paving crews. I work for a heavy construction company; “heavy”
means roads and groundwork.

Here’s the finished version he will be getting this afternoon. PLEASE
tell me if I get too corny.

I would like to attend one of several Ruby conferences going on this
November. I want to attend because it will make me a far better Ruby
programmer and a better programmer in general. Ruby is known for its
capability to rapidly prototype solutions to problems, and for its easy
readability and being maintainable. Many Ruby experts are known for
being able to deliver quick yet maintainable solutions for business
problems.

I would consider myself to be a competent Ruby programmer at this point
(see this page http://pragmaticstudio.com/dreyfus for reasoning); I want
to become an ‘expert’ so I can become more valuable to the company. I’m
determined to reach that level where instead of it taking me four months
to complete a project, it would take me only one month instead. I know
this because I will be able to program using syntax from memory and
having to rely less on references, I will write code that breaks less
often, and I will have other resources to help solve difficult problems.
I will write more robust code, and complete more features as requested.
I will get more work done at work. The company will save money. And if I
work on business intelligence in the coming years, we can increase
profits by successful information management.

Ruby on Rails helped me quite a bit on the Paving Scheduler. I now have
code that’s easy to read (especially if Grace or someone else needs to
debug a problem while I’m away) and it’s maintainable; phase 2 for
Paving Scheduler will be done faster. It’s a good program, but I would
like to have gotten it finished back in July, rather than last week.
This is why I want you to send me to one of these conferences.

So far, there are three Ruby events going on this November.

The biggest (by attendance) one is RubyConf ’08, November 6-8 in
Orlando, FL. (http://www.rubyconf.org/) This event costs $250.The hotel
that it’s being held at is charging $159 per night for attendees, and
flight finders find flight prices anywhere from $200 to $300. Total cost
is around $1,150, which makes it the cheapest event by far.

The second event is the “Voices that Matter Ruby Conference”, held in
Boston, November 17-20. (Voices That Matter Series | Peachpit ) It
looks like a more educational venue, while also being pricier. It has
two 3.5-hour workshops on the 17th (I would request to go to the RSpec
one, the other one looks unnecessary) and the core conference takes
place from the 18th through the 20th. The “Core Conference and One
Workshop” early bird price is $950. The Sheraton Boston Hotel has a
conference rate of $249, but I will search for cheaper accommodations in
the area. The flight price is around $350, but I would drive to Boston.
Total cost is about $2,600 including shuttle, but less than $2,350 if I
don’t stay the last night and also (presumably) cheaper if I drive.

The priciest is the Advanced Rails studio, November 17-19 in Denver, CO.
(http://pragmaticstudio.com/railsadvanced/ ) The early bird registration
price is $1,695, so it’s the priciest. But it also offers the most
detailed instruction through small group study from Dave T. and Chad
Fowler, who wrote the first Ruby and Rails books in English. It’s very
little “meet and greet” and far more “show and tell and teach”. It’s
also completely focused on Rails, the web framework we used for Paving
Scheduler. Hotel room conference rate is $159 plus taxes. Flight is $500
roundtrip (and again, different sites give my wildly varying prices),
but drops to $250 or so if I drive to Baltimore and fly from there
instead. Total cost is about $2,700.

All of the above have pages with information on the event and full
schedules of speakers and/or learning sessions. I hope the company has
the ability to invest in me as their web developer, and I hope I can
give as much (and more) back to GOH!

14

Clinton D. Judy wrote:

beneficial. See, that’s another problem, I’m going to this conference
90% to learn Ruby and keep up with the Ruby world, and 10% or so to meet
and hang out with other Rubyists. No offense to the other attendees; if
this conference were in Minnesota in the dead of winter, the office
would know for CERTAIN that there were no other reason for me wanting to
go there. November in Florida? Boss may want to go instead (not a Ruby
user).

Next year, dead of Winter in Minnesota! It’s the only logical next step!

You don’t even have to go outside; stay in a downtown hotel, have the
conference at the convention center, and it’s all connected by skyways!

  • Charlie
15

On Sep 16, 2008, at 9:37 PM, Charles Oliver N. wrote:

beneficial. See, that’s another problem, I’m going to this conference

Next year, dead of Winter in Minnesota! It’s the only logical next
step!

You don’t even have to go outside; stay in a downtown hotel, have
the conference at the convention center, and it’s all connected by
skyways!

Skyway - Wikipedia

  • Charlie

Heck, I keep hearing that ALASKA is such a great place! Maybe
Anchorage in November :wink:

But in all seriousness we booked this hotel for one main reason, and
that was that we could all hang out and “confer” with each other after
the talks. The talks are going to be super, but there is nothing like
lots of time spent face-to-face, and to do that with 500 folks we need
ROOM. This hotel has that. It just happens to have nice weather and
great amenities too.

-rich