This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Ruby Buzz by James Britt. Original Post: Sudden Thoughts from MountainWest RubyConf 2008 Feed Title: James Britt: Ruby Development Feed URL: http://feeds.feedburner.com/JamesBritt-Home Feed Description: James Britt: Playing with better toys Latest Ruby Buzz Posts Latest Ruby Buzz Posts by James Britt Latest Posts From James Britt: Ruby Development

Having a blast.

Still, there are things you don’t think of until you’re here.

Things to do before attending a conference:

• Research food options near the conference location, or you will waste time walking and looking
• Print out Google maps for points of interest near conference location (esp. food)
• Cache doc files for things you think you may be hacking on which require access to Web-based docs.
  • Good for planes, plus teh intarwebs have a knack for going down right when you need that API reference, so fill up that drive
• Use a distributed revision control tool so you can keep committing, net or not
  • But you’re already doing that, right?

If speaking:

• Inquire about the projector resolution you’ll be using
  • Practice your preso at the run-time resolution.
• Inquire about physical screen size and audience seating distance
  • Fonts that look nice on your laptop screen may be unreadable to your audience
  • This is especially important if you plan on using screencasts, since you may not be able to do anything about the font size when you present.