Rails World 2025

This year I was lucky enough to attend Rails World 2025.

And yes there were talks about Rails, Ruby and all things web development, but my biggest takeaway as a first time attendee was the postiive friendly community vibe. Part of the reason I have enjoyed working with Rails is the community around it, and this event really reinforced that for me.

The Keynote

Starting with the keynote, there was a strong theme around what DHH calls ‘the merchants of complexity’. The idea that perhaps we as developers or as an industry have been convinced that some things are too hard or risky to do ourselves, so we should pay some other party to handle it for us. Particularly cloud services.

I agree to some extent, and believe in keeping things as simple as possible, however there is a point where outsourcing a difficult problem makes sense. So it was a useful reminder of what is possible when we take back control.

I liked these questions at the beginning and end: What do you do with a problem? and What do you do with a chance?.

The message to me was people like us can actually build things to make the world better. We don’t have to sit around waiting for someone else to add the features we want or hoping big organisatons will change. Instead, we can just roll up our sleeves and put our time and skills into projects we think will help people.

The Venue

Located in central Amsterdam, the Beurs van Berlage is a historic 1903 building that originally functioned as the Amsterdam Stock Exchange. The architecture is stunning, with high ceilings, intricate woodwork, and beautiful stained glass windows. It was a perfect backdrop, blending history, amazing architecture, a sense of raw ambition and modern tech vibes.

There was a sponsor hall, with a good mix of companies, from big names like GitHub, Shopify, Gitlab and more.

The Closing Talk

Aaron Pattersons closing keynote was great, and a perfect way to end the conference. The technical insights were deep but it was also somehow light and fun.

Final Thoughts

Overall it was a the best conference I have ever been to, I learned a lot and met some suepr friendly people. I look forward to many more years of involvment in the Rails community.

Thank you.

Sep 9, 2025