Cirdes' X: https://x.com/cirdesh

Cirdes' Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cirdesh

Tropical on Rails: https://www.tropicalonrails.com

Transcript

Travis Dockter: Well, thank you. Serious for joining me for my kind of

Travis Dockter: casual unprofessional conference chats that I'm doing to kind of try to record some of the knowledge of conference organizers especially in the in the ruby and rails space

Travis Dockter: and put them all on a blog so that other people organizing conferences can see them, and it can help them out.

Travis Dockter: you actually wrote a really great blog post after your 1st time organizing tropical on rails. And I read that, and I have a ton of questions for you. But the 1st one, actually, I kind of want to go back

Travis Dockter: before that, because you kind of had some conference experience before you did tropical on rails specifically, because you had a like an event startup. Can you kind of tell us about that? And what your experience was before getting to tropical on rails?

cirdes: Sure. And first, st thank you for being doing that. I wish I had that content before I started tropical on rails. So

cirdes: yeah, I I had a company before that was called Aventic. It was a even bright for Brazilian markets, so we had a lot of tech conference as a client. So I went to

cirdes: Brazil, Js. The largest Js. Conference in the world that is being held here in Brazil. I had the opportunity to go to a lot of ruby events here a lot of front end events. And I also had the the opportunity to to go to international conference like there was a 1. It was a conference that Heroku used to to organize in us. So

cirdes: I was lucky to have the opportunity to go to a lot of events, and not only as an attendee, but as someone that was helping the organizers to on board all this the attendees there. So I was able to sneak pick inside the organization phase of the those conference, so that

cirdes: help me a little bit.

Travis Dockter: Nice. Yeah,

Travis Dockter: so one of the things that kind of really blew me away is that you guys sold out your tickets in the 1st 3 days for your 1st conference. Can you tell me kind of

Travis Dockter: how you think you achieved that? Because I I feel like that's really unique. And really impressive. So yeah, I just wanna see if you if you have any insights on how you think you achieve that.

cirdes: Yeah, that was unexpected. I was. I wasn't aware that it will gonna happen. But

cirdes: I think, looking back, I believe that what made the

cirdes: event to sold out so quickly is because I did something in a certain way, like, for example.

cirdes: usually I go to other events and try to find the keynotes, and I did that on the 1st edition we managed to to have

cirdes: awesome keynotes like Aaron, like Lean. That are the keynotes for resort, for example. So I had them on my web page before I had a button to buy the tickets also. I was lucky enough to have Raphael Franco as a friend of mine, and he was

cirdes: able to step in and helping me out with the

cirdes: event. So, because he's so well known inside the community. We got unaware of the event, and also he he was responsible for bring Aaron for bringing the link to to a new conference here in Brazil, and then, when I had that on a web page.

cirdes: I spent, I think, 6 months going to another event to speak there and then I was talking about the conference I was trying to

cirdes: post about the conference I was trying to, you know.

cirdes: creating social media contents to to say, Oh, we're gonna bring. We are going to bringing back

cirdes: tropical. Be prepared. So I spoke with a lot of regional

cirdes: ruby events organized inside Brazil, because we have a huge community. So I talk with almost every one of them. I reach some kind of influencers from the ruby community like

cirdes: Juliana Diaz that is very popular on Twitter on the telegram, and I brought her clothes. She helped us to organize the 1st edition also. Deborah did the same, but

cirdes: I started to, you know, making to create a formal oh, we're gonna have that. That will be huge. And everyone was already talking about tropical before we release the tickets, before we put a link that to, people could go there and be able to, you know, acquire a ticket. So we I spent months doing that. So when the

cirdes: when I we release the the sales, we usually have a promotional, a lot. So

cirdes: when people start to buying and people start to see that that promotional lot is, you know, it's sold out. People are

cirdes: willing to say to the friends, Oh, man, go go there and buy your tickets, because.

cirdes: we don't know. Maybe we are, gonna miss that. So I don't know. So that's what happened. Everyone was going there, and we had the promotional lot, the 1st lot, the second lot, and people started to feel that the event will be sold out. So that's what led to to that, you know, was a mix of

cirdes: trying to release content, trying to announce the keynotes before things happen, and trying to be present on social medias, and trying to connect with people that could help us to spread the word about the conference.

Travis Dockter: what I actually wanted to do is get like a a timeline from you. Because, as I was reading your blog post.

Travis Dockter: I noticed that you did some things in a different order than I'm I'm thinking about things right now, and I think that how you did it was actually pretty smart, and I kind of want to get a timeline for that. So before that 1st one we we were just talking about. How you kind of did this marketing push before opening up ticket sales. So when did you really start thinking about

Travis Dockter: Actually doing the conference? And then when did you start doing the marketing like? How long before your 1st conference was that.

cirdes: Okay? So 1st thing, first, st that conference used to be

cirdes: organized 10 years before at the northeast of Brazil, and that's why we call it propco

cirdes: right now we are doing the conference in Sao Paulo. Not tropical that much, but we used to have that conference back then 10 years before. So we stopped doing that because that was the main organizer of the conference. He lost a lot of money during the 1st conference, and and then we used to have here in Brazil, the Rubicon, Brazil.

cirdes: and it was the main ruby conference here, and after the pandemic they decided not to organize the conference anymore. So

cirdes: I have a company here as well. And I love working with ruby rails. So I realized that we were in a you know, a bad

cirdes: I think not in a good spot. We wasn't seeing that much of people talking about ruby talking about rails. So I was worried that I would have to go to another stack. So I realized, and it was

cirdes: one year before I did the conference that something needed to be done, and I had the experience of running conference because I helped to organize through call past editions. I had the network

cirdes: because I knew Raphael Franca. I knew a lot of Ruby's here in Brazil, and

cirdes: I was lucky that I had my own company that was willing to pay for the bill if I couldn't raise enough money to organize the conference. So I realized that I was kind of the right person to push

cirdes: a new conference to bring the conference back. So it was a year before, even before we even just few months later, we had the 1st resort. So when I saw that the 1st thing that I did was to call Raphael and say, Hey, man! We need to do that.

cirdes: people are not talking about rails here in Brazil anymore. People seems to be depressed. Let's

cirdes: bring the energy back that we are used to have

cirdes: 10 years before, when we used to run the the 1st edition of the conference. So, Rafael, okay, let's do it. And the 1st thing that I did was to bought a ticket to rails work.

cirdes: and when I decided to go to the resort, I have printed a lot of T-shirts like that one but purple ones, you know, and I put on my bag a lot of T-shirts and went straight to Tropical, and I started to giving away the T-shirts and ask, Oh, man, do you like a tropical conference T-shirt.

cirdes: please do me a favor where this on the event, and and then everyone was using a purple nice t-shirt with our huge ruby logo on that. And people start asking, Oh, what's that? What's that? T-shirt? Oh, it's a conference in Brazil, tropical blah blah!

cirdes: And that

cirdes: and that was in September, and the Conference was in April, so lot of months before the the Conference. So that.

cirdes: That was how I

cirdes: brought that international attention to to the conference in where I had approached Aaron in the lane. I

cirdes: I brought them cachasa. That's a Barry from Brazil. I brought, you know, a small gift to them. And, man, you should go to Brazil. It would be awesome. Let's go there. And the community really want you guys to be there. So Rafael helped me out, and we convinced them to to bring to to come to Brazil next year. So

cirdes: the straight answers is that I start being preparing for the 1st edition of Conference one year before the events.

Travis Dockter: Okay? And so when the was that the 1st one in April.

cirdes: Yeah.

Travis Dockter: Okay? And then, so you started like, one year before that.

Travis Dockter: When did you open up ticket sales?

cirdes: Usually I follow the same schedule. I go to resort, and just after resort I use. I close the keynotes, and then I release the website with the keynotes live

cirdes: between October by the end of October. I'm open the ticket sales, you know, because.

Travis Dockter: Okay.

cirdes: Already have everyone on the website, and everything is prepared. And just after the sales. Then

cirdes: I start thinking about sponsors, because other thing that I learned is that sometime by other experience, when you approach companies at least here in Brazil they want to bargain a lot. Oh, please let me be platinum paying the silver. You know that kind of stuff. So I was

cirdes: looking for some kind of leverage, you know. Oh, I have, all tickets sold out. So do you want? Send your employees to the conference? I have that badge reserved for sponsors. Oh, do you want to promote your branding for Ruby develops. That would be the best place, because I already have a lot of attendees there. So I was really.

cirdes: how can I say I? I got that leverage because I'm not. I was not willing to bargain, you know, because that's so hard, man. I'm not a salesperson, you know. I I don't want to, you know, negotiate with

cirdes: companies that they usually they send me sales guys on the other side. They are much better than me to negotiate. So my strategy was I will not negotiate. That's not for profit. That's, you know, something that I'm planning that I want to do for the community. They want that terms or not, you know. So that's the the one of the trickiest part that I had to to deal with.

Travis Dockter: Yeah, when did you

Travis Dockter: When did you have your Cfp.

cirdes: After that, you know.

Travis Dockter: Oh, okay.

cirdes: Yeah, between November and I open the Cfp. And I usually announce the other speakers by mid of January.

Travis Dockter: Okay, wow, okay. So you kind of had

Travis Dockter: you kind of did. 1st the getting the keynote speakers, then the selling all the tickets then getting sponsors, then doing your Cfp to get your other speakers.

Travis Dockter: Yeah, that makes sense, though.

cirdes: Because I I can't do everything at once. So I had to take priority so that.

Travis Dockter: Yeah, well.

cirdes: I I would like to start talking about sponsors much earlier, or open this Cfp earlier, but I don't have.

cirdes: you know, time to do everything at once. So that was the way that I find to be the best order for us.

Travis Dockter: Yeah. So I guess I was, because my strategy

Travis Dockter: is to get as much money because I don't have a a company backing this right? So if I lose money, it's my money. So my thinking was, Oh, I'm gonna try to go get sponsors now, so that I'll know how much money I have to do stuff like

Travis Dockter: T-shirts, or like paying for for speakers. Travel and stuff like that to kind of try to create a budget before I plan the rest of the conference, because I you know I try. I want to try to mitigate losing money, but

Travis Dockter: I I see your strategy, and it makes a lot of sense to to kind of create the conference first, st in order to use that as leverage, to get the sponsors and to get the the ticket sales as well. It's

Travis Dockter: it seems like higher risk in my mind, but it it does make a lot of sense.

cirdes: Yeah, you're right. It's it's maybe high risk. But it's

cirdes: if you are thinking as I sponsor, it's the 1st edition of an event. They don't know if that event will be good or not, who will be willing to travel to that event. So.

Travis Dockter: Yeah.

cirdes: It would be much harder in look for the sponsors perspective to support an event that they don't have any information about it. You know people are willing to go there who will be the keynotes, you know. So yeah, but you are right. The the financial risk is there, and it's the most challenging part of organizing a conference is how to handle the financial risk. And

cirdes: the thing that I trying to do is to increase the spending just when I receive

cirdes: enough sponsorship, for example, I didn't have T-shirts at the beginning, but I was lucky to, you know, raise enough money. So one month before the event, I decided to go, for T-shirts and T-shirts are really nice, because it's a free

cirdes: advertising about the conference people are wearing, and people are, you know, proud that he went to a console. It's really nice, but I wasn't planning to do that. I wasn't planning to pay for

cirdes: speak of travel travels, and I know that I saw other interview that you made. And

cirdes: yeah, I know that some some organizers are

cirdes: the believe that that's a must. But you know, it's so hard because we we don't have

cirdes: if you don't raise enough money. So we're gonna have problem and usually companies

cirdes: are willing to pay for their employees to go to to the conference. So stepping up and say, Oh, I will pay for your expenses will be a burden for the organizers. You know that I personally try to avoid. You know as much as possible because of the financial risk of the operation.

Travis Dockter: Yeah, yeah,

Travis Dockter: you said, you went on like a lot of like podcasts and and stuff like that for the marketing. How early. Did you start that? Did you start that like right after rails world? Or when was that.

cirdes: Yeah, actually, I use the rails world to be able to have content to talk about it here in Brazil, because, we don't have that much Brazilians going to rails world because it's very expensive. So I came back to Brazil, and I reached the most well known

cirdes: tech podcast in Brazil. And I told them, Hey.

cirdes: I just came back to resort. Do you want to host me? And maybe half that's a core from the core team and okay, come. And then I start talking about in podcast going to meetups and talking about the Conference. Yeah. So it was just after the resort.

Travis Dockter: Gotcha do you know your 1st year, what percentage of the attendees were

Travis Dockter: from Brazil versus from international.

cirdes: I I don't know for sure, but most of them are from Brazil.

cirdes: In terms of speakers. Usually we have. Half of the speakers are from Brazil, and half of speakers are from abroad. But I have a lot of people coming from Argentina, from worldwide. The countries you know, close to Brazil, because then Brazil's, it's more accessible to them. But.

Travis Dockter: Okay.

cirdes: Coming from abroad. We do have, but

cirdes: sometimes our long travel, you know, to to come by, to come to Brazil from us from Europe's 11 h flight. Usually, probably sometimes they don't have a direct flight, so that.

Travis Dockter: Oh, yeah.

cirdes: That's a problem. But I also, I'm always saying to people that we do have live translation. So when someone from abroad come to to Brazil for the conference. They will be able to listen in English every talk, because we do live translation, you know. Here.

Travis Dockter: Yeah, that's really cool.

Travis Dockter: Did you?

Travis Dockter: what? I had a question

Travis Dockter: oh, how how big? How many tickets did you sell the 1st year. How many attendees were there.

cirdes: Yours? 350. Yeah.

Travis Dockter: Okay. And then how big was it last year?

cirdes: It was 650. Yeah.

Travis Dockter: Wow! Okay, are you planning to go bigger next year, or are you gonna keep it at that size? 600.

cirdes: Yeah, yeah, it's a lot. And if I want, I can

cirdes: number of attendees. But I don't want. And and that brings on subject that if you want I can. Brings that. Why I'm doing the conference and why I'm doing the conference the way I'm doing. Because

cirdes: some I. I went to a lot of events because of my 1st company, so in some sense

cirdes: I have a taste of what a good conference means for me, you know, and when I started to do the tropical, I was thinking, I will be creating a conference that I would like to to go, not any kind of conference. So that's why we are a single track conference. Because I, personally don't like multiple track conference, because

cirdes: talk ends and you have to break for 15 min. You have to to decide. Oh, should I stay? Should I go where.

Travis Dockter: Yeah.

cirdes: I hate those kind of things, and later on, when you start talking with another person. Oh.

cirdes: talk was really nice. Oh, I missed that because I was in the other conference, and.

Travis Dockter: Yeah, yeah.

cirdes: I don't like. I don't like that, I but the other side is that I have just

cirdes: a small number of speakers, because we only have 1 1 track. So that's a kind of problem. But it's the kind of conference that I like. I like the I like to say that it's the Omakasi experience for conference, you know. That's what you're gonna receive, what I'm

cirdes: and Raphael and the others organizers are

cirdes: been preparing for. You. You are not able to to decide, you know, between talks you are able to decide. Oh, I don't want to see that talk, and I'm gonna leave. But that's the program, you know. So I really like that that kind of experience I really like.

cirdes: I trying to create Troco as kind of a show, you know, like, we have huge

cirdes: huge screens there. My team has been pre. Usually they prepare a lot of videos, you know, to

cirdes: to show to the people to motivate the people, loud music and lights going on. I like that kind of stuff, you know. It's my. It's my way of trying to to do the conference. It's a lot how I like it. And

cirdes: I'm sure that I don't. Wanna, you know, increase the number of attendees, because it will make it

cirdes: a different conference. You know. If, when you pass a certain threshold, the conference changed a lot, and I don't want to go into that in the most important part. Now I found a place. Now I found the vendors that I need

cirdes: to just replicate the conference that I did last year with a little less effort, you know. So it's very hard when I

cirdes: decide to increase the number of attendees I had to move the venue, and I had to start over because every venue has the AV guy that other. The other venue, has another guy for food. So it's starting over the events. And I'm

cirdes: planning for the future. I want to make tropical for 10 years. So in order to be able to do that I need something that are more easy to replicate every year. You know.

Travis Dockter: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So you you think you'll, you'll keep it. Around that 600 people.

cirdes: Yeah, so.

Travis Dockter: Loud.

cirdes: I think 100.

cirdes: Yeah, I I think I can reach 700 because it will fit on the the venue. But yeah, I wanna keep that way.

Travis Dockter: And did you sell out last year at that 650 mark.

cirdes: Yeah, it was 6 h even faster.

Travis Dockter: Wow! Awesome.

Travis Dockter: so you talked a little bit about like the production of the the conference. I really like, you know a lot of the the effort that you guys put into like the videos and everything like that. Do you have someone specifically on the team that's doing all the marketing. Or do you kind of split that up between people.

cirdes: Yeah, it's funny. On the 1st edition I I hired a friend

cirdes: to be able to, you know, create everything related to AV, to record to he do. He does something that is really nice that he's able to

cirdes: after the day doing some kind of same day. Video editing, you know. So we are able to present what happens during that day. And people are mind blowing, you know. Oh, I can believe you guys had the time to do that already. So.

Travis Dockter: Yeah.

cirdes: And he did amazing job.

cirdes: and I end up hiring him to my own company. So right now he works to my company, and during tropical. He helped us with that AV kind of thing. I also hired someone else to handle the social to be posting on Linkedin on Twitter to write, to create a strategy, to how.

cirdes: what kind of post they should be creating. So this is a separate team. And on the day that team. The social teams is there to try to engage with everyone through social medias. So

cirdes: that

cirdes: are the AV the social team and the guys that we hired for, you know, make everything happens with Mike and and camera and everything else.

Travis Dockter: Yeah, I really like I saw that you did like a tropical flicks. It was like a Netflix kind of play on a series, and you had all the speakers. I thought that was really really clever.

Travis Dockter: Kind of going back to the sponsors. Really quick, do you have, like all the packages laid out of what? Exactly you offer each one, and like, what are some of the things that you offer sponsors? And do you do anything special there that you think other conferences don't do, or that you do best.

cirdes: Okay, so that's really hard, right? Sponsorship. Because everyone right now, my cat is on my

cirdes: with me here. So that's very hard, because what I learned is that every company are willing to sponsor for a different reason. You know some companies like Signal Roy. They are sponsoring conference just because they believe that it's a good thing to do. Kind of a give it back, you know, he.

cirdes: I try to. Hey? Hi, Roy, let's try to do something here and it, you know, it's okay. It's fine. Just take money, and I'm knowing that you are doing a good thing. So that's the the best kind of sponsors, you know, but others are going there because they want to sell for developers. Others are. You know, us companies that

cirdes: are trying to hire Brazilian. So that's a good

cirdes: it's something that I find. I found out that was really good, because they coming to, they're willing to come to Brazil to to find developers and develops in Brazil. I want to work for American company. So that's a match, you know.

Travis Dockter: Yeah.

cirdes: And every year I'm trying to speak with them and asking, Hey, man, how can I

cirdes: provide more value to sponsors? And one of the things that I heard last year. It was from brawl, from Southern code, and they said, Oh, man, I wish I could, you know talk with others sponsors, you know, because I felt that I was there alone. So I I got that feedback, and I did something different this year. The dinners they? They speaker dinners that every conference has.

cirdes: I have open 4 sponsors as well, with a limited number of tickets, you know. If you are a silver, you have one ticket, you are platinum. You have 3, 4 seats on that dinner, and

cirdes: I heard a lot of good feedbacks about that, you know, because now you are sponsors, you as a sponsor. You'll be able to have dinner with Chris Oliver, you know, to talk with another consultant companies that I sponsoring, and you know,

cirdes: share some experience. So that's something that I I don't know. If some, if anyone does that I don't know how hope, central or real foundation does. But I did that here, and it was really good. I'm planning to to do the same next year.

Travis Dockter: That's really cool. That's an awesome idea. I I might steal that one. That is, that is cool. Yeah, I was trying to think of like things.

Travis Dockter: to try to offer more value to sponsors. And it it's hard, too, because, like you said, different sponsors are there for different reasons. So yeah, that's a that's a cool one that I had not heard. I don't know any of anybody else that that is doing that. So I I really like that one.

cirdes: Yeah. And I also do. I also do.

cirdes: For example, 4 speakers. I don't have the money to to pay them to come to Brazil, but I was with Marco. Marco. Rod and man.

cirdes: give me some

cirdes: feedbacks what we are doing here. It's what we're expecting, and and he was. Oh, man, you are going, and beyond, because

cirdes: for every speakers that doesn't speak Portuguese, me myself, I go to the airport, and I waiting for I'd be waiting for the speakers to arrive in Brazil. Put them in a car, and I drop him on the Conference Hotel, you know, because I know that

cirdes: people may become insecure because they don't speak the language, and they will.

Travis Dockter: Yeah.

cirdes: Here to to Brazil. So I

cirdes: do that for almost everyone when I can. If I can't go there, I send someone from my team to go to pick them up and to drop in the hotel. So I usually we prepare a lot of gifts, you know, for the speakers, some for sponsors. So I was trying to those that kind of things, you know, so they can feel good about coming to the conference about coming to Brazil, because

cirdes: that's another thing that is important. It's not going to a conference. It's going to a different place. I was in Philly for the 1st time, and it was awesome. The city and and the guy there just organized and walking to tour to the city. And it's the whole city experience and the whole, you know, come to Brazil experience. So I try to provide Brazilian food for the speaker, for the sponsors in

cirdes: meeting room outside. So I trying to engage with them? I have one guy that it's Tiago that's a friend of mine for long date, and he was organizing the conference back then as well, and he's responsible for make

cirdes: for hangout with everyone you know. Role is to go to a restaurant, to go to have dinner, to have. Let's prepare a lot of you know events for the persons that are coming to Brazil for the 1st time. So that's our his role. And I do believe it's 1 of the most important roles, because

cirdes: it's not just the conference. The whole travel experience, you know.

Travis Dockter: Yeah, yeah, definitely,

Travis Dockter: kind of along those lines. Can you think of something that you did? That maybe had an unexpected impact like, maybe it was something that you thought was small at the time, but afterwards people would come up to you and say, Oh, I'm so glad you did this?

Travis Dockter: yeah, like that.

cirdes: Yeah. I, for example, when people came to Brazil I bought you know the

cirdes: the plug adapter. I I don't know the International plug adapter. So I brought a lot of them, and I put on the gift for the speakers, you know, because I knew that they, you know, were not expecting the Brazilian energy adapter. So I put I gave one for everyone, and

cirdes: a few months later I heard Amanda Perino on both guys saying, oh, the guys from tropical are so so thoughtful. They gave us AV adapter because they are worried about the little details with our whole experience. So that was awesome. I wasn't expecting that, you know she was

cirdes: that you could be talking to others that we did that in. It's it's always it's so cheap, you know, it's I, just, you know, 2, $3 that I had to to spend to to gave to to the speakers. But you know they just they they they felt like we we are have been taking care of them. So that was nice.

Travis Dockter: Awesome that is really good.

Travis Dockter: What is is there anything that you did

Travis Dockter: at at your conference that you feel really proud of, or something that you feel like you do at your conference, that nobody else does like it, like maybe one or 2 things that you you're really proud of.

cirdes: And I think, looking for the Brazilian community. I I try to engage, you know, not just the

cirdes: attendees that are willing to go to the conference, but I was very worried about the local meetup. Something that group center does. I have reached every local meetup organizer and talk with them, and man is the time to to bring him back

cirdes: small meetups, because I knew that if people are going to local meetup they will be willing to go to another city to a huge event. So

cirdes: I brought them together in a Whatsapp channel, and we start to talking with which with other, and I saw that a lot of regional meetups

cirdes: gaming back. You know.

cirdes: I I it's not because of the tropical, but we we help them, you know, to to be

cirdes: to bring the energy back to organizing events. So I saw a lot of events coming back in all over Brazil in a lot of all a lot of cities, and on the 1st edition I invited

cirdes: everyone who had organizing a local meetup on the stage to to give a gift to them and to, you know, make everyone on the audience to be aware that they had small

cirdes: meet ups during the whole year around. Then they just don't have to wait for a year to go to Sao Paulo to go to tropical. So that's something I'm I'm proud of, of, you know, because

cirdes: I'm really into. I learned Ruby on my local meetup in in my city, you know. When I went I was

cirdes: going to that local meetup, and I had content with Ruby. So that's why I'm so deep connected with community. Because I learned that way, you know.

Travis Dockter: Yeah, yeah. Awesome. Okay. If you could give yourself

Travis Dockter: one piece of advice before doing your 1st conference, what would it be.

cirdes: I think it's it's hard, you know. I

cirdes: I think after the 1st edition I was burned out, you know I was so worried about the details that everything should be in place, because, like I told you, I have a specific taste for a conference. So I want everything to be that specific way. So I didn't enjoy much the conference myself. You know I didn't, went out with

cirdes: the speakers, the sponsors after the conference, because I was completely burn it out, you know. So for the second edition.

cirdes: my goal was to have

cirdes: more people helping me, but not any kind of people people that were aligned with the goal that I was looking for. So I was able to enjoy in a little bit more, because, like, I said. I don't want just to, you know. Make a conference for 1, 2 years. I want to push it forward for a while, so, in order

cirdes: that I would be able to

cirdes: make it happen for a while. I have to optimize for my happiness as well. You know I have to be, you know, happy in doing that. I'm I'm seeing the conference, and I'm loving, doing that. I I love to hang out with everyone of the conference. So I have to find room for enjoying the conference myself. And during the 1st edition

cirdes: I didn't, you know. So that was a mistake.

Travis Dockter: Gotcha. Yeah, definitely good to good to remember that.

Travis Dockter: So I guess before we wrap up here, have you started planning for 2026. Is there anything that you can reveal that you're excited for.

cirdes: Actually

cirdes: I didn't start it yet.

cirdes: I'm planning to start on rails world. I'm going there. I don't know.

Travis Dockter: Oh, yeah.

cirdes: To go. We we're gonna met that in person. But what I'm doing for this year is that I will start a podcast here in Brazil, in Portuguese, because we have a lot of great podcast talking about ruby, and there is a lot lot of them popping up recently. But we don't have in Portuguese, you know, so I want to bring one in Portuguese, and that will.

cirdes: My thesis is that it will help me to engage with speakers with sponsors, so it will be something like

cirdes: having a little bit of tropical during the whole year. That's why I bought that nice microphone and light and and a good camera. Because I'm trying to start a podcast to help the tropical event as a whole.

Travis Dockter: Awesome, awesome. I love it all right. Well, thank you so much for your time and and your knowledge, I got a lot of good ideas, a lot of stuff that I'm gonna borrow from from tropical, I think. And yeah, I I appreciate you being so generous.

Travis Dockter: And yeah, hopefully, one day I can make it to to tropical. It is

cirdes: Yeah.

Travis Dockter: A long trip. But yeah, I've I've so many good things about your conference that I would love to see in person. So thank you.

cirdes: Nice man. Thank you so much for having me. I love it. I saw that you have interviewed the best event organizers, ruby events, organizing the world. So it's an honor to to be invited as well. And yeah, please come to Brazil. I will be very happy to receive you here.

Travis Dockter: Awesome. Sounds good. Thank you.