If you fancy a trip to the land of fried confectionary and heart disease, the Scottish Ruby Conference (previously Scotland on Rails) is selling tickets for its third event: Scottish Ruby Conference 2010. It takes place on 26-27 March, 2010 and the early bird tickets sold out in a mere 2 hours.. but there are full price tickets still available at £195 each (still a good deal really).

I've edged away from event specific mentions on Ruby Inside due to lack of interest, but the previous Scotland on Rails events attracted many suspiciously high caliber speakers (many not even from Europe) and lots of kudos from the community. A selection of 2009's speakers, for example: Jim Weirich, Yehuda Katz, Pat Maddox, Aaron Quint, Scott Raymond, Steven Bristol, Dave Thomas... !!

For 2010, the schedule has still not been announced, but the call for proposals has been closed and 83 proposals are currently being force-fed haggis until just 20 strong stomached individuals remain. Jim Weirich and Tim Bray have already passed the test with flying colors and are guaranteed to be keynoting. A full program is due for early February.

As an aside, kudos to the Scottish Ruby Conference organizers for ditching the Scotland on Rails brand for something better. No longer will Scotland's premier Ruby event be sullied by the inclusion of a defended trademark!