Short report on the Perl / Raku Conference

This past weekend I attended the Perl / Raku conference in Greenville, SC, USA. It was a great weekend as I met a couple old friends and made a lot of new ones.

I was honored to be the keynote speaker on Saturday morning. This was especially so because it was the first time the keynote was by a speaker previously outside the Perl / Raku community. It seems that I am now a part of that interesting and important community.

Connections are a big part of communities and this is especially true of this amazing community. I’m not referring to the type of community that’s more about “networking” and looking for business connections. This community is about personal connections. It’s a place where all are demonstrably not just welcome but also actively included. This community centers around Perl and Raku, and that node provides a commonality that encourages other connections and personal interactions that don’t happen at many other conferences.

While doing my book signing, I was privileged to meet and talk to many of the attendees. I learned more about them and their interests. Afterwards, many of them corrected a couple factual errors in my presentation. Although my presentation was interactive, they were polite not to mention it during my session. Next time they’ll surely be more forthcoming. And I’m OK with that. It would have also been fine this time, as I’m used to that from doing many training courses over the years.

The bits of the other sessions I was able to see while still being available for the book signings, were excellent and well attended. I learned some new things as well.

The food provided for lunch was excellent and bountiful. Snacks and morning muffins were available, too.

Unfortunately, attendance was low this year. This is apparently due to multiple factors, both internal and external. In talking with the organizers, I found that plans for next year are already underway and attendance is a prime consideration. I’ll be working with the organizers to help spread the word for the conference for 2026. I’ll post information here as it becomes available and will be cross-posting with the Perl / Raku conference web site. I’ll add the link for the 2026 conference as soon as it becomes available.

I hope to see you there next year.