JavaPolis 2006 - Antwerp, Belgium

I have received confirmation from my employer, Ventera Corporation, that they will fund my trip to Antwerp. Hooray! I'm also planning on bringing my wife and spending the holiday season in Europe. It ought to be a great trip, right on the heels of presenting JRuby.

Any Europeans in Amsterdam, Antwerp, Paris, Venice, Prague, or points nearby that might like to chat some time, let me know. We're planning on visiting at least those five cities.

And for the record, I speak only one European language: Spanish (and very poorly, I might add). My Mandarin Chinese is better, but I don't expect that will help much.

RubyConf 2006 - Denver, Colorado, USA

I will be attending RubyConf 2006, but I still will not have my own presentation. The selection process is complete. I still have standing offers from two other potential presenters to share time, but I have not yet heard whether they were accepted.

Oddly enough, I did receive the following email:

We have finished the presentation selection process, and regret to
have to inform you that your paper was not among those chosen for
inclusion.

Since I missed the submission deadline by a day, it's rather unremarkable that I was not selected to present. So I missed the deadline AND was declined? Ouch!

RailsConf 2006 - London, UK

I have submitted a talk entitled "JRuby on Rails" for RailsConf Europe 2006. I have also heard from my employer that they'll only pay for one European conference. Phooey.

If I'm accepted, I'll have to find another way of funding the trip, since it's not something I can swallow myself. We shall see.