We would like to introduce you to the team that brought the Rails World website to life.

Back in April we put out a call for junior developers to create the Rails World website under the mentorship of a senior developer.

The response was fantastic: 430 junior developers and 30 senior developer mentors applied from all over the world. After much deliberation and a few rounds of interviews, this is the team that we ultimately chose.

Shona Chan is a junior developer from the Rails community. Shona is from Singapore and lives in the UK. She is a mother of two, has recently finished a web development bootcamp at Le Wagon, and is transitioning from being an anaesthetist into full stack or front end development work.

In her own words:

This has been an incredible learning opportunity for me. Ayush has been a great mentor, and through him I have gained new insights into best practices. It’s been a real pleasure working with the team so far, and I’m glad to be part of the Rails community.

Katya Sitko is a junior UX developer from the Rails community who completed her web development bootcamp at Le Wagon while designing the UX of the Rails World website. She is from Ireland and lives in Berlin.

Ayush Newatia is a freelance Ruby and Rails developer, and is the mentor on this project. He is the author of The Rails and Hotwire Codex, co-host of the Just A Spec podcast, and Bridgetown core team member. He also runs a privacy focused mailing list app called Scattergun.

We would also like to give a special shoutout to Michael Berger, Head of Quality and Accessibility at 37signals, who reached out with invaluable advice for the team on how to make the Rails World website more accessible.

About the experience, Ayush shared:

This was a great opportunity for me to give something back to the Rails community. I’m particularly proud of the work we put in to make the website as accessible as possible. Thanks Rails Foundation for investing in accessibility which, sadly, is not usually prioritised; and thanks Shona for being a star and making my job rather easy!

While there is still work to complete on the Rails World website, this team’s dedication and creativity have been instrumental in making the Rails World website a reality. We are grateful for their time and effort.

What’s next for Rails World:

• Stay tuned: in a few days we will publish the full agenda with session abstracts.
• The Agency of Learning team has started work on a conference app specially built for Rails World. We will inform all registered attendees how to access the app in September.
• Sponsorship opportunities will remain available for just two more weeks. Get in touch by August 15 if you would like to discuss how your company can help make Rails World an unforgettable experience.