When the economy hits a downturn this typically has an immediate effect on tech conferences. Many tech conferences cannot run successfully without sponsorships, and with companies becoming more conservative with spending the marketing budget is usually the first item to get cut.

So yet another way you can help Ruby and Rails Activism is by attending (supporting) a conference. Below you’ll find conferences coming up in the next 6 months. If you think I’ve missed one, or if the information is incorrect, please post a comment.

February 6-7 – Acts As Conference in Orlando, Florida

Cost: $125

February 19-21 – RubyRx in Durham, North Carolina

Cost: $550

March 12-14 – MountainWest RubyConf 2009 in Salt Lake City, Utah

Cost: $100

March 26-28 – Scotland on Rails in Scotland, United Kingdom

Cost: £150

April 3-4 – Locos X Rails in Buenos Aires, Argentina

Cost: ?

April 4 – LA Ruby Conf 2009 in Los Angeles, California

Cost: $75

April 17-18 – Golden Gate Ruby Conference in San Francisco, California

Cost: ?

May 4-7 – RailsConf 2009 in Las Vegas, Nevada

Cost: $695

May 9-10 – Euruko 2009 in Barcelona, Spain

Cost: 30 Euro

May 15-18 – RailsCamp 5 in Brisbane, Australia

Cost: $120 AUD

Update

Since I initially wrote up this post, there have been several more events I’ve been made aware of (from the comments):

• RubyCamp Lyon, France, February 21, Cost: Free
• Ruby on OS X, Amsterdam, May 15-16, Cost: ?.
• Ruby DCamp Washington DC, September 18-19, Cost: Free

It’s pretty cool to see more RubyCamps. I’m a big fan of BarCamp type events where you keep admission free. Perhaps in this financial climate these types of events will prosper more then they normally do. Feel free to bug me if you want help putting one of these together or need help with publicity.