The October 2025 meeting of LRUG will be on Monday the 13th of October from 6:00pm to 8:00pm (meeting starts at 6:30pm).
This month we’ll be hosted by Bloom & Wild in their offices between Vauxhall and Oval tube stations. Not only will they be providing the space, they’ll also be giving us some pizza and drinks! Full venue and registration details are given below.
Agenda #
Extreme Versioning #
Harry Lascelles says:
An exploration into the world of Software Versioning, with an emphasis on the RubyGems ecosystem. This talk will cover extreme real-world examples from Rubyland and beyond, including code examples, footguns and award winners, as well as tips for developers navigating version management. It will get quite technical, so bring your regex hard hat.
De-mystifying the GVL #
Josh Bebbington says:
The Global VM Lock is one of Ruby’s more mysterious ‘under the hood’ features. This talk explores new ways to peer inside it, using Ruby’s modern instrumentation to reveal how it actually performs work. I’ll demonstrate how we’ve applied those learnings at Carwow, to optimise the performance and reliability of our Sidekiq workers.
Afterwards #
When the talks come to an end we’ll head to a local pub for some food, some drinks and some chat with your fellow attendees. Last time we were hosted by Bloom & Wild we visited Mc & Sons, just round the corner on Kennington Lane, which serves all the classic pub drinks to wash down some Thai food.
Of course, even though this is the socialising part and seems more informal, please remember that still we consider it to be a part of the meeting and covered by our code of conduct.
Venue & Registration #
Prior to attending you should familiarise yourself with our README paying close attention to the code of conduct which applies to all attendees.
Secure your place #
The venue has a limit on how many people can attend so to be guaranteed entry you need to register via ticket tailor.
Venue #
The address of the venue:
Bloom and Wild
Unit 301 Vox Studios
1-45 Durham Street
London
SE11 5JH
See on a map
Bloom and Wild are based in the West Tower as you enter the courtyard.
There will likely be someone situated in the courtyard to direct people to the office and let them in but if not instructions on entering the building below:
- When you arrive at the West Building (the one without the concierge / cafe), please call 301 on the keypad and someone will let you in.
- Make your way to the lift (located up some small steps) and press 301 again in the keypad to the left of the lift doors.
- Once in the lift, press level 3 and this will bring you to reception
The venue has a hard limit of 50 people. If you register and realise you can’t come, please use tickettailor to give up your place so we can someone else come in your place, there is a link to self-serve in the email you get with your ticket. We might be able to let in people on the night who haven’t registered, but we can’t guarantee it.
Accessibility info for the venue #
Below you can find all the accessibility info for Bloom & Wild’s office:
For step-free access there are two lifts in the West Tower, one beside the stairs as you enter the building and the other to access the 3rd floor. We also have an accessible toilet.
Posted by Murray Steele on Sep 16, 2025
Please note new date of 15th September
The September 2025 meeting of LRUG will be on Monday the 15th of September from 6:00pm to 8:00pm (meeting starts at 6:30pm).
This month we’ll be hosted by Vonage in their offices in Shoreditch. They’ll be spoiling us with food, drink and (if we behave) a raffle.
Full venue and registration details are given below. You will be asked to present a photo ID by building security so please come prepared.
Please note new date of 15th September
Agenda #
Inheriting Gems #
Karl Lingiah says:
As Ruby developers we all rely on the vast RubyGem ecosystem, but as gem users we’re not necessarily aware of everything that goes into maintaining the gems that make up that ecosystem. When I became a developer advocate at Vonage, I went from gem user to gem maintainer overnight. In this talk I would like to share that journey, and some of the lessons I learned along the way.
Get on the same side of the table #
Joel Chippindale says:
Imagine the following situation. You disagree with your colleague (or your manager) but are unable to change their minds. You feel stuck and frustrated. The only options you feel you have available are to repeat your argument more forcefully or give up. Neither feels like a good option.
Does this situation sound familiar to you?
In this talk, we will explore how to get unstuck, have more effective discussions with your colleagues, and increase your influence.
Afterwards #
When the talks come to an end we’ll decamp to a local pub for some food, some drinks and some chat with your fellow attendees.
Of course, even though this is the socialising part and seems more informal, please remember that still we consider it to be a part of the meeting and covered by our code of conduct.
Venue & Registration #
Prior to attending you should familiarise yourself with our README paying close attention to the code of conduct which applies to all attendees.
Secure your place #
Hopefully you all remember that physical meetings involve finite space and so to be guaranteed entry you need to register via ticket tailor.
Venue #
The address of the venue:
Vonage
3rd Floor
15 Bonhill Street
London
EC2A 4DN
See on a map
Please use the street address and not just the postcode if searching on Google Maps
On arrival you will then be registered with building security and will be permitted up to the 3rd floor via the lifts, where we will greet you and assign you a visitor’s badge, which you should wear at all times whilst in the building. You will be asked to present a photo ID so please come prepared.
The venue has a hard limit of 100 people. If you register and realise you can’t come, please use tickettailor to give up your place so we can someone else come in your place. We might be able to let in people on the night who haven’t registered, but we can’t guarantee it.
Accessibility info for the venue #
Step-free access to the office from street level is available, with accessible bathrooms located on the ground and 2nd floor.
Posted by Frederick Cheung on Aug 13, 2025
The August 2025 meeting of LRUG will be on Monday the 11th of August, from 6:00pm to 8:00pm (meeting starts at 6:30pm).
For the second month running, we’re being hosted by the lovely folk at Cleo in their offices, on Shoreditch High St.
Full venue and registration details are given below.
Agenda #
stepper_motor: effortless long-running workflows for Rails #
Julik Tarkhanov says:
Lately, there has been a lot of development in durable workflows in Rails with tools like active_job_continuation and acidic_job. stepper_motor is a new tool allowing for identifiable, associable, orchestrated step workflows for Rails applications - without gRPC, extra tools or data stores. Let’s explore where such a system comes from, why every durable execution system is secretly a DAG, and how the stepper_motor architecture is informed by VFX software instead of the imperative ActiveJob methods.
No Browser Required: Dynamic OpenGraph Images with Rails and Rust #
James Edwards-Jones says:
How would you convert a <div> to a PNG? A technical deep dive into how Himg generates images from HTML without using a browser.
Our journey will include:
- How a browser works: from CSS parsing to image rendering
- Practical tips: like how to call Rust from Ruby
- Rails internals: how rails calls render without you needing to ask
- Using the Himg library
- Server side request forgery and injection attacks
- What OpenGraph images are and how they can help you go viral 🦋
Afterwards #
When the talks come to an end we’ll decamp to a local pub for some food, some drinks and some chat with your fellow attendees.
Of course, even though this is the socialising part and seems more informal, please remember that still we consider it to be a part of the meeting and covered by our code of conduct.
Venue & Registration #
Prior to attending you should familiarise yourself with our README paying close attention to the code of conduct which applies to all attendees.
Secure your place #
Hopefully you all remember that physical meetings involve finite space and so to be guaranteed entry you need to register via ticket tailor.
Venue #
The address of the venue:
Cleo
Unit 2.10, 2nd Floor
Tea Building
56 Shoreditch High St.
London
E1 6JJ
See on a map
The venue has a hard limit of 60 people. If you register and realise you can’t come, please use eventbrite to give up your place so we can someone else come in your place. We might be able to let in people on the night who haven’t registered, but we can’t guarantee it.
Accessibility info for the venue #
Below you can find all the accessibility info for Cleo’s office:
- There is step free access to enter the Tea Building from both entrances (Redchurch St and Bethnal Green Rd)
- There are stairs and a small open platform lift to get you from the Tea Building lobby to the lifts going up to the 2nd floor
- There are 2 lifts for transporting people to each floor of the Tea Building
- There is step-free access from the lifts to Cleo’s office unit
- The double doors to the office may be opened to accommodate a wider wheelchair or motorised chair
- The main floor of our office is step free
- There is 1 accessible restroom in the office, and 6 restrooms in total
Now, there are a couple of caveats, which we hope will not deter anybody:
- The main doors into the Tea Building do not auto-open - they open inwards with a push
- The door to Cleo’s office does not auto-open - it opens inwards with a push.
Posted by Alessandro Proserpio on Jul 26, 2025
The July 2025 meeting of LRUG will be on Monday the 14th of July, from 6:00pm to 8:00pm (meeting starts at 6:30pm).
This time we’re being hosted by the lovely folk at Cleo in their offices, on Shoreditch High St.
This event follows a more workshoppy-format: bring a laptop if you can and work through the exercises with some fellow attendees. You won’t go hungry as thoughtbot will kindly be providing food/drinks.
Full venue and registration details are given below.
Agenda #
If you wish it was better, change it! #
Fritz Meissner says:
Wish you worked with understandable and easily changeable code? Practice fixing the incomprehensible in an interactive, zero-background-required exercise on the career-changing topic of refactoring.
- LRUG July 2025 - Fritz Meissner - If you wish it was better, change it!
- The Noisy Animal code kata
Afterwards #
When the talks come to an end we’ll decamp to a local pub for some food, some drinks and some chat with your fellow attendees.
Of course, even though this is the socialising part and seems more informal, please remember that still we consider it to be a part of the meeting and covered by our code of conduct.
Venue & Registration #
Prior to attending you should familiarise yourself with our README paying close attention to the code of conduct which applies to all attendees.
Secure your place #
Hopefully you all remember that physical meetings involve finite space and so to be guaranteed entry you need to register via ticket tailor.
Venue #
The address of the venue:
Cleo
Unit 2.10, 2nd Floor
Tea Building
56 Shoreditch High St.
London
E1 6JJ
See on a map
The venue has a hard limit of 60 people. If you register and realise you can’t come, please use eventbrite to give up your place so we can someone else come in your place. We might be able to let in people on the night who haven’t registered, but we can’t guarantee it.
Accessibility info for the venue #
Below you can find all the accessibility info for Cleo’s office:
- There is step free access to enter the Tea Building from both entrances (Redchurch St and Bethnal Green Rd)
- There are stairs and a small open platform lift to get you from the Tea Building lobby to the lifts going up to the 2nd floor
- There are 2 lifts for transporting people to each floor of the Tea Building
- There is step-free access from the lifts to Cleo’s office unit
- The double doors to the office may be opened to accommodate a wider wheelchair or motorised chair
- The main floor of our office is step free
- There is 1 accessible restroom in the office, and 6 restrooms in total
Now, there are a couple of caveats, which we hope will not deter anybody:
- The main doors into the Tea Building do not auto-open - they open inwards with a push
- The door to Cleo’s office does not auto-open - it opens inwards with a push.
Posted by Frederick Cheung on Jun 24, 2025
The June 2025 meeting of LRUG will be on Monday the 9th of June, from 6:00pm to 8:00pm (meeting starts at 6:30pm).
This month we’re hosted by the lovely folk at Judge.me in their offices in Shoreditch. Full venue and registration details are given below.
Agenda #
Rethinking Service Objects in Ruby #
Vladimir Gorodulin says:
Service Objects in Ruby can feel a bit off to use, so I’ll share some experiments insights on some pragmatic ways to make them work better by shifting toward a more procedural approach.
- LRUG June 2025 - Vladimir Gorodulin - Rethinking service objects in Ruby
You? #
You can say:
Anything you’d like really, as long as it is of some interest to ruby programmers. Get some tips
Afterwards #
When the talks come to an end we’ll decamp to a local pub for some food, some drinks and some chat with your fellow attendees.
Of course, even though this is the socialising part and seems more informal, please remember that still we consider it to be a part of the meeting and covered by our code of conduct.
Venue & Registration #
Prior to attending you should familiarise yourself with our README paying close attention to the code of conduct which applies to all attendees.
Secure your place #
Our host for the meeting has a limit of 60 people, and we need to provide a list of names to them for security purposes. So, to secure your place and not be turned away at the door you need to register for your free ticket via ticket tailor.
Venue #
The address of the venue:
Judge.me
Ground floor
44-46 New In Yard
London
EC2A 3EY
Note: that the main office door for the venue is on New Inn Yard, opposite the coffee shop, but we’ll be going in through the entrance on Anning St which is round the corner behind Tesco.
See on a map
The venue has a limit of 60 people. If you register and realise you can’t come, please use TicketTailor’s self-service tools to give up your ticket so someone else can come in your place. We might be able to let in people on the night who haven’t registered, but we can’t guarantee it.
Accessibility info for the venue #
The event space is on the ground floor.
Posted by Paolo Fabbri on May 27, 2025
The May 2025 meeting of LRUG will be on Monday the 12th of May, from 6:00pm to 8:00pm (meeting starts at 6:30pm).
This month we’re hosted by the lovely folk at Space4, near Finsbury Park. Full venue and registration details are given below.
Judge.me are very kindly providing pizzas before the meeting. Make sure you register so we know how many to get!
Agenda #
An event-sourced programming model for Ruby #
Ismael Celis says:
Exploring how Event Sourcing and Ruby can provide a cohesive programming model where auditable data, durable workflows and reactive UIs are the default.
- LRUG May 2025 - Ismael Celis -An event-sourced programming model for Ruby
Mistakes were made, and definitely by me #
Andy Croll says:
CoverageBook is a decade-old Rails codebase which has seen at least one full internal rewrite.
Let’s have a walk through of perfectly “reasonable” decisions we made at the time that we’re now unravelling, and the new Rails-y-ness we’re using as we do it.
- LRUG May 2025 - Andy Croll - Mistakes were made, and definitely by me
Practical AI in Ruby: What LLMs Can (and Can’t) Do For Your Projects Today #
Lorenzo Barasti says:
A no-nonsense exploration of integrating LLM capabilities into Ruby applications using ruby_llm and similar libraries, highlighting real-world use cases without the Silicon Valley hyperbole.
- LRUG May 2025 - Lorenzo Barasti - Practical AI in Ruby: What LLMs Can (and Can’t) Do For Your Projects Today
Afterwards #
When the talks come to an end we’ll decamp to a local pub for some food, some drinks and some chat with your fellow attendees.
Of course, even though this is the socialising part and seems more informal, please remember that still we consider it to be a part of the meeting and covered by our code of conduct.
Venue & Registration #
Prior to attending you should familiarise yourself with our README paying close attention to the code of conduct which applies to all attendees.
Secure your place #
Hopefully you all remember that physical meetings involve finite space and so to be guaranteed entry you need to register via ticket tailor.
Venue #
The address of the venue:
Space4 113-115 Fonthill Road N4 3HH
See on a map
The venue has a limit of 50 people. If you register and realise you can’t come, please use TicketTailor to give up your ticket so someone else can come in your place. We might be able to let in people on the night who haven’t registered, but we can’t guarantee it.
Accessibility info for the venue #
The event space is on the 1st Floor with step free access via a lift.
Posted by Chris Lowis on Apr 23, 2025
The April 2025 meeting of LRUG will be on Monday the 14th of April, from 6:00pm to 8:00pm (meeting starts at 6:30pm).
This month we’re hosted by the lovely folk at Board intelligence in their offices, near Bank. Full venue and registration details are given below.
Agenda #
From React to Hotwire – An Unexpected Journey #
Maciej Korsan says:
For years, React has been the go-to choice for building frontend applications — but is it always the best solution? In this talk, I’ll share my journey from working extensively with React to discovering Hotwire, a radically different approach that enables dynamic applications without heavy JavaScript or complex state management.
Rather than a theoretical comparison, I’ll walk through real-world examples, demonstrating how I’ve implemented interactive features using Hotwire. I’ll also discuss my experiences, the challenges I faced, and some surprising discoveries along the way.
- LRUG April 2025 - Maciej Korsan - From React to Hotwire: An Unexpected Journey
AI has many applications in our industry, we are just getting started #
Mario Gintili says:
AI has many applications in our industry, we are just getting started.
In this talk, I’ll explore an approach to AI-powered observability tooling that knows everything about you and your codebase.
I’ll demo some of the most recent tooling in AI-assisted development, show you how to enrich an LLM with highly relevant contextual information and display a little workflow that shows how to use AI to fix bugs faster as they happen in production.
- LRUG April 2025 - Mario Gintili - AI has many applications in our industry, we are just getting started
Space for more talks #
You, maybe?
Afterwards #
When the talks come to an end we’ll decamp to a local pub for some food, some drinks and some chat with your fellow attendees.
Of course, even though this is the socialising part and seems more informal, please remember that still we consider it to be a part of the meeting and covered by our code of conduct.
Venue & Registration #
Prior to attending you should familiarise yourself with our README paying close attention to the code of conduct which applies to all attendees.
Secure your place #
Hopefully you all remember that physical meetings involve finite space and so to be guaranteed entry you need to register via ticket tailor.
Venue #
The address of the venue:
Board Intelligence
24 Cornhill
City of London
London
EC3V 3ND
See on a map
The venue has a hard limit of 50 people. If you register and realise you can’t come, please use TicketTailor to give up your ticket so someone else can come in your place. We might be able to let in people on the night who haven’t registered, but we can’t guarantee it.
Accessibility info for the venue #
Stay tuned for more information about this.
Posted by Alessandro Proserpio on Mar 12, 2025
The March 2025 meeting of LRUG will be on Monday the 10th of March, from 6:00pm to 8:00pm (meeting starts at 6:30pm).
This month we’re hosted by the lovely folk at Explore Group in their offices, near Aldgate. Full venue and registration details are given below.
Agenda #
Objects talking to objects #
Gavin Morrice says:
A review on what makes OOP such an effective paradigm to work in, followed by a critical discussion on some of the newer design trends in the Ruby space. We will discuss the concerns of relying too heavily on these patterns, and alternative approaches.
- LRUG March 2025 - Gavin Morrice - Objects talking to objects
Unlocking the Awesome Power of Refactoring at Work #
Hemal Varambhia says:
In this talk, I recount and discuss how I refactored some legacy ruby code using the Simple Design Dynamo and ideas from “Tidy First” to make it more agile, and then, using Domain-Driven Design, take that agility to the next level.
- LRUG March 2025 - Hemal Varambhia - Unlocking the awesome power of refactoring at work
- “Unlocking the awesome power of refactoring at work” by Hemal Varambhia
Afterwards #
When the talks come to an end we’ll decamp to a local pub for some food, some drinks and some chat with your fellow attendees.
Of course, even though this is the socialising part and seems more informal, please remember that still we consider it to be a part of the meeting and covered by our code of conduct.
Venue & Registration #
Prior to attending you should familiarise yourself with our README paying close attention to the code of conduct which applies to all attendees.
Secure your place #
Hopefully you all remember that physical meetings involve finite space and so to be guaranteed entry you need to register via ticket tailor.
Venue #
The address of the venue:
Explore Group
Portsoken house
155-157 Minories
London
EC3N 1LJ
See on a map
The venue has a hard limit of 60 people. If you register and realise you can’t come, please use TicketTailor to give up your ticket so someone else can come in your place. We might be able to let in people on the night who haven’t registered, but we can’t guarantee it.
Accessibility info for the venue #
There are a small number of steps to enter the building and then a lift to the 3rd floor.
Posted by Frederick Cheung on Feb 14, 2025
The February 2025 meeting of LRUG will be on Monday the 10th of February, from 6:00pm to 8:00pm (meeting starts at 6:30pm).
This month we’re hosted by the lovely folk at Funding Circle in their offices, on Queen Victoria St. Full venue and registration details are given below.
Agenda #
Our February meeting is our annual event devoted to short talks of no more than 10 minutes.
We have space for at least 1 more talk, and it is our most popular event of the year. So, if you have been on the fence about giving a talk, there is no better opportunity than this. To put yourself on the map, email us at talks@lrug.org
fell sunderland says:
Why I don’t use AI programming tools, and I don’t think you should either.
- LRUG February 2025 - fell sunderland - AI tools for programmers
Why our schema files kept changing #
David Lantos says:
Tale of an investigation why a local db:schema:load would change our db/schema.rb for seemingly no reason. Spoiler: varchar index
- LRUG February 2025 - David Lantos - Why our schema files kept changing
10 years of RSpec in 10 minutes #
Jon Rowe will share:
A brief look into the history of RSpec and a glance into the future.
- LRUG February 2025 - Jon Rowe - 10 years of RSpec in 10 minutes
Rails 8 + AI = Happy Life for Lazy Engineer to Create a Walking Skeleton #
Zhiqiang Bian says:
In this talk, I’ll explore how Rails 8, combined with AI-assisted tools, can help engineers rapidly spin up a walking skeleton—a minimal yet functional end-to-end system—with minimal effort.
- LRUG February 2025 - Zhiqiang Bian - Rails 8 + AI = Happy life for lazy engineer
Never say, “Never say die!” #
Eleanor McHugh says:
Ruby is a high-level language, and there’s a general assumption that it’s ill-suited to low-level shenanigans. But is this true?
In this lightning talk I’ll introduce some basic Ruby tools for accessing low-level system features, concentrating on *nix platforms, and see if it’s possible to replicate tenderlove’s Never Say Die gem for recovering from segfaults.
- LRUG February 2025 - Eleanor McHugh - Never say, "Never say die!"
The tag tale #
Jaehurn Nam says:
How we refactored Intercom’s conversation tagging service to not fake tag and made customers happy.
- LRUG February 2025 - Jaehurn Nam - The Tag Tale
Beyond current state: capturing how and why things changed #
Yevhenii Kurtov says:
Introduction into managing state for objects with complex lifecycle when auditability is a must.
- LRUG February 2025 - Yevhenii Kurtov - Beyond current state: Capturing how and why things changed
Self-Assessing against the Web Sustainability Guidelines #
James Smith says:
Sustainability is important, but it’s also hard, especially when building web projects. How do you know you’re doing it right? This quick talk will explain a tool I made for self-assessments against the Web Sustainability Guidelines, which you can use too!
- LRUG February 2025 - James Smith - Self-assessing against the Web Sustainability Guidelines
Afterwards #
When the talks come to an end we’ll decamp to a local pub for some food, some drinks and some chat with your fellow attendees.
Of course, even though this is the socialising part and seems more informal, please remember that still we consider it to be a part of the meeting and covered by our code of conduct.
Venue & Registration #
Prior to attending you should familiarise yourself with our README paying close attention to the code of conduct which applies to all attendees.
Secure your place #
Hopefully you all remember that physical meetings involve finite space and so to be guaranteed entry you need to register via ticket tailor.
Venue #
The address of the venue:
Funding Circle
71 Queen Victoria St
London
EC4V 4AY
See on a map
The venue has a hard limit of 75 people. If you register and realise you can’t come, please use eventbrite to give up your place so we can someone else come in your place. We might be able to let in people on the night who haven’t registered, but we can’t guarantee it.
Posted by Alessandro Proserpio on Jan 15, 2025
The January 2025 meeting of LRUG will be on Monday the 13th of January, from 6:00pm to 8:00pm (meeting starts at 6:30pm).
This month we’re hosted by the lovely folk at Canva in their offices, on Hoxton Square. Full venue and registration details are given below.
Agenda #
Shape-up: the best parts #
Pablo Dejuan Calzolari says:
A talk about the 37 signals famous methodology and how we apply to 8 teams of development which work in Ruby on Rails.
- LRUG January 2025 - Pablo Dejuan Calzolari - Shape-up the best parts
They’re not right, you’re not wrong #
Yevhenii Kurtov says:
We are going to look into the essence of what DDD is and why it came to be in plain English, without any consultant lingo. We will also evaluate its advantages, indicators of the possibility of successful adoption, and reasons to do so.
- LRUG January 2025 - Yevhenii Kurtov - They're not right, you're not wrong
You? #
We’ve secured a venue, and have two talks, but there’s still space for a 10 minute talk. Could it be you? How about some of these ideas:
Get in touch to volunteer!
Afterwards #
When the talks come to an end we’ll move to a nearby pub for some food, some drinks and some chat with your fellow attendees. Usually when we’ve visited Canva this has been The George & Vulture on Pitfield Street.
Of course, even though this is the socialising part and seems more informal, please remember that still we consider it to be a part of the meeting and covered by our code of conduct.
Venue & Registration #
Prior to attending you should familiarise yourself with our README paying close attention to the code of conduct which applies to all attendees.
Secure your place #
Our hosts have limited space so you to be guaranteed entry you need to register for a free ticket via TicketTailor.
Note: as part of attending this month you will also need to agree to an NDA provided by our hosts, Canva.
Venue #
The address of the venue:
Canva
33 Hoxton Square
London
N1 6PB
See on a map
The venue has a hard limit of 150 people. Even with such a high number, if you register and realise you can’t come, please use TicketTailor to give up your ticket so someone else can come in your place. We might be able to let in people on the night who haven’t registered, but we can’t guarantee it.
Posted by Murray Steele on Dec 18, 2024
