by co-organizer Aki(@spring_aki), translated by Yuuki Nishijima(@yuki24) and Yuki Torii(@yotii23)

“Rails Girls Kyoto, 1st”
Following the first RailsGirls event in Japan, which was held in Tokyo at Cookpad last Semptember, the second RailsGirls event took place in Kyoto at hatena on December 14 & 15, 2012.

RailsGirls Kyoto had 22 girls from many cities in western Japan such as Kyoto, Osaka and even Matsue! Matsue is a famous city among Rubyists for Matz’ hometown (Matz should organize RailsGirls Matsue ;) ). For 22 girls, 16 coaches helped learning Ruby on Rails. Some were RailsGirls Tokyo coaches, also.

Like many other RailsGirls events, it was a two-day event. The first day was a “Install Party,” and the second day was a workshop filled with several sessions: TryRuby, BentoBox, lightning talks by coaches. Then, the end was an after party!

The Day One:
The first thing we did on this day was the Friday hug, which should be the most important thing to do on Fridays. Before we took this picture, @kakutani explained what is the friday hug since almost everybody didn’t know about that.

After the Friday hug, attendees started installing Ruby on Rails on their own machine.

The Day Two:

Attendees tackled to create thier first Rails app. They were lucky because RailsGirls Kyoto could have many coaches. Most of coaches were local, and the rest were from various area. As a result, the attendee/coach ratio was 1-2 to 1.

As soon as the girls started TryRuby, we heard girls’ shouts of “The mascot of TryRuby is so cute!” many times here an there in the room. It is true for a material being cute makes girls really excited, which changes learning programming fun.

Lightning Talks:

@spring_aki, the co-orignizer of RailsGirls Kyoto, was among lightning talks speakers. Aki said, “RailsGirls has a big potential since it is a combination of Ruby, Rails and Girls. Adding one more word, Kyoto, this event got a name, RailsGirlsKyoto. That’s why I believe this event has an even bigger potential by one more word! You are not necessary Kyoto locals. We all have been connected by this great event and Ruby community. Let’s have fun with Ruby and Rails!”

After Party:

We ordered catering for the after party. The hacobu kitchen, on-site restaurant company in Kyoto, was one of the partners who made this event awesome. Since they knew most of attendees were female, they served many kinds of food that looked so cute. Their food and cakes made girls happy and exited so much. We really appriciate them!

The passionate talk by the co-organizer continues:

Sachiko Imaoka(@papilio17), the co-organizer of Rails Girls Kyoto, talked her episode passionately during the after party. She wanted to attend the recent RailsGirls Tokyo event. However she couldn’t make it. At that time, the idea came across to Sachiko’s mind: “Why not doing it by myself?” Her feeling of disappointment pushed her to organize the event in Kyoto. This was how RailsGirls Kyoto was started. In this event, she was both the co-organizer and an attendee. She already talked about her thoughts and passion on it in the lightning talks session, but 5-minute talk wasn’t probably enough to talk about everything.

The last shot:

After the workshop, we took a picture again including whole members. As the picture tells, everyone was very excited. Yeah, look at thier smiles. This is the RailsGirls event. Thankfully, every girl could build their own Rails applications by themselves. We wish Ruby and Rails make their lives more delightful. Enjoy!

Enjoy Rails Life !!

This entry is translated version, original version is here.