Giving ever more of a crap

There is a combination of factors that made Elixir click for me and helped me engage with it continuously for the last 6-7 years.

Shared goals and priorities. I like high-level and dynamic code. I care about building services. I am not happy setting aside scalability.

It has legs. Not just a cool idea or esoterica. Actual traction, actual usage, tools that you can ship with.

It has drive and community. When I do things people respond enthusiastically. People do cool stuff all the time and try to push forward. A sense of a commons being worked on.

People I like. I would not have expected this to matter because the people of my past programming languages were not factors in my life. I didn't see them, did not interact with them online. Nothing.

Events that give me enthusiasm and exchange. The various Code BEAMs and ElixirConf EU have been great for me to connect with the community. My trip to the US to hit Gig City Elixir and NervesConf were tremendous. Getting into speaking, sharing and helping make things happen is a thrill. And having online friends turn out to be real friends in person is fantastic.

This is still an unconfirmed venture. Ideas, plans and early explorations but I have it in my head that Underjord will put on an Elixir conference in 2025, here in Varberg. The inspiration is very much Gig City Elixir as well as the stories of EMPEX and The Big Elixir. I'm not aiming for a massive ElixirConf EU-style event. 100-150 people I think we can pull off. And attach a day before with a first NervesConf EU is the hope (Todd has promised I can have the brand if I run it. Such a sweetie).

I have some companies that have said they'd sponsor it, not enough yet I imagine but I haven't started looking. I believe I have a venue that will work. One that is very special to me. Unfortunately can't get the fort it seems. Still miffed about that. The tiny city of Varberg is a tourist destination and much like Chattanooga punches above it's weight class in terms of delights on offer.

My reasons for doing it is a mix of local engagement where I live and wanting to help make another chance for the community to gather and mix at a comfortable scale. I also want to find the Nerves community of Europe. I keep finding new Nerves folk and they need to meet each other. Maybe this can also twist my locals into more Elixir in an interesting way.

Curious what you all think. This is still so early that if you are a company that want to support, be involved or otherwise contribute. Reach out, we still have a lot of possible ways to shape the event and I do want plenty of folks involved :)

Have you run an event? Am I out of my mind? You can reach me on the Fediverse where I'm @lawik@fosstodon.org or by responding to this email to lars@underjord.io.

Thank you for reading. I appreciate it.