“We’ve got it, we’ve got it! We’ve got the formula!” the tired yet noticeably excited voice echoed the dimly lit streets of Kazimierz district. Unheard by anyone, but a sole black-haired specimen of felis silvestris catus, the voice came from somewhere below. Only a few knew, that deep under the ancient district was the secret underground laboratory, where the brave and relentless Railsberry team was analyzing the data gathered throughout the Experiment in an offline environment. The mysterious voice belonged to the experiment’s mastermind, who just found the secret formula for a perfect conference. The results were clear. The secret ingredient to a perfect conference was…

…the perfect crowd! The experiment only confirmed what we felt deep in our hearts for a long time: the event is only as good as its attendees. In that case it meant off-the-charts good!  THANK YOU guys!

We trust you got back home safely and are getting ready for all the conference materials we’re about to release!

Thankfully, the experiment was documented extremely well. The soon-to-be-published Railsberry lab logs (i.e. pictures, videos and talk recordings) will be online by the end of this month, so stay tuned!

The Nicer app! Available for your smartphone or tablet. It’ll give you access to an always fresh agenda. In case the agenda changes, it’ll be the first place to get updated. Nicer lets us (but especially me!) SPAM you with useful TIPS or breaking NEWS. It’ll make your experience in Krakow a better one, simple as that.

Get the app from: http://getnicer.com/apps
Once you install it follow Railsberry and make sure you’ve got your push notifications enabled. Voila.

One more thing. *Me* spamming *you* via Nicer isn’t enough. Not enough for me at least. I’ll be tweeting to my heart’s content as @railsberry (although for the sake of plausible deniability let me tell you that on certain occasions it might be someone else. Maybe Ela. Maybe Dorota. Who knows!)

We’re happy to say that all of them fulfilled our requirements. Below you can see detailed results of our test and decide for yourself how well will they fit the Railsberry atmosphere.

What was your first truly scientific experiment and what were the results?

Agnieszka: Assembled a needle, a plastic tube and a shampoo bottle to give an infusion to a sick plush dog. The dog was perfectly hydrated afterwards.

Antek: I believe it was an experiment involving a lighter and a deodorant spray. I’d say it was a huge success, but my parents didn’t consider it as such.

Marcin: I tested the workflow of Polish Emergency Rooms a few times when I was a kid. These guys sure like to stitch things up.

Could you describe your first programming experience and how old were you back then?

Agnieszka: Schneider CPC6128 and a programming book for kids, early primary school.

Antek: Steering a turtle using AC LOGO in elementary school. I was 8 then.

Marcin: I was 15 or 16, it was in high school, we had a computer science class taught in Pascal. We had no idea what we were doing, but it was fun.

How would you describe the term “Cloud Computing” to curious 6-year old?

Agnieszka: Cloud computing is when a computer asks other computers to help it out with something it cannot do on its own. Works similarly to you asking me to do your homework.

Antek: It’s like having a huge army of Teletubbies doing all your homework, 24/7.

Marcin: Imagine a room with an infinite amount of computers. You can as many as you want at any given time. And when you ask for a new one, you get it in 2 minutes.

Which scientist do you admire the most?

Agnieszka: Alan Turing, for cracking the Enigma and for his nonconformist attitude.

Antek: Nikola Tesla, because theoatmeal.com/comics/tesla.

Marcin: Richard Dawkins
Ha! You thought I would give some computer scientist or mathematician.
He is mindblowingly intelligent, and I admire the strength of his character.

And finally… How would you describe the taste of a Railsberry?

Agnieszka: Cola jelly

Antek: White peach and pear make for a balanced acidity and juicy body. Underlying sweet tones of maple syrup and nougat lead to an almond butter finish.

Marcin: Oh that’s simple:

I ate so much of that candy, that whenever I hear berry, I feel that taste.

We were wondering how many Railsberry speakers we could fit into one post. Turns of that the answer is 8. Meet Paolo Perego, Joseph Wilk, Geoffrey Grosenbach, Elliott Kember, Chris Kelly, Alex Koppel, Eric Redmond and Andrew Gerrand. We have conducted yet another nonsense interview with them so that you can get to know them better and learn something about Polish/Krakow culture along the way. Yeah… also meet 23 pigeons, 16 pork sausages, 10 pierogis, 4 large beers, 3 cheap vodkas, 2 swans & red barszcz. They just weren’t as talkative.

Have you ever had (and survived!) a traditional Polish meal?

Paolo: No, I was in Krakow in 2009 and I remember an imperial dish made of pork… don’t know if traditional but it was outstanding. Having some pork and beer as speakers’ buffet it would be great…

Joseph: Every weekend throughout my childhood. Always finished EVERYTHING, made my grandmother proud. I also no longer need to eat.

Geoffrey: Even though my mother is part Polish, I’ve never had a traditional Polish meal. Yet!

Elliott: I have. It’s taken a whole year to get over it. I need another one now.

Chris:  I like to think of a stuffed kielbasa as two meals in one. So basically I ate my meals in parallel.

Alex: Yes and yes, thanks to Railsberry last year. It took about a week to taper off the Polish food and get back to a normal schedule…it’s addicting.

Eric: Last time I was in Poland I made myself sick on pierogis. So for my final Polish meal before flying out, I made a point of ordering beef medallions and a salad. When they brought the plate, I was surprised to find each medallion sat atop a pierogi. Even more surprising, as I ate my way to the bottom of the salad bowl, I learned they set the greens on a bed of pierogis.

Andrew: Not that I can remember. Or perhaps I did, and it was so overwhelming that I slipped into a food coma afterward and forgot everything.

Guess (don’t Google it!) how many dishes do Poles traditionally eat for Xmas. If you could domesticate one typically Krakow animal, which one would you want? What’s your favorite Polish color?

Paolo: 13, at least! Swan. I pick the blue (flag of krakow… yes, I googled).

Joseph: 8. Swan. Borsch soup purple.

Geoffrey: 42. Swan. I don’t wear nail polish but if I did it would be orange.

Elliott: 7. Horse. Railsberry Pink!

Chris: Dwadzieścia trzy. Pigeon. Ruby Without A Cause by OPI. The wine-burgundy with two tone effect really makes my eye pop.

Alex: 6. No, 8. Horse. Either green, like the grass along the river in Krakow, or blue, like the sky above the river. When I think back to my first trip to Poland (to last year’s Railsberry), that’s the first image that comes up. (Plus the castle, but it’s gray.)

Eric: 10. Swan. I thought red was the only Polish color?

Andrew: 42. Swan. It would have to be “No Place Like Chrome“. Sorry, this is terrible !

What do you find weird about our culture?

Paolo: Well, to be honest… I don’t know too much about Polish culture and you don’t have (AFAIK) as many stereotypes like Italians… so… well I will answer this question after the fifth pint of beer.

Joseph: Desserts. My grandmother always took the main of piroshki and just added berries.
This still scars me.

Geoffrey: “Śmigus Dyngus sounds like a hilarious holiday where people soak each other with water. In Seattle we just go outside for that. Do Australian Dingos carry water balloons on Śmigus Dyngus?”

Elliott: Nothing, you guys are surprisingly un-weird. All the weird characters are tricky, though.

Chris: That you have fully embraced the accordion as a centerpiece to your music. The accordion is basically the platypus of musical instruments: you wear it like a guitar, key it like a piano and squeeze it like the bagpipes.

Alex: “The history — it’s a region that’s shifted dramatically over time in boundaries and cultures (often for unpleasant reasons). It’s not uniquely Polish, I suppose, but Poland has gone through more than its share. As an American, understanding that as part of a culture’s history is something I find different and fascinating. Also, there’s a self-sustaining Polish-speaking community in Chicago, which was a huge shock to me — it’s very rare for a (European) immigrant community to stay that cohesive for so long.”

Eric: I think you all have a pierogi addiction.

Andrew: The Polish words for please (proszę) and pig (prosię) are very similar. So if I call you a pig, I’m only trying to be polite!

Finally, which Polish person would you like to be, if you could be anyone?

Paolo: Zbigniew Boniek.

Joseph: Pope John Paul II.

Geoffrey: Krzysztof Kieślowski because of the happy endings in all of his movies

Elliott: Chopin! Or Copernicus.

Chris: Karol Józef Wojtyła, so I could ride in the Popemobile!

Alex: To be is really tough…but I admire the late Pope (despite being neither Christian nor religious). I disagree with a lot of his stances both politically and theologically (weirdly for someone non-religious) but he did a lot of good.

Eric: Madame Curie.

Andrew: I don’t know if I would want to *be* Roman Polanski, but I would have certainly enjoyed having his career.

Thanks Guys! Now I can honestly say we did all we could to get you ready for Poland See you in a week!

1. If you’d rather watch other people dance than dance yourself, there’s the amazing dance performance for the really curious ones among you at 6:30 pm Krakow time (details here, the availability is limited to 120 people, so book your ticket asap!)

2. After that (and hopefully inspired to dance yourself!) come join us at SoundCloud‘s Warm-Up Party in Klub Pauza around 9pm. See you there!

What is Base? Base is changing the world of business software in the PostPC era. They are on a wild run… and they are growing the Krakow development team if you’re looking for new challenges!

• They were our main supporter and the Railsberry Sugar Daddy last year.
• They believed in Railsberry when it was still a small friends & family event and helped us grow to Railsberry 2012 and 2013 to what it became.
• They allowed us to do THIS to their brand!
• They did an awesome hackathon with Base CRM guys last year.
• They’re the main force behind this year’s NASA Space Apps Hackathon in Kraków.

Finally, Tropo’s own Johnny Diggz surprised us with this 100% improvised Railsberry Grand Finale! The funniest thing is that they actually tweeted  this a few days before Railsberry 2012–when we did not even know there was a huge bad-ass piano in the venue. Watch that video (also embedded below) and pay attention to the Railsberry/Krakow-centric lyrics, which have already been transcribed and forked on Github!

About Tropo:

Tropo is a cloud communications API that makes it easy to build voice and text messaging apps. Features include automated speech recognition (ASR) and text-to-speech in 24 languages and over 60 voices and dialects, conference calls, call recording and transcription. Completely free to try, pay-as-you-grow pricing.

With Railsberry and MMConf right around the corner, we can’t wait to see you guys in Kraków! Remember how much fun it was last year? Watch the Railsberry 2012 video again to get yourself in the right mindset. And below is some of your ticket excitement. With a bigger awesome venue and around 500++ curious developers joining us, we’ll be selling out the final batch of tickets some time today. Do zobaczenia wkrótce!

Why is there so much startup goodness going on in Kraków? Maybe it’s the combination of the old architecture that remembers the reign of Polish kings, and modern technology that’s now so omnipresent in the city. Maybe it’s the legendary chakra stone supposedly buried beneath the Wawel Castle. Maybe it’s the number of tech graduates that settles down in Kraków every year. Or maybe its the essence of the Wawel Dragon slayed by a poor cobbler’s apprentice, that still flows the around, and sets fire in people’s hearts. But most likely – it’s the open-mindedness of people (THINK US!!) and great technical universities .

Now things are about to speed up even more, because there’s of the new Mad Scientist in town and his brand new hub:raum lab. Willkommen!

What is hub:raum exactly? Here’s a bit more about themselves in their own words:

hub:raum is an outstanding initiative connecting world changing ideas coming from you with power and assets of Deutsche Telekom. It’s all tailored for you. It’s all to let you work on important staff. It’s all to make your ideas become successful.

hub:raum provides a launchpad for your ideas. When you work with us you can for sure count on Funding, office space and facilities for your team, sparring with business leaders and extraordinary Mentors. All these pillars are built upon unique assets coming from Deutsche Telekom Group in Europe – making access to customers, communication and technical enablers. This combination for sure will boost development and launch of your idea.

hub:raum manages your connection to one of the world’s leading integrated telecommunications companies. In areas in which your team excels, we let you focus; in areas in which you need help, we support. Just as it should be.

As a startup you face massive challenges and tasks. Not only are you cash-strapped most of the times, but also issues pop up without warning in need of urgent dealing. Yet this is normal when becoming a viable company and hub:raum helps you to do it right from the start. Our major goal is to increase your odds of success while walking this path.