The New Conference on the Block: What is FUN OCaml?

FUN OCaml describes itself as a "two day open-source hacking event dedicated to OCaml enthusiasts and developers around the globe". This past September, 70+ developers descended upon a coworking space in Berlin, Germany, to learn, socialise, and hack together. Some had travelled from as far away as Brazil and the United States to join the event in person, and some combined it with React Alicante and ICFP for a summer filled with functional programming.

As a key sponsor - alongside Ahrefs and Jane Street - Tarides is striving to make OCaml more accessible. I have had the pleasure of interviewing one of the head organisers Sabine Schmaltz about her experience at the conference, the aim of the event, and the future of FUN OCaml. Let's dive in!

Why FUN OCaml

FUN OCaml began as a small idea that grew thanks to great teamwork; as Sabine recalled, "David Sancho from Ahrefs was thinking of organising an online conference and had already done a lot of work to plan the talks, etc. I reached out to explain that I was planning an in-person conference and asked whether we could join forces – and he immediately said yes!" It's great to see collaboration across companies benefiting the community, and several additional volunteers would join the organising committee as the conference drew nearer.

I was curious to know what motivated Sabine to organise the event, and she explained that:

"I felt that OCaml was missing a bigger event that was targeted uniquely at developers. FUN OCaml gives them a space to teach each other things and build connections, bringing maintainers and contributors together. FUN OCaml is organised by developers for developers, covering things they are interested in on a peer-to-peer basis".

She was inspired by ZuriHac, a yearly Haskell event in Zurich that she has attended before. "It has a great spirit; people go there to hack and hang out by the lake. It's a very social event with many different rooms and discussions". Inspired by ZuriHac, Sabine adopted an alternative approach to scheduling for FUN OCaml in comparison to traditional conferences.

"We didn't stop at 6 pm and send everyone away! We stayed open until midnight on the first day and at 10 pm on the second. I wanted to provide a space in the evenings for activities, whether OCaml-related or not. Letting people put faces to names and form relationships was important because it's crucial for collaboration". The evenings were filled with board games, hacking, hanging out, and karaoke – creating a space for socialisation and mingling. Sabine pointed out that when conferences close after their programs end, people generally stick to groups of people they already know to hang out with in the evening, which prevents them from making new connections. Consequently, creating a social space for everyone was a high priority for the organisers and a core motivation behind the conference.

Talks, Workshops, and More!

So, what was a day at FUN OCaml like? Both days ran a track for talks and a track for workshops. The talks were live streamed and are [available online for you to watch]. Recording them meant that participants who went to a workshop could catch up on the ones they missed after the fact. The talks covered MirageOS, GADTs, odoc, type engineering, OCANNL, and learning OCaml with Tiny Code Xmas, just to name a few! It was a great mix of more and less technical topics. Sabine recalled the software engineer and popular live streamer Dillon Mulroy's presentation: "Dillon gave a great talk on his journey to OCaml, like a personal account of how he came to OCaml and the OCaml community. It was great to see a Typescript developer and public figure in the developer community talk about OCaml".

Dillon commented on his time at FUN OCaml:

“FUN OCaml was my favorite conference I've ever attended. I finally got to meet so many friends and peers that I've met online over the past year or two and got so much value out of collaborating with them in person. I can't wait for next year 🐫”

The workshop track was a valuable addition that gave participants an alternative way of engaging with OCaml: "People really enjoy the hands-on approach and the rare opportunity to hack on projects together with their maintainers". The workshops covered a range of topics such as a beginner's introduction to OCaml, building reliable actor systems, concurrency and parallelism, MirageOS, creating 2D games in OCaml, and web and mobile app development. "I heard from the host of the game engine workshop, Emile, that people built many cool things, including a minesweeper game!"

FUN OCaml 2025 and Running Your own OCaml Meet-up or Conference

To wrap up, I was curious about what Sabine had planned for the future, including whether there were any plans for another FUN OCaml. I am pleased to report that FUN OCaml is on track for 2025!

"This year, we had to schedule FUN OCaml for September to make it work with ICFP and REACT Alicante, but that meant it fell outside of the semester break for many students. Next time, we would like to schedule FUN OCaml between semesters so as many students as possible can come. They would benefit from hacking on open-source projects and getting feedback from maintainers. Software in the wild!"

We want to see more OCaml events around the world! You can organise your own conference or meet-up to bring more OCaml to your neck of the woods. Sabine is happy to help any member of the OCaml community looking to create events, and you can contact Sabine on X, on Bluesky, or by email.```

Until Next Time!

Connect with us online on X, Mastodon, Threads, and LinkedIn. We look forward to hearing from you and hope to see you around the OCaml universe!