Sun, 27 Sep 2009 19:13 UTC
Yesterday, the CodeWorks B-Team (the session day team, a.k.a. Team Awesome) ran into a bit of a travel snafu that actually worked out better for us. On the way to the airport in Los Angeles, we got stuck in traffic caused by an overturned cement mixer truck. And by overturned, I literally mean the cement mixer was lying flat on its back across the barrier separating the north bound from the south bound lanes. I’m not sure how it was even possible, but there it was. Derick took some video of the accident that he may or may not post later.
The traffic caused our team to be late to the airport, missing our flight. However, we were able to quickly book standby tickets for the following flight, giving us extra time at the airport to eat, placing us on a plane that had WiFi access (our original flight did not), and giving many of us exit row seats. So, it all worked out in the end.
The evening was short, due to our late arrival, but we still made it out to La Hacienda Ranch, apparently the home of the original frozen margarita. A highlight of the evening was being able to meet some of the gang from Dallas PHP, including Tim Stiles, whom I’ve conversed with online but have never met. Afterwards, a few of us ventured into Fort Worth to have a few beers at The Flying Saucer. Special thanks to Josh Holmes of Microsoft for driving us around.
As an aside, we—“we” being the speakers and community leaders attending CodeWorks—have been making lots of new friends with the Microsoft developer evangelists who have been in attendance. It seems that Microsoft has a new breed or new generation of dev evangelists who are genuinely interested in the PHP community, listening to us, and hanging out and having fun with us. For me, it’s a welcome improvement, and I’m not saying this as a surprise change I’ve only observed this week; it’s something I’ve been seeing over the last few years.
There have been a lot of great talks in Dallas. In addition to the set of CodeWorks touring speakers, the local speakers from Dallas PHP have provided some excellent presentations. I was able to enjoy Chris Cornutt’s “B.S.T, Easy as 1-2-3” presentation, and now I’m sitting in Vance Lucas’s “Object Oriented Apologetics.”
The venue in Dallas is also excellent. We’re staying at the American Airlines Training & Conference Center, and while it’s not the fanciest of hotels, I think it has been the best hotel experience we’ve had, with some of the best food and best WiFi we have seen yet. But we’re not even half-way through the tour, so there is plenty of opportunity for this to change and for me to be wowed even more.
I’m heading home this evening. My home is Atlanta, and Atlanta is the next stop on our tour, so I’ve scheduled a little family time during the tour, but I’ll be joining the CodeWorks crew each day, tomorrow for the Atlanta PHP Meet the Speakers Happy Hour and on Tuesday for my presentation.
I hope to see you in Atlanta!
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Fri, 25 Sep 2009 23:23 UTC
I’m writing this from Los Angeles during the session (or conference) day of CodeWorks. The “A Team” (tutorial team) is en route to Dallas today, while the “B Team” (session team) gives their talks.
Our flight yesterday was short, but we didn’t arrive at the hotel until nearly 4pm, and then I had to leave soon after to make it to the combined OCPHP and LAPHP user group meeting. That’s definitely been a highlight of my trip, since I enjoy meeting other user group organizers and seeing how other user groups work. I was able to meet Oleg Baranovsky and Joe Devon of LAPHP and William Estrada of OCPHP. Special thanks to Rutger Hensel for letting us meet in his co-working space in Fullerton.
There was a great crowd at the OCPHP/LAPHP meeting, and I spoke on Grokking REST, while Jason Mauer, Developer Evangelist for Microsoft, spoke about Microsoft Silverlight (and touched a little bit on Windows Azure and WebsiteSpark). In all, they’ve got two great PHP user groups and if you’re in the Los Angeles or Orange County areas, you should definitely try them out.
Today was a whirlwind of a day for me, as I’ve given three talks already, and I’m writing this just just before heading back down to the conference for a Future of Web Development panel that I’ve agreed to sit on. Since there’s been no real preparation for it, it ought to be fantastic!
This is only the second stop on the tour—five more stops to go—but already it’s been a great and exciting show. Even some of the folks from the OCPHP/LAPHP meeting last night who were on the fence about attending CodeWorks decided today at the last minute to come see what it was all about, and all I have spoken with are glad they made the decision.
Tomorrow, we head to Dallas. I hope to see you there!
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Wed, 23 Sep 2009 20:32 UTC
I’m breaking a long and terrible habit of not blogging in order to share my experiences at CodeWorks over the next two weeks. As you may know, CodeWorks is a touring PHP conference that is traveling to seven cities. I’m privileged to be speaking in each of the cities.
My trip to San Francisco began on Monday, when the metro Atlanta region received up to 15 inches of rainfall in a 24-hour period. I think the average across the region was 8-10 inches, but the point is that we received a lot of water in a short amount of time on top of having already received a lot of rain over the course of the previous week. Over 200 roads were closed and interstate highways shut down. So, I made the decision to go to the airport on Monday night and spend the night there, despite the fact that my flight didn’t leave until ten the next morning. It was the right decision, since traffic the next morning was outrageous and roads were still closed, but it led to a very long day, since I did not sleep at all. Still, it allowed me to polish my slides for two very good presentations I gave today.
After a fine evening yesterday with friends at La Trappe, a Belgian Bistro and Trappist Lounge—with very good beer, I might add—I retired to sit around a fire pit at the hotel with even more friends. Keith brought along marshmallows for roasting, and Jason provided the beer. Good times were had by all.
This morning, while sleeping off the jet lag and recuperating from my lack of sleep the night before, I awoke to a call from Travis, asking if we could switch talk time slots. He wasn’t feeling well, so I agreed, and got up for the early 9am talk, but I’m glad I did. Now, my talks are over, and I’m going to spend the afternoon enjoying San Francisco. Travis, you owe me one, buddy. 
Tomorrow, we head to Los Angeles, and after that, Dallas, Atlanta, Miami, DC, and New York. If you’re in any of these cities and you’re not yet signed up for CodeWorks, don’t miss a great opportunity to hear some excellent talks. Sign up today, and I’ll see you there!
FYI, for those looking for slides, I’ll post them on October 7th at the conclusion of the CodeWorks tour.
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Tags: codeworks, conferences, cw09, php
