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Tue, 18 Jan 2011 16:46 UTC
For those who have been following along, you’ll know that I helped organize a mini-conference for PHP, along with Elizabeth Naramore, in the Fall of 2006. It was little more than an excuse for a small group of people to get together, “kamp,” talk shop, and have fun—and it was a lot of fun. It was so much fun, in fact, that Elizabeth and Keith organized it again in 2008. That was PHP Appalachia. It was the stuff of legends.
I’ve long wanted to organize a community-driven PHP conference, as far back as 2004, when I helped form the Atlanta PHP user group. Back then, I think my conference dreams were loftier, but I’ve since attended twenty-something conferences and given nearly sixty talks. I’ve seen conferences as both a speaker and an attendee, and from conversations with many other speakers and attendees, I knew it was time for something different. Unfortunately, I didn’t know exactly what “different” should mean.
Then, just over a year ago, I received an email from Elizabeth. She wrote:
OSBridge showed that a community-driven conference can be successful and readily accepted. I know the economy is tight, but I think there is room for a conference that has no other purpose than to be an educational and fun experience for attendees. […] We’ve had a ton of people asking about PHP Appalachia, so maybe that kind of “retreat” versus “conference” idea holds merit as well.
Thus began a long thread of messages back-and-forth with a small group: Elizabeth, Paul, Chris, Sean, Ed, and myself; each one wholly committed to the idea of a community-driven conference. But I was still unsure. My uncertainty had nothing to do with whether we could run a PHP conference but, rather, what it would be that makes our conference different. I was tapped by the group to lead the effort, so I started some planning, but everything I did looked like the same ol’ conference. I was talking to hotels, looking at traditional venues, and thinking too much inside the box. All of that was about to change, though, with Brooklyn Beta on the horizon.
With its simple narrative of “make something you love,” Brooklyn Beta showed it was possible to craft a friendly web conference that was as intimate as it was inspiring. Chris himself is an inspiration to me because he views just about everything he does as a craft, something to hone and perfect. He takes great care and pride with everything he touches. The “make something you love” narrative was not just the theme of the conference, but Chris and Cameron put it into practice with the care they put into organizing Brooklyn Beta. They made a conference they loved, and it showed—boy, did it show!
At last, I had the inspiration I needed, and with the catalyst provided by Elizabeth, Paul, Chris, Sean, and Ed, I was ready to start … but not quite. Left to myself, I would fail, and by myself, I was failing. Working for a start-up does not leave much time to craft a conference. That’s not a complaint; it’s just a reality. Help would come in the form of two other Brooklyn Beta attendees, members of the PHP community, and friends of mine: Lisa Denlinger and Nicholas Sloan.
As I recall, Lisa and Nick were both interested in helping create a community-driven PHP conference, so Chris put them in touch with me back in October. The rest, as they say, is history. Things began to move fast, now that we had a small team to accomplish the work needed. Lisa visited venues and put together our budget. Nick began working with a designer to create our website and branding. It’s been a lot of hard work, and we still have more hard work ahead of us, but we’re making something we love, and I think that’s the important part.
During one of our many planning conversations, Nick voiced what would become, for me, the narrative of our conference: PHP Community Conference is a conference for people who care about PHP and the code they write with it. That’s really what I want this conference to be about, and I’ll keep coming back to that theme repeatedly over the next few months and throughout the course of the conference itself. You, the PHP community, care about PHP and the code you write with it. I want to hear your stories!
The PHP Community Conference exists for you to share your stories. Tell us about an inspiring project you’re working on and why it’s important. We don’t want to focus on the details of the code itself, but rather on how your project solves a problem or fills a need.
There are a lot of speakers out there. I know many of you, and we all know the drill. We reuse a lot of the same talks at many different conferences. Use this opportunity, though, to stretch yourself. Craft a new talk. Craft a different talk. This time, don’t just tell us how to do something with PHP, tell us what you’re working on with PHP. What does it do? Why is it important? These are the things that matter to the community, and this is part of what makes the PHP Community Conference a different kind of conference.
There are other reasons the PHP Community Conference is different, but I’ve given you quite a bit to chew on for one blog post, so I’ll leave the rest for later and for others to share. Still, since this conference is community-driven, I need your help. Even though our tickets haven’t gone on sale yet, I want you to save the dates! Put them on your calendar and commit to attend. (Ticket prices will be very reasonable, but we’re still working out those details at the moment.) Write a blog post about your decision to attend and why you’re looking forward to the conference. Tweet about it (#phpcomcon). Follow @phpcomcon on Twitter. Talk about it on IRC. Submit a proposal for a talk. Please spread the word, anyway you can.
Finally, if you have ideas for other ways you can help, feel free to let me know.
I’m looking forward to seeing you at the PHP Community Conference!
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Tags: conferences, php, phpcomcon, phpcommunity
Tue, 1 Dec 2009 0:36 UTC
I never wrote about days 13 & 14 of CodeWorks, nor did I post the slides on October 7, like I promised to attendees of my talks. After CodeWorks, my website underwent weird spikes in traffic, causing it to be extremely slow. I thought the problem was DreamHost, so I moved everything to a slice at Slicehost. Long story short, my slice kept crashing, so I moved everything back to DreamHost after several weeks of intermittent uptime to let them deal with the problems. That’s what delayed my posting, and I apologize to those who have been looking for the slides.
To sum up CodeWorks New York, I would have to say that the energy and enthusiasm at the New York conference was, by far, the best of all seven cities. The turn out was great, and the hallway track was the best yet, with myriad discussions extending from the talks. I’m not sure what made the difference, but it was definitely the best stop.
Seven cities in fourteen days. CodeWorks was a whirlwind tour, and I was privileged to be a part of it. It was a pleasure to meet PHP developers in each city and to talk with those who lead user groups, are starting a group, or are thinking of starting one. And the talks were excellent, presented by some of the best and brightest in the PHP community. It was an awesome experience, and I’m glad we were able to take the conference to developers rather than expecting the developers to come to the conference. Though some cities had low attendance, the quality of each event was never lessened. If the conference continues next year, I think we’ll see more attendees in each city.
Yes, I would do it all again. So, I hope Marco sees fit to organize it next year, or at least, every other year.
I blogged every city we visited. If you’re interested, here are those posts:
As promised, here are the slides for my presentations (finally):
I hope to see you next year!
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Tags: codeworks, conferences, cw09, php
Sat, 3 Oct 2009 21:51 UTC
Departing Miami, I gazed upon the Atlantic Ocean as we cut through the clouds, making our way farther from the shore, and the thought occurred to me that this tour—these two weeks—has taken me from sea to shining sea across this great country. What a fitting thought to have as this next leg of the tour took us to Washington, DC.
I have traveled the country and have engaged the PHP community face-to-face all across it. It has been a great experience and an excellent opportunity to connect with the PHP community at all ends of the United States. Perhaps a tour to other parts of the world is in order, to connect with the community on a global scale. If I’m ever afforded that opportunity and privilege, then I will be certain to evangelize the PHP Community in each location, hoping to grow our community, bringing in new faces and new ideas.
As I mentioned, our next stop was Washington, DC. Some of us took advantage of free time we had on the afternoon and evening of the tutorial day to visit the city and walk the Mall of the United States capitol. We walked from the Washington Monument to the World War II Memorial, along the Reflection Pool to the Lincoln Memorial, along the Viet Nam Wall, around the Ellipse, and to the White House. Andrei remarked that he was using this opportunity to “consumate his citizenship.” Finally, we had dinner at the Old Ebbitt Grill, apparently the oldest saloon in Washington.
After dinner, our small group met up with some of the other speakers and conference attendees at The Brickskeller, where we enjoyed each other’s company and some great beer—they have other 1000 beers.
The session day went well. After some technical difficulties with my HTTP presentation, I managed to get started, and one of the attendees even remarked that he thinks my talk is perhaps the most important one at the conference. That’s the best compliment I’ve ever received. Everyone stayed for the end of my talk, which ran fifteen minutes late, eating into the lunch period. My AtomPub talk later in the day was much smoother in delivery.
As I wrap up in Washington, I’m left wishing that I had more time to explore the capitol, but now it’s time to move on to New York and the last leg of our tour. I’m one step closer to going home, and while I’ve had a great time on the tour meeting new people, giving presentations, and hanging out with old friends, I’m ready to go home to my family.
I hope to see you at New York CodeWorks!
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Tags: codeworks, conferences, cw09, php
Sat, 3 Oct 2009 19:49 UTC
Miami CodeWorks, so far, was the smallest conference but I still think some important connections were made, especially with regard to user group contacts.
At the Microsoft happy hour on the second day of the conference in Miami, I was able to meet Brendon Van Heyzen, who is interested in starting up a PHP user group in Boca Raton. It seems that the Miami PHP user group has quietened down and gone silent, and he’s interested in starting up a group for the Boca Raton PHP community. We had a great discussion, and I offered him some points of advice on how to start a group, and this reminded me of the user group starter package I’ve discussed with Rafael and Michelangelo. I really need to push the PHP Groups initiative to get started on this.
The two main pieces of advice I offered were to start a mailing list and then to find adequate meeting space. The mailing list is important to get discussion going and to see what kind of group the people in your area want to have. It will inform your search for meeting space so you can find the kind of space that will work best for the type of meetings you want to have.
So, CodeWorks has been an excellent way to reach out to local leaders and people who want to start groups in their areas. If you’re interested in starting a group, join the PHP Groups mailing list and introduce yourself.
Rounding out our visit to Miami, I enjoyed some great Cuban food at Puerto Sagua, and we actually managed to find some good beer at The Room in Miami Beach. It was a beer oasis in the midst of a desert filled with mojito sand.
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Tags: codeworks, conferences, cw09, php, phpgroups, user-group
Thu, 1 Oct 2009 15:48 UTC
Atlanta was the mid-point stop on the CodeWorks tour, and since it’s my home, I decided to use it as an opportunity to spend time with my family before heading off on the second half of the tour. As such, there was very little hallway track activity for me, but I did get a chance to make it to a few events.
I’m told that Atlanta has had the largest CodeWorks crowd yet. I took a quick look around at each of the rooms, and I believe it. Each presentation was well-attended, and I’m proud to say that the Atlanta PHP user group was well-represented this year; I saw lots of familiar faces.
Speaking of Atlanta PHP, we had a good crowd at the Meet the Speakers dinner on Monday night. Many of the speakers attended, as well as attendees and Atlanta PHP members. I want to thank Glen Gordon and Microsoft for sponsoring the dinner. I think it was a great success, and we couldn’t have done it without Glen’s help. The only problem I have is that many people apparently treat meetup.com “yes” RSVPs as mere suggestions. If there’s a chance you’re not going to make it, please RSVP “maybe” or “no.”
I also want to thank Jeff Jones for hosting an after party as his place for many of the speakers. It was a lot of fun, and the beer was great.
Now we’re in Miami, and I’m a bit behind on blogging, but I’ll post about the Miami CodeWorks stop later today.
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Tags: codeworks, conferences, cw09, php
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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Tags: codeworks, conferences, cw09, php
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
Thu, 28 Feb 2008 6:19 UTC
Elizabeth Naramore announced PHP Appalachia 2008 earlier this week.
WHAT IS PHP APPALACHIA? A PHP unconference nestled in the Smoky Mountains, for those who like to camp or stay in a cabin, enjoy spending time with friends, and talking about PHP. As before, we will have a few presentations, but a lot of the time will be flexible and spent how the group sees fit at the time.
Details are still being finalized. Keep watching Elizabeth’s blog for more information, and I’m sure someone will update http://www.phpappalachia.org/ in the near future.
UPDATE: Keith Casey also blogged about it. I was out of town for several days, so I missed lots. 
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Tags: camping, conferences, php, phpappalachia
Tue, 30 Oct 2007 2:10 UTC
I’m privileged to be in Redmond, WA this week at the Microsoft Web Development Summit. (Special thanks to Glen Gordon for sending me an invitation.) Also in attendance are a good crowd of PHP developers from various backgrounds and experience, including developers from Drupal, Gallery, Facebook, CakePHP, Solar, core developers, extension developers, authors, and just plain PHP programmers. Microsoft has invited us to their main campus in an effort to reach out to the PHP community to solicit opinions and feedback on various technologies, including IIS, Silverlight, their Ajax library, Expression Web, etc.
I’ll be taking time to condense my thoughts and reactions into a single blog post later this week after I’ve returned home and rested, but for now, you can follow along as I take notes on my personal “notes” wiki. I’ve made the conference notes section available for reading to the public. So, you can read my notes for the Microsoft Web Development Summit, if you like.
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Tags: conferences, microsoft, php, wd07, webdevsummit07
