LornaJane

A couple of weeks ago I gave a lightning talk at the PHPNW user group entitled "Geeks Can Write" or "Can Geeks Write?" - basically shooting down the worst of the excuses for not writing that I've heard and asking everyone to give it a shot! If you are interested, then the slides are on slideshare. Happy writing :)

It's official, PHP North West 2010 is definitely happening ... and for that we'll need some people to pop along and give a talk! As in previous years, we'll first of all deal with selecting the papers for our main conference day, 9th October. Talks can be 60 minutes or 30 minutes, can be on any subject if you can persuade us it's relevant to PHP developers, and speakers anywhere on the spectrum from expert to newbie are welcome.

So what are you waiting for? Go submit your talk at our call for papers page. If you need more assistance then you should check out these resources (and yes, some of them are mine but I feel strongly about this topic and want all you interesting and hesitant people to start speaking!)

• podcast: How and Why to Become a Speaker (lornajane.net)


• How to Submit a Conference Talk (lornajane.net - and I know more about this now, maybe I should update it?)


• Getting Accepted (tek.phparch.com)

Are you submitting? What tips would you offer to those thinking of doing so? Already we're at over 50 submissions, more than last year, so competition is tough but oh my goodness, I'm so excited :)

Next week I'm speaking at the PHPNW User Group in Manchester on Tuesday Evening, 4th May - full details of the event are on upcoming.org. The talk isn't directly about PHP though; I'll be giving my "Open Source Your Career" talk, discussing how contributing to the community can really help your professional rise. I'll be giving the this talk at the TEK-X conference in Chicago a few weeks later as well, hope to see you at either one event or the other!

If anyone is able to make it to the PHPNW User Group meet in Manchester next Tuesday 2nd February - I'm the speaker there! I'll be giving a talk entitled "Best Practices for Web Service Design", which covers lots of information about web services and how to write one that your users will love! Details of the event are over on upcoming, you can find out more about the talks, the venue and the group as a whole. If you're able to make it then I'll see you there - its a good crowd :)

I have experience of PHP conferences from all possible angles - as an attendee, as a speaker and as an organiser. At PHP North West this year I will be taking this to new heights and combining all three roles into a single one-day conference. I have a speaking slot at the event entitled "Passing the Joel Test in the PHP World", which I'm very excited about. Its a talk that I think brings together the best ideas from a general software engineering world and puts them into the context of PHP development. If you're wondering what the Joel Test is, then you can read about it on wikipedia.

Having spoken at a few different events now, some local and some quite high-profile PHP conferences (OK, so php|tek - the event of the year!), I'm really delighted to be bringing my ideas to the local conference that I help to organise and attached to a user group full of bright and interesting people. The experience of launching a call for papers, submitting my own abstracts, and then trying to figure out where it fits in when evaluating the CfP was a bit split-personality but with Jeremy's input we decided this was a good fit - and I'm looking forward to delivering it!

The event itself is in Manchester, UK on Saturday 10th October and there is only one week remaining on the early bird ticket price!! So all those people who think its ages away and you'll sort out arrangements nearer the time - you have been warned. The schedule is world-class (quite literally, these speakers do speak right around the world), and the price is pocket money (50 GBP + VAT until 11th September). As well as the technical content you get a fun weekend in Manchester, plenty of social activity, there's more geekery happening the following day and all attendees get a 12-month subscription to php|architect magazine to keep them learning all year long. Now you're persuaded - you can buy you tickets here and let me know to expect you!

PHPNW is the highlight of my year - I hope to see you there :)

Last night at the PHPNW user group we announced this year's conference - PHPNW09. We don't have a lot of detail but here is a run-down of all the information I have:

• Date: Saturday 10th October 2009


• Location: Manchester Conference Centre. It's a new venue but just as central and actually easier to get to.


• Website: http://conference.phpnw.org.uk which currently points at last year's conference but feel free to click around to get a feel and we'll update that soon.


• Focus: PHP in the team - we're having a real focus on PHP teams, tools and practices for them.


• Price: We're aiming for the Early Bird tickets at 50 GBP + VAT, similar to last year (OK so last year was inc VAT but hey, it's still excellent value). This price will run until 10th September, a month before the conference, at which point they'll become more expensive.


• Speakers: Yes please! Like last year, we'll be running a call for papers and we'll be looking for some well-known speakers and some we haven't heard of yet. Like last year the speaker's package will include the speaker's dinner, a conference pass and hotel accommodation, but won't include travel expenses - if you are interested then look out for a CfP in August


• Schedule: See previous point ;)

Did I miss anything? If so, drop me a comment.

The timescales (all subject to change for no apparent reason and without warning) are something along the lines of getting the site live in June, the tickets on sale in July, the CfP out in August, closing towards the end of that month, publishing the schedule at the start of September to give people chance to get tickets still on the early bird rates which expire on 10th September - then another month for people who like their tickets more expensive and finally the event itself on 10th October.

A few other things I would like to mention:

1. We want sponsors, including some quite small ones! If that's you, please contact us or just leave a comment with your details


2. We will need some volunteers on the day, all of whom get free entry - again, let us know if you are up for that


3. We're considering running a "day 0", probably a hands-on day on the Friday, currently we don't have either venues or clear plans for this so if you have any thoughts or ideas, add a comment!