After lunch I saw Michelangelo Van Dam talking about unit testing within ZF. Like everything with ZF, it seemed a lot easier than I thought it might be. Then there was another ZF talk in the same room by Rowan Merewood who, as always, gave a rather entertaining talk. It was about Zend_Acl and used real-world examples (ship classes from Star Trek) to demonstrate how they work.

Scott MacVicar gave a really interesting talk on HipHop for PHP, allowing PHP code to be compiled. He went through the process of using it, what the current limitations are and the plans for the future. As this was Scott, heckling was aplenty, and made this talk very enjoyable! Then it was back to the main track for the final session: The Framework Shootout, a panel session chaired by Marcus Deglos. Although there were no definitive conclusions that came out from the panel, it was very interesting to see different people’s take on things, and the strengths and weaknesses of a variety of frameworks.

Overall it was an excellent event with excellent attendance! However we have a bit of a dilemma now. We have reached the capacity of this venue. This means that if we want to expand we will need to find a new one. If you have any thoughts/ideas/recommendations on not only venues around Manchester, but how we can expand further to increase the impact of the PHPNW group, please let me know! Finally I would like to thank Jeremy Coates and all the helpers on the day, the event ran fantastically smoothly and it was all down to you, thanks everyone!

Why should I spend £38 of my student loan on this?!

There is the saying “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know”. This is not strictly true, however there are definitely elements of truth in this saying. At university you learn a lot about a wide range of things around your subject. This is very important in order to gain a well-rounded education (see my Breadth vs Depth article) but if you know the area you want to go into once you graduate chances are you’ll want to gain more specific knowledge.

Professional conferences will give you insight into what people are doing in the professional world. As a student you are often isolated within a bubble. This bubble contains the information you need to gain good marks on your exams/coursework, but does not necessarily reflect what is happening in the profession. This is your chance to learn from people in that profession. Use their experience to give you guidance and an insight into what you may end up doing yourself.

Conferences are not just a load of lectures happening. A lot of what’s important (and indeed a lot of what you learn) takes place in the breaks, meals and of course – in the bar! Through having conversations with other delegates you can get even more insight into what it’s like to work in this industry and also will allow you to get to know people in the industry. This is where you can pick up contacts and even potential placements (if you’re on a sandwich course) or employment for once you’ve graduated. This may not come in terms of a job offer, but showing your face at these conferences prove that you’re keen and interested. It will also be beneficial in at least being slightly familiar if a job opportunity comes up with someone you met there.

Finally, there is the CV. You can put on your CV and application forms that you attended this conference (of your own accord with your own money) so you could learn more about the profession in your own time. This shows dedication and interest. Potential employers hold this in high regard and can set you apart from other candidates going for the same job. Particularly if you are able to talk about what you learnt.

OK, you’ve convinced me! Should I do anything to prepare?

Yes, it is highly recommended, particularly if you are not overly familiar with the subjects being talked about. There is a variety of talks; some are basic/beginner, some more advanced. All talks will assume knowledge of PHP (after all, this is why we’re here) and experience with a LAMP (Linux, Apache, Mysql, PHP) server setup will be very beneficial as this is the most common platform for PHP development. You should also look at the talk schedule and read up about the areas surrounding the talks, as this will give you some context for the talk and also help you decide which talks you are most interested in.

When coming to the conference it is recommended that you bring a laptop (if you have one) with a full battery. There will be power points available, but generally not in the rooms with talks and people will be fighting over them in the breaks. A laptop will allow you to do extra research around the area as well as communicate with other people on at the conference (via IRC, Twitter etc..). Finally, come and say hello before the conference in the official PHPNW IRC channel: #phpnw on freenode, and don’t forget to book your ticket!

For those who don’t know, this is held in Revolution on Deansgate Locks in Manchester, and starts at 7pm on Tuesday 1st December.

Upcoming link

The keynote speaker was Kevlin Henney who was a great speaker, talking about uncertainty when undertaking a project and when coding/debugging, and how to deal with these uncertainties. He was enthusiastic, interesting and kept the delegates engaged throughout! After the break was my good friend Lorna Mitchell giving a talk on the Joel test. Although I’d heard of the Joel test before, I hadn’t really looked into it, nor had I realised how it would apply to me (as a lone developer). Lorna soon set me straight with her talk.  Following her was Rowan Merewood from PlusNet talking on “Tools and Talent”. He was highly amusing throughout, certainly one of the funniest talks I have ever seen at a conference. Then lunch!

The catering was excellent, and we were all well fed and well up for more in the afternoon. Rob Allen kicked off the afternoon talks with his talk on the process that he goes through with his company when they get a project. This was one of the most insightful talks of the session, and it was fascinating to see how these things happen, and how it is all managed. After Rob was Derick Rethans who spoke about his php extension Xdebug. This was great as I have been using Xdebug for a while now, but I always wanted to learn how to use it better, and his talk definitely showed me how to get more out of this great debugger!

After some more refreshments I went to see Steve Richardson talking about the relatively new Yii framework. This looked very quick and easy to set up, however I think I will stick to Zend Framework as it seems more flexible and has a larger number of features. The last real talk of the day was by Scott MacVicar, who is always a laugh. He got badly heckled (which at this event was to be expected). Scott spoke about getting involved with various areas of the PHP project, from documentation through to core development. Finally for the Saturday was the closing session, and this featured a demonstration from Microsoft of Expression Studio. They took everything in good humour (this is Microsoft talking at an open-source conference) and even included Star Wars imperial force jokes. Their product looked very impressive (up until the point it stopped working), but I couldn’t help but feel they’ve completely over engineered something that is meant to be simple, rough and ready.

That was it for the main day talks, had another good meal then hit the bar for drinks courtesy of Sun Microsystems (although they were nowhere to be seen). Had a very enjoyable evening talking with some very interesting people from the PHP community, and then went home to try and sleep off the alcohol ready for my talk the day after. On the Sunday morning I saw Juliette Reinders Folmer giving a fascinating and insightful talk on UTF-8, and I learnt a lot about this format of text, and how it is the way of the future. Finally, we went off for more drinks (and food)!

On the whole a really enjoyable weekend, learnt many things and spoke to some great people. Thanks to everyone who was there!