This sucks. The uncons were one of the best aspects of zendcon last year, and I simply cannot understand why they would get rid of them. I was kind of on the fence about attending zendcon this year, but this pretty much puts me square in the "no" column. I'd say this was Zend's loss here, but really they just screwed over the community that relies on conferences like this to get involved.

What an incredible disappointment. I'm struck by how shortsighted the conference team's decision was. I agree with Court, one of my favorite parts of ZendCon is the UnCon. Last year's UnCon was amazing, and I even got an opportunity to lead a round table session. Without UnCon, there will be far fewer opportunities for networking, learning, practicing new talks, and learning about some topics that weren't or couldn't be included in the ZendCon proper.

There's always two sides to every story, and probably some factors behind the scenes that didn't allow for the booth, but I'm calling shenanigans on S&S for allowing Keith and UnCon to slip through their fingers.

Keith, thanks so much for your hard work the past couple of years. The opportunity I had to lead a round table last year helped to boost my confidence in myself as a developer and a speaker. Thanks for helping encourage that and for encouraging others to do the same.

Look forward to seeing you this year.

This is sad to hear, but I would like to hope that this post may sway some opinion. Also am I seeing that CloudCamp is going on at the same venue with an UnCon of it's own?

I think it's odd that this decision was made. This is not something you'd expect. But I've seen companies turn their back on the community before, only to come back sooner or later. Let's hope they get back on their decision before ZendCon, but even if they don't, as has been said above: it's their loss. The community will still meet, but it may be elsewhere. With or without actual presentations, the discussions will happen, the meetings will happen, and with the Uncon not happening, Zend will get no credits for it this year. Again, it's a shame, but it's their loss.

Keith, I cannot help having a feeling of sadness and disappointment regarding the conference organizers to withold you the booth where people can meet the people that run PHP user groups around the world. As you've stated already there's an enormous interest for communities and how to run a local user group.

Wasn't it that after the Tek-X community session, a couple of people stepped up and started a local user group ?

From a commercial point of view, I say it was a bad move. First of all, we draw in new attendees to the conference through our user groups, and secondly it is the community that made PHP what is it today.

Now, I understand you won't run the uncon sessions at zendcon, but you will remain the emporer of uncons and knowing the community, a solution will present itself. Don't ever forget: community works!

Hi,

You use the word 'suspect'. Does that mean that this is pure speculation and the reason might be different? Your post kind of assumes that the reason is the fact that you asked compensation, but your use of the word 'suspect' might indicate that you're not entirely sure that this is the case. Like you say, the compensation you discussed is very reasonable so it might be something completely different.

Might it be a good idea to talk to the organization to see what is actually the reason? I know that some of the uncon sessions drew only a handful of people last year, whereas others had a full crowd. Might this unpredictability be a reason that they don't want to do an uncon?