This is coverage of Day 2 of the 2007 DCPHP Conference.  Day 1 coverage is already online.

The Opening Keynote of the day was from Mike Potter of Adobe on "Designing PHP-based RIAs for Richer Internet Experiences".  The focus was on Flex 2 and what Adobe has done with it in the space and how PHP developers are starting to use it.  He showed off numerous toys and tricks that PHP developers are using and gave everyone a free copy of O'Reilly's "Programming Flex 2".

As an aside, it's interesting seeing Adobe's push in this space.  At ZendCon last year, I caught an early demo of something (pre-Flex?) showing off what they could do and in the past year it's really blossomed and they've put a lot of effort and dollars behind it.  It's fascinating watching large companies engage and interact with the Open Source community in positive ways.  There's no reason we have to be at war...  our goals are the same:

Provide useful and (usually) innovative solutions to our customers/employers on time and on budget.

I never thought "plush toys" would be a tag on this site...

At the DCPHP Conference this year, we had a new entrant to the arena of ideas: The ElePHPant.

The PHP elephant is the culmination of a dream of a gentleman by the name of Damien Seguy*. After years of pitching, convincing, and pleading with the development community to pick up his idea, he finally found a group crazy dedicated enough to help make it happen.

When the elePHPants appeared at DCPHP this past week, they were an immediate hit. The few that were set up on the registration were posed and re-posed on a regular basis. Finally, once the happy hour began on Wednesday evening, the elePHPants began migrating from Damien to their proud new owners. By the end of Thursday, every elePHPant had a new home... including one right next to my printer.

If you'd ever wanted an elephant but don't have the budget, contact Damien for this more... cost effective solution. Pictures are available here.