This blog post heavily quotes my occasional collaborator Cal Evans. The quotes are used with permission. The link to the original is at the bottom.

Despite the problems with sexism in the tech community in general, the PHP community has had it pretty easy. While there are potentially a number of reasons, the founder of phpWomen Ligaya Turmell shared it this way (paraphrased from Cal):

The PHP community has not had the problem with sexism that other communities seem to have but that is because from the early days, we have had strong women role models. Women like Lara Thomson, Sara Goleman, Liz Smith, and the like have played such a prominent role in the community that no, we’ve not had as big of a problem.

So I am honestly surprised to see this promoted at a conference:

In previous years, I've reviewed & covered each conference as I went to them. In 2011, I got so busy that I gave up midway through the year and just decided to do a recap at the end.. it's only now that I realized how many I actually attended. So without further ado.. here are the conferences in order:

January

I've covered CodeMash previously, so I'll spare you from a second round. [post]

I've already written on PHP Benelux, so check out my PHPBenelux coverage here.

February

This was my sixth ZendCon and I've lost count of how many conferences overall. Regardless, this is one of the unique conferences in the PHP community as it's a blend of business and Open Source. Sometimes that works beautifully, sometimes not so much..

The Good

First, the content was excellent. In past years, I've always heard of a few oddbad "what was he thinking" sessions. This time, they either weren't there or didn't cause a ripple. Overall, the content was solid, interesting, and well-supported. A couple people - Stefan Priebsch and Elizabeth Naramore - stood out as also having an engaged audience that actively participated. If you're looking for slides or information, check out ZendCon 2010 on Joind.in for all the details.

Update 23 Sept 2010: I'm glad to announce the 2010 ZendCon Uncon is on. This time around Michelangelo van Dam has the reins and I look forward to see what he creates.

We're just under two months away from ZendCon 2010 but unfortunately, I'm not running the Unconference this time around. And to my knowledge there is no longer one planned. Why this happened is open to interpretation, but I suspect it's because I asked for compensation. No, I didn't ask for a gold watch, a new computer, or even stage time.

I asked for a booth in the exhibit hall. While I'd love to have the Blue Parabola crew run it, we don't have the time, availability, or interest in having one, so I came up with a different idea. Frank Stefan of S&S didn't get it the first time around, so he asked me about the goals, who would run it, etc. All fair questions and considerations, so I sent him this:

Well, ZendCon has officially been done for a week... so what is there left to say that Ed Finkler, Travis Swicegood, Helgi Þormar Þorbjörnsson, Ivo Jansch, Michelangelo van Dam, Akeem Philbert, Anna Filina, Jason Austin, and Bradley Holt haven't said?

Well honestly, not much... so I'm going to do some quick hits and move on.

The Good

So, it's your first conference. Yes, it can be a little intimidating. Yes, it will be exciting. Yes, it will be exhausting. Here are some tips to get you started:

Do: Look at the schedule to find your "must see" sessions. Once the conference is running, you're going to be overwhelmed. If there's a session you absolutely need to attend, you need to figure that out now and plan accordingly.

Don't plan to attend every session. I know, I know... you want to "get your money's worth". You want to get exposed to every great new idea out there and you can't wait to dive in. First of all, no one can handle that much in a few days. Even the sharp guys over at North Carolina State University were overwhelmed at their first conference. Second of all, you can't forget the "Hallway Track".