The State of Sydney PHP
Timothy
First up, I would like to wish each and every one of you a happy new
year, I hope 2010 has been treating you well so far!
I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all those who
participated in the Sydney PHP events last year. This includes those
who presented, those who attended, those who sponsored us and finally
those who hosted us.
Now that I'm done with the formalities, lets get on with an
explanation as to WHAT IS GOING ON!
I feel your frustration, I really do. Four months without a PHP Group
will make anyone go a little mad. But really, we've been working on
getting things moving, its just taken a little longer than expected.
And we apologize to those who have asked questions about whats going
on and not gotten an answer or not gotten an answer that they would
have probably liked. We simply felt that it was better to announce
things publicly to the community all at once rather than drip-feeding
information to individuals.
So where are we at? Well lets start with some good news first. We've
managed to lock-in enough presenters in advance to switch back to the
old meeting style. Meetings will once again be monthly, however they
will be held towards the end of each month, usually the third
Thursday. As usual, we will be confirming dates before the event and
give everyone enough time to secure their calendar for the night.
So far we have 11 presentations booked in from between April and
November. There are 3 positions available, so if you feel like being
awesome and giving a presentation, let us know! Also if you're
interested in being a backup presenter in case of cancellations, also
let us know.
We have a new venue! That's some good news, right? Well... yes and
no. Unfortunately nobody has offered to sponsor us, and we were not
able to find a free venue. So we've located a paid venue, conveniently
situated in the city. The venue's name is "Sydney Mechanics' School of
Arts" and it is located at 280 Pitt Street. So it's directly across
from one of the Town Hall station exits.
Now in the interests of being open and honest with the community, here
are the pricing details. We will be booking each event for 3 hours.
This will cost us $99. We anticipate having a least 20 people per
event, so we've decide to set the admission fee at $5 per person. This
however, only covers the cost of the venue, NOT food and drink. If
more than 20 people attend, the extra $ will go towards food and
drink. If less than 20 people attend, there will not be food and drink
and the organizers (currently only James and myself) will cover the
difference.
Some months are sponsored (yes, already confirmed, done deal, will
announce when the time is right). This means food and drink will be
provided, so it matters not how many people attend. However, unless
stated otherwise, the $5 entry fee still applies because the venue
costs are not sponsored.
Having said all that, we're still hoping someone will read this, take
pity on our group and offer us a venue. Free :).
Right so, now I've got that out in the open. Let's talk events!
Our new event schedule looks like this:
6:00 - People Arrive
6:30 - Welcome
6:35 - Introductions
6:45 - Group Announcements
6:50 - Open Floor Discussion
7:00 - Presentation 1
7:30 - Presentation 1 Q&A
7:40 - Intermission - Food & Drink
8:00 - Presentation 2
8:30 - Presentation 2 Q&A
8:40 - Wrap-Up & Tidy-Up
9:00 - Be Out The Door
The Open Floor Discussion part is new this year. While James and I are
the organisers (Rich, Geoff, we miss you! Come back anytime!), this is
a community and we would like to keep it as open as possible. We feel
that everybody should get a chance to be heard if they have opinions
or ideas that could help improve the group. But the Open Discussions
don't need to be limited to discussions about the group. If somebody
wants to ask some questions which relate to PHP or the web in general,
get feedback on something they've been working on, this is the time-
slot to do it in.
Each night will be broken up into two presentations. Each presentation
will run for 30 minutes with a 10 minute question and answer time at
the end. Intermission will provide an opportunity for those that
attend to network with each other and hopefully eat.
Because we're booking a 3 hour time slot, we MUST be cleaned up and
out the door by 9 sharp. We appreciate all who can stay back and help
us to make sure that happens :).
Finally, presentations.
Coming in April we have Steven Roddis, who gave several PHP security
based presentations back in 2008, is giving a presentation titled "Two
Factor Authentication Using PHP". We also have Graham Weldon, who gave
the CakePHP presentation last year in October, is coming back to give
a presentation on PHP Unit Testing. More details on each of these
presentations will be provided next week.
The date of the event is April, Thursday 22nd at the address stated
above.
Looking ahead a little, we have Daniel Winter with a Symfony
presentation, Kevin Waterson talking about PHP Command Line
programming, Nick Hodge from Microsoft presenting Zune, Dean Rather
(who is yet to confirm what he is presenting!), Me doing a Google mash-
up using Maps, Apps and Search, and a few other presenters/
presentations in the second half of the year which we'll announce
closer to their dates.
If anyone has any questions or concerns, feel free to comment in this
thread on the PHP Website (please don't use the mailing list). And
again, more details about April's event will be announced next week
including the RSVP address.
Cheers,
- Sydney PHP Group Organisers
Website: http://sydphp.org/