[UPHPU] PHP conference?

[jtaber]

Daniel C. wrote:
> IMHO the main benefit of a conference is meeting interesting people
> and swapping ideas and contact information.  From that perspective,
> whether it's a cash cow or not is somewhat irrelevant, although
> conferences that get that reputation over time would tend to attract
> less and less people worth swapping ideas with over time.
>
> On 10/31/06, Mac Newbold <mac at macnewbold.com> wrote:
>>
>> My partner pointed this out to me:
>>
>> http://hades.phparch.com/ceres/public/tek/
>>
>> http://hades.phparch.com/ceres/public/tek/page/index.php/cfp
>>
>> Does anyone have any experiences with conferences like these? I've 
>> been to
>> others, but never one primarily for developers. Does anyone have any
>> thoughts about how worthwhile this might be?
>>
>> We're considering sending in a few proposals, and I'd encourage others
>> from UPHPU to consider doing the same. If our rankings in google are any
>> indicator, we're no shabby PHP user group, so it would be really cool to
>> have us represented there. And I know there are a bunch of people in 
>> UPHPU
>> doing really cool stuff. (If anyone has suggestions of stuff they've 
>> heard
>> me talk about that would make a good talk for one of these, I'm very 
>> open
>> to suggestions.)
>>
>> Plus, anyone speaking at the conference gets in free, a travel 
>> allowance,
>> and a stipend. They have both 1-hour regular talks as well as 1-hour
>> "Bring your own laptop" talks/tutorials, and regular "in-depth" 
>> tutorials
>> (3-6 hours long).
>>
>> What do you guys think about this? Is it likely to be a worthwhile 
>> thing,
>> or is it just a cash-cow conference?
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Mac
>
Having attended a lot of conferences over the years, I would say it 
depends what your goal is.  If it is to get noticed by the corporate 
crowd, then speaking at one of these conferences might achieve that 
goal.   But it's not free.  Submitting a paper and putting on a good 
talk takes at least 7 man-days of preparation (yeah really when you add 
it all up) plus the travel time - it really needs to be a target 
audience for you to pay for itself.    But just to go as an attendee?  
Most big  conferences serve as a bonus perk to 9-5 corporate/government 
drones.  I wince at how much money I wasted just attending major 
conferences - most talks are available somewhere else and the people you 
meet - so what, most of them are the drones.    To make contacts, learn, 
or recruit, I now prefer the open source conferences which are either 
free or minimal cost.  They tend to have the most dynamic people, 
usually have cheap accomodations, etc.   Or go to a major conference on 
an exhibit hall only pass - either free or minimal and plan to meet 
friends there (that introduce you to others....)

SCALE is a good example of a minimal cost meeting and the SoCal LAMP SIG 
had a great booth.    In fact, volunteering at the Inkscape booth, I 
didn't even have to pay anything and it was fun.  And great Feb weather. 

Might consider a local conference put on by the UG where all the local 
industry people would be actively invited.