PHP UK Conference 2014
21 - 22 Feb 2014 at The Brewery

This has been my third consecutive PHP Conference and I very much enjoyed it - so thank you very much to everyone involved. For me, I think the event was excellently organised and executed. In order to give some constructive feedback I am however now going to be rather picky (so sorry for that);

I stayed in a hotel for the first time this year (having previously commuted on the separate days). I was happy to see that the location of the social on the Thursday night was in close proximity to the venue and as a consequence, my hotel. I was was however disappointed to see no talk had been organised for the Thursday night like it had been done in previous years.

I do not remember this being a particularly bad issue in the previous year (so not sure if something had changed) but the viewable area of the screen in the Codebase & Deploy track room made it hard to see if you were not right at the front. I appreciate the ceiling in that room is quite low and therefore difficult to resolve. Thinking outside the box, perhaps speakers should be encouraged to publish their slides before the talk so people can follow on their tablets?

The lunch over the two days was good and happy to see that something different was served on both days. I did however feel they could have been a little more generous with their proportions. One of my friends missed out on the mash potato on the Friday as they had "run out" and he was far from being at the end of the queue. Also I was a little disappointed that the staff of the revenue while serving dinner looked so miserable, I don't think I am asking a lot to be served dinner with a polite smile.

When choosing a talk to go and see it was sometimes difficult to decide as it was not always obvious what level the talk was aimed at; beginner, intermediate or advanced. This additional information within the programme would be a welcome addition and stop some people from being disappointed when attending a beginners talk.

I was disappointed to see there was no panels at the end of each day. Although very poorly executed last year I was hoping for a better discussion from a panel this year. If my memory serves me, I think this was done quite well back in 2012.

Generally I think the quality and breath of the talks and topics last year was better than this year. When choosing a talk to go to one of my personal criteria is; "Can I do something with that come Monday morning?". While I did learn a lot of valuable information I was not introduced to any new technologies.

Thank you again to everyone involved. While my feedback above might sound quite negative I m hoping it will be received as constructive as intended.

Looking forward to seeing the videos online of the talks I missed and what I hope will be an epic 10 year anniversary next year.

Hi,

Really enjoyed the conference and a big thank you to everyone involved it running it and making it happen.

Agree with the comments above regarding:
- Missed not having a Q&A/panel on the Friday (maybe with beers!)
- The codebase and deploy room, the aircon and video screen need sorting (maybe have a video screen from that room in the reception area/hackathon area?)
- Would be great to have a workshop room/un-conference talks

I would also add - given that both opening key notes finished in plenty of time, there was a big gap before 1st talks, but lunch always feels rushed - maybe a slightly longer lunch break?

Lastly, this isn't a complaint about any of the speakers (I couldn't stand up and do a talk) nor the organisers, but I felt there were a few missed opportunities with regards to content - e.g. lots of this years theme was about SOA and the cloud, but no talks on apiligity, only a brief talk (as a subsection on vagrant) about chef and puppet, no talks about composer, CI services etc. Also there was a lack of any talks about any personal development; I only say this as PHP NE has got some of these lined up, and it's a shame that PHP London didn't. Don't get me wrong, it's nice to have some off topics, and go to things that broaden your learning, but I just think there were some opportunities missed.

But thank you again, and see you next year for the 10th (birthday party!?) conference.

Thanks.

Thanks very much to all the organisers - first time at this conference and all was top notch. I felt spoilt for choice by the talks - I could happily have attended at least 2 of the 3 each session (and am v glad they've been videoed).

I'd second the thing about the screens in the Affiliate Window room - I wonder if next year either speakers can be asked to put key content on the top half of each slide (which I realise will make it very tricky) or have some additional screens half-way down the room?

Again, thank you for all your organising work. If there were stars on this comment section, you'd get all of them!

I love the venue. Food was great, well organized, no qeues to register, everything was pretty smooth.

The only "but" was that the bottom of the slides was hard to see for the people in the back iin the Affiliate Window room.

First year in the conference. Extremely well organized, awesome venue, excellent food and very good atmosphere during the two days. Thank you very much.

Agree with others that a panel discussion similar to 2012 would round off the event nicely (feels slightly anti-climatic without something like that) and please do something about the screen in the Codebase & Deploy track room; really spoils it for anybody not right at the front.

Lovely venue, good food, informative talks, excellent standard of swag, overall great conference. Thanks all and good luck to Ciarán.

This is my third year going to the conference. The brewery is still a good location and quite frankly better than the Business Design centre where they hosted it in 2012.

The Brewery's food is quite nice and they have got a 5/5 food hygiene rating.

I too agree that a panel and open Q&A would have been nice, and more prices would also have been appreciated.

Lastly, I propose the idea I have proposed every time I went: WORKSHOPS

I think it would be a really good idea to have workshops, either during the talk, or as an unconference track

Great conference again this year. My points to note :-
Shame about wifi dead for a while on Friday.
I would have enjoyed a panel and perhaps open Q&A.
Awesome coffee in the Cloud Bar!
See you next year if bosses wallet can handle it again.

Great conference, awesome location, very good organization. Thank you all.