PHP UK Conference 2017
16 - 17 Feb 2017 at The Brewery, London

This was my first time at this particular event, and I loved it. A great variety of speakers and subjects, a wonderful venue, very helpful and friendly staff. I will definitely try to come back again.

The conference was great - many helpful talks that have inspired me to find out more about the topics and improve my own practice. I'll certainly be sharing what I've learned with others when I am back to work on Monday. I also learnt much about the PHP Community and the internals of the language itself. The food was amazing and it was a great venue.

There are a few suggestions I'd like to make:

1. As a newcomer (there with one colleague), I found the King George room an intimidating space for starting a conversation with people I didn't know. Mostly this was my natural shyness in new situations, but I can't have been the only one who felt this way (and I note that one friendly community member reached out to me on Thursday evening and then introduced me to several others, which was really appreciated). I wondered if any of the following might help to break the ice for people who find that first step difficult:
a) some volunteers to go around at break times and look out for people on their own and introduce them to others;
b) a designated 'new person welcome area', with some conference regulars ready to chat;
c) a 'please talk to me' badge that any attendees could choose to wear to indicate particular openness to chatting to strangers (not that I really believe there was anyone there who didn't want to chat to new people, but it might be a small way to break down those barriers);
d) conference badges where the attendee name was easier to read than the sponsor name (rather than the other way around).

2. Joind.in - would be helpful to explain what this was at the start of the conference, rather than talking about it as if everyone should already know exactly what it was. Maybe also print the URL for talks in the programme, as I never got past the first part on my mobile browser, before the presenter removed the slide again (clearly I have since figured this out, but it might improve the response rate).

Thanks for organising the conference!

I really enjoyed my time at the conference and I was treated extremely well as a speaker. The venue and the food were excellent, and the technicians really knew what they were doing for screens and audio. The organisers were calm and helpful when I needed them, and there was a good variety of talks.

I hope to come back again another year (as a speaker or attendee)

As always a great conference. Great selection of talks, showing a cross section of the #phpc. Venue was up to it's usual high standards. I say this every year, but the boxed food is a brilliant idea, and having a savoury option in the morning break was a brilliant idea.

I absolutely loved the conference. Thank you to all the speakers, organisers and helpers.

Another great conference, dissapointed there was no Hackthorn though.