PHPBenelux Conference 2013
25 - 26 Jan 2013 at Ter Elst

Can only echo the sentiments expressed above, especially regarding the indication of which food was vegetarian. Asking the staff definitely helped; on day one they were very friendly, and tried to accomodate. On day two, faced with the massive queue, the helpfulness dropped - just a half-plate of spinach-goop was not that satisfying.

The internet connection was depressing. I think I've entered that same username/password over fifty times during the conference. Also, big downloads (like downloading new versions of packages, or large sourcecode tarballs) would abruptly stop after about 40MB, with no way to resume.

This was my third year at the PHPBenelux conference and I really enjoyed this one. So much big and little improvements. The speakers were great and the talks I've been to were all very interesting.

The only real negative point is something that comes up every year and is the WiFi that's provided for the attendees. I don't think I need to elaborate about it further, I think the organisers already know judging from the comments above. Perhaps it would be an interesting idea to search for a sponsor next year that wants to sponsor the WiFi so we don't need to use the Telenet hotspot anymore?

I had much fun, learned a bunch, talked to a lot of great people and enjoyed every minute of it. Can't wait for next year! :)

I was positively impressed by the change compared to the previous years. The conference has visibly grown and matured, both in the number of attendees as well as the quality of the speakers. It was a great experience. We'll be back in '14! The one big let-down was the Telenet internet (non)experience; in the end I just gave up logging in again after every move around the venue, it was just too much hassle. PLEASE Telenet, get some user experience advice in this matter.

really liked the conference. an excellent level of talks and a great crowd. also loved the schedule with enough breaks between the talks to let people talk together and socialize.

regarding internet, i have been to quite a few conferences and think so far i have not yet seen one infrastructure that survived the onslaught of hundreds of developpers with probably each having several devices that want to connect to internet...

Great conference!
Sublime socials, top speakers.

Only downside was the lack of a good internet connection...

Good:

- Schedule was impressive, lots of good content
- Location was still very nice

Less good:

- Rooms were a bit warm
- It was sometimes unclear what food was vegetarian. Also: Last year during the closing social there were awesome veggie burgers. This year's quiche was not that good

Fab lineup of talks. Great social ( once i got on the bowling alley) mini golf was fun.

A little disappointed with the food during saturday lunch. The seafood pasta didnt agree with my stomach. Then again seafood is always tricky to pull off.

Great atmosphere. Fun crowd. Waiting for 2014 tickets to be for sale.

Nice conference, I don't really have material to compare because it was my first, but it was a really nice experience. Met a lot of people and had a really good time during the socials. Off course learned some new stuff during the talks so thank you for that.

All my points of improvement are already mentioned so I have nothing to add to that.

The only thing I can say is to keep up the good work!

Superb edition once again, props to the organisers and volunteers.
Some tips for next year(s)

- Full day tutorials!!
- Lunch on day 2 was pure chaos, the lobby is really too small for the amount of people, maybe use the room where the 2nd day social was held next time?
- Half way through each talk it was really getting hot in the rooms

The organization of the event, as well as the venue were good as usual! I didn't have any problem with the heating in the Nucleus and King Foo rooms. The other large one was pretty hot indeed, which made it hard to concentrate.
The food distribution was better organized on Friday as there was much more space for both queues and tables to stand.

Rooms were a bit warm, queue's were there but not a big problem for me.

In all: great location, great conference.

Really liked it !

everything went very smooth and fast, although the queues were long for the food as mentioned above, it did not feel like you had to wait forever to get some food in your plate.

the only thing that did not work to well was the TELENETHOTSPOT :(

so now i'm rounding up all my joind.in ratings and comments the day after :(

Really nice event with good talks. The socials were awesome.

Only points of improved I can add are:
- The rooms were heating up quite fast.
- When lunch/dinner was served the queues were getting longer and longer

Keep up the good work