php|tek '12
22 - 25 May 2012 at Sheraton Gateway Suites O’Hare

Thank you php|architect crew for putting together such a wonderful conference.

This is my quick review of this year's php|tek conference. I'll post a blog post with a more indepth review later.

Overall, it was an excellent confernece. I was really pleased with how smoothly things went. This was my first year as a speaker, and I can say is it just as fun speaking here as attending (as long as you get your slides done before you get there).

Now, here are some nitpickings just so the event organizers can know about them and see if anything can be done about them. These by any means didn't hinder my enjoyment at the conference at all, just some things
I noticed. :)

I really liked having breakfast available in the morning, so you didn't have to play frogger to get to McDonalds. However, I did notice that breakfast seemed to get cleaned up extremely fast, so if you got up just a little bit later, it was gone. It would be nice if it were available for a little longer.

There were about two presentations I attended to that had mic problems, where the wireless or wired mic would cut in and out randomly, distracting the presenters and attendees. Perhaps if there was some sort of room manager available to keep an eye on the mic and help a presenter fix it if it starts acting up.

Once again, those were extremely minor things I noticed. This conference was full of great people having a good time and learning a lot of great stuff. Thanks to Marco, Arbi, Beth, Cal, and Keith for a great time. I really liked the "achievement" badges and hope to see that back next year.

As always, this was a fantastic event. The venue is awesome and allows for everyone to mingle in the same general area.

I liked the mobile site that gave all the information needed for the talks. The one thing I would have liked was having all the information for the day in the same section, instead of talks in one, event in another, and the social after hours part in yet another. Very minor detail however.

I really like Cal's insistance on getting everyone to meet someone new. I met some really great people this year, and made it a point to try and not flock to just the same group for meals. I may have even met a co-organizer for the future SDPHP group because of this. You can tell the people that travel to the conference together. It's easy for them to stay together instead of socializing separately. Can't say that I blame them.

Thank you Blue Parabola and all of the sponsors for a successful event.

Great conference! Thank you so much to the organizers and sponsors!

Another great conference! Thank you!

I have to admit I was initially disappointed to see that the number of talks decreased from last year, but now I agree that it was for the best. Longer talks and longer "passing periods" made for a less hectic pace and made the experience more enjoyable.

The one think I really missed from last year was the postcard-sized schedule with the map on the back. As convenient as the mobile site is, it's still a bit of a drag when you need to find your next session quickly. Also, the map would have saved me from mixing up the Rosemont and Chicago Rooms and ending up at the wrong session.

I want to thank the sponsors and the crew of php|tek for making this conference experience as wonderful as possible.

Is there any way we can get the videos of any talk?