php[tek] 2014
19 - 23 May 2014 at Sheraton Gateway Suites O’Hare

First time attending php[tek] and very much enjoyed it. The talks themselves were great and I liked the idea of the short talks. While 30 minutes between talks may have been a tad long, I prefer that to feeling rushed and it left plenty of time to get a coffee or ask a few more questions of the speaker. Open Spaces was a great idea, though I agree the space allocated filled up pretty quickly. The schedule app was a nice touch. I'm definitely planning to return.

This was my first time. Great venue, great talks, great people.

I liked the extra time between sessions to expand the hallway track. I thought thirty minutes was a bit long for that. Maybe shorten it to twenty minutes next year?

The QR codes on the badges was pretty funny. I'm not sure if it provided anything, since it seemed to just be a string of the information on the badge instead of a vcard or something like that.

Wifi seemed better than most conferences I've attended, despite all of the grumbling about it being flaky.

The pin collection challenge was pretty neat. After I talked to the two vendors I already knew and had two pins I felt like I had to keep going and get them all.

Open spaces was neat, though the area was too small for some of the sessions.

Hopefully I'll get to come back next year?

So, a comment about the hackathon.

As a solo developer I think it would be cool if there was an area where all the solo developers could hang out and maybe have some the 'rockstar' developers here at the conference going around asking everyone what they are working on and give suggestions. It would be nice to have a little validation, or a slap on the back of the head saying "Why are you doing that?"

For someone who has been in an 'island' and been solo developing my entire career it would be my first mentoring experience and I would get a lot out of it!