php[world]
10 - 14 Nov 2014 at Sheraton Tyson's Corner

Full disclosure: I was on staff as a volunteer.

That out of the way, I loved almost everything about the conference. That which I did not love, I still liked, and could have become loved if I had not been a volunteer staff member. (I missed the hallway track during the day.)

Being a staff member I was sitting in on sessions that I normally would not have, and that really was the whole premise of the conference. We are all PHP Developers. I noticed a lot of the speakers saying the same things, with just the context surrounding them changing. Very eye-opening.

If given the chance, I definitely would volunteer again next year, and if not, I'll be working on my bosses to send me anyway.

I thought this was a great event, well thought out, with excellent sessions and speakers. I especially liked being able to see outside my own silo -- I deliberately attended sessions on frameworks other than the one I spend most of my time in. This was refreshing, and put my daily work into perspective.

I came away with information I can put to use immediately. I was exposed to new ideas, and to tools I should be using right now. I also better understand where other applications and frameworks fit in the ecosystem. The panel discussion ending the conference was especially impressive.

Looking forward to next year!

This conference was fantastic. It took some time (and some outgoing people) to break out of their silos (e.g. WordPress people v. Drupal people v. Magento people, etc.) but the social activities, hallway track, and unofficial outings (for example, the Wizards game or the Interstellar IMAX screening) helped open people up even more.

The venue was terrific and seems to be able to scale, and the fact that it was Metro-adjacent meant that a trip into Capitol Hill was accessible to anyone who hasn't been to DC since the 8th grade class trip.

I mentioned this to Eli during the conference, but a job board could be effective with future php[world]s - obviously companies like Automattic and 10up are always hiring, but I spoke to more than one developers who were just being exposed to the world outside their current employer. It would also be nice to have an easy way to notify people about unofficial activities besides Twitter - maybe a calendar or Slack team?

Overall, fantastic conference. I can't wait for php[world] 2015!

This was awesome. The staff/volunteers and speakers made the experience amazing and fun. I agree with @Awnage about incentivizing ratings - I need every chance I can get at winning a prize lol. But in all seriousness I'm so glad my job gave me the opportunity to attend this event and look forward to applying some of the knowledge I've learned from this conference in my day to day projects and freelance work..

It was such a great event! I enjoyed the variety of talks and the hackaton was such a fun time. I would defiantly come to this event again!

I was very happy with this conference as were others o talked to. I hope you can to do this gain and I will encourage others to come out and support it as well.

Perhaps next year have a small prize for a randomly selected rater. Some sort of additional incentive to get people more involved in rating and commenting.