Each year, we try to do something unique at tek. Two years ago, we had an appearance from the PHP KISS rockstars. Last year, we had the Hackathon led by the highly esteemed Matthew Turland. This year, we’re still going to have a Hackathon, but wanted to do something more.
On top of that, we faced some hard decisions. When the call for speakers ended, we had nearly 10 submissions for every speaking slot and some of them were fantastic. So after much deliberation and debate, we reached a simple conclusion:
We’re dropping the Unconference this year. (gasp)
I know you’re disappointed but in exchange we were able to add 6 more sessions to the 36 we had. Now we only had ~9 submissions for every speaking slot! Whew, problem solved. Anyway, let’s face it, after successful uncons at ZendCon 08, tek 09, and ZendCon 09, we all know how they work and what makes them not work. The same formula over and over again doesn’t drive the community forward. It doesn’t make people get creative or get them excited. So after a bit of eggnog, arguing with Marco & Cal, bribing Arbi with cookies, and another round of eggnog, we came up with another idea:
Enter… the Hack Track.
Every year big ideas come out of tek. Some are good, some are bad, but they always come from running into new and old faces in the hallways, at a meal, or over drinks. The problem is that there’s not a good place for this stuff to happen. The hallways lack outlets, the tables are in the restaurant, and people’s rooms are… well, they’re hotel rooms.
This time around, we’ve set aside some space with tables, chairs, power, and coffee… but no formal agenda. We’re using the Open Spaces model where small groups can get together to discuss, create, demo, code, and generally enjoy themselves on whatever topics they choose.
Just like the Unconference before it, we’ll make sure some smart people are lurking in the corners. If you’d like to talk about that code from that session, ask the speaker to show you. If you want to know about that project someone mentioned, ask about it. I plan to be there working on our AIR client for web2project. There’s already some interest around the Zend Framework and Subversion and Javascript libraries and Git and PHPUnit and Refactoring and…
Long live the Hack Track.
Court Ewing on December 31st, 2009 at 15:59 :
I think this is ultimately a good idea, but I worry that one particular aspect of the uncons could be left out. Whereas the main sessions provide a place for people to see and hear some of the best minds in the industry, the uncons provided a place for people to see and hear a far wider range of discussions — some were led by really well-known people, and some were led by people who had never even been to a conference before. The uncons were, for lack of a better explanation, an awesome way for new people to get involved.
As the PHP community grows, it is going to get harder and harder for new people get involved in any significant regard, so any time I see a potential means to do so fade away, it troubles me.
Matthew Turland » Blog Archive » A Summary to End a Decade on January 27th, 2010 at 20:14 :
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