PHPUK 2009

Another PHPUK conference is over and again it was a good’un! There were a lot of good talks, though not all were targeted at me and I also got to meet old friends and make new ones.

The day started well with probably the most inventive safety announcement ever by Marcus, though he should use a microphone next time! Aral Balkan‘s keynote provided food for thought and he’s a very enthusiastic speaker. This was an excellent up-beat talk which raised my general happiness with the day. Although I went to David Soria Parra‘s talk on sharding, I didn’t find it very useful as it’s not a problem I’m likely to come across. I would have preferred to have seen some more real-world use-cases too. Similarly, David Axmark’s talk on Drizzle is also something I’m unlikely to be using in the next year. However, being aware of technologies that are coming up is one reason why I come to conferences and I’ll be watching Drizzle’s progress with interest.

After an excellent lunch, there were two talks on Symfony, so I skipped those :) Simultaneously, there was also a talk about PHP on Windows and Flex which I also skipped. During this time, I took advantage of the quietness of the exhibitor area to grab an SQL Server guru at the Microsoft stand. He provided me with some useful information that if it works like I expect, will more than save me the cost of the conference ticket.

The final talk I went to was by Chris Shiflett who explored the effect of the way we humans think on providing secure applications. Along with being entertaining, it also provided some key points about security without being yet another talk on how to avoid CRSF or SQL injections.

There were two socials for the event and both were excellent opportunities to meet people and catch up. I very much enjoyed it all and am now looking forward to the Dutch PHP Conference.