{"id":18910,"date":"2013-12-04T04:07:49","date_gmt":"2013-12-04T02:07:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/?p=18910"},"modified":"2013-12-04T04:07:49","modified_gmt":"2013-12-04T02:07:49","slug":"on-the-matter-of-technical-conferences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2013\/12\/04\/on-the-matter-of-technical-conferences\/","title":{"rendered":"On the matter of technical conferences"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

While reading Ben Ramsey’s blog post “The Fall of PEAR and the Rise of Composer<\/a>“, I caught myself thinking of entirely different subject – technical conferences, in general. \u00a0Two bits in particular pushed my train of thought.<\/p>\n

The first one is Ben’s experience as a first time speaker at a technical conference. \u00a0We’ve all probably been to one or seen one on YouTube, but that’s from the audience perspective. \u00a0Here is how it looks from the other side:<\/p>\n

Palms sweaty, stomach aflutter with butterflies, I stood before my first audience as a technical speaker. It was a time of many firsts for me\u2014my first PHP conference, my first time in Europe, my first technical presentation. I had been accepted to speak at the 2005 International PHP Conference Spring Edition in Amsterdam. I was nervous, jet-lagged, and tired from an all nighter working on slides.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

After my presentation, I found myself downstairs during the break, discussing the topic of frameworks with a German gentleman. I don\u2019t recall much of our conversation, but after a while, I made the biggest mistake I have ever made in my entire career as a speaker. I asked the question \u201chow did it go?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, I think we both know how it went,\u201d responded the gentleman drily.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo. No, I don\u2019t think I do. Can you elaborate?\u201d My second mistake.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was horrible!\u201d he exclaimed.<\/p>\n

Wow. I was floored. I had to get out of the conversation quickly. I thanked him for his frankness and excused myself. I found a quiet room and sat down for a while, taking deep breaths, trying to calm myself and recover before giving a second talk that day. If I was nervous before, I was frantic now. I didn\u2019t think I could muster up the courage to give another presentation, but I pressed on, and I\u2019m better for it.<\/p>\n

That day, I learned two valuable lessons: 1) after giving a presentation never, ever, ever, ever ask someone how they thought it went; let them volunteer that on their own, and 2) unless you want a brutally honest response, don\u2019t ask a German for their opinion.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I haven’t spoken at any major events yet – just a couple of local Linux user group meetings – but I can attest to the very humbling and crushingly nervous experience. \u00a0It gets easier, I guess, but who would want to listen to you when your first few times suck so badly?<\/p>\n

The second bit that got me thinking was the this one:<\/p>\n

At php|tek 2009, a group of leaders from a few of the frameworks and libraries communities got together to, as David Coallier described, \u201cdevelop a set of common standards which PHP projects can strive towards adopting.\u201d This moment represented a turning point in the PHP community. All modern PHP development hinges on this moment. As the Doctor might say, it is a fixed point in time.<\/p>\n

This group produced what would become known as PSR-0, an autoloading standard for PHP userland frameworks and libraries, and the group\u2019s name would eventually become the PHP Framework Interop Group (PHP-FIG). It was this autoloading standard that I think changed the course of all PHP userland development.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Quite a few people I know are under the impression that technical conferences are a waste of time. \u00a0People just go there to escape a day or two from their work. \u00a0And maybe learn a thing or two. \u00a0But it’s not just that. \u00a0It’s not only about the sessions, workshops and learning.<\/p>\n

A great deal of networking and cross-industry communication happens at these events. \u00a0Some of these just forge friendships and beer sessions. \u00a0Yet others develop into powerful partnership and great accomplishments. \u00a0Like the one mentioned above.<\/p>\n

Like it or not, but even the techiest of techiest among us need an occasional face-to-face session to fix “lost in translation” things, to discuss and argue about everything, and agree on something.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\n

While reading Ben Ramsey’s blog post “The Fall of PEAR and the Rise of Composer“, I caught myself thinking of entirely different subject – technical conferences, in general. \u00a0Two bits in particular pushed my train of thought. The first one is Ben’s experience as a first time speaker at a technical conference. \u00a0We’ve all probably … Continue reading On the matter of technical conferences<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1,62],"tags":[1466,1128,38,3249],"keyring_services":[],"class_list":["post-18910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-technology","tag-conferences","tag-lifestyle","tag-php","tag-public-speaking"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11529,"url":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2009\/03\/02\/attending-php-uk-conference-2009\/","url_meta":{"origin":18910,"position":0},"title":"Attending PHP UK Conference 2009","author":"Leonid Mamchenkov","date":"March 2, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The conference day.\u00a0 We woke up early to get in queue at registration which opened at 08:30.\u00a0 When we got to the Olympia Conference Center, which was about 5 minutes walk from our hotel, it was full of people.\u00a0\u00a0 More than a hundred people already, and we were early.\u00a0 Got\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All"","block_context":{"text":"All","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/03\/security_centered_design.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11518,"url":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2009\/02\/26\/php-uk-conference-2009-here-we-come\/","url_meta":{"origin":18910,"position":1},"title":"PHP UK Conference 2009, here we come!","author":"Leonid Mamchenkov","date":"February 26, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"All the stars have aligned properly for yet another conference visit.\u00a0 This time I am going with two colleagues to London, UK.\u00a0 We are attending PHP UK Conference 2009.\u00a0 It's my first visit to UK, and I wont' have much time around, but if you have any suggestions on what\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All"","block_context":{"text":"All","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":21960,"url":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2014\/06\/08\/international-php-conference-2014-berlin-germany\/","url_meta":{"origin":18910,"position":2},"title":"International PHP Conference 2014, Berlin, Germany","author":"Leonid Mamchenkov","date":"June 8, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"As many of you already know, I've spent most of the last week in Berlin, Germany, attending the International PHP Conference 2014. \u00a0Here's the short story: \u00a0it was another great event (yes, I've attended this conference before). \u00a0The conference seems to grow and mature. \u00a0There were plenty of engaging speakers\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All"","block_context":{"text":"All","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10162,"url":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2006\/06\/06\/daily-del-icio-us-bookmarks\/","url_meta":{"origin":18910,"position":3},"title":"Daily del.icio.us bookmarks","author":"Leonid Mamchenkov","date":"June 6, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Shared bookmarks for del.icio.us user tvset on 2006-06-05 bitweaver -- Interesting CMS with loads of functionality. 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