Next month, I’ll be heading out to Nashville for the PHP Community Conference. This is wildly exciting for a few reasons; this is the first in what I hope will be many episodes of this event, and I’m speaking in a lineup that blows every other conference schedule I’ve seen out of the water. I have met and hung out with enough of these people to know that I’m going to get smarter just by being there! I love watching the industry leaders discuss technology, I learn so much, and I know that this event will be a fabulous opportunity for that.

The event is entirely community organised and run, rather than being backed by an organisation. I am a great believer in having events come from the community that wants to attend them, and as an organiser (both for community and organisation-backed events) myself, the freedom to do things that will really work, rather than things that can be agreed by a management committee, makes the difference between a good event and a great one. What’s different about this PHP Community Conference is that most of the organisers are speakers and attendees of some of the biggest conferences in the PHP world … and they’ve built the international-level conference *they* want to attend!

The lineup is nothing short of stellar, these guys and gals would be the main feature at most of the other PHP-specific events I’ve been to, in fact three or four of them have been keynotes at other events I’ve attended. I’m speaking myself, which was wildly exciting from the moment I got the acceptance email right up until the rest of the schedule was published … and is now slightly daunting, in the best possible way! I’m giving a half-day tutorial on Web Services, covering all the theory points and showing you how to not only consume but also publish your own services. I work so much with APIs and being able to take the time to properly share my experiences so others can go on to build their own kick-ass services is something really special.

I can’t wait to get out to Nashville on April 21/22 and meet the speakers and the fantastic crowd of attendees that I know an event like this will draw. Which is not to say that there are not other great conferences, but I’m really looking forward to seeing something special in Nashville … I sincerely hope to see you there!