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!