Lone Star PHP Recap

Originally published on the Clarify.io blog. View archived copy.

This year I was privileged enough to both attend and speak at the Lone Star PHP Conference. In it’s fifth year, it’s a well-established event put together by a great team that also happens to run the Dallas PHP User Group. While it is an expertly organized and run event with great content, there are a few specific things that make it stand out.

The Good 

First, most of the content I caught was outstanding. Yes, there were a few places where people could practice more but overall they knew their stuff backwards and forwards. Two of particular interest were:

• Luke Stokes’ (@lukestokes) “Turning Your Code Into a Company: The Parts They Don’t Tell You” where he talked about the myth of being “an overnight success” and what it really takes to turn a product into a company. A good part of his concern and criticism related to how many people view getting investment as the finish line instead of a milestone far from the finish.
• Then Yitzchok Willroth’s (@coderabbi) “Talmudic Maxims to Maximize Your Growth as a Developer” was stellar as usual. If you’re looking for a wise man to show you the wisdom of the ages and how it fits into software development, he’s the man for the job. And for those wondering: Yes, CodeRabbi is literally a coder and a rabbi.

Next, the venue and location are good. The venue itself has tons of parking nearby with plenty of seating and a pretty good layout overall.

Finally – and this is self-serving – the JeoPHPardy was a blast. It was a blend of PHP Jeopardy with a bit of Celebrity Jeopardy thrown in. The questions were on-topic and useful in a few cases, but the fun part was Anthony Ferrara (@ircmaxwell) played Burt Reynolds and I played Sean Connery. Our job was to disrupt spice up the game while staying within the Code of Conduct. And yes, I believe we were successful.

The Bad

As much as there was good food, the options for vegetarians were pretty limited. And even a few things that could have been vegetarian – like mac & cheese – had bacon bits. As an omnivore, I loved it, but there were a few annoyed.

The evening events were less organized this year. The last couple years, there was a big focus on game night to get people to hang around, connect, and generally have a good time. While there were games this time, there wasn’t as much promotion or encouragement this time around.

The Ugly

The wifi was awful. For a tech conference, this is frustrating but on tutorial day, this can be disastrous. People are trying to download their frameworks, vagrant configs, and a ton of other things which makes a bad situation even worse. As a former organizer myself, I understand the pains (and expense!) of getting better internet but something needs to be done here. Luckily, my workshop didn’t require internet access but I think that was the exception rather than the rule.

Overall, the feel of the conference was good. It’s a Southern Texas thing to make people feel welcome and I think it was successful. Of the people I talked to from outside the area, every single one talked about how great it was and how much they’re looking forward to the next one.

If you’re interested in learning more about the event check out LoneStarPHP.com, the Joind.in review page, and the #lsp15 hashtag.