Back from LoneStarPHP 2015

Listening to Phil Sturgeon (courtesy of Ben Marks) at LoneStarPHP 2015

I returned earlier this week from LoneStarPHP 2015, a community PHP conference held in Addison, a suburb of Dallas, Texas.

This conference was a three-day event, with a full day reserved for tutorial sessions where experts from all over the world gave full training and hands-on workshops on subjects like PHP foundations, unit testing, systems administration, API's, security and performance. A great decision made by the conference organizers to run a full day for training. 

Standing in line for a true Texas BBQ at Hard Eight BBQ

LoneStarPHP has a reputation to offer a true Texas BBQ to all speakers, and this year it was again a big success. We ended up at the "Hard Eight BBQ", one of the best BBQ restaurants in the US. A quarter pound of very tasty brisket, some Jalapeño Chicken Poppers, Spicy Sausage and a few Spare Ribs were on my plate. Just the amount of meat I could handle without getting a meat overdose.

The second and third day were all about PHP. Speakers were giving 50 minute sessions starting at 9am all the way until 5pm. LoneStarPHP attendees were given the best of the best and the audience loved it.

Jeff Carrouth goes over the SOA architecture

I learned interesting things about Dependency Injection, Composer , API's, SOA's, Security, Testing, Guzzle to consume HTTP, Speaking at Conferences, Teaching Kids to Code and What it takes to run a tech company.

Between sessions there was of course the "hallway track", discussions between attendees about all kind of subjects which many consider the most important part of any conference.

PHPTownHall and LooselyCoupled doing a joint-podcast session

Of course, evening social activities brought everyone closer and kept the conversation going. When you hang out with a bunch of PHP folks, you end up with a couple of podcast recordings as well. So, PHPTownHall and LooselyCoupled joined forces one night and the amazing Godfather of the PHP community, Mr. Cal Evans could not resist the urge to record another session of Voices of the Elephpant: it's the booze talking with a round-table discussion with conference organizers and community leaders. On both occasions it was a great blast, just go listen to the podcasts.

If you like a good BBQ mixed with new, refreshing and highly educational talks, LoneStarPHP is a conference you must experience.

See you all at LoneStarPHP 2016