With only weeks to go until this year’s PHPNW conference, many of you already have tickets, but I am certain that many others are wondering if it is worth the money/time/effort. Rather than make you do a lot of reading, here are some bullet points. The answer is yes if any of these sound appealing:

• Cheapest conference in Europe for a schedule of this standard.
• Open bar on Saturday night.
• Food included on Saturday.
• Excellent technical content; we have more talks than ever this year, three tracks on both Saturday and Sunday so there’s sure to be something that suits your level/interests.
• Video recordings of all content, so you can watch anything you missed (due to being in other talks, the uncon, the bar … whatever)
• 12 month subscription to php|architect magazine.
• A good crowd. (This is the north, we will talk to you whether you like it or not, no obligation for you to converse if you don’t want to)
• Top class speakers! Some new faces, some international stars, all of them with something to tell.
• All in central Manchester, yards from the train station and with plenty of cheap beer*, I mean hotels, locally.

If you’re hoping to get some financial support from your employer, then perhaps it would help if we edited the list a little. If one of my team wanted to go, this is what I’d need to know:

• Excellent technical content; we have more talks than ever this year, three tracks on both Saturday and Sunday so there’s sure to be something that suits your level/interests.
• Cheapest way to get access to these technical experts, at £75 + VAT for both days (£82.50 after 5th September).
• Weekend conference means no disruption to project schedules.
• 12 month subscription to php|architect magazine.
• Food included on Saturday.
• All in central Manchester, yards from the train station and with plenty of cheap hotels locally.
• Opportunity for your team to build relationships with one another and with other people in the industry.

And if your employer isn’t going to support you, ask yourself this:

• Would I benefit from meeting new contacts in the industry?
• Do I want to improve my own skills and be better at what I do?
• Would I like to hang out with interesting, like-minded people?

If you’re studying, unemployed or retired, we’ve got concessionary prices for you (limited places available) – please email us and we’ll sort that out for you.

Whether you are an employee, employer, or freelance, the points are here to consider … so now you’ve had a chance to do that, I hope we’ll see you in Manchester in October!

* The emphasis on alcohol here is mostly a shorthand for “relaxing in the company of friends”; the event does not involve alcohol at the daytime events and is optional at the evening events. No peer pressure here; well, only to join in and have a good time!

  Lorna Mitchell   

 @lornajane