Back from ZendCon

So, I'm back from ZendCon. I was unsure how this business focused conference would turn out, and I'm glad to say that it seemed to go down quite well. There were a lot of "biz" sessions and that made it feel like there wasn't much technical content at the conference proper--but that was compensated for by the technical tutorials that took place on tuesday.

One of the things I really like about conferences is the opportunity to meet people face to face. Aside from the usual PHP conference circuit crowd (you know who you are!) it was good to see some faces that I haven't seen since my last visit to SF (php{con west 2003). It was also good to put faces to names and voices that I'd only previously dealt with over email, telephone or even just through reading RSS feeds.

I did a lot of "networking" at this conference compared to others that I've attended, having had some good, positive discussions with folks from Oracle, IBM, Microsoft and others about what they're doing, what we're doing and some general plans for the future--nothing top secret or earth shattering (that I know of!) just positive :)

I think one of the biggest things to take home from the conference (besides the swag) is the message that big business recognizes PHP as platform for big business. The presence of these big names at the conference not only helps to improve the perception of PHP as an "Enterprise" platform, but also helps to validate the efforts of everyone that has contributed to PHP (usually on a volunteer basis) over the last 10 years--well done to us all!