Announcing PHP Summer Camp
The image above is Rovinj, Croatia – a little piece of heaven on the west coast of the Istrian Peninsula.
For the third time in a row, and in a slightly different format, the PHP Summer Camp will this time be hosted in Rovinj from September 3rd to September 6th, with an optional extra leisure day.
What is the PHP Summer Camp?
The Summer Camp is a two-in-one type of event that focuses on practical workshops and training. While it doesn’t actually give you any certificates or framable papers you can hang on your wall, it does provide in depth exercises of different depth and breadth with different types of software. The Summer Camp is the perfect middle ground between conferences and official training camps/academies, lacking the formality but exceeding conference-type gatherings in that one practical regard: unlike conferences, which are often little more than glorified slideshows, attendees go home from PSC with new, practical, usable knowledge that can be applied immediately, because they then have actual hands on experience with everything the speakers talked about.
The Summer Camp mostly focuses on Symfony in general, but it uses it to present cutting edge PHP techniques and approaches that can be applied regardless of framework or environment. The PHP Summer Camp is, in fact, a double event – it happens in the same location and is organized by the same people as the eZ Summer Camp, so if you’re interested in getting started with eZ or are already using it and want to upgrade your know-how, jump into some eZ Publish workshops, too – the ticket for one event includes full access to the other.
Itinerary, Speakers and Topics
The roster of speakers consists of a broad array of experts. The two events share the same roster, but they’ll be distributed per event as per their area of expertise.
Speakers and Topics
On the eZ side, it’s mostly eZ core devs and experienced users demonstrating everything from basics to backlogs. On the PHP side, we have Ryan Weaver and Sasa Stamenkovic from KNP talking about Symfony, Behat, and PHPSpec basics, PaweŁ Jędrzejewski’s introduction and advanced use of Sylius – an open source e-commerce solution for Symfony2, Antonio Mazar will be covering REST APIs with Symfony2 and Daniel Leech and Willem J. Zijderveld of Symfony CMF fame will be guiding you through creating a basic CMS with the CMF and the RoutingAutoBundle, and through building a schematic CMS in 3 hours with only PHPCR.
Davor Plehati from Trikoder will demonstrate and show you how to implement a redundant cluster of Sphinx deamons and hook it up to your PHP app. Gilles Guirand from Kaliop will introduce Silex while Bernhard Schussek, a Symfony 2 core developer, will both introduce you to, and teach you to master Symfony 2 forms, something our very own Danny Sipos did on this channel.
Finally, Derick Rethans from MongoDB will be introducing the MongoDB+PHP marriage, and Raul Fraile from ServerGrove wraps things up with a very interesting implementation of a cryptovirus for Symfony2. Yes, you read that right, he literally builds a virus for Symfony apps, goes through Symfony internals, and teaches you things about virus signatures, kernels, OpenSSL, Symfony in depth, and more.
Networking
Each day ends with a networking opportunity, either through a cocktail party or a Q&A session, and some leisure activities. Heading for the beach during breaks or in downtime is not unheard of, and you’re certain to meet kindred spirits there too. Every day also has a special section:
On the first day, a challenge will be held in which all participants may demonstrate something they’ve built or thought up, and the winner will get a hosting package. The second day will be host to a Q&A debate during which questions to the speakers and demonstrators are encouraged, while the third day will, along with another Q&A, have a raffle in which IDE licenses will be given out.
The last day is an optional leisure day, during which all attendees board a small vessel and we ship out to sea with food and drinks. After enough mermaids have been flirted with, we’ll return and optionally mingle some more before dispersing.
Location and Early Bird
The event is taking place in Rovinj, Croatia. More information on getting there can be found here and there’s accommodation information on the PHP Summer Camp info page, along with all the other details you may be curious about.
Until the end of June, there’s an early bird special on the attendance fee, along with discount codes available for everyone flying in groups of three or more. See the ticket purchase page for more information. Obviously, three work days might be a bit much for some employers and the organizers will work on a more approachable date structure for next year, but if you take a few extra days and use them to enjoy the most beautiful seaside above the equator, you’re guaranteed not to regret it.
Conclusion
Take some time off your busy schedule and fly/drive out to Rovinj. Three days of practical hands-on experience guided by the industry’s experts, coupled with the most postcard-worthy vistas and cleanest seas you’ll ever lay your eyes on cannot disappoint. Let’s meet up, network, and relax.
Are you coming?
