PHP & Web Development Blogs

Interested in sponsoring? Check out the prospectus

A little history

Several years ago I had the distinct privilege of founding Midwest PHP with Jonathan Sundquist. The goal was simple, to bring an affordable PHP conference to Minnesota and the midwest region.

Midwest PHP was created for one simple reason - there weren't a lot of alternatives, especially affordable ones. At the time, your choices were ZendCon in Silicon Valley, php[tek] in Chicago, or Northeast PHP in Boston. While Northeast PHP formed the blueprint of a community conference - it still required a flight and a costly hotel in Boston. I wanted something where local attendees, college students, and those just beginning in their PHP careers could go to learn, network, and become part of the PHP community.

Shortly after Midwest PHP was formed (originally we were using the name PHPFreeze - until Sundquist told me what a horrible idea it was), Adam Culp launched Sunshine PHP which has become one of the top community focused PHP conferences (but still requires that flight and hotel in Miami). Sundquist and I knew that any reasonable developer would still prefer to attend a conference in a blizzard than enjoy the beautiful Floridian weather (ok, that might not be it, but we still understood the need that existed).

After moving to California for my new job, Jonathan Sundquist continued to run Midwest PHP as more community conferences appeared. With his efforts, and the torch being passed to Mike Willbanks, Midwest PHP celebrated it's seventh consecutive year, becoming the longest continuously running PHP conference (if you go by formed date, if you go by actual conference date Sunshine PHP beats us out by a month).

A renewed focus

Because of the incredible work Jonathan and Mike have done, Midwest PHP has stood the test of time - and the peaks and valleys that come with any conference. With the shifts in the PHP community and the sad loss of several community conferences - we realized the need for Midwest PHP is more now than ever, and to meet that need we needed to reimagine the way the conference operated.

We also realized that the best way to make Midwest PHP accessible was to combine forces, creating a seamless partnership between Nomad PHP and Midwest PHP. Through this partnership we're not only able to stream the event to make it more accessible ($19.95/mo), but also expand the conference.

This year, taking place onApril 2-4, 2020 - Midwest PHP will bring together over 800 developers both in-person and virtually! Making this year truly unique, however, and staying with our purpose of helping new developers be part of the PHP community is abrand new, FREE, beginner track. I'm excited to say we will be giving away 200 tickets to those wishing to attend our Beginner or Learn PHP track!!!

We will also work to keep prices as low as possible as we offer our standard PHP tracks (Everyday PHP and PHP Performance & Security) starting at $250/ person, anda brand new enterprise track geared at developers facing challenges at unprecedented scale starting at $450/ person.

Last but not least, it is our goal with the help of our sponsors to include the workshop day as part of your ticket price - allowing you to get one day of in-depth training, and two more full days of sessions. On top of this, we're also excited to make the Nomad PHP and Nomad JS video libraries available for Standard and Enterprise attendees, providing over 220 additional virtual sessions on demand!

For sponsors

Sponsoring a conference is hard. We understand the challenge of gauging ROI, planning travel, and coordinating outreach. With the combined forces of Midwest PHP and Nomad PHP, we're able to offer sponsors unique plans that maximize their investment - while ensuring the funds go back into the event to create an amazing experience for our attendees.

Beyond Midwest PHP's goal to be the largest PHP conference this year - the included Nomad PHP advertising will help you reach a much larger and broader audience, allowing for follow up advertisements and consistent engagement with the PHP community.

Interested in sponsoring? Check out the prospectus

Next steps

For more information, please visit the Midwest PHP website. The venue, call for papers, and additional information will all be posted there soon.

Halloween is filled with ghouls, ghosts, zombies and lots of other spookiness, but the scariest thing ever is FOMO. It’s conference season and several have their call for papers out (including us at Nomad PHP :D). This is the perfect time for you to share your knowledge with the community. Whether it’s your first time or 100th time - it can be scary to put yourself out there and do a talk, but worse than that is not taking the chance and submitting your talk and doing the presentation. Plus, many of these events host lightning talks (short 5-15 minute talks) - meaning you can test out your talk risk free ;)

So here is your chance - submit for one or submit for all of them. May the odds be ever in your favor!

Fosdem 2019

First we have Fosdem 2019 which will take place on February 2 & 3 in Brussels,Belgium. Some facts about this call for papers:
*Deadline: November 3, 2018
* Presentations are expected to be 50 minutes long (including audience questions) and should cater to a varied technical audience. For examples check out youtube.
*Submit your proposals via Pentabarf: https://fosdem.org/submit.
* The conference covers reasonable travel expenses agreed upon in advance as well as arranges accommodations

Midwest PHP 2019

Next up we have Midwest PHP which will take place on March 8 & 9 in Bloomington, Minnesota.
*Deadline: November 15, 2018
* There is a speaker package included (conference pass, 2 hotel nights, airfare/travel - $500 max, lunch, etc.)
* Make sure the talk title and abstract define the exact topic and what you hope people will learn from it.
* Recommended to submit more than one talk because it can increase your chances of one of them being picked.
*Submit your talk here: [https://cfp.midwestphp.org/] (https://cfp.midwestphp.org/)

Longhorn PHP

Next we have Longhorn PHP which will take place on May 2 (tutorial day) then MAy 3 &4 (conference) in Austin, Texas.
*Deadline: December 15, 2018
* For all speakers, you'll get a full conference pass (tutorial day and main conference days), including access to lunch, after-parties, and any other activities included in the conference.
* For speakers remote to the Austin area, we'll provide 3 nights at the speaker hotel (4 nights if presenting a talk and a tutorial) near the conference venue.
* For speakers outside Texas, we'll book you an Economy or equivalent round-trip airfare on a flight into Austin we'd be comfortable taking ourselves (we're conference speakers too!). Plus, we'll arrange transportation between the Austin airport and the speaker hotel.
* Three different session lengths: 3 hour tutorials, 60 minute talks, and 30 minute talks.
* It doesn't have to just be a PHP related talk. For more information on talks click here.
*Submit your talk here: https://cfp.longhornphp.com/.

Laravel Live India 2019

Then we have LaravelLive India 2019 in Mumbai, India.
*Deadline: December 31, 2018
* Talk length is 30 minutes - Q&A up to the presenters discretion but would be included in the 30 minute time limit.
* Talks will be recorded and distributed for free as well as the presentation slides.
* Looking for a range of talks from PHP (security, testing and frameworks), web development, HTML5, JavaScript, mobile development, emerging technologies and non-technical proposals that will appeal to developers.
*Talk guidelines: Objective with clear expectation for audience, short and to the point description, mention of employer is only allowed at the beginning of the content and background image/wallpaper shouldn’t include company name/logos.
*Submit your talk here: [https://www.papercall.io/laravellive-india] (https://www.papercall.io/laravellive-india)

Nomad PHP

(you know you want to)

Last but not least - this is an ongoing call for papers. This is perfect if you want to present from the comfort of your office, home or really wherever you are. It’s via RingCentral meetings and will be live and recorded. This is for none other than Nomad PHP.
*Deadline: Anytime :D
* Talk length: 45 - 60 minutes.
* Talks should be unique to Nomad PHP and not available in video format online.
* Talk should not be recorded or made available elsewhere online for at least 3 months following your talk.
* The talk will be featured on our page and promoted via social media.
* Speakers will receive a financial stipend.
* Upon being selected we will reach out with further details.
*Submit here: [https://www.papercall.io/nomadphp] (https://www.papercall.io/nomadphp)
Now that you have some information - it’s the perfect time to take it all in and get started on your talk proposals :)! Looking forward to seeing all the amazing talks that will be coming out!!!