Unconference

This year, for the first time, the Dutch PHP Conference includes an Unconference, or "Uncon". Although these are relatively common as standalone events here in Europe, and associated with PHP conferences in the US, bringing an uncon as a separate conference track to a PHP conference pretty new and we're very excited about trying it out!

Follow @dpc_uncon on twitter for all the news about the uncon. The schedule will be filled in during the event, see all the details and leave feedback on Joind.in

The unconference at DPC will be a 4th track for both of our main conference days on 11th and 12th June; but there is no schedule for this track. The speakers in this track will be the conference attendees, whoever volunteers (or who gets volunteered by their friends/peers!) to give a talk, gets a slot until all the slots are full. There are no minimum requirements for who is "allowed" to speak, there will be people around to help you get set up (all of them experienced speakers themselves). Discussions, demonstrations, and other interactive sessions are all very welcome in our uncon. Slides are totally optional, and you don't need speaking experience or a talk already prepared. Acceptable topics are anything you can persuade the organisers is loosely related to the theme of the conference.

Speaking of organisers, I should mention that the uncon this year is being run by our good friends at PHPBenelux. They are community people and PHP enthusiasts and are very excited about getting new speakers onto the PHP scene - they were all new speakers once and I am delighted that they have agreed to help us out by taking responsibility for this part of the event.

Getting involved doesn't just mean speaking, although I hope many of you will step up and speak. During the event take a moment to check out the uncon, keep an eye on the topics available there (we'll be updating you as the schedule changes during the event), and if there's a topic you think is missing from the main schedule, or that you'd like to hear more about, tell the organisers. They are some of the best-connected people in the PHP world and they'll be able to line up content if you request it!

Since we hope to get some totally unknown speakers on stage in the uncon, the schedule won't be completely blank; a few sessions are already stolen to help speakers get started. The first session of the uncon will be a workshop from some existing speakers about how to speak - so if you're toying with the idea of being an uncon speaker, go and see that session. We'll also dedicate the first after-lunch session each day (at 13:30) to short-format talks, allowing speakers up to 10 minutes to give a short presentation in case anyone doesn't want to talk for a full 45 minute slot.

See you at the uncon :-)