The conference was held at Telecom Hall MMTS-9, which provided excellent sound, almost simultaneous translation, a wide screen for presentations and occasionally working WiFi. Dull landscapes in the area of ​​Butlerov Street, slightly diluted with impressive parabolic antennas, suspiciously covered in bushes were compensated in a spring-like cheerful design of the conference room. The organizers traditionally equipped participants with colorful badges indicating nicks from the phpclub forums, everywhere “unscrewed” a-la slideshow “PHPCONF in faces” to the fiery rhythms of “Gorky Park” and the eternal problem of the crowded “Who is who?” Conferences seemed solved like never before. Perhaps it is clubbing, the atmosphere of a friendly company - PHPCONF stands out from a number of other conferences. I was all wondering why the organizers are not launching a tangible large-scale advertising campaign before the next conference. And they really have something to push off - they are 6th year gathering PHP specialists from all over the CIS, including the authors of PECL, PEAR and various popular projects, last year PHP founder Rasmus Lerdorf and a bright figure in PHP Core Team Andrei Zmievski took part in the conference, This year came no less the venerable guru Derick Rethans. However, the organizers limited themselves to some activity on habrahabr.ru and modest announcements on a number of thematic sites. No new / rich media, millions of banner impressions, AdWords, media support and viral marketing. But now I think the organizers simply chose a crowd of extras, a circle of developers really close to the PHPClub community who knew each other in absentia. They did everything possible to encourage participants to communicate with each other and exchange experiences.
One of the successful solutions in this direction was the organization of flipcharts with experts in coffee breaks. A good attempt to stir up the audience were contests of anecdotes from the life of developers. Upon my return, it even inspired a corresponding section in the corporate blog . ')
Oddly enough, the contextual commerce at the conference turned out to be in place. Judging by the T-shirts dazzled in the hall, many wished to designate themselves as the leader of web development. By the way, I was pleased with the mini-fair of IT-books for 150 rubles. each
