Stuart Herbert On PHP

I’m speaking at the PHPNW ‘08 conference in November, and I’ve just been contacted for advice by someone understandably excited at going to her very first conference.  Thing is, I’ve never been a conference newbie (I’ve always been either speaking or running a conference) so I’m not the best person to offer advice on this.

What would you add to this list?

• Arrange with on-line friends to meet up either the night before or before the presentations start on the day.
• Look for social groups (e.g. PHP Women) you can join before the conference, to see if anyone like-minded is going.
• If the conference has more than one presentation going on at once (== multiple tracks), work out in advance which presentations you’d like to go and see.  You can always change your mind afterwards
• Bring a laptop - a lot of the conversation at the conference happens online (such as on Twitter).
• Bring a mobile broadband card with you too (do you have mobile broadband outside the UK?), as conference wireless systems can be incredibly unreliable.
• Be yourself, but don’t bullshit - the folks you’re trying to impress could be prospective customers, work colleagues or employers.
• Stay for the after-conference drinks & food, where you can socialise and network.

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