php[architect] November 2018

http://www.phparch.com \ November 2018 \ 37

Leveling up

Community Corner

Past Events

October

ScotlandPHP 2018

October 5–6, Edinburgh, Scotland

https://scophp.co/2018

SymfonyLive USA 2018

October 9–12, San Francisco, CA

https://usa2018.live.symfony.com

SymfonyDay Italy 2018

October 19, Verona, Italy

http://2018.symfonyday.it

SymfonyLive Berlin 2018

October 24–26, Berlin, Germany

http://berlin2018.live.symfony.com

Forum PHP 2019

October 25–26, Paris, France

https://event.afup.org

php Central Europe Conference 2018

October 26–28, Prague, Czech Republic

https://2018.phpce.eu

Upcoming Events

November

MadisonPHP

November 2–3, Madison, WI

http://www.madisonphpconference.com

php[world] 2018

November 14–15, Washington D.C.

https://world.phparch.com

LaravelDay 2018

November 29–30, Verona, Italy

http://2018.laravelday.it

December

SymfonyCon Lisbon 2018

December 4–8, Lisbon, Portugal

https://lisbon2018.symfony.com

January

PHPBenelux Conference 2019

January 25–26, Antwerp, Belgium

https://www.phpbenelux.eu

February

SunshinePHP 2019

February 7–9, Miami, FL

http://sunshinephp.com

PHP UK Conference 2019

February 20–22, London, England

https://www.phpconference.co.uk

March

ConFoo Montreal 2019

March 13–15, Montreal, Canada

http://confoo.ca

April

PHP Yorkshire 2019

CfP Deadline: November 17, 2018

April 11–13, University of York

http://www.phpyorkshire.co.uk

May

Longhorn PHP Conference 2019

May 2–4, Austin, TX

https://www.longhornphp.com

these are just notes the authors make,

but serve as great reminders on all sorts

of common topics.

Training

If your company has some budget for
paid training, this can really boost your
team’s skills. There are a lot of options,
such as video course sites like Tree-
house where you pay a subscription
to access libraries of videos and tests.
Then, there is more personalized and
interactive training such as workshops
provided by independent trainers (such
as me!) or indeed PHP Architect’s own
training offerings.
Additionally, circling back to the
conferences, many offer workshop
and training days as well as the usual
seminar sessions. Typically, they’ll be

three hour (half day) or six hour (full

day) workshops which allow direct

interaction with the tutor. These kind

of courses, while not necessarily specif-

ically tailored for your team, can be

a great cost-effective way of getting

trained on a new topic or leveling up

your skills.

Open-Source Contributions

If you’ve been regularly reading my

column, you’ll know I’m a big advocate

for open-source software. One of the

reasons I love open source software is

because it is a fantastic way to learn

new techniques through code reviews,

community discussion, and planning.

By getting involved in an open source

project, you have to be able to read

through the code to understand what is

going on. Then you can submit change

requests which you can sometimes get

great feedback on how to do things

differently as well. As long as everything

stays friendly in open source contribu-

tions, this can be a great way to foster

knowledge growth.

James is a consultant, trainer and developer at Roave. He is

a prolific contributor to various open source projects and is a

Zend Certified Engineer. He also founded the UK based PHP

Hampshire user group and PHP South Coast conference.

@asgrim