Hey fellows! On the previous Saturday (the second of March) the PHPers Day Gdańsk 2019 took place. Almost the whole Sylius team visited beautiful Gdańsk to attend it (or spend an awesome weekend in this coastal city) 💪.
First of all, I have to mention, that it was a really crazy conference, as it was set up just in a month(!). Huge kudos to Leszek Prabucki and Kamil Szarmach, who managed to organize everything and create an excellent one-day long conference. However, I’m feeling sorry for the Expo PHP conference, which was initially scheduled for the same dates, but organizers had to cancel it due to not enough interest. That’s a pity because their agenda was pretty decent. Nevertheless, thanks to Expo PHP, some of the speakers had already plane tickets and hotel booked, so at least part of the agenda was ready. Still, it is just a drop in the ocean of things to manage, as PHPers Day organizers arranged plastic badges and conference t-shirts for all attendees, two diners and cool afterparty. Leszek and Kamil, I genuinely respect what have you achieved!
A day before the conference, we have organized an open workshop for the PHPers community. Thanks to Cocoders, who sponsored a workshop venue, we hosted 11 people curious to know Sylius a little bit deeper. What is more, Bartek guided a workshop for the first time, and from what I know it is not his last word!
I’m so satisfied with the conference that I decided to write about it. It’s not typical for me 😀 It was a huge success! There were about 150 people, which is a pretty good score, for a conference that pops up out of nowhere. What is more, the line up was excellent. Presentations from Chris Holland and Derick Rethans were sooo good. Thanks a lot for them! I have to put another line for BDD presentation, where Dariusz Drobisz explained BDD the way, we are doing it. Sharing good BDD practices is vital. What is more, as always, it was an invaluable opportunity to network and meet some old friends.
In the end, this conference had one more advantage. We brought to Gdańsk: Tomasz and Adam who joined us on the first of March (so the first day at work they spend on a trip 🎉), Magda who joined us in November and Szymon who joined us in October. So it was the first Sylius trip for one-third of us. There were 12 out of 14 colleagues from our company! This trip indeed allowed us to strengthen our bonds, and get to know each other even better.
Just to sum up, I would love to shout out kudos to PHPers Day Gdańsk 2019 organizers one more time and thank a lot all the speakers. I hope next year there will be another edition of PHPers Day, as well that as Expo PHP. There is still space for PHP conferences in Poland.
