Another edition of php|tek has come and gone and this year some very amazing topics came into view. The conference itself was once again a great experience, great people, incredible speakers, lots of activities and incredible hack-a-thons and unconference sessions.

Topics he noticed coming to the forefront at this year's event included:

• Cloud computing (and the PHP-specific offerings related to it)
• Mobile development
• API and external tool integration

He also mentions one thing he wouldn't mind seeing more of at events - the "soft skills" sort of presentations. They're less about the technology that's used and more about the "people skills" developers can use to make the best of their careers.

As part of the grand finale of php|tek '11, Keith Casey announced the winners of the first annual php|architect Impact Awards. These awards are selected by the subscribers of php|architect magazine. They represent the projects that have had the most impact on the day-to-day lives of PHP developers. php|architect is proud to announce the winners of this year's Impact Awards.

Winners this year included the Frapi (in Up & Coming), MySQL (in Data Management), Xdebug (in Integration/Development) and the Best Overall Product winner - the Zend Framework.

Last week PHP developers from around the world converged on Chicago, IL - US, for the 7th annual php|tek conference. Over the course of three and a half days there was a lot of learning, sharing, networking, and all the other usual stuff that goes on at these types of events. As usual, the conversations were great, the food was edible and the wifi sucked. Along the way though, new friendships were forged and new ideas were hatched.

Cal talks about some of what makes conferences great and gives examples like Elizabeth Naramore's keynote, sessions on topics like Node.js and XDebug and developers passionate about the projects they represent. He mentions the evening activities (community building) including the Unconference and Hack-a-thons as well as a mixer/gaming night.

No confernece is perfect and tek '11 is no exception to that rule. However, attendees were exposed to new ideas, inspired by thought provoking keynotes and given the space and tools to create. That is the real value of a conference to me, planting the seeds.

So I'm proud to say that at php|tek this year, we've managed to gather a bunch of these people to come to show what they're building at our third annual Hackathon. On Thursday night (May 26th), we'll have over a dozen projects represented by some of the best and brightest out there. Even better, since it's a Hackathon, you can't just passively watch and listen. We expect you to show up and try out some code and generally get your hands dirty.

There'll be several projects there for attendees to choose from including web2project, Joind.in, Spaz, Frapi, the Zend Framework and even a PHP testfest for helping test the PHP language itself. For more info on these and the full list of other projects that'll be there, check out this page on the php|tek conference site.

Phactory is an alternative to using database fixtures in your PHP unit tests. Instead of maintaining a separate XML file of data, you define a blueprint for each table and then create as many different objects as you need in your PHP code. By using a database factory instead of fixtures, your unit tests will be more clear and easier to write. You'll also be able to change the objects you create programmatically instead of being stuck with the same old fixtures.

You can watch the video (with slides for the presentation) either through the in-page player or by downloading the file itself.

Conference programs are easily misplaced, pamphlets are often discarded, and so on, and so forth. The end result is an enormous amount of waste - I'm pretty sure that, last year, we probably shipped, handled, and handed out at least 500lbs. of paper - and less value than everyone would like. This year, therefore, we have set out to "go digital" and limit our paper usage as much as possible. As part of this initiative, we are going to introduce a few changes

This year you'll get a USB key instead of the usual bag of handouts, a conference program available in a wide variety of formats and a mobile application you can use to find upcoming sessions and communicate with fellow conference attendees. You can find out more about the conference including the schedule and how to get your ticket on the tek111 website.

• Josh Butts on Phactory for Unit Testing
• Nate Abele on the Lithium Framework
• Aaron Brazell on Pluggable Authorization in WordPress
• Matthew Weier O'Phinney on Git Over it

There's registration links for each webcast off of this page so take a look at the descriptions and sign up for those that interest you!

• design patterns
• Zend Framework optimization
• cross-platform development with Titanium
• unit testing
• Node.js
• Javascript frameoworks

Register now and reserve your spot today!

Welcome! It's our pleasure to announce the next edition of php|tek, which will take place in Chicago, IL, between May 25 and 27, with a tutorial day on May 24.

They've also announced the Call for Papers for the event that will remain open until December 17th (about 2 1/2 weeks from now). They're also offering 40 charter tickets available until Jan 11th at $700 (that's for both tutorials and main conference) for our most faithful attendees. For more information on the conference, the Call for Papers or these Charter tickets, check out the tek11 website.