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Next week on Thursday June 4th 2020, 13:00 Berlin time our hosting partner Seravo will hold a video meetup on “Dismantle WordPress Performance Problems with Tideways“. Otto from Seravo and I will give you insights in using Tideways for WordPress sites.

If you want to participate make sure to sign up with name and e-mail address on this page.

With the latest release of the Tideways PHP extension 5.1.16 our WordPress support became even better. Tideways now provides detailed profiling insights into the WordPress admin area by instrumenting all WordPress Actions/Filters triggered during all admin requests.

Only a few days to go and one of our favorite PHP conferences is opening its doors – the PHP Benelux. And it is the anniversary edition – 10 years PHP Benelux – can you believe it?

We love visiting the PHP Benelux, since it is a community conference organized by engaged members of the PHP community.

Tideways already sponsored the PHP Benelux unconference in 2018 and it was a huge success, so we will continue to support the unconference.

Last year, we had a special give-away for the best talk of the unconference: a speaker’s slot at the main conference, including the whole package with hotel, travel and speaker’s dinner. Jens Segers won this slot with his talk about JSON web tokens. Now this this year, Jens will present on the main stage and talk about the idea of building a digital ID card for authentification. Sounds interesting? His talk is saturday afternoon, right after the lunch break, in track C.

As in the previous year, the best talk of the PHP Benelux Unonf 2019 can win a spot at next year’s main stage. So, future conference speakers, seize the chance and use the unconference as platform of your choice: first time speaking or spontanous talks – everything is possible.

Benjamin with the PHPBenelux Unconference Board in 2018

If you already know that you would like to give a talk, let us know – Benjamin will host the unconference and be your contact persons if you want to save a slot at the unconf timetable. Of course, talks at the unconference can be spontanous. The unconference is by definition very flexible. You might think about the more or less spontaneously filled agenda, but there is more this format offers. You also can experiment with the length of your talks or use the unconference to not just talk to the audience, but rather with it, i.e. with discussions. Important to know: during each slot there will be space for 2 talks, each with 20-30 minutes time. The only limitation: your talk (presentation/discussion/performance…) should be interesting and useful for the auditorium.

So let us know, if you want to talk at the unconf (Tweet or DM @beberlei or send an e-mail. Of course you can do that spontaneously at the conference as well, but why not be the early bird?

If you have any questions – we are happy to help!

Hey there! Perhaps you read our first post about the unconference at the PHP Benelux? Then you know that we explicitly are encouraging first-time-speakers to give a talk at the unconference next weekend.

Here is our promise: it will be worth being brave! Because one thing is sure: no one will become a great speaker without ever speaking.

To support and encourage you, we prepared a “first time speaker toolkit” for you.

1) What to talk about?!

Are you worried you might not have anything to talk about that might be interesting to an audience? Well, we are convinced you have plenty to talk about!

Ideas for your talk might be:

• side projects
• open source projects

Just imagine you enter your preferred means of public transportation, let’s say a bus, and if we count all people in there, you would know more about a specific subject than your average co-travelers? This specific subject is somehow related to PHP? Voila – here is your talk idea!

Regarding the “how”, please feel free. The format is flexible so talk/ discuss/ present accordingly to your idea and preparation.

2) be prepared

Sounds strange – why be prepared if the system of the unconference invites exactly that: spontaneous talks. Well, the schedule is not ready beforehand, but you should be!

Preparation and practice might give you just the extra boost in confidence you need.

Of course, the unconference is open for spontaneous ideas. If an idea comes to you at the conference that is perfect, that’s what unconferences are for. Nonetheless, give some time to think if it might be interesting for your audience and how to present it. An example for a minimalistic preparation are some powerpoint slides (these don’t have to be professional). That little preparation helps you to think your idea through (again) and make sure you present it well structured and in a way that is interesting for your audience.

3) the technology – what to expect

This is what you will be working with:

A projector with connection to your Laptop – no worries, we bring adapters. Another possibility is to bring your presentation on an USB stick and we’ll provide the computer. Or, of course, you can email us your presentation. We will also bring a presenter, so that you can move forward/backward in your presentation with a remote and don’t need to walk over to your laptops keyboard.

An electronic form of your presentation is preferred, since there are no whiteboards etc. for spontaneous notes.

For everyone who is worried: there are no video recordings of the unconf presentation/ no live stream – if that would scare you.

The unconference room fits up to 20 people. That is – compared to the main event – a rather limited space which means as a first time presenter that is a ideal (and not too frightening) number of listeners. And furthermore, to be heard, you won’t need a microphone. Just be there and enjoy your fist talk!

Last but not least – you are not alone!

We are there for you! Benny and Katharina from Tideways will be there for any questions you might have and support you!

Mail us if you have any questions before or during the unconference.

Are you ready for some PHP fun? In two weeks, the PHP Benelux opens it doors. For us, it is a highlight in our conference calendar. The PHP Benelux is always very well organized and its special charme is that it’s a community conference organized by engaged members of the PHP community.

Since it is one of our favorite conferences, we decided to support the PHP Benelux and sponsor the unconference and give back to the community. In addition Benjamin and Katharina will also host the unconference and be your contact persons if you want to speak about a topic.

So why did we decide to especially support the unconference? Well, there are actually several reasons.

First of all, unconferences are a great opportunity for first time speakers to enter the stage. A not so big and possibly frightening stage that is. Benjamin for example started giving talks at conferences at an unconference himself (in his case ist was the unconf at DutchPHP 2010). So he speaks from experience, when he says that the initial barriers at the unconf should be significantly lower than giving your fist talk on the main stage of the conference.

If you want to be a future conference speaker, we would recommend to seize this chance to get some experience and to use your unconf talk as a reference. We will dedicate another blog post specifically to first-time-speakers so that you know what to expect and what to ideally prepare. Stay tuned 🙂

Then, your efforts will be rewarded. The best talk of the unconf wins a ticket and slot for next year’s PHP Benelux. Just to be clear: That means a full speaker package with hotel, travel, speakers dinner and a 1 hour talk-slot. Awesome, right?

And finally, the unconference is by definition very flexible. You might think about the more or less spontaneously filled agenda, but there is more this format offers. You also can experiment with the length of your talks (it doesn’t necessarily have to fit in a perfect 45min slot) or use the unconference to not just talk to the audience, but rather with it, i.e. with discussions.

Let’s say: With the unconf, the sky is the limit. Well, that is far fetched, but you get our point. The only limitation: your talk (presentation/discussion/performance…) should be interesting and useful for the auditorium.

Sounds fun, right?

So let us know, if you want to talk at the unconf (Tweet or DM @beberlei or send an e-mail). Of course you can do that spontaneously at the conference as well, but why not be the early bird?

If you have any questions – we are happy to help!