One conference is over and another one is already in the works. I've been invited to speak about PHP & Performance at OSCON on August 3rd, 2005. This is my first visit to a non-PHP specific conference as a speaker and I very much look forward to it.

The PHP|Tropics conference was a great deal of fun and an excellent break from the monotony of work, sleep, work... I would like to thank the organizers (Marco & Arbi) for taking the time to organize this event and have it go without a hitch. To those who decided to skip the sandy beaches and the inviting pool to hear the talks, my sympathies :-). The slides from both of my talks are now available online at: Starting PHP Performance Talk: PDF PowerPoint Flash Aside from the PHP related matters a new term was coined during the conference; shifted - To be left drunk and penniless at night in down town Cancun.

I've been fortunate to be invited to speak at two conference so far this year. The first of those two conferences, PHP West will be happening in about a week in Vancouver on January, 14th 2005. I will, be giving a talk on XML support in PHP 5. While the conference lasts only a single day it costs merely $40 to attend and given an impressive list of speakers Rasmus, John, Terry, etc... it is certainly worth attending. The second conference, PHP|Tropics, is still a few month away will be happening at the all-inclusive (alcoholic drinks are included, WOOHOO!) Moon Palace Resort near Cancun, Mexico between May 11th and 15th, 2005. Which should give you plenty of time to convince your boss and/or spouse to let you attend. I will be giving a talk on making PHP run a whole lot faster as well as an introductory tutorial on PHP 5. Marco has been working hard at giving reason for people to stay away from the beach by inviting many other great speakers such as Wez, Derick, Marcus and many others. So aside...

May 3 - 5 Amsterdam, Netherlands [url]http://www.phpconference.com/[/url] At this conference I will be giving my two favorite talks. One about SQLite and the other about optimization of PHP. Here is a detailed description of the talks themselves for those who are interested in attending. [b]Accelerating PHP Applications without changing their Source.[/b] A detailed tutorial on how to increase speed of PHP applications via third party tools, environment tuning and various compiler tricks. Introduction of opcode caching mechanisms, review of their capabilities and a comparison of their performance benefits. Analysis of various proxy caching mechanisms and webserver tuning parameters. Overview of OS and environment parameters that can bring significant performance benefits. [b]Indepth Overview of SQLite Database and its PHP Interface.[/b] detailed tutorial on how to increase speed of PHP applications via third party tools, environment tuning and various compiler tricks. Introduction of opcode caching mecha...