N I N G … • As a lone developer in my company, i was feeling the strain of working alone. • Needed support group. • Share knowledge and grow my craft. • Heard of similar programming “user groups” - Singapore Java User Group and Singapore Ruby Brigade
N I N G … • We are not the first PHP User Group in Singapore. • There were 2 earlier efforts to start a PHP User Group. Both were inactive by end-2006. • Created the Meetup.com group on 28 Dec 2006. • 11 Jan 2007 - First Meetup of the Singapore PHP User Group at Brewerkz. • Informal chit chat with a handful of PHP Professionals.
E S … • No traction and not many people were using Meetup.com to find and meet people. Many months without meetups. • The tech startup community was just getting more active in Singapore around 2007. • E27 organised the first Facebook Developer Garage on 24 Oct 2007. • Since Facebook was written in PHP, I felt I should leverage on that - created a FB Group and printed name cards.
Made an announcement at the end of the Facebook Developer Garage about our new Facebook Group. • The membership number skyrocketed. • I decided to do another meetup in Nov 2007 - this time organised as a Facebook Event. • Created event. No venue. RSVP numbers hits 40! • Panic! No venue!
Friends from the Singapore Ruby Brigade introduced me to Mr Lee Yeow Leong, a SIS lecturer at SMU. • Hooked me up with Object Oriented Programming Society in SMU, who will host us. • 3 speakers confirmed. • Topics for beginners, professionals and business.
101: PHP Language Fundamentals Raymond Ng, CEO, Occamlogic Consulting PHP & Your Business Chua U-Zyn, CTO, Widgeo.us / Founder, Ping.sg Security in PHP Wednesday, 14 November 2007 8pm (registration starts at 7:30pm) SMU, School of Information Systems Website: http://www.php.com.sg Community Wiki: http://wiki.php.com.sg Event Wiki: http://wiki.php.com.sg/index.php?title=November_2007_Meetup Facebook Group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=14934950373 Meetup.com PHP Group: http://php.meetup.com/362/ Free of Charge! (Just BYOL - Bring Your Own Laptop) Speakers:
W I T H F O R M AT • 3 topics in a single track meet up was tedious. • We ended the meet up almost at 10pm. • 2nd meet up we experimented with having 2 tracks. • Venue woes • SMU was having term break and the central aircon turns off at 7pm. • Found a new location at NUS Extension at Park Mall
M E N T S … • 2 track meetups are hard. • Everyone wants to be in the other track. • Revert to single track and 2 speakers only. • Cater to Beginners + Professionals. • Business folks (looking to hire) can take care of themselves as long as we have networking opportunities (e.g. tea break).
E N G “At the end of the Matt Mullenweg Live event, I knew I have a team of people that I could count on to do something great together… perhaps a conference?”