If you're interested in hearing about MongoDB (and PHP) and are living on the southeast coast of the US, you're in luck - Derick Rethans is making a tour of the area and hitting several major user groups along the way.

It has been a while since I have written anything. In the last few months I have been busy rewriting the connection handling parts of the MongoDB driver for PHP. [...] Some time ago, my friend Ligaya Turmelle suggested that I should come and talk at the JaxPHP/JaxWeb, the PHP and web developers usergroup in Jacksonville, Florida. And while I was there, why not visit a few other user groups too?

From September 18th through the 24th, he'll be visiting the following cities (and bringing swag with him):

• Boca Raton, Florida
• Orlando, Florida
• Jacksonville, Floria
• Atlanta, Georgia
• Nashville, Tennessee

In a new post to his blog Jeremy Kendall has announced the launch of a new user group in the Memphis, Tennessee area providing a place for PHP developers in that area (the mid-south) to gather.

It’s my pleasure to announce the formation of Memphis PHP, a PHP user group serving Memphis, TN and the mid-south. The goal of Memphis PHP is to grow and nurture an active PHP community in the local area. It’s going to take a lot of work to get Memphis PHP off the ground, but having an active community of PHP developers in Memphis is long overdue. The hard work will be more than worth it, and I’m going to need your help to accomplish that goal.

He mentions some of the exposure to the PHP community via conferences and how it inspired him, especially a recent session, to start up a user group in his area. You can find out more about the group from their website - MemphisPHP.org but here's some of the basics: they'll meet on the 4th Thursday around 6:30pm and the first meeting will actually be a road trip to Nashville to meet the user group up there.

Elizabeth Naramore has posted about a new addition to the site for the PHP Appalachia conference website - a wiki:

Hey, we now have a wiki for PHP Appalachia, so if you're attending be sure to list your name on there. I could do it myself but what do I know; you may want to keep that your little secret. Plus, I'm lazy.

They're looking for some good contributions for potential attendees (or people from the area) on places to eat or something fun to do while in the area. There's still some spots open, so if you're interested in hanging out with some fellow PHPers at a camp in Tennessee, head over and check out the site to get more information on the whens and wheres and how to reserve your spot.

Elizabeth Naramore has posted this new item to her blog about this year's PHP Appalachia conference happening in the Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge Tennessee area.

[PHP Appalachia is a] PHP unconference nestled in the Smoky Mountains, for those who like to camp or stay in a cabin, enjoy spending time with friends, and talking about PHP. As before, we will have a few presentations, but a lot of the time will be flexible and spent how the group sees fit at the time.

They're looking at renting a chalet this year depending on interest. They've already opened up pre-registrations for this year, but space is very limited so you should reserve your spot today by dropping Elizabeth a note at elizabeth _at_ naramore _dot_ net. The cost is about $200 USD for the week's event.