If you're already making plans to attend this year's php|tek conference (2009) then Matthew Turland has a question for you:

Think you might like for a Hackathon to be included in the Unconference? (Or want to know more about what such an event would entail?)

If you'd like to get in on the discussion, there's already a Google group set up that you can join to keep up with the latest. The group just started up , so there's not a whole lot of content there yet so go over any voice your opinion on the matter. Oh, and if you're looking for a quick and easy URL that'll get you there, use http://tinyurl.com/tek09hackathon.

Keith Casey has been named the one in charge of the unconference at the upcoming php|tek conference. In his new post he talks about how it'll be organized and what you can do to help.

So here's your mission: If you have ideas for an unconference session - whether you'd like to do it or not - write it down and start warming people up on it. We'll work to allow conference attendees to vote in sessions which are the most interesting to them.

The unconference sessions will start promptly after the normal day's sessions (around 4 or 5pm) and will happen in threes (for a total of 18 sessions). These sessions will be given by attendees and won't be subject to quite the same criteria as the normal conference talks. The sessions will be announced in two groupings - one 60 days before and the other 30 days out.

As a part of this year's Zend/PHP Conference and Expo (2008), the PHP Women group hosted an unconference session. They talk about the session in this new post to their site.

At ZendCon this year, Juliette Reinders-Folmer of phpwomen.org ran a session in the unconference entitled "Women in IT". In this session she invited the attendees (a fairly even mix of the genders) to discuss various aspects of women working in the male-dominated IT industry, and specifically in PHP. We were lucky enough (thanks Paul Reinheimer of php|architect!) to get the session recorded.

You can download the audio from the phpwomen.org website and check out the forum entry to continue the discussion. Their post also includes several talking points concerning women in the IT industry and how PHP Women can help.

Those that didn't get a chance to make it to this year's PHP Appalachia unconference can still get in and get a little chunk of what life was like in the cabin. The php|architect podcast team have released the Ramblecast from the event.

We're at <cheer> PHP Appalachia <cheer> <cheer> <cheer>

If you're already subscribed to the P3 podcast feed, you'll get it through there. If you're not, there's always the regular manual download of the mp3.

Keith Casey has written up somewhat of a preview of things to come at this year's PHP Appalachia:

PHP Appalachia originally came about a few years back because... well, I'm not sure, but I've heard (I wasn't there) that it resulted in a bunch of PHP geeks sitting around a camp fire, a bit hacking away a bit during the day, and generally building the community that PHP is known for.

He mentions other community members that'll be attending including Elizabeth Naramore, Ben Ramsey and Cal Evans for the four day long event.

The Zend Developer Zone has posted a recording (from the Zend/PHP Conference & Expo 2008) of the UnConference session user group panel discussion.

Ben Ramsey, Software Architect at Schematic and PHP community leader, and Keith Casey, founder of CaseySoftware, held an UnCon session at ZendCon this year to discuss PHP User Groups.

You can either listen to it on the page or you can always grab the mp3 and listen at your leisure.

Cal Evans has another update about the upcoming (Oct 8th through 11th) to the Zend Developer Zone today:

ZendCon is sneaking up on us fast. If you've not got your tickets yet, time is running out so you had better hurry. To whet your appetite, ere are a few blog posts or ZendCon mentions from speakers and attendees who will be there this year.

Included in his list are bloggers like Terry Chay, Brian DeShong and Mike Naberezny and events like the Happy Hour 2.0 and the Unconference.

Elizabeth Naramore has an update posted for those interested in this year's PHP Appalachia conference (in Pigeon Forge, TN October 11th through 14th).

PHP Appalachia is now only 3 weeks away! We have 30 people currently signed up, but there is still room for more. There may be room in the Main Cabin (room sharing availability is on our wiki) or else there are plenty of campsites and hotels in the general area.

There's a tentative schedule of talks posted on their wiki that includes lots of time to see the other sights in the area. There's a list of current attendees on the wiki as well. Registration for the conference itself only costs $15 USD (not including lodging).

Andi Gutmans has posted a reminder about the upcoming Zend/PHP Conference and Expo happening Spetember 15th through 18th in Santa Clara, CA.

I can't believe it's already ZendCon time again! I've been meeting with the planning committee and I'm really excited about this year's conference. All the usual things are back to make it great: we have a great lineup of speakers, the Meet the Teams session, and special guests like noted PHP security expert Stefan Esser, Dion Almaer and Ben Galbraith of ajaxian.com, and Alex Russell from Dojo.

He mentions things like the unconference (with even more great speakers, just in a more "unofficial" setting) and about the conference wiki with more details on who will be there and what they'll be attending.

There's still seats open for this year's conference, so reserve your spot today - check out the registration page on the ZendCon site for more information.

Amit Singh let us know that they've found a venue for this year's PHPCamp happening in Pune, India September 20th:

The elePHPant arrives at Persistent on 20th September - I wanted to announce that we have found the Venue for PHPCamp pune.

The event will be held at the offices of Persistent Systems:

Persistent Systems Pvt. Ltd.,
Plot No. 9A/12, CTS No. 12A/12,
Erandwana,
Near Padale Palace (Opp Sharda Center),
Pune - 411 004

You can get more information about the conference from its official website.