For those out there that don 't have a local PHP user group, you should check out the Nomad PHP virtual user group. It meets once a month online and this month's topic is an introduction to Laravel 4 (from Phil Sturgeon). It'll be happening at 8pm CDT on the 27th.

An introduction into Laravel 4, the Yet Another Framework that does things a little differently. See how it leverages Symfony components for its core along with multiple other Composer components instead of building everything from scratch. Learn how despite the complex Symfony underbelly Laravel 4 still gives a slick API to ease the learning curve of the framework to more of an accessibility ramp. After this run through of Laravel 4 you'll be psyched to trial it out, no matter what your usual "go to framework" is.

If you'd like to attend, tickets for the meetin g(to help cover the costs of the virtual meeting tools) will only run you $10 USD. If you're interested, check out this month's meeting page for more details.

On 7PHP.com today there's a new interview posted around the first ever Nomad PHP user group meeting that featured Rob Allen. The interview spans a few different people - the organizer, the speaker and three of the people in attendance.

Wednesday 22nd May 2013, NomadPHP hosted their first talk which was about "Zend Framework 2″ - a talk by Rob Allen. I even announced a two-ticket giveaways which was made possible by NomadPHP. In this article you'll find short interviews which will showcase the opinion, feedback and suggestions from the NomadPHP organizer (Cal Evans), Rob Allen (The Speaker) and three attendees - two of which were the 7PHP Ticket winners.

There's lots of good information and feedback in the interview and if you're at all interested in the Nomad PHP (virtual) user group, you should definitely give it a read. There's information from Cal Evans (the organizer), Rob and the three attendees - David Weinraub, Peter Kokot and PJ Hagerty with their own feedback on the event.

On 7PHP.com there's a new interview posted with a PHP community member, Craig Willis, about starting a user group.

This is the #1st set of How To Start A PHP user group in an attempt to help PHP guys all around the world to spring out a local PHP user group if they do not have one nearby. So before you embark on this journey, you need to know what you have to expect, how to prepare yourself, the pitfalls, the to-do lists, the workload behind, the commitment behind and above all the gratification this can bring to your PHP life.

Craig, the founder of the Leeds PHP User Group. He talks about starting the user group, some of the challenges involved and a few tips to help you get started. He also shares a few helpful hints about keeping the group going and how to plan/find speakers.

On 7PHP.com today Khayrattee Wasseem has posted another community interview, this time with Craig Willis the organizer of the Leeds PHP user group in the UK (West Yorkshire).

This is the #1st set of 'Know Thy PHP Usergroup' in an attempt to create more awareness of: what is $this PHP UG about + get to know the leaders/Founders/Community behind it, what is a PHP User Group in general and to personally know all the PHP user goups Around The World - that excites me and I hope you too! This concept is also a good opportunity for new #elePHPants to know about PHP UGs.

They talk some about the group itself as well as some of Craig's thoughts about about leading the group. They talk some about the goals of the group, the usual activities of it and how the meetups are planned. There's also a bit about finding sponsors for the group and how it compares to other groups of the same type.

Miro Svrtan has a recent post to his site talking about the first ever PHP meetup that happened in Belgrade in at the end of April organized by the PHP Srbija community.

With gathering of more then 250 developers this proved to be a much needed event there and congratulations to organizers for doing it. As a organizer of similar (but much smaller) PHP community in Zagreb I was in constant contact with organizers and was very happy when we were invited to join them on this occasion, especially when they approved my proposal to talk about Laravel4 there.

Even the local media picked up on the meeting and a larger venue had to be found at the last minute due to the overwhelming response. There were a few different topics mentioned (including BDD, a questionnaire, best practices in component libraries and web security) before getting to the main talk.

I would take this opportunity to thank whole PHP Srbija organization committee for inviting us & once again congratulate them on bringing such a large community together.

The 7PHP.com site, in collaboration with the Nomand PHP user group is giving away two free tickets to attend this month's user group event (happening May 22nd).

NomadPHP is like a virtual PHP User Group mainly for people who do not have the chance to avail of a local PHP user group. But it is open to ANYONE around the world. NomadPHP is an initiative brought forward by the icon of The PHP Community, namely 'His Awesomeness' Mr Cal Evans. It will kick-start its first group talk session on the Wednesday 22nd May 2013 (i.e in some 16 days as from the date of this post). The speaker is the PRO PHP Guy / PRO Zend Framework Evangelist and author of the book Zend Framework in action, Rob Allen. Rob will be introducing and talking about Zend Framework 2 - it is a must for anyone willing to learn ZF 2.

The Nomad PHP user group is designed to be a "user group for those that don't have one". It's a virtual group meeting once a month that you can attend anywhere in the world. You do have to purchase tickets, however. This post shows you how you can enter to win one of the two free tickets, though - either via email or by writing a PHP article for 7PHP.com.

If you've wanted to get involved in a PHP user group but either don't have one in your area or travel so much it makes it impractical, there's a new group that might interest you - Nomad PHP. It's a virtual user group that you can attend. It's still in the beginning stages, but you can express your interest and get more details as they come.

Tired of seeing all the great speakers other PHP User Groups are hearing and lamenting that there is no group near you? Nomad PHP User Group is just for you. We meet on-line, so you can participate wherever you are [and] will have well known as well as brand new speakers. You'll also get access to the recordings to review later.

They point out that this isn't intended as a replacement for a local user group if you have one - interaction with peers and being a part of the community is still important. This is just an alternative. If this sounds interesting, head over and enter your information to be contacted with more info about the group.

Rafael Dohms has (re)osted an article of his that previous appeared in php|architect magazine about creating user groups for technology communities and how it relates to physics (well, vacuums at least).

Some developers may notice this absence of "particles" and interaction between them in their local area, this may even cause them enough of an itch that it needs to be scratched, and thus a User Group starts forming. But how hard is it to start a group? Can anyone do it? what really am I going to have to do to get all these particles into my vacuum and end this "empty space" in my region?

He offers some suggestions of things he's done in the past to help start up user groups including things like:

• Finding local developers interested in meeting up
• Spreading the word via coworkers/other companies using PHP
• Having more than just a "one man operation" running the group
• Looking for partners/sponsors for the group and its activities

Come join the fun, being in a user group and participating is a very good, professionally and personally, you are not just helping others, you are learning, teaching and expanding you set of tools.

Over on the blog for the Sunshine PHP conference (happening next month, February 8th and 9th in Miami, Florida) they've posted a clarification about the intentions of the event and a reminder that it's a "by developers, for developers" event.

Recently we overheard SunshinePHP being grouped together with commercial "for profit" events and conferences, which prompted us to write this blog post to clear things up. The SunshinePHP Developer Conference is NOT a profit driven event, and is actually a community led event by developers, for developers. Early on we tried to make this more public, but it appears the message was lost with everything the conference contains. (we've made it too good)

They note that any profits made from the event will be going back into future events (as put on by the user group) and the PHP community. This kind of thing is similar to some of the other PHP user group-organized conference that have popped up over the last year - good to see the trend continue.

If you're interested in the conference itself, you can find out more on the main event site or just go ahead and register for the event. You can still pick up your tickets until February 1st for about $220 USD (General admission) or $160 USD (Student).

In this recent post to his site, Rafael Dohms presents an interesting idea for leaders of groups to consider as a role for themselves (or people maybe wanting to move into something like that) - being an "enabler" instead of just a "leader".

This was discussed in our PHPSP UG and we tried to think of different structures to get past these issues, some ideas came and went but I also left and moved to Amsterdam. As it happens my community-drive did not stop and I started to feel that old itch, and ended up causing the start of AmsterdamPHP. [...] So we do not have leaders, we just have a group of enablers, people who want to help, or do, or have great ideas or contacts, and that seems to be a great title and description for what we are doing. It removes those misconceptions and it opens space for anyone to be an enabler, all the time, some of the time, whenever they want. It still gives credit where credit is due and it allows the people who deserve to help the group find a direction do exactly that.

He notes that by not trying to fill the traditional conceptions of a "leader" role and being more of the "guiding people" kind of person, you can sometimes do more to help others find their passion.

I have really come to love the title and all the "meaning" it holds, maybe it even takes the pressure off the usual labels and let's us focus on breaking down barriers.