So this time last weekend I had just arrived in London, after driving around the hotel twice and Heathrow once, for Londonvasion. Which was the first of its kind for phpBB, a conference bringing together not only the teams for the first time, but users as well. Sadly I was unable to attend the team meetings on Saturday to work commitments and my late joining preventing me arranging time off. Annoyingly my plans didn’t get executed exactly as planned, and I didn’t arrive until about 10:30pm. I had no idea where anyone was, so I checked in and got my laptop out and jumped on IRC somebody heard my distress call but my laptop overheated (serves myself right for using it on a bed I guess) so I decided to return to aimlessly wondering around the hotel lobby and corridors hoping I might bump into someone. I did AdamR from the Support Team who showed me to the room were some people remained. I met quite a few people that I don’t recall who there were.
The next morning was the big event, users and team members alike gathering to listen to other users and team members talk and engage in discussions amongst one another. I must say it was extremely insightful to meet the other people that I am forging relationships with as I settle into the teams and some of the users that turned up. Meik gave a presentation detailing the route the project has taken and where its planning to go, which apparently required pulling the rest of the development team up to join him. I was most pleased to meet DavidMJ who I have known since late 2003 when we were both involved in another project. We learned a lot from Londonvasion and because of this some features are under discussion, which will become available in good time. It was good to see some outside presentations one given by Noth who sung praise of phpBB 3.0 even though I haven’t contributed as part of the development team (I have filed numerous patches and bug reports) I felt his presentation was touching. Andy Miller, a guy working on integrating Joomla! and phpBB 3.0 gave a presentation on some of his styles for phpBB and Joomla! that give an integrated look and feel to both applications and in combination with his bridge offer almost seamless operation.
To wrap up I think the event was an outstanding success and should definitely be at least a bi-annual event as a lot more can be done face to face than via IRC and forums and meeting new people is also fun and helps build relationships and morale in the teams. Many thanks to Marshalrusty who arranged everything and the phpBB users who give us a reason to do what we do. Finally would implore every phpBB administrator to try and attend the next conference!
