php|tek 2009 — Call for Papers

Thank you for your interest in speaking at php|tek 2009. We look forward to another conference full of interesting ideas, tutorials, information and opportunities to learn new and exciting PHP techniques.

The focus on this year's conference is Beyond Web 2.0—our aim is to identify the current trends in the creation of a rich Internet experience, and explore the new directions our platform is taking for the future.

Should You Submit a Talk?

We welcome talk submissions from all members of the community—even if you do not have any previous speaking experience, but think you have a good idea and the knowledge to share it with your peers, we encourage you to submit a talk proposal and let us know.

If you are unsure whether speaking at a conference is your thing, we recommend you try attending first—many of our regular speakers started by participating as attendees and then eased into the role of speaker. Even better, you can take part in our Unconference to try your hand at speaking without the pressure of being a featured speaker.

Which Topics Are We Interested In?

Generally speaking, we are interested in the topics our attendees are interested in. php|tek is a technical conference, and our audience tends to have pretty high expectations in terms of quality and depth of the content that is presented in a talk.

We like speakers to choose a specific topic, rather than trying to cover a general area of interest, and cover it in as much depth as they feel is necessary. Attendees expect to take part in a talk to grasp specific techniques that they can then apply in their everyday work, so they often appreciate presentations that have a very practical slant.

This is not to say that all talks should be about code—we've had successful talks on "soft" topics like business management, the ins and outs of freelance contracting, and many other topics that, while not technical, touch the lives of IT professionals in the PHP space.

Types of Talks

There are three types of talks at php|tek:

  • Tutorials are special half- or full-day sessions that provide in-depth coverage of a particular topic. Think of these as intensive training courses that attendees will want to take in order to learn a particular skill, like good programming practices, a new language or platform, and so forth.
  • Regular Talks are one hour long and represent the vast majority of the talks available at php|tek. We do not impose any particular structure on these talks, but recommend that you try to involve your audience—without making that a requirement without which your talk fails to work (after all, there's no way to tell how people will react to your talk).
  • Untalks are part of our Unconference—a conference-in-the-conference driven by its participants. Untalks are a great opportunity for you to get started talking at our conferences—just show up and present!

Speaker Compensation

We offer one of the most competitive speaker packages in the industry, including a travel allowance, complimentary hotel stay and speaker stipend, all based on your level of participation in the conference.

For more information, check out our speaker compensation page.

Submitting a Talk

You can submit any number of talk proposals via e-mail following the instructions on our proposal submission page.