An Orthodox Rabbi, a Pagan, a Conservative Christian, and a Lesbian walk into a bar. No, it’s not a joke, it’s the Evening Social at php[world]

So, I went to this awesome conference this past week, I was lucky enough to go as staff, which really was a blessing.

If I’d gone on my own, it would have been for one day, crashing the “hallway track” and *maybe* staying for the evening’s activities. If work had sent me, I would stayed to just very specific talks and topics. But, instead, Eli reached out to ask if I would mind volunteering as a room monitor. Which meant that I had to sit in the same room all day, regardless of what the talk topic was. It meant that I mostly missed out on the “hallway track” during the day. It meant that I did not get to reconnect with as many old friends as I would have liked to. But it also meant that I had a chance to meet some wonderful new friends. It meant that I poured myself into the evenings’ activities all the more. It meant that I got to witness first hand what this particular conference was supposed to be all about.

Are you a Drupal Developer? Are you perhaps a Symfony Developer? Maybe Laravel? or WordPress? Magento? Joomla? Zend Framework? … You might be one or more of those…but if you are, you are so much more. You are a PHP Developer. *THAT* is the whole premise behind php[world]…It’s a whole world of PHP. Many of these frameworks have hived off into their own communities and their own little worlds, and the goal of php[world] was to help these diverse communities to be more aware of each other and of the greater PHP community surrounding them. To be more accepting of the differences between them, and to begin celebrating the similarities. Everything I saw at the conference told me it was a HUGE, OVERWHELMING success.

But I also saw something else. Something even more beautiful.

I saw a Pagan, an Orthodox Rabbi, a Conservative Christian, a Lesbian, and many others whose “boxes” I don’t know, all sitting around, chatting, laughing, smiling, loving. No matter the topics, no matter the beverage of choice, or lack thereof. No matter the game or project. “An Orthodox Rabbi, a Pagan, a Conservative Christian, and a Lesbian walk into a bar. No, it’s not a joke, it’s the Evening Social at php[world]”

The PHP Community is more than just friends. More than just a community. We are FAMILY. We love each other [almost] unconditionally. We look out for each other. We help each other.

This family is why I am still here. This family is why I will go to every conference I can afford to go to. This family is my php[world].

Here are a few pictures I snapped while there; see if you can find a common theme:

[[Pictures lost to the ether. I may have them somewhere. I’ll need to hunt them down.]]

Picture captions:

• Zane Matthew
• Developers learning!
• Angela Byron
• Davey Shafik
• Taylor Otwell
• Davey Shafik
• Karaoke Night
• Michelangelo van Dam
• Developers learning!
• Samantha Quiñones
• My #elephpant herd.
• KosherCon!!!
• Eli White
• Andreas Huck
• KosherCon!!!
• KosherCon!!!
• People learning Fluxx.
• Bart McLeod
• Developers learning!
• escapee from ZendCon14
• Steve Grunwell
• Rafael Dohms