phpXperts Seminar 2010: A deliberate tech blast!

Couple of days ago, on the 6th November, phpXperts group arranged a seminar for the php aware country men. Quite necessarily, it highlighted the current development trends and provided a few motivational sessions for the audience. Luckily enough, I was a proud part of the event. I hosted a session on the seminar. It all began when Hasin Vai told me about the plan to arrange a seminar this year. I was quite excited. He later proposed me to speak on the seminar. I was shocked! This is my first time in phpXperts and speaking in front of the experts won’t be easy – I knew it but also took the challenge to do good!

After a chatty discussion with Hasin vai, I picked up the topic “Webifying the desktop apps!”. I was very excited. I browsed the vast knowledge base of Uncle G to gather resources on my topic. In the mean time, Hasin vai introduced the speakers to each other in a private email thread. We also discussed our topics, venue of rehearsal and sent avatars 😉 It was a great fun being a part of the arrangement!

After topic selection, the speakers unanimously picked up a date for preparatory meeting and rehearsal. I started for Dhaka the day before 🙂 Hasin vai picked me up in the station in his bike 😀 He’s a good biker too!

The next day, I went to the rehearsal venue with Hasin vai and Trivuz vai. There was intense traffic jam on the highway! Pheww! I just hate being stuck in the jam of Dhaka city 🙁

In the rehearsal, I met a bunch of cool people. We introduced ourselves. It was really nice to meet them all. After a short discussion on a few aspects, we dived into rehearsal. We had sandwich, burger and drinks as light meal and a heavy lunch soon afterwards. After the meals, we jumped back into action! It was a great session. We observed the sessions and provided feedback and occasionally tried to wash the speaker with occasional teases 😀 I also changed my topic title to “Desktop apps with Web Techs” to avoid any possible confusions. It was fun overall!

In between the seminar and the rehearsal session, I had a great fun staying at Hasin vai’s place and Rana vai’s place. It was a great experience playing urban terror with the Leevio team. No doubt, I have learned to play Urban Terror quite well. Leevio team is crafting the UT4 culture pretty well in the developers’ arena 🙂

On the day, we went to the venue, Brac University. Omi vai accompanied us. We entered the auditorium. Hasin vai and I checked the sound system. Vaiya instructed the volunteers in details on the DOs and DON’Ts. We went into the adjacent restaurant (just opposite BracU) and had our lunch. When we returned, attendees have already started coming 🙂 Entry opened at 2.30 PM and the seminar began exactly at 3 PM.

The seminar title was — “Beauty of Web”. We had two mac books for presenting our sessions. Omi vai started the seminar with “Professionalism Inside Out”. He highlighted the professional manners we should follow in our professional lives. He discussed some important points in his session.

The seminar ended with Hasin vai’s session regarding start ups. There is a comprehensive list of all the sessions and their core messages here: http://msdn.net.bd/blogs/events/archive/2010/11/06/beauty-of-web-phpxperts-seminar-2010.aspx.

I talked about developing desktop applications using web technologies. Here’s my presentation:

There were lots of snaps, buzzing noise, enchanting sessions and lightning talks. Audience was participating in an interactive manner. There were spot quizzes with attractive prizes. On an average, 330 people were always present in the seminar the whole time. The seminar was live on a webcast hosted by Computer Jagat. So, the ultimate audience is apparently unknown and beyond ordinary calculation.

The seminar was a blast! It was deliberate and pre-planned. The organizers put everything at the right place at the right moments. Hats off to them for successfully organizing the largest tech seminar of Bangladesh. The volunteers from Brac University did an awesome job. They do deserve deepest gratitude for their contribution. Above all, I must acknowledge the devotion of Hasin vai to the phpXperts community. He was working and planning all the time. He was always on the run, jumping every now and then – doing his best to make it a success. I solely believe, without him, this seminar might not have been possible. The seminar undoubtedly shook the mind space of both freshers and seasoned developers. I believe it has at least provided some good points to ponder – for all of us!