PPW 2007: a twenty-ton can of programming whoop-ass

Tom Moertel — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 19:04:00 -0400

I am on the planning committee for the Pittsburgh Perl Workshop. So far, it’s been an interesting ride. Last year was the first PPW, and it went surprisingly well. In the post-conference surveys, 94 percent of respondents said they wanted to come back for another PPW, so we committed ourselves to repeating the grueling conference-planning process for 2007. (Fact: making big commitments like this is much more likely to happen if you’re drinking beer at the time.)

Now a year has gone by, and PPW 2007 is only three weeks away. This year’s conference is 100% larger – two full days – and offers a new, much-asked-for option: a one-day introductory course to give programmers new to Perl a quick dose of the language so they can dive into the rest of the conference. This year’s conference also offers a full-length Hackathon for those who feel the urge to code at the conference.

The main attraction, however, is the conference’s wide array of technical talks. We have retained the same mix of industry and academic speakers that attendees said they liked so much last year. Indeed, our speaker list includes some of last year’s most fascinating speakers, as well as many new speakers drawn from the world of Perl. No matter what your interests are, you’ll find talks for you at PPW 2007. (I’m particularly interested in the talks on continuation-based web applications, the cool new stuff in Perl 5.10, and the Moose object system.)

All of this is to say: Do not miss PPW 2007! Where else are you going to find so many interesting people, so many fascinating talks, and so many opportunities to have fun and make friends while learning useful stuff, all for so little expense? (Regular admission is only $70, and students get a big discount.) Get your ticket now because over half of the seats are already gone.

I hope to see you there.

The 2006 Pittsburgh Perl Workshop is a ten-ton can of programming whoop-ass

Tom Moertel — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 17:30:00 -0400

I am on the planning committee for the 2006 Pittsburgh Perl Workshop and serve as the primary point of contact for speakers. That means I get the inside scoop on the talks. And from what I have seen, all I can say is, These talks kick ass. Well, actually I can say one more thing:

If there is any possible way you can manage to get yourself to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on Saturday, 23 September 2006, do not wait, do not mull it over, register now for the Pittsburgh Perl Workshop.

If you miss this one, you’ll probably end up weeping in front of your keyboard for a long, long time.

PPW ’06 has speakers from the worlds of finance, bioinformatics, engineering, politics, health care, insurance, Web-2.0 start-ups, environmental monitoring, and mathematics. And they all have fascinating things to share with you about how they make Perl work for them and about how you can make Perl work for you.

Registration is only $20 – can you imagine that, in an age when programming conferences routinely cost hundreds if not thousands of dollars? – and all of the talks show you how to use Perl to do real work, solve real problems, and make your real life as a programming professional a whole lot saner. Even if you think you don’t care about Perl, you ought to be a part of PPW ’06 just for the rare opportunity to discover something you may have overlooked. (At $20, when are you ever going to get a chance like this again?)

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PPW 2007: a twenty-ton can of programming whoop-ass

The 2006 Pittsburgh Perl Workshop is a ten-ton can of programming whoop-ass