$n Reasons to Head to Sofia for the Bulgaria PHP Conference

Code jokes aside, after the stellar reception of Bulgaria PHP’s 2015 edition, it’s difficult to condense the whole experience into a single list of reasons to come this year. People learned a lot at sessions, worked hands-on in tutorials and hackathons, partied hard at night, ate delicious food and enjoyed the awesome city of Sofia. Attendees showed us so much love last year, we just can’t wait to bring all the smiley faces together again. Here are the top reasons why you should put Bulgaria PHP Conference on your calendar, too.

Best and Brightest of the PHP Community

This year’s speakers will come from 13 different countries to talk about the latest PHP trends and development know-how from around the world. Topics include coding best practices, squeezing performance optimizations out of new technologies like HTTP/2, fun and inspirational keynotes and so much more that we had to a make word cloud out of them.

The challenge for this year’s speakers will be to beat last year’s great session reviews, which were near perfect.

Affordable, Hands-on Workshops

Day 0 of the Bulgaria PHP Conference will comprise of 4 practical workshops. It’s a full day of practical advice from well-known PHP experts – Samantha Quiñones, James Titcumb, Miro Svrtan and Victor Farazdagi.

Come prepared to fire up your laptop and get your hands dirty with code, because this is one of the best learning opportunities at Bulgaria PHP. Furthermore, priced just 39 EUR per workshop, these are some of the most affordable hands-on tutorials out there.

A PHPamily Gathering

Apart from bringing together the world’s renowned PHP experts, Bulgaria PHP is an opportunity to meet and mingle with the broader community. Expect to meet community members and leaders from Serbia, Romania, Croatia, Turkey, Poland and the rest of the Balkans.

What’s more, the conference is designed with community building and networking in mind.In addition to the usual meet and greet breaks, we’re including a hackathon and tons fun activities (see below) that guarantee several new friends even for the shyest attendees.

Too Much PHPun

Game On is our conference theme this year and it guarantees lots of fun while we learn new things and meet new people. To suit the theme, we’re holding a game tournament and an awesome after party, we’re giving away lots of gifts, and we’ve got plenty of other surprises up our sleeve.

Top Notch Organization

Just because we’re promising lots of fun, it doesn’t mean we’re overlooking the serious stuff. We’ve picked an awesome venue, put together a team of ninja volunteers, arranged a delicious lunch and so much more. We’ve taken care of every detail, from the schedule to the hallway music, to make sure the conference runs smoothly. It’s best that you also hear it from someone else:

Sofia is a Hidden Gem

This one could be a blog post within itself, but let’s start with convenient and affordable flights from every major airport in Europe that usually take about 2 hours. Most importantly, getting and staying here will not break the bank, as hotel rates are also low and the city is full of awesome airbnbs.

Once you’re here and you’ve got a place to stay, you’ll discover a hip and geeky city with an active tech community. There are plenty of coworking spaces and start-up labs to explore, should you decide to stay a few extra days.

Off-screen Treasures

If at any point you get tired of all the code, technology and new information, there’s plenty to do when you unplug. Sofia, and Bulgaria as a whole, are an adventure for the travel junkie, the after-hours athlete, and for those of us who just love to eat.

Better, Faster, Stronger

After an awesome first edition last year and lots of community love, we are committed to make Bulgaria PHP Conference 2016 a better event while still keeping it extremely affordable. We’ve been told it will be hard, but challenge accepted!

So here is the big, big problem #bgphp15 will have next year: HOW CAN THEY POSSIBLY DO BETTER? 😉

— Stefan Priebsch (@spriebsch) September 28, 2015