I flew out to Las Vegas, Nevada, for a week of fun and learning with fellow PHP coding nerds from all over the country. This year’s ZendCon was awesome! So much to learn crammed into three fast-paced days. After checking into the hotel, me and hubby first checked out the Old Las Vegas Strip in downtown to get fully immersed in the Las Vegas atmosphere and experience. We strolled down the strip, enjoyed the Fremont Street Experience and enjoyed the evening.

The next day was the first day of the conference, and true to form, the nerds gathered for three-hour tutorials on various geeky subjects. I attended two tutorials: Docker and ActiveMQ. Docker reduces development time and increases productivity. ActiveMQ is open source message processing. After the conference concluded for the day, me and hubby went to Caesar’s Palace to enjoy fresh, handmade rolls at Sushi Roku and relish the Vegas experience.

Days two and three of the conference is when the action gets intense. Day two begins with great opening keynote speakers and the day progresses with five sessions packed full of information. At 11:00, the enormous exhibit hall opens for attendees to mix and meander around and speak with different vendors.

For those of us who really get into the conference, the open exhibit hall is also the part where we complete our ZendCon BINGO cards. Each square on the card has different people, products, questions, etc that instigate a scavenger hunt to get signatures, pictures, etc. Upon completion, attendees get to collect a coveted ZendCon t-shirt and the much more coveted ZendCon elephpant.

The conference stays busy until the end. Day three is packed with more great speakers and four more sessions. For me, it felt a little weird this year since the conference concluded a day earlier than it has in the past. Me and the hubby ate at an oyster bar and had a great evening.

The next morning we got up at 4 AM to catch our Red Eye flight back home to San Diego. Upon return, I was so tired— I have never prayed to the coffee gods so hard! As with every year, my brain was in information overload from the conference. Regardless, I had a great time and I look forward to it again next year!