PHPxWorld - The resurgence of PHP meet-ups with Chris Morrell

Eric L. Barnes and Chris Morrell discuss the resurgence of PHP meetups post-COVID, focusing on the creation and growth of PHPX, a new initiative to revitalize local PHP communities.

Show Links

* Chris Morrell: https://cmorrell.com
* PHP World https://phpx.world
* PHPxNYC https://phpxnyc.com
* PHPxPhilly https://phpxphilly.com
* Upstate PHP https://upstatephp.com/
* Laravel Events https://laravel-news.com/events 

Creators & Guests

Host

Eric L. Barnes

Creator of Laravel News

Guest

Chris Morrell

Philadelphia father of two. Mostly talking about PHP/Laravel/React on here. He/him. On the web @ https://cmorrell.com Podcasting @ https://overengineered.fm/On mastodon @ https://rtsn.dev/@chrisFormerly @ https://twitter.com/inxilpro

What is Laravel Creator Spotlight?

Interviews with creators making cool things in Laravel

so back when Covid happened

a lot of PHP meetups sort of ceased existing because

you know they got out of the rhythm

they got out of the flow and as part of that

you know we've lost a lot of that

connection that we've had over the years

um and Chris

Morel has come up with this bright idea

to create this thing called phbx

which is brand new meet UPS and uh

just kinda get the community back together

uh so welcome to the show

Chris and uh

tell us a little bit about this uh

thing you're starting

thanks uh

I'm happy to be here I

I don't wanna take full credit for it uh

for sure um

I think that you know

really Joe Tannenbaum uh

is responsible for the the phpx name um

and there was there was really a

sort of a community conversation about this idea

a little while ago um

that a bunch of people kind of contributed to

so I I definitely

you know I definitely agree though

like I way back when

I was pretty involved in a bunch of local meetups

I was involved with a PHP meetup

I was involved with a couple other tech meetups um

and I felt like even before Covid

a lot of the meet up culture was kinda going away

I don't know if that was unique to Philadelphia

and I

certainly know there are other cities that have had uh

strong meet UPS and and we have some um

but it felt like it was changing

I don't know if it was like a changing of the guard and

and the new folks um

weren't quite ready to to organise or I

I don't know what happened um

you know I know

I know for me it's like I had kids

I had other things that I needed to do

I was less able to be involved

um

and it felt like Covid was like the death blow

ha ha you know

for anyone else who did still uh

exist or any any meet up that did exist

it felt like that was that was what put it to an end

you know there

there were some meet UPS that kept on doing

online events and that was fantastic

but for the most part um

and so then when uh

you know when things started to open up

and I started to go to laricons again

specifically I know for myself

I was just like I can't only have this once a year

you know like the I

I I feel like in a lot of ways

one of the few upsides of Covid for me was

I got to connect with this

like developer community online in a new way um

I think I

I had to put myself out there to kinda say sane ha um

and I made some real connections that way um

you can pop it with me

big meet up of a bunch of friends

you know um

that was my experience uh

two years ago that was my experience with this one um

and so yeah after that first lyric on us uh

it just felt like okay

we need we need something like this in Philly um

thank you

and I know a bunch of other people were talk

kinda talking about it so I started up a group

I can't even remember what we called it

it was just Phil you know

Philadelphia PHP or I think it was um

I think we were talking about

making it a little bit more focused on just general

open source not PHP specifically um

and we had a couple people

it was the three of us met at a pizza shop

you know that

uh huh

and at the same time Joe started up PHP NYC um

and frankly

he just did a better job of promoting it and uh

you know and

and he you know

his energy was just really right um

and so he he got that first New York meet up going um

and so like I've been able to kind of play

we've been playing on the

that energy and the

and the like interest that's come from that

we've had a bunch of people

in New York come down to Philly

even Connecticut and all sorts of sorts of

you know that's

it's surprising how far people have travelled

and then a bunch of Philly

people have come up to the New York events

so

there's like a little bit of cross colonization there

um and so yeah

now we're you know

we're on our third we just had our third meet up

we went from from three people in a pizza shop

well I guess technically fourth right

three people in a pizza shop to six people to um

you know I

I guess no and

like what you are so cute

and I know that New York has been doing the same

um

and it's been awesome I mean I could just keep on going

but I feel like I've just been speaking non stop

for 10 minutes so

no worries

you know it's funny cause I here in

I'm in Charlotte

and we used to have a fairly big PHP meet up group

and it like you said

it just fizzled out and like

I don't know if it was just like

too much headache of planning around it or

you know if it was once a month

so people just kind of like overwhelmed

um but then I actually met you

we went to the PHP in um

Spartanburg not Spartanburg Greenville

yeah upstate PHP

which is only like two hours from Charlotte

maybe an hour and a half but

you know it was so

it was so much fun it was like

I don't remember the meetups being this much fun

and it's definitely something everybody should do

and just you know

meet the local community

meet the local developers cause it's um

those I mean they've put on a couple events

but getting to go down there and get to see everybody

it was it was really fun

for sure for sure um so you're this PHP X thing

so so Joe Tanobob started PHP X NYC and then you

you did PHP X Philly

and then now it's sort of catching on and how many I

I think in the last two days I've seen what two

three four more people already um

starting them in in their uh cities

it is awesome it's like

all the sudden

everyone who kind of had been thinking about it

is coming out of the woodwork

or coming out of the woodwork

um and I think a few people maybe bought to means

but weren't sure what they were gonna do

if they were gonna do it yet um

but yeah someone I saw

I guess I saw um

I wanna say it was Jace um

Jace um

Languasco posted something about an Atlanta meet up

and I just replied hey

if you want uh

the the way I built PHP xfili is

you know it's

it's a multi tenant app

it's ready to like host other meetups

cause I've been thinking about this a lot

um and

and you know

he was like yeah

like I don't wanna have to build this site

haha

and then sort of in reaction to that uh

Andy New House was like well

let's add Chicago um

and then uh

oh my God

um and so I think

I think that's the list yeah

like in the last few days we've got uh Atlanta

Chicago Minneapolis

we also have Saint Louis starting up um

and then there's like there's the Greenville meet up

there's a there's a really strong meet up run by uh

Ron Northrip in Lexington

uh Kentucky

the Kentucky Peachp User Users Group

um so now

you know I've started to like build out this idea of

there's the sort of internal network of HPX

and then there's sort of the external network of of uh

you know sister

sister organizations um

and you know

we're

we're starting to have that conversation about like

how do we make make this network or this system

like a little bit

more flexible to support a bunch of different meetups

um and I have a lot of ideas there

I was gonna say

this is sort of coming at a perfect time

because if I'm not mistaken

like the the old like meet up.com or whatever um

had recently just like

went way up on their pricing and everything

and it's it's making it

sort of expensive just to try to run a meet up um

you know

so having some sort of system outside of that would be

you know super sweet

yeah I mean

the nice thing about meet up.com is that it

was not just a platform for hosting your meet UPS

it was also a way to let people find meet UPS

you know but that has been

I mean that has changed

I don't think most people think to go to meet up.com

now um

the first the first like sort of proper PHP x filly

um

we we have a

a a co organizer

Andrew Meade who's hosted the events at his office down

uh down south Philly and um

you know it was him and me and a couple people we knew

but uh

it was kind of amazing

we just had one complete random stranger walk in

who had just found the meet up on meet up.com

and came and and they were like

just an incredible addition to the group because um

you know it went from

a handful of people who kind of knew each other to like

you know more of that like meet up feel

which was really fun um

so I'm still a little torn on meet up.com

but it is nice to have an option

especially for smaller groups that don't wanna

to pay that fee for sure

right yeah

I was gonna say and you know

you've got you've got to be able to add an API

so that way I can pull um

all the future meetups into Louisville news

and then that way

I can share them out with the Louisville community

at least I know

I know you're going more generic with like PHP

but you know I feel like the Louisville

ecosystem is big enough to wear

you know what might would help market through all that

um

and then the other thing is like

are you thinking I mean

this is sort of

I know this is all came about in like the last

what 10 days or something um

but are you thinking of like more long term things

like maybe even like having

you know

resources available if you want to start meet UPS um

you know like a

a crew of speakers

you can like sit around that's willing to go anywhere

things like that

yeah that's the dream

um I think they're organising a meet up

it's it can be daunting um

you know you can do it in a pretty low key way

that's what we do in Philly and that's kind of uh

how I survive it because if I tried to do it

quote unquote the right way

I think that it just it would just mean that I

never scheduled another event

um so we kinda just pick a date that seems to work and

stop

and I think that's fine um

but even that uh can be a little daunting

and so yeah I've been thinking a lot

4 5

what can we do to make it easier for other groups

to sort of learn from the lessons that we've Learned

and sort of pool resources around

sponsors and around speakers

other things like that you know

I don't mind I I

I'm happy to buy a couple pizzas and

and some uh drinks and stuff like that but you know

I don't want that that could be a burden for someone uh

who's running a meet up

I

a place that that can offer space for free

mean look

um and so I wanna find a way to

uh build maybe a directory of

all cars that were on me

um and some resources for meetups to

to to use around organizing and promoting and um

you know even things like okay

uh 25 people rsvp'd

how many people are likely to actually show right

like that's a that's a

calculation that you have to kind of figure out

because it's not 25 um

and you know that first

that first meet up where uh

six people showed I

I walked home with uh

you know two and a half whole pizzas

ha ha ha um

which is fine you know

but figuring that stuff out like it

cause that makes it much harder because right

and now yeah

I was gonna say you you kinda touched on that

but like even the sponsorships

like it seems like as a company

it would be much easier just to send a check to

I don't know

phpx and then let you just divvy this out to how

you know whatever meet up needs it um

versus you know

um going to each one individually um

could be I could be wrong on that

but that's just where my head goes as a business owner

I'm like well

if I could just send it to one place and I'm done

that would be seems easier

well there

there's also you know

you can also think about it as they can sponsor the

or the group and you know

potentially get their logo

not just on the Philly meet up site

but also on the site you know

the sites for all the groups at the same time

there are some benefits there

yeah I've been looking at um

you know the PHP Foundation uses Open Collective um

and Open Collective is a platform for um

this type of thing you know like uh

organizing fundraising

and the cool thing is they maintain the legal entity um

and and do some of the governance side of things um

so it's potentially a way to have sort of a

you know an official entity that could hold some

you know hold some money and distribute some money um

and they they build in a lot of ways to make that

really transparent which is really cool um

and that way cause I

you know the thing I don't wanna do is I don't wanna

like just have people send me

send me checks and then like send

you know send out uh

venmos to you know

I'm I'm

I'm not interested in doing that but um

I think that there's an opportunity there

I don't know you know

that it that's a little daunting

I'm gonna be honest um

so someone is listening to this that's like hey

I I love doing that side

you know I wanna get involved and I

I would be a good person to

to do some of the administrative and

organizational side of things

definitely reach out because um

I am really interested in seeing it happen

I'm willing to put some personal money into like

setting that up if that's necessary

but like I don't know if I can commit the time

right yeah

that was that's the enemy of everybody right haha

well um

and then I guess

so most of the phpx group so far are sort of

what northeast like located

I guess they're all pretty drivable right

um except for like Atlanta and upstate

I guess most of them are more um

more directed that way um

is there any reason you see that

or if it just not expanded out west yet

yeah I don't know um

I think it's just it just is kinda how it happened to

to fall um

and uh

yeah if there are folks

you know

if there are folks out there that are interested

like definitely Reach out and even if it's a if it's a

an existing PHP user group

or a Laraville meetup or whatever um well

I'll add you to the externals list

you know

might as well get everybody in the same place and yeah

I'm I already have a

an API that that gets a list of the groups um

also

put together an API that gets a list of the meet up

so then you know sites like Laraville News could

that's right

yeah that would be sweet

um I was gonna say as an organizer and as

as a you know

meet up attendee what do you think is best

like an in depth speaker or the show and tale stuff

or do you just like a mix of everything

I think in my experience so far

and it's relatively limited uh

this time around at least

I think that they draw different groups

and I think that they all have different uh

value you know when we had uh

nothing

that were clearly there

because they wanted to do this sort of like

you know professional development side of the meet up

um and weren't necessarily

as interested in the social side um

when we had more of an informal thing

you know that allowed um

a different kind of conversation happen

although that that happens before and after anyway but

um the sort of smaller social meet up

you know it was really nice to just like

sit down with people and talk about the

the word word press uh

you know nonsense and uh

I can't remember exactly what else was going on then

but um

so I I think that at least we're peach be Philly and um

I look

like mixing social uh

show and tell and like proper presentations

uh is a really good way to sort of like

connect with a bunch of different people um

another thing that we're talking about doing is like uh

you know a PHP filly

like axe throwing it together

or like a go kart racing or rock climbing or whatever

you know like

come on

but just like

let's get together in different settings and like

maybe do an escape room together

or something like that or

you know um

so I think that's interesting

we haven't tried it yet but I

I really like the mix and I think it

the different types of events

like meet different types of people in the right way

yeah I

I actually like that idea

um cause I remember like

so we

we both went to the upstate PHP meet up back in band uh

it was the two ago was the one I went to

it was back back in the summer

I think but anyway

we all went early and we just had lunch hung out

you know I

I think it you actually had a hotel room

so we were all everybody went up there

we just hung out for a little bit and then

and then we walked over and it was great

just sort of being away from like

having to listen to a talk

we're just like you know

talking and just make be you know

becoming friends basically in real life

and then uh

so it's always great to have those

you know outside

of just hate you have to learn at this meet up thing

haha

I mean also it's hard

it's hard to get a speaker for every event

and I I know for certain that there are meet UPS that

basically died because

the organizer ended up having to speak at at

at like

all the meet UPS that they couldn't get a speaker for

and like that just became too much of a burden um

so I think setting things up in the beginning

where it's like

we're not gonna do that same format every time is

is definitely a good way to go

and like experiment with different

different ways of getting together

yeah that's true um

what do you think um

as far as like PHP Philly

some of these other ones I know um

upstate PHP does it quarterly

are you gonna try to do monthly or quarterly

or do you have um

what do you know what's best I don't know

I

I am calling it bimonthly ish

um I think that probably being on a regular

schedule makes a lot of sense and

and maybe someday we will um

right now being a little bit more flexible is just

what makes it work for for Andrew and myself and um

I just think that's that's just better

but I think um

excuse me I think that monthly is hard to pull off

I think quarterly is great

I think I for me

bimonthly feels like a really good cadence

because it's a little bit more frequent

but you have

enough space and time to figure out each event um

I think it also probably depends on like

sort of the size of the the region right

if you're in a bigger city

you can probably do more frequent events

because even if not everyone shows for each event

like you're good um

if you're in a smaller region

I don't know why

because you need to like

kinda rely on a core group of people to show um

just because there's fewer people around

you know

so that probably makes a big big impact

yes I love that I'm

I'm very

I'm very much here for the user group resurgence um

I think I think it's gonna be great for the community

great for developers

it's just gonna build everybody up in the end

if all this kind of works out

and people start

getting together more often than just big

tech conferences you know once or twice a year

yeah the tech conferences are awesome

I mean Lara Con is such an incredible event

Lara Con US

so I will say it is impossible for me

we came out of profit

yes well

the

the problem I run into at these big conversations is

there's just too many people to

you can't spend a whole lot of time with each

individual um

before the conference is over and then you're like

oh man

it's like I really want to talk to them but oh well

I I missed them ha ha

yeah even at

even at 22 I couldn't get to

really have a conversation with everybody in the room

at the last PHP Philly

it's you know

really

if you wanna have like

real actual conversations with people

there's only so many that those

that you can do in a night right

mm hmm

for sure for sure well

um Chris

I wanna thank you tremendously for you know

taking time out your day

and tell me all about this new PHB thing that's

that you've been working on

cause I I keep seeing it all over um

the blue sky feed uh

which is also making the resurgence and uh

it's it's kinda cool to see

see all this coming together and everybody

you know being pumped about it

so I'm I'm super excited to see where this goes

you know the next few months

yeah absolutely

I can't wait to see you you know

another dozen of these

pop up over the next couple months let's make it happen

for sure for sure

and I'll have uh

links to all these in the show notes

links to Chris's uh

socials so you can reach out to him if you

you know wanna

wanna start one

or have questions or anything like that

um but um

if if I didn't leave

if I didn't leave

leave anything out and if you want anything

go ahead um

but um

no I mean

the only thing that I I would follow that up with is

you know if

if you're out there and you're interested in

getting together with other people um

even if you're not sure about set

you know organizing a meet up yourself um

I think the next

one of the next things that I wanna add to this

like HPX um

event system is sort of a

a way to show interest or a way like sort of a

a placeholder type um

meet up so

you know what let's set up

your city and see if anyone sort of shows up and

and go from there

so you don't even have to necessarily commit to

to fully organising and again

if if you run an existing

you know PP user group

a Laravale user group meet up

whatever it is um

and you wanna get added to the list

definitely reach out cause I'd love to

you know I'd love to get uh

as many of these meet UPS out there and it

and as much as much exposure as possible for them

sweet that sounds awesome

well thanks again

and man it was a blast as always talking to Chris

absolutely thanks for having me