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
6
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