ZendCon 08: Day 4

That’s it, time running out and the sun comes out again for Day 4 of ZendCon.

This morning was diferent, more nervous, and that’s because the first session on the agenda, wasn’t a session.. it was an Exam. So i was a nervous wreck (as always before any test, its hardcoded in me) up until 9h when I sat down in the room, in front of the computer in the ZCE test room.

Almost 1 hour later, I sat there with a question on the screen “Clicking Yes will end this exam and give you a grade, do you wish to continue?”, well, i wasn’t sure, but i cliked yes anyway… and then… boom!

Grade: Pass

Yes, relief rushed all over me, and I was finally a Zend Certified Engineer.

From there i skipped to the PHP 5.3 session, having missed half of it, but was glad to find a panel discussion-like session discussing the features and opening the floor for questions, good to hear the new stuff from the guys who are actually doing it, so that was a plus. oh, and do note, “There is no goto”. Ok that’s an internal joke, but let’s say core developers added goto to PHP 5.3 .. but we should overlook it, just pretend its note there said Andi Gutmans.

Leaving that session i got more good news, Neil also passed the test, right after me. And off I was to “I need more servers” session by Maurice Kherlakian, who made a pass on many scaling strategies. Most were wll known, but an excelent comparison table for each step of the way.

And then off to the Hall… ZendCon was coming to an end. Closing keynote by the American Cancer Association who is also investing on PHP solutions and is reaching out to the community.

And that was it for ZendCon. The coolest event i have ever attended, good material for the office, certification, excelent business contacts, wonderful news for Brazil UGs, all in all this was an extremelly positive conference. Congratulations to all the Zend Team, and a special thanks to Cal Evans, for the elePHPant of course, but for giving me a few moments attention, also Zend’s CEO Harold and CMO Mark for the attention to the Brazilian market, 2009 will be a cool year!

See you all on the next ZendCon (i hope!). And wait for some more updates and details on each of the sessions!