Ed Finkler
Keynote Speaker
Ed Finkler, aka Funkatron, has over 25 years in tech, focusing on web technologies and open source community work. A senior software engineer and technology advisor, Ed has also passionately advocated for mental health in the tech industry for over a decade. He founded Open Sourcing Mental Illness, to educate, empower, and advocate for tech workers affected by mental illness, and has been a prominent speaker on this topic. Ed also co-hosted 100 episodes of the Development Hell podcast.
Sessions:
Sammy Kaye Powers
Keynote Speaker
HELO I'm Sammy and I love to dance.
I've been writing PHP code since the late nineties. I have maintained and contributed to a wide variety of open source PHP projects, PHP extensions, and php-src. I'm the creator and former host of the PHP Roundtable podcast.
In early 2022 I left the tech world to pursue a calling on my heart that led me to start Powers Family Farm. I have a vision to support small scale farmers with software that facilitates a decentralized agricultural model.
Sessions:
- Why I left the tech world Keynote
Tim Lytle
Keynote Speaker
Tim likes making things, is a lover of well built APIs, and hates the top reply. He's built applications utilizing numerous APIs, created custom APIs for internal consumption, and as a one time developer evangelist he's helped other developers do the same.
A long time mercenary PHP developer, he's a fan of Laminas (you know, ZendFramework), Doctrine (2 of course), TDD, and practical design patterns. He's now working on things at PhoneBurner, tweeting sporadically from @tjlytle, and hanging out with his wife and kids.
Sessions:
- Let Go of Ownership Keynote
Aaron Holbrook
I'm Aaron Holbrook, Principal Engineer at Zeek.
I've been using Laravel since 2016 to rapidly scale and build out interesting tools for businesses.
I’ve been a part of the WordPress community since 2004, am a core contributor and am an author of multiple plugins and packages.
I've helped build communities around programming and development including Chicago WordCamp and a local WordPress and Web Development Meetup.
I've built a robust deployment and delivery process for Zeek that makes all our deployments easy and consistent.
I enjoy helping others become better developers and have spoken at numerous conferences including WordCamp Milwaukee, WordCamp Grand Rapids, WordCamp Providence, WordCamp Chicago and the CMS Expo.
Alena Holigan
For over 20 years, Alena has built technical solutions that inform decisions and solve problems across diverse industries. She enjoys both the creativity of programming and the thrill of solving a puzzle. As a leader in the community, a technical trainer, and a mom, she is passionate about providing the tools and mindset required for everyone to learn and succeed.
Sessions:
Andy Snell
Andy Snell never planned on software development as a career, but it sure beat customer support! A self-taught computer nerd since his junior year of high school when first introduced to Gentoo Linux. He picked up programming from “PHP 6 and MySQL 5 for Dynamic Web Sites“, and since then, he has worked on building applications in the electronic payments and telecom-tech industries. He has a passion for simple and elegant solutions for difficult problems.
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Ben Ramsey
Ben is a software engineer with over 25 years experience building, scaling, and securing web and database applications. He specializes in building APIs, libraries, and tools that help development teams work and communicate more efficiently and effectively.
Ben is a firm believer in and advocate for open source software and communities. He is a release manager for PHP 8.1 and 8.2, maintainer of the popular ramsey/uuid library for PHP, frequent contributor to open source projects, PHP community advocate, and has organized user groups and conferences in Atlanta, Nashville, and Gatlinburg.
A prolific writer and speaker, Ben has contributed to several books, published numerous articles in magazines such as php[architect], and is a popular speaker at conferences. You may find him on Mastodon, or the Fediverse, at phpc.social/@ramsey, where he posts about PHP, open source, life, the universe, and everything.
Sessions:
Bryant Son
Bryant Jimin Son is a Solution Architect at GitHub, where he is currently working with multiple clients to deliver and support GitHub products for customers. He actually started his first full stack development using PHP! He self taught himself HTML, CSS, Javascript, MySQL, and Perl/CGI during his high school year but decided to switch from CGI to Perl while he was building websites. Although he does not do a lot of PHP programming these days, he still thinks PHP is cool and owns some websites built in PHP.
He has more than a decade of experience working in cloud, automation, and DevOps spaces from Red Hat, Citi, American Airlines, IBM, and Home Depot Austin Technology Center. His technical expertise is mostly focused on high-level IT architecture, especially around container, Kubernetes, DevOps and cloud computing fields, and his non-technical expertise includes project management, leading and mentoring others, teaching and presenting in front of medium/large audiences, and improving developer experience and creating wonderful culture for his team. He graduated from University of Texas at Austin with Aerospace Engineering, Computer Science, and Business degrees, and he has certifications in Red Hat Linux Administrator and Red Hat OpenShift.
Chris Ayers
Chris is a Senior Customer Engineer on the Fast Track for Azure team at Microsoft. He is a Co-Lead for the DevOps Category inside the Fast Track Team. Previously, Chris lead an Azure Practice and a DevOps Practice, and was a Consultant and Architect. He has a focus in modern applications, containers, security, and DevOps. In his free time, Chris is a father, an international speaker, an avid reader, a gamer, and all around nerd.
Sessions:
Christina Aldan
Christina Aldan is a brand strategy consultant, keynote speaker, trainer, and mentor. She offers businesses brand consulting and creative content for everyday media. With over 15 years of experience in the digital realm, Christina is highly regarded for her approach to business, partnering with clients to find unique strategies that ensure their goals are met. Christina builds connections through her keynote addresses, training workshops, and technological education. She uses these tools to help individuals and businesses cultivate value in everyday media. Christina has delivered talks on all 7 continents, presenting training workshops for the Microsoft MVP community, international corporations, and conferences worldwide. Christina uses her charisma and expertise to inspire others by mentoring women in business like herself. She also has sat on state and local boards supporting women in tech, entrepreneurship, mental health, and children with learning disabilities.
She is the recipient of the Las Vegas Women in Tech Community Service Award, the Distinguished Woman of the Year Award in STEM. Learn more at: Luckygirliegirl.com.
Sessions:
- Engaged Leadership Practicum Workshop
Dan Moore
Dan Moore is head of developer relations for FusionAuth, where they're building auth for any app. A former CTO, engineering manager and longtime developer, he's been writing software for (checks watch) over 20 years.
Sessions:
Florian Engelhardt
Proud dad of five kids, husband, Linux, Vim, PHP, Rust, software architect, technical consultant, geek and I'm getting shit done.
Israel Carberry
Israel has been fascinated with creating reality from code ever since an ASCII race car obeyed his BASIC demands and blipped across his RadioShack CRT. Since then, he has altered reality through many different languages (at least fo-fi-sixteen, by his count) both for a handful of companies and for giggles. During that infinitesimally short span of Sol's traversal of its galactic orbital path, Israel gained another obsession in howworkisdoneology. If one were to get him going on value streams, continuous improvement, or change leadership, one should acquire another beer, it's going to be a while. He also enjoys doing many things he hasn't done for far too long.
Sessions:
James Titcumb
James is a consultant, trainer and developer at Roave, working in software for over 20 years. His goal is to improve the quality of software products that teams deliver.
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Josh Copeland
Joshua Copeland is CTO of Remote Dev Force and works with clients all over the world to build high quality systems. With over 15 years as a software architect and serial entrepreneur, Joshua has gained a good blend of start-up and enterprise experience. Developing PHP applications is a big part of his day-to-day work and keeps security first-in-mind. Joshua’s team of engineers regularly work on building features for mission critical projects in Laravel/Symfony, setting up and maintaining servers with Terraform/AWS, building CI pipelines with Jenkins/ADO/GitLab/GitHub Actions, Pen-testing, and much more. He has led the PHP Vegas Users' Group for over 7 years and loves to give back by speaking at conferences and educating the community.
Sessions:
Kaitlyn Concilio
Kaitlyn Concilio has been playing with computers since she first telnetted into the library to reserve books in first grade. With deep experience in design and writing, she’s programmed her way through stints in journalism, advertising, nonprofits, digital operations, higher education and healthcare, both as an internal team member and through consultancy. Her primary goal in any engagement is making sure the needs of consumers (other developers, end users, internal users) are held paramount above all while providing as much value as possible to the client. She’s also passionate about developing teams and helping other developers grow in the manner best befitting their areas of growth and learning style.
Kiah Tolliver
Kiah is a Senior Developer Advocate at Auth0 by Okta who specializes in the intersection between .NET and Identity.
She is a public speaker who regularly presents at conferences and trade shows and is a self-proclaimed opinionated knowledge seeker. Kiah also moonlights as a co-founder of cannatech startup C-Trax.
Kiah has 13 years of experience covering both engineering and business roles and prides herself on bringing a unique perspective to building products from idea to deployment and navigating product-market fit.
In her spare time, Kiah enjoys blogging about community, tech, and startups at blkgrlcto.com
Larry Garfield
Larry Garfield has been building websites since he was a sophomore in high school, which is longer ago than he'd like to admit. Larry is currently a Staff Engineer at LegalZoom.
Before that, he was Director of Developer Experience for Platform.sh and a long-time Drupal contributor and consultant, and led the Drupal 8 Web Services initiative that helped transform Drupal into a modern PHP platform. Larry is a member of the PHP-FIG Core Committee, and has authored several books on PHP development including "Thinking Functionally in PHP" and "Exploring PHP 8.0."
Larry holds a Master’s degree in Computer Science from DePaul University. He blogs at both https://www.garfieldtech.com and https://peakd.com/@crell.
Sessions:
Leslie Martinich
Like many of you, I wear many hats. I am an author, influential tech expert and speaker. A long-time development team leader. A software engineer. A wife and mother. A former science and technology policy advisor to the US Congress.
After seeing both success and failure in the tech industry, and seeing disgruntled star employees leave because of poor management, I initiated a program to improve the leadership and communication skills required to direct gifted people and talented teams. The results: These are LEARNABLE skills!
I’ve shared insights and humor at NASA, HP, 3M, TI, Dell, Engie, Lek Pharmaceuticals, and IBM. My down-to-earth humor and real scenarios connect quickly with leaders. A senior director at NASA told me, “Now I finally get it!” That felt good!
I help leaders to build teams that OWN their projects and deliver them on schedule. The techniques I offer, with practice, are easy and useful. Anyone can learn these skills, and, once learned, I promise that they will improve the quality of both your business life and your personal life.
I’ve spoken at events on every continent except Antarctica! I work to bring about change in people’s lives; change that will bring them greater effectiveness and greater success.
When I’m not speaking at an event, you might find me at a tech conference (I’m the Awards Chair for a region of IEEE). Or you might find me at the theater (I’m the Board President for Austin Shakespeare). Or, you might even find me singing old rock and roll songs with my husband!
Sessions:
- Engaged Leadership Practicum Workshop
Mark Pruett
Mark is a Texas-based PHP developer with profound expertise in Laravel. As one of the software engineering managers at DSQ Technology, LLC, he plays a key role in the collaborative development of Discovery, an innovative SaaS solution for the waste industry.
Family lies at the heart of Mark's life. The cherished moments with his loving wife, spirited sons, and heartwarming daughter are the highlights of his days. Whether embarking on a global adventure or relishing a quiet weekend at home, Mark's world thrives on joy and discovery. His passion for gourmet delights, notably burgers, and tacos, enriches his vibrant life.
Blending his zest for exploration with sharp technical acumen, Mark stands out as a dynamic leader, both in the tech sphere and the heart of his home.
Sessions:
Matt Machuga
Engineering leader who has spent 15 years building and scaling both web applications and engineering teams. Director of Engineering at Oyster®. Formerly Auth0 and Okta.
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Rain Leander
Rain Leander is a systematic, slightly psychic, interdisciplinary community liaison with a Bachelor’s in dance and a Master’s in IT. An epic public speaker, they have disappeared within a box stuffed with swords, created life, and went skydiving with the Queen. Seriously. Rain is an active technical contributor with Temporal, CockroachDB, Tinkerbell, OpenStack, RDO, TripleO, Fedora, and DjangoGirls. Come say hello. Bring cake.
Sandy Smith
Sandy has been making a living around and with PHP for a couple of decades. A former user group leader, he has spent the last six years working on large legacy PHP applications as a senior software engineer. Previously, he helped run php[architect], worked at a startup, and in the long, long ago led a team of developers in a PHP-based consultancy. He lives in the DC area with his wife and a rotating cadre of animals.
Sessions:
Scott Keck-Warren
Scott Keck-Warren is the Director of Technology for WeCare Connect where he strives to develop maintainable software that helps his clients. He creates educational videos for the PHP[Architect] YouTube Channel on topics related to the PHP ecosystem.
Sessions:
Seb Armand
I'm a staff engineer at Block where I build APIs that powere e-commerce experiences at scale. My main focus is on the performance and reliability of our APIs and online stores, finding all ways possible to improve both metric. I have lived in 4 different countries and am currently based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Outside of tech, I enjoy spending time with my family, mountain biking and rock climbing.
Sessions:
Sergei Morozov
I'm a software developer and architect with almost two decades of experience in various industries. In the past few years, I've been specializing in change data capture and data streaming. Prior to that, I primarily focused on the development of a cloud CRM platform and the design of its various APIs.
Since late 2016, I'm the lead maintainer of Doctrine DBAL. I designed and implemented the majority of the improvements released in DBAL 3 and the ones coming in DBAL 4.
Sessions:
Stephen Rees-Carter
Stephen is a security consultant and crusted-on PHP developer who spends his days doing Laravel Security Audits and Penetration Tests. When he’s not trying to hack his client’s websites, he teaches Laravel developers about security concepts through his Securing Laravel mailing list and Practical Laravel Security course, where he teaches Laravel developers about security concepts and how to think like a hacker. His conference talks have been described as "terrifying magic tricks", that show just how easy it is to hack into a vulnerable site and cause mayhem.
Sessions:
- “Let’s Hack” Workshop
- Passwords are Dead, Long live Passkeys! Talk
Steve Grunwell
Steve Grunwell is a Staff Software Engineer at Mailchimp, building tools to empower small businesses to better reach their customers. With a decade and a half of web application development experience, he’s passionate about teaching and contributing back to the development community through speaking, blogging, and open-source work.
When he’s not writing tests or finding new ways to automate the world around him, Steve is off spending time with his family, tinkering with electronics, playing guitar, or otherwise getting away from the keyboard.
Sessions:
TJ Draper
TJ is a PHP developer by day, by night, and pretty much all the time.
TJ was thrown from the frying pan into the fire of web development when he inherited the website responsibilities at a small film company many, many years ago. After he discovered he loved doing that, he left the small films industry to pursue a career writing code and now works as a software engineer at RxAnte doing what he loves: engineering great software.
Tadeh Hakopian
With a background in Architecture and Development Tadeh has supported building large scale projects with diverse teams for over 10 years. By promoting open dialogue, systems thinking, and long term planning he has improved operational efficiencies in all his endeavors. He is a course author, trainer, and open source contributor as well as a speaker at national conferences in technology, architecture, design. He loves to talk about the new possibilities with technology and innovation at everyone’s disposal while building communities along the way.
Tessa Kriesel
Tessa Kriesel is an experienced developer and community leader. With over 14 years of experience, she is a self-taught developer who has focused on open-source development, DevOps, and community growth. She is passionate about engaging developer audiences and drives her efforts from a data-driven campaign perspective.
Tessa takes pride in engaging with her community as a contributor and mentor and has done this for several companies, ranging from startups to tech giants. As a technologist, her goal is to elevate developers' voices and knowledge in the community. In addition to her work as Head of Platform Developer Relations at Snap, she advises early-stage startups and mentors underrepresented groups. Prior to her current role, Tessa was the Director of Advocacy & Community at Lacework, Developer Community at Twitter, and Developer Outreach Manager at Pantheon—to name a few.
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Theresa Mammarella
Theresa Mammarella is a software engineer at IBM, specializing in Eclipse OpenJ9 JVM and native image prototyping. She enjoys helping developers harness the full potential of their tools to create innovative solutions. Theresa actively contributes to the open-source community collaborating on various projects and is a regular conference speaker.
Sessions:
Tim Bond
Tim is a senior full stack PHP developer that has been working with PHP for over 19 years and has seen PHP grow from its hodgepodged roots to a modern development language. When not in front of a computer, you'll probably find him hiking or playing bike tag around beautiful Seattle, or putting together a new Lego set on one of the rare rainy days.
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