[ANNOUNCE] London Perl Workshop: Newsletter #2

[Mark Keating]

(If you are receiving this any you use a language different to Perl, or 
are new to programming, fear not and please read on :) )

Hi All,

In this newsletter:

1. New to Perl, use another language?
2. Workshops and events
3. Further call for speakers
4. Before and after conference events
5. Conference flyers
6. Facebook Page
7. DuckDuckGo t-Shirts and DuckDuckgo logo on the day

1. New to Programming, new to Perl, use another language?
If you are new to the Perl language, or are a practitioner of another 
programming language then we would love to welcome you to the London 
Perl Workshop this year. The London Perl Workshop is a free event held 
on Saturday, November 12th, at the University of Westminster, Cavendish 
Campus, London. And when we say "free' we do mean "free as in Beer". 
There are: free attendance, free sponsor goodies, free coffee/cakes in 
the morning, free presentations by world-renowned speakers and new 
speakers, free workshops (see next section) and then free beer (usually 
1-3+ rounds dependent on number of attendees) and food at the social 
event after the conference.

We would also like to welcome those of you taking your first steps into 
the higher languages and to programming, come along to a conference that 
embraces newbies, be prepared for spirited debate and to have your 
understanding stretched, but in a friendly way with a beer and a cake of 
choice :).

The reason we would especially like to welcome you this year (you are 
welcome any time) is that there is a glut of companies in the Perlverse 
seeking new programmers, some of these companies seek experienced Perl 
personnel, but many of them also seek experienced polyglot programmers 
as experience of more than one language brings benefits and they have on 
the job training where you can use your existing skills while learning 
new ones, there are also companies seeking graduates and have graduate 
internship programs so this is the right time to brush up your skills in 
Perl and see what has changed, and trust me a lot has. So take the 
plunge, at the very least you can see some of the new things in a 
rival/new language and get a free drink.

Visit: www.londonperlworkshop.org.uk and register today ;).


2. Workshops and events
To continue from previous announcements I can now confirm that we have 
three workshops/training sessions planned and accepted and two more in 
the pipeline.

Ian Norton will be inviting all newcomers to Perl to come along to a 
training session intended to give you a first taste in how to use the 
language.

Dave Cross will be teaching us what has changed in Perl since 5.10 up 
until 5.14 (and 5.15.3) and what the future holds for 5.16 and beyond.

Tatsuhiko Miyagawa will be presenting a workshop on Plack, CPANM and 
more (there are other great modules that spiral from this man's mind).

There are two other workshops under negotiation one on Dancer and one on 
Dependency Injection, Test::Spec/Test::BDD::Cucumber, more information 
will be announced as these are all clarified and scheduled.


3. Further call for speakers
I must note that it is only four weeks until the call for papers closes 
for this year and so I expect a flurried rush of activity as you all now 
scramble to submit to make sure your presentation is in well before the 
deadline so that we can come to appreciate it for the gem of 
magnificence it truly is. In other words, please submit earlier rather 
than later as it helps us to start building up a picture of the day. Thanks.


4. Before and after conference events
As always the Wiki is up and running and I will fill in the details of 
the after event as soon as they are finalised. We will be attending the 
same public house as we did last year and I expect they will put on the 
same level of fabulous beers and food as they did then, we have received 
generous contributions from sponsors and are open to more if other 
sponsors wish to come forward. The principal sponsor for the evening 
however has been selected.

If someone wishes to organise the pre-conference event then please 
choose somewhere central London that we can attend and chew over the 
following days activities. I realise that London.pm has a drinks tzar 
but i don't expect to push this onerous charge onto him unless he truly 
wishes it.


5. Conference flyers
I have created a conference flyer and would like your help, please print 
off some copies and place them in appropriate locations at work, 
colleges, universities as soon as you can, I would love to see a lot of 
new faces at LPW this year as there is a real surge of people needed in 
our growing job market and community.

The flyer already prepared is A4 (though can be reduced to A5) and is 
suitable to print on a home/small office printer in either colour or 
black and white. Please find a pdf at:

http://www.mdk.me.uk/community/lpw2011/lpw-2011-flyer1.pdf


6. Facebook Page
The London Perl Workshop now has a Facebook Page to be promoted using 
that virulent and expansive social medium, so if you are a FB member 
please remember to "like" the page so that we can grab the name and spam 
you in another medium (though you can stop it doing this in the 
preferences IIRC).

https://www.facebook.com/LondonPerlWorkshop



7. DuckDuckGo t-Shirts and DuckDuckgo logo on the day
DuckDuckGo will be providing a free t-shirt to any speaker willing to 
wear it during their talk on the day, make sure you state if this is a 
preference for you and your t-shirt size somewhere in the body of your 
proposal/in your Act preferences, or by email directly to Mark.

For the day we have had assurance from DuckDuckGo that they will 
exchange their site logo with a special LPW DDG logo, more info on what 
this will be given once the details are finalised.


8. Sponsors and Jobs
We already have a full complement of sponsors for the London Perl 
Workshop for all our necessary sponsored events, but if you still wish 
your company to be involved then please contact Mark as soon as possible 
to discuss this. The closing date for Sponsors to be included in all 
printed media is 30th September, though some submissions will be allowed 
later than that date.

We are also seeking Sponsors to come along and present themselves if 
they are seeking new employees or to promote a community specific 
service or resource, again please contact Mark at your earliest 
convenience to see what is available.

The address to contact mark is m.keating(at)shadowcat.co.uk.

Please feel free to forward this mail to any mailing list or forum that 
seems appropriate. Thanks and I look forward to the next newsletter when 
we will confirm some more of the details of the day.


-mdk

-- 
Mark Keating BA (Hons), Writer, Photographer, Cat-Herder.
Managing Director: http://www.shadow.cat
For more that I do visit: http://www.mdk.me