We’re proud, excited and not a little bleary-eyed to announce that the initial schedule for TEK·X is finally live.

Our 42 scheduled talks (and two keynotes!) feature some of the best-known speakers in the PHP community, as well as a number of newcomers who caught the attention of the selection committee with ideas that are both novel and exciting.

Compiling the schedule was no small task. With almost ten proposals for every slot (even after we obliterated the Uncon—and replaced it with the Hack Track—to gain an additional seven speaking slots), it took the efforts of everyone on the selection team through the holidays to finally nail down a final lineup. On behalf of everyone here at TEK·X headquarters, I’d like to thank everyone who submitted a proposal (or, in one case, seven); we look forward to seeing many—or all—of you in Chicago.

Oh, one final thing: now that the schedule is live, you can still get a great price on your ticket with our early-bird discount. Quick, though—it ends on January 31st!

Each year, we try to do something unique at tek. Two years ago, we had an appearance from the  PHP KISS rockstars. Last year, we had the Hackathon led by the highly esteemed Matthew Turland. This year, we’re still going to have a Hackathon, but wanted to do something more.

On top of that, we faced some hard decisions. When the call for speakers ended, we had nearly 10 submissions for every speaking slot and some of them were fantastic. So after much deliberation and debate, we reached a simple conclusion:

We’re dropping the Unconference this year. (gasp)

I know you’re disappointed but in exchange we were able to add 6 more sessions to the 36 we had.  Now we only had ~9 submissions for every speaking slot!  Whew, problem solved. Anyway, let’s face it, after successful uncons at ZendCon 08, tek 09, and ZendCon 09, we all know how they work and what makes them not work. The same formula over and over again doesn’t drive the community forward. It doesn’t make people get creative or get them excited. So after a bit of eggnog, arguing with Marco & Cal, bribing Arbi with cookies, and another round of eggnog, we came up with another idea:

Enter… the Hack Track.

Every year big ideas come out of tek. Some are good, some are bad, but they always come from running into new and old faces in the hallways, at a meal, or over drinks. The problem is that there’s not a good place for this stuff to happen. The hallways lack outlets, the tables are in the restaurant, and people’s rooms are… well, they’re hotel rooms.

This time around, we’ve set aside some space with tables, chairs, power, and coffee… but no formal agenda. We’re using the Open Spaces model where small groups can get together to discuss, create, demo, code, and generally enjoy themselves on whatever topics they choose.

Just like the Unconference before it, we’ll make sure some smart people are lurking in the corners. If you’d like to talk about that code from that session, ask the speaker to show you. If you want to know about that project someone mentioned, ask about it. I plan to be there working on our AIR client for web2project. There’s already some interest around the Zend Framework and Subversion and Javascript libraries and Git and PHPUnit and Refactoring and…

Long live the Hack Track.

The gift giving seasons is upon us. In the mad rush to get everyone that special gadget they want, don’t forget to get yourself a little something.

This year, TEK·X is going to offer up a chance for some Christmas cheer. We are offering a limited number of Charter Tickets for sale before the schedule goes up. If you hurry, for the next two weeks you can purchase one of 50 full-experience tickets available at 35% off the full price.

This is a chance for our closest supporters to get in one of the best conferences of 2010—some say the best—at the lowest possible price, and it’s only available until January 6th, 2010. If you already making plans to attend TEK·X, why not buy yourself a Christmas present this year?

To take advantage of this special offer!

Hurry, there are only 50 tickets available at this price and once they are gone, even Santa himself won’t be able to get one.

Happy Holidays from the entire php|architect crew!

Tek is the biggest community conference out there. You’ve been looking forward to it all year. You’re chomping at the bit. It’s what you’ve all been waiting for.

But we’re not there yet…

We received almost 350 submissions from across the spectrum of topics, ideas, and complexity. The ideas are fascinating. The people are sharp. Their takes on topics—both new and old—has been creative and sometimes entertaining. While all of this makes for a great conference, it also makes our job incredibly difficult. The tutorials and sessions will be announced on January 4th, 2010.

But in the meantime, we’ll have surprise announcements about…

Well, if I told you, they wouldn’t be surprises, now would they?

Our online registration system is up—and it’s ready to let you save up to $300 on your tickets. Take advantage of it—before prices go up or all tickets are gone.

The call for paper ends tonight. Where is your proposal?

Now (and not at the last minute) is the right time to send in your proposals. As always, we are looking for the best presentations on PHP and those technologies that are of interest to PHP professionals. Is your talk going to make the cut?

As the Call for Papers for TEK·X progresses, here are some tips on giving your proposals their best shot at approval from someone who has been on both sides of the equation more than once.

Let us introduce you to the small team of dedicated artisans who puts together TEK·X. Some help with our content, while others make sure that all the little things that make a conference are in the right place at the right time. Some help us make our social events fun, while others make sure that the topics that we cover are relevant and useful to our attendees.

The response to our call for papers has been tremendous—we’ve received over 100 proposals submitted in the first twelve hours alone. It’s a great start, and we look forward to an even better continuation.