News

Pre-Event Social

10/12/15 09:30 by Mark Keating (‎mdk‎)

It is less than 48hrs until the London Perl Workshop and the tension and excitement is building to a low hum in the ears of the organisers, speakers, and many attendees...

So if you would like to relieve that stress (or compound it in a social setting) you will need to attend the pre-Conference Social.

This year the nice people at Eligo have arranged for us to have a room at the Sports Bar in Waterloo Station. This means that we will have a convenient location, easily accessible and filled with the delightful community of technical people who may or may not have a fondness for Perl.

The Chief Overlord, Mark Keating, will be there in some form at some point in the day so be sure to be on the look out for him. It all kicks off from 18:00. See you at the event.

A Call for Volunteers

09/12/15 21:22 by Mark Keating (‎mdk‎)

As always the London Perl Workshop is an event entirely reliant on the generosity of volunteers and sponsors.

So I come to ask for volunteers for the running of the day. We need people to help set up, fetch, carry, chair rooms and clean up (basically there's a lot of small and odd jobs that many hands moving make it quick and easy work).

If you are able to come and help, the Shadowcat team with the Chief Overlord will be on site from around 07:45 onwards and we would love if people could help us put up signs etc. The main day starts at 09:00 and registration starts at 08:30 - so people are needed to help get us ready and direct arrivers as there are exams in the same building on the same day.

A Word of Thanks

For the past two years we have also run a 'donate what you want' system on the registration for those who are able, and willing, to donate to the running costs.

Each year we collect a little more and I am proud to say that this year was a record year for those donations. Thank you all, this contribution will be used to help sponsor this event and other events in the Perl calendar.

A Changed Keynote

08/12/15 10:23 by Mark Keating (‎mdk‎)

It is with great sadness that we must announce a change in this year's keynote for the London Perl Workshop. Jonathan Worthington will be unable to present at this year's event due to a refusal from the UK authorities to grant his partner a visa.

Jonathan made the following statement:

"I'm very sorry to have to withdraw from this year's London Perl Workshop. My wife was today notified that she has been refused a visa to travel to the UK, where we intended to spend Christmas with my family (which is why I was coming to the UK in December in the first place). I find this decision unacceptable, and have decided that I also will not travel to the UK for the foreseeable future."

Obviously all our sympathies go to Jonathan and his family as this must have been shocking, and distressing, news and has clearly deeply affected their holiday plans. Our wish is that this irrational decision will be altered in the future and that they will be able to visit family.

Same, sort of, Topic. New, sort of, face

It is not all doom and gloom though as the wonderful Liz Mattijsen will be presenting the Keynote on Perl 6 in Jonathan's place. Liz has been working with Jonathan for several years on Perl 6. Liz is in close communication with Jonathan as she prepares a Keynote for us to enjoy on Saturday.

So while we feel great sadness at not being able to see Jonathon we should mix that in a glass of sweet ambivalence as we dwell in joy at the anticipation of Liz's talk.

Perl Weekly join the ranks of Community Sponsors

30/11/15 10:03 by Mark Keating (‎mdk‎)

It is a pleasure to announce that the Perl Weekly has been added to our list of Community Sponsors. We have received excellent support from the weekly newsletter throughout the year and they truly are part of our valued community family.

The Perl Weekly helps to promote a wide variety of Perl events while also distilling the important news from the Perlsphere right into your inbox

A free, once a week e-mail round-up of hand-picked news and articles about Perl.

You are busy churning out code or managing the developers. You care about Perl but don't have time to go through tens and hundreds of articles and blog posts every day. You want to keep an eye on the development of Perl without drowning in a sea of blog posts. You need someone to point out the most important news and articles in the Perl World.

Let us be your guide.

Join the 5900+ people who received the previous issue!

If you like the Perl Weekly newsletter it would be awesome if you could help spreading the word about it. This can be done by sending one of the issues to a co-worker or a friend and recommending they subscribe to the newsletter. This can be done even without forwarding the newsletter just by sending a link and a recommendation.

Make sure you track at least one of the editors down on the day (it won't be hard he is giving three talks) and thank him for his work in bringing this valuable addition to the Perl world to life.

FLOSS UK Prize Draw

25/11/15 11:37 by Mark Keating (‎mdk‎)

At last year’s LPW the great people of FLOSSUK gave away a day at one of Dave Cross’ Perl tutorials (a value piece worth circa £300). The winner, Paul Monkton, was unable to redeem it as the event was in the following week. The people of FLOSS have informed us that they will honour the free gift for the upcoming Perl talks that Dave will give in February of next year. Not only that the talks next year are on four different subjects and Paul will be able to choose which day/subject to attend.

Furthermore it is our pleasure to announce that there will be a draw this year for another person to attend one of the days/subjects next year. Thanks to FLOSSUK for the generous prize. Remember to pick up your ticket on the day at the registration desk. Also consider joining Dave for the week of talks in February, if you join the FLOSSUK membership the events are given a generous discount, easily covering the cost of membership in the reduced cost.

Visit: FLOSSUK for more details.

(One of the subjects is a 2-day event and if that is chosen then both days will be honoured, for this prize and for Paul’s win last year.)

Perl Talks in February 2016

3 x one day tutorials (Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday) and 1 x 2 day tutorial (Thursday & Friday)

Day 1- Monday 8th February - Object Oriented Programming with Perl and Moose

Day 2 - Tuesday 9th February - Database Programming with Perl and DBIx::Class

Day 3 - Wednesday 10th February - An Introduction to Testing Perl Programs

Day 4 & 5 - Thursday 11th & Friday 12th February - Modern Web Programming with Perl

Monday 8th February - Object Oriented Programming with Perl and Moose

Moose is fast becoming the standard way to write object oriented code in Perl. Moose is powerful and flexible. It makes writing object oriented Perl far easier than it has ever been before.

This one-day training course explains what Moose is and how it will help you write better object oriented Perl. It is aimed at programmers who know Perl but who might not have kept up to date with some of the most recent Perl tools.

Tuesday 9th February - Database Programming with Perl and DBIx::Class

Most applications need to store persistent data in some form. And many of those applications will use a database as that storage. For many years Perl has had a powerful database interface layer called DBI, but your Perl database programming will be even simpler if you use DBIx::Class on top of DBI.

This one-day course introduces DBIx::Class and explains how it can help you get your job done more quickly.

Wednesday 10th February - An Introduction to Testing Perl Programs

For a very long time, Perl has had a strong testing culture. It is expected that CPA modules will come with a comprehensive test suite which is run as part of the installation process. Many tools and frameworks are available to make testing Perl code as easy as possible.

This one-day course introduces various techniques and tools for testing Perl programs. It also shows attendees how to write their own testing tools or extend existing ones.

Thursday & Friday - 11th & 12th February - Modern Web Programming with Perl

Perl first became really popular when it was used to write dynamic web pages in the 1990s. Perl still has many flexible and powerful tools which can be used to write modern web applications, but they have moved on a long way since the CGI programs of the last millennium.

This two-day course introduces PSGI the current standard for Perl web development and covers modern web frameworks like Dancer and Catalyst which build on top of PSGI and make it easier than ever to write web applications using Perl.

Eligo Organise Pre-Conference Social

22/11/15 19:05 by Mark Keating (‎mdk‎)

This year the London Perl Workshop will have a pre-conference social on Friday 11th December. The venue for the event will be Sports Bar and Grill in Waterloo Station. Thanks to Rick (PerlRick) and the Eligo team we have reserved a room/area for our usage.

The evening will start at 18:00 so in good time for people to join us after a hard day in the Smoke. We look forward to seeing you all there. If any Sponsor wants to step forward to help build a tab towards a pre-event sponsorship drink opportunity please contact Mark as soon as possible.

CV Library Return as Sponsors

20/11/15 12:07 by Mark Keating (‎mdk‎)

It is a great pleasure to announce that CV Library will once again return to the London Perl Workshop as Lecture Theatre Sponsors and will also be providing the custom lanyards.

CV-Library is one of the UK's leading online job boards, bringing millions of job seekers together with thousands of recruiters and direct employers. Comprehensively covering over 70 industries, CV-Library offers a high calibre of candidate across a wide range of industry sectors.

Based in Hampshire, the ever-growing company is fundamentally supported by a team of expert Perl developers who are the glue behind a site delivering record breaking traffic.

Keeping work in-house, CV-Library's development team are able to fully commit themselves as industry innovators – pioneering products to help user needs and keep ahead of competitors. Using agile methodologies, and working closely with design and marketing, they turn ideas into market leading products and services.

The team utilises technical innovation and best practices to help CV-Library become a celebrated market leader and achieve notable acclaim as a Deloitte Technology Fast50 company, among other titles. If you'd like to learn more about CV-Library, or wish to speak with us about our on-going recruitment opportunities, email Roxanne : Visit CV Library.

Make sure you seek out the CV Library team on the day and give them a hearty thanks for joining us once again.

Jonathon Worthington to Keynote at London Perl Workshop

19/11/15 11:14 by Mark Keating (‎mdk‎)

We are proud to announce that this year we will have a Keynote presentation from the renown Jonathan Worthington on Perl6. Jonathan has been a key contributor to the Perl6 project for almost a decade.

Jonathan’s influence on the project, community and development is not easily measured, but what is a known quantity is the level of experience he brings when speaking on the subject.

“It has been a long beginning for Perl6. Years of design, implementation, re-design, and re-implementation, left many wondering if the beginning would be eternal. They say in software you should plan to build one to throw away, because you will anyway. It turns out that "one" can be overly optimistic.

But, finally, we have reached the end of the beginning. The point where the quest for the perfect Perl6 has become the clear enemy of the really rather good Perl6 we have. And, critically, the point where keeping Perl6 user's production code working between releases will take a firm priority over language improvement.

In this session I'll look back over my eight years of involvement in the Perl6 project, share some of my favorite examples of Perl6 code from my talks over the years (and probably some new ones), provide hints on how to dive into the language, and take a look at what lies ahead.”

About Jonathon

Jonathan is a key contributor to Perl 6 development. He is the creator and architect of MoarVM, serves as a lead Rakudo Perl 6 developer, and has made extensive contributions to the object model, type system, and concurrency support.

Adzuna Join The Sponsors

02/11/15 12:42 by Mark Keating (‎mdk‎)

We are delighted to welcome Adzuna to our list of Sponsors for the London Perl Workshop. This is the first time we have had the pleasure of working with Adzuna and they are a great addition to our list of supporters:

Adzuna is a search engine for job ads used by over 7 million visitors per month that aims to list every job, everywhere. We search thousands of websites so our users don’t have to, bringing together millions of ads in one place. By providing smarter search options and powerful data about the job market, as well as unique tools like ValueMyCV, we give jobseekers the information they need to take control of their careers.

Our data also powers the Number 10 Dashboard, used by the Prime Minister and senior officials to keep track of economic growth on a daily basis.

Adzuna.co.uk was founded in 2011 by Andrew Hunter and Doug Monro, formerly of eBay, Gumtree, Qype and Zoopla and is backed by leading Venture Capital firms Passion Capital, The Accelerator Group and Index Ventures, and recently raised a further £2M from a successful crowdfunding campaign. Adzuna has also been selected to be part of the Government’s Future Fifty programme.

The Adzuna platform is proudly built using Perl and we're always on the lookout for smart developers to join our fantastic team. Please email perl@adzuna.com if you'd like to find out more.

Make sure that you take the time to say hello to Adzuna on the day of the event. You might like to visit their website or talk to them about a career.

2 Weeks Notice

22/10/15 09:34 by Mark Keating (‎mdk‎)

The London Perl Workshop call for papers will close on Friday 6th November 2015. That means you have just 2 weeks left to submit your talks for acceptance. There has already been a bunch of talks accepted as part of this year's early acceptance rule (talks link) and some more have been accepted this morning.

We are happy to announce that this year there are a bunch of sponsors returning to the workshop. So please make sure you use Social Media and your time on the day to say hi to the sponsors and thank them for their generous support. If you know of anyone who is still thinking of sponsoring the event this year then please ask them to contact me at their earliest convenience. There is always still time to sponsor the workshop.

The usual conference pre-event on the Friday night will this year be held at the Sports bar and Grill in Waterloo. Thanks to Rick Deller at Eligo for organising this event. We have a room and and festivities will commence from 6 p.m. (or earlier as it is a Friday night).

At this time we have no sponsor or event planned for Saturday night. This year is the first year in many that we haven't the services of Steve our Saturday Night orga. If anyone wants the task of arranging an after event function, with the associated 'thanks mate' reward then please contact me.

On the subject of volunteers I will be accepting names to help out on the day. As always there will be a small Shadowcat contingent who will be along and I have the usual list of suspects who have already offered help, but anyone else is very welcome.

The Event could use your help in promotion. If anyone has a meetup account (if the London Perl Mongueurs use such a thing) or similar and wishes to place the event onto that it would be greatly appreciated. We welcome people from all disciplines and languages and the broader the audience the better.

For those of you who are merely attending the event make sure that you register, state your donation preference (and this can be £0 but it helps us if you do this step) and pick what talks you think you'd like to see so we can start to judge numbers and room assignments.

As always I am looking forward to seeing you all on the day and please don't hesitate to contact me with any enquiry at m.keating@shadowcat.co.uk.

It's Christmassssssss.

Science Photo Library Return as Sponsors

15/10/15 10:35 by Mark Keating (‎mdk‎)

It is with great pleasure that we announce that Science Photo Library once again return to the London Perl Workshop as room sponsors. The Science Photo Library have been a constant advocate of the workshop for a number of years and it is always a great honour to have them represented at the event.

Science Photo Library provides striking scientific images and footage, unrivalled in quality, accuracy and depth of information. Their specialist and lifestyle material covers Healthcare, Science and Technology, Space, Environment, Animals, Plants and History.

For more than 30 years, Science Photo have worked with leading science and medical experts as well as acclaimed photographers to provide a central source for the best scientific imagery and footage available. With more than 400,000 images and 30,000 video clips to choose from, with hundreds of new additions added to the website each week. You can search, download and purchase material from the website or, if you want to save time, simply take advantage of the free expert research service.

"Perl has played a key part in our business. The Perl community has given assistance and help along the way. We are extremely proud to sponsor the 2015 London Perl Workshop."

Perl Careers Join the Sponsors for a Second Year

20/08/15 10:33 by Mark Keating (‎mdk‎)

It is always a great joy when a sponsor returns to sponsor us again and it is with pleasure that I can announce that Perl Careers will be sponsoring the conference for a second year in succession.

This year Perl Careers will be sponsoring the afternoon coffee break which has become a new tradition of giving all attendees a much needed drink in the afternoon and a second break for the hallway track.

Perl Careers is a Perl-focused recruitment consultancy, run by a CPAN contributor with a recruitment background, rather than by a non-technical person.

Pete can understand the skills you're looking to hire for, make sense of your GitHub profile, and offer specific Perl-related career and salary advice.

Pete is very picky about only:

Recruiting for companies he'd want to work at
Placing candidates who he'd want to work with
Pete would love to talk to you if you think you might be either.

If you're a candidate and you'd like a second pair of eyes on your CV or résumé, want a confidential run-down on a company you're thinking of applying for (whether or not we work with them), want some recommendations on what employers are looking for, or want to know if you're being paid properly, they would be happy to have an informal chat.

If you're a hiring manager and you'd like some advice on your job ads, some thoughts on free and paid channels for advertising for candidates, guidance on market salaries, or if you're non-technical and just need some help fleshing out what your actual requirements are, they would be happy to have a commitment free chat.

Most of the candidates Perl Careers place weren't actively looking for roles, and weren't available to traditional recruiters.

Many of the most rewarding companies to work for aren't actively looking to hire, but if a recruiter who understands the candidate's strengths and the company's needs puts them together, they'll find a place.

You can email Pete at: pete@perl.careers

Make sure to say hello to Pete on the day.

Evozon Sponsor the Morning Coffee Break

20/08/15 10:29 by Mark Keating (‎mdk‎)

It is a pleasure to announce that Evozon will return to the London Perl Workshop sponsors this year. Evozon have chosen to sponsor the morning coffee break which means all attendees will receive a free drink in the morning break.

Headquartered in Cluj Napoca, Romania, the Perl team at Evozon has over 70 developers, and are of very few companies in Romania that develop Perl web applications in-house for 10 years. We have in-depth experience developing Perl using a wide range of frameworks.

Evozon offers custom software solutions, business analysis and project management across the widest possible range of technologies and platforms for web and mobile.

Evozon is also actively involved in the development of the Perl community including creating and sponsoring the Cluj Perl Mongers group Cluj.pm (Cluj Perl Mongers Website), and YAPC Europe, London Perl Workshop, QA Hackathon, German Perl Workshop and contributing to CPAN.

If you want to learn more about Evozon or wish to get in touch with them, then please visit their homepage for more details. They are always on the lookout for bright Perl developers, so if you’re interested in a career move, check-out their careers page.

OUR SPONSORS

We have several sponsors who have already joined us at this time:

Eligo

We are a niche boutique recruitment consultancy with a team of dedicated Perl Consultants. We live and breathe our markets. In fact we like to think we are as passionate about the sector as those who work within it. If you want proof of it stop by and meet Rick Deller one of our Senior Perl Consultants.

Because we understand the market shifts, history and challenges, we are able to provide honest and accurate insight into the market in terms of new entrants to the market, company growth, new products, opportunities, candidate availability, salary surveys, industry standards, competitor information etc. We are able to find you the right person and/or job whether you are looking for-Permanent, Temporary and Fixed Term Contracts

We specialise in and have experience in recruiting Perl Specialists across a wide range of sectors, roles typically include: Junior Developers - Senior Developers - Lead Developers - DevOps - Development Managers - Head of IT Whether you are looking for a role or a candidate in the UK, Europe or US, we can help.

Enlightened Perl Organisation

The Enlightened Perl Organisation is dedicated to the promotion of Perl (in particular Raptor Perl or Perl 5) as a production language that is suited to an enterprise environment. The EPO will be providing banking and organisation facilities for the London Perl Workshop for the third year running.

FlossUK

FlossUK the new name for the UK's oldest open source user group (UKUUG). FlossUK have always been keen promoters of the workshop.

Geek University

Learn Perl with Geekuni. Geekuni is an institute providing online courses for learning to develop software using Perl. Every concept is presented in the context of a hands-on exercise and the completion of the course is a fully functional piece of software. Geekuni’s Perl courses take you all the way from writing a simple 'Hello World' script through to developing a search engine and an online game.

With immediate feedback, the community of students and a mentor, the Geekuni student can rapidly acquire real-world Perl coding skills. Each course provides a certificate of completion and a course description clearly defining the skills attained with a good job fit.

Magnum Solutions

Magnum Solutions are Open Source consultancy and training company based in London. Founded in 1995, they have provided Perl consultancy to companies from start-ups to media giants and investment banks.

The company is run by Dave Cross, founder of London Perl Mongers and a well-known figure in the Perl community. In 2004, Dave was awarded the White Camel for his services to Perl.

Magnum have run training courses at most London Perl Workshops. For more details of their in-house training courses or their upcoming public courses, please see their training web site.

Shadowcat Systems

Shadowcat Systems is a developer, sponsor of, and contributor to open source software projects including Catalyst, the elegant web framework, and DBIx::Class, an object-orientated database abstraction library. Shadowcat provides consultancy, training and support for these projects; systems management and automation; the design and implementation of network architecture; the development of proprietary and open source custom web applications; and offers Perl refactoring and project crisis management.

Shadowcat Systems are based in the United Kingdom but we deliver solutions to a global community of clients via onsite supervision along with traditional and internet based communications.

University of Westminster

As last year we are graciously being hosted by Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering (CSSE) at the University of Westminster. We cannot exaggerate how grateful we are for their support of Perl and Open Source in London.

We are looking for new sponsors each year and new ways in which to enhance their profile and further our event. So please do not hesitate to contact us with a sponsorship idea.

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