News

Food and Drink Event

21/11/16 11:15 by Mark Keating (‎mdk‎)

This year the after-event social at the London Perl Workshop will be an extra special undertaking. Sponsored by Perl Careers we will be welcomed at The Lukin on Conway Street for an evening of food and drink.

There is a generous buffet consisting of:

Assorted freshly made sandwiches
Pitta pizzas
Bbq chicken wings
Pitta bread a dips (v)
Vegetable Samosas (v)
Chips (v)
Nachos
Fish Goujons
Scotch Eggs
Chicken Skewers
Sticky Bbq Ribs
Goats Cheese Crostini
Chicken Liver Pate Crostini

Pete has also provided a generous pot of funds behind the bar which should easily buy every attendee at least one drink (if not several dependent on how many of us manage to attend).

The Lukin is self described as:

"At the base of the BT Tower, in the heart of Fitzrovia you’ll find ‘The Lukin’.
Opened in October 2008, The Lukin is a small, unassuming, owner managed pub.
We try our utmost to cater for your every need, to provide a superior service
in a relaxed and comfortable setting."

Please make sure to thank Pete on the day and raise your glasses in a toast to him and Perl Careers for their sponsorship and continued support of the London perl Workshop and the Perl community.

On the Subject of WiFi

17/11/16 14:25 by Mark Keating (‎mdk‎)

There is a tradition, or maybe it is an old charter, at the London Perl Workshop of us not providing WiFi preferring to allow our guests to immerse themselves in the talks of the day. Yes, dear readers, we were suppurating in an antediluvian daydream.

For in these newly-fangled times, with connectivity layered on the world via microwave blanket and portable smart devices, we are barely out of a 3G/4G safety net making mockery to such high flung ideals. So, this being understood, we have flung them and engaged in conversation both high and lowly.

In the next logical step of this process we have allowed sponsors Eligo and CV Library to secure some WiFi passes for the day. They will be handing these out liberally to anyone with a name and an email address on the morning (and maybe through the day) of the event.

Rumour has it that 100 happy souls will have a daily pass to Eduroam, but rumours have been known to be misguided and there may be some stolen by overly-zealous organisers. For those of you that get access, use it wisely. With internet access comes almost a reduction in zero to responsibility.

Pre-Event Social

15/11/16 18:44 by Mark Keating (‎mdk‎)

In the tradition of many technical events of yore, and of long standing stead in the London Perl Workshop annals I present to you the pre-Event Social.

This year the wonderful Rick Deller, London.pm Leader, LPW Organiser-in-waiting and Eligo Oligarch* has booked us a space in the Smuggler's Tavern.

Starting from 18:00 on Friday 2nd December, though get there early if you want to, and running until the last few stragglers leave. The pub is self-described as a 'Charming Independent' purveyor of foamy beers in the 'Heart of Fitzrovia'. To our celebrated palates there is at least a broad selection of frothy substances.

The Smuggler's Tavern is better known for its rum cocktails which you will no doubt wish to at least discuss, though our erstwhile leader will be trying at least a Black Mojito.

We hope to see a goodly number of you there and make sure you don't allow Messers Evans and Keating to imbue too many drinks as they are both on, in another fine tradition, in the early morning.

The Smuggler's Tavern Website

* Not really but it sounded way cooler than Eligo Elite/ist

Perl Careers Return as a Special Event Sponsor

19/09/16 11:51 by Mark Keating (‎mdk‎)

Welcome Back

Once again it is an enormous pleasure to have Perl Careers return as sponsors for this year’s LPW. Pete has been a great community contributor and coder for many years and now in his additional life as a specialist recruitment consultant he is able to further his support with the sponsoring of a number of Perl events.

Pete’s support of the London Perl Workshop has been tremendous and this year he is sponsoring a very special event (announced soon) that will show his passion for not only the event but the people who attend the event.

A Little Bit About Perl Careers

"Perl Careers - Perl recruitment done right"

Perl Careers is a Perl-focused recruitment consultancy, run by a CPAN contributor with a recruitment background. I 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.

I am very picky about only:

Recruiting for companies I'd want to work at

Placing candidates who I'd want to work with

I'd love to talk to you if you think you might be either.

In any case:

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, I'd 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, I'd be happy to have a commitment free chat.

You can email me at: pete@perl.careers

Opus VL Sponsor the Morning Coffee

19/09/16 10:45 by Mark Keating (‎mdk‎)

Welcome Back

It is a pleasure to announce that OpusVL have returned to the 2016 London Perl Workshop and will be sponsoring the morning coffee break.

The morning coffee is an essential part of the workshop as it feeds naturally into the hallway track that many of our attendees fondly love (and to some is the only reason to attend). If you like coffee, tea or soft drinks and talking to fellow tech people then you can thank OpusVL for enabling your desires.

A Little About OpusVL

Founded in January 2000, OpusVL have established themselves as one of the UK’s leading business systems, ICT and Open Source specialists providing best of breed, strategic and bespoke solutions.

The company’s key strength is its straightforward approach, which is achieved by following a simple, yet effective method for every project: advice, implement, support, using an agile approach coupled with innovation as the cornerstone of every project.

Opus VL Sponsor the Morning Coffee

19/09/16 10:45 by Mark Keating (‎mdk‎)

Welcome Back

It is a pleasure to announce that OpusVL have returned to the 2016 London Perl Workshop and will be sponsoring the morning coffee break.

A Little About OpusVL

Founded in January 2000, OpusVL have established themselves as one of the UK’s leading business systems, ICT and Open Source specialists providing best of breed, strategic and bespoke solutions.

Eligo Return as Media Sponsors

19/09/16 10:26 by Mark Keating (‎mdk‎)

Welcome Back

Once again it is an enormous pleasure to announce that Eligo have returned to the London Perl Workshop as our media sponsors. Eligo have been with the event for a number of years and Rick Deller, the Perl Community Liaison at Eligo, has become a prominent member of the London Perl Community.

Eligo will be available for a chat at the event and will no doubt run a competition alongside their other activities.

A Little Bit about Eligo

Eligo 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.

Because Eligo 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.

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, Eligo can help.

Perl 6 Community and Room Sponsors

15/09/16 14:12 by Mark Keating (‎mdk‎)

It is a pleasure to once again welcome the Developers and members of the Perl6 community as they return to the workshop as attendees, speakers and sponsors. As in previous years the Perl6 community contributes to the workshop both as community sponsors and by financially sponsoring a workshop room.

This is a great year for Perl6 and their strong association with the London Perl Workshop is something of which we are proud. Last year in celebration of the Perl6C release we had a Theme of A Perly Christmas and I hope that there will be a number of Perl6 workshops and talks at this year’s event.

Fresh Blood: The New LPW Team

17/08/16 10:33 by Mark Keating (‎mdk‎)

After 10 years at the helm of the London Perl Workshop I am standing down as solo lead organiser. My decision was made with a great deal of hard thought and a realisation. I had done what I personally could with the event, it was time for fresh faces, fresh thinking and a new team to take it forward.

During the closing notes of 2015 I told the audience of my decision. I showed them an image of a flooded street near my house. Not two weeks before the LPW2015 I had to abandon my home and decamp to family as the power failed and the waters drowned my home city. It was a week of no power and lots of uncertainty. It made me realise that you cannot plan for everything, unforeseen events can happen, but you can make the best efforts to put in place the best response to uncertainty.

My best response was not to replace myself with one person, another me. I knew I needed to put forward a team, a group of people who would take the task on. So I asked for volunteers, and I received them. I would like to introduce you to the team. I asked them to do so in their own words, where that wasn’t possible, and where it was funny, I added some of my own.

Neil Bowers (NEILB on CPAN)

Neil has been using Perl since 1992, both for fun and profit. He’s stuck with Perl not only because it seems to fit his brain, but also because the community around Perl is so good.

A little known fact about Neil was his appearance in Lester’s 1984 seminal action flick Commando starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. Neil was the stunt armpit for Rae Dawn Chong during the Mall scene and a replacement wig manipulator for Alyssa Milano in the film’s action finale.

PerlRick (Rick Deller)

Rick Deller is an Open Source Recruitment Specialist and the Head of Eligo Technology leading a team of highly talented recruitment consultants specialising in Perl, Python, Ruby, PHP, Java Microsoft technologies all things Linux.

Using his extensive recruitment experience, Rick specialises in and has particular success in working with clients to place those hard to fill roles. Recruiting for all levels within Open Source, he has placed 1st line support positions right up to CTO, as well as developers across the board from Junior to Senior Developer.

Rick has worked extensively with the Open Source and Perl communities giving talks and presentations at sector meet-ups, as well as leading industry events such as London Perl Workshop, YAPC:EU, Dynamic Language Conference at FLOSSUK.

Having placed Eligo Technology at the forefront of the Open Source recruitment market Rick uses his extensive knowledge and expertise to understand both the client and candidate expectations in the recruitment process.

"My dream is to see the Perl community grow and develop young talent,
I also would love to work with the community to encourage start-ups
to use Perl and see Perl 6 be a force to be reckoned with."

Rick is a black belt 8th Dan in Karate and Ju-Jitsu. When not involved with the London recruitment scene he can be found bare chested on a beach fighting girl guides in grudge matches. A world class cage fighter, cub-scout mauler and bear wrestler he has also been nominated for 16 awards for his work as on-screen double to Meryl Streep.

Peter Sergeant

Pete has been a long standing member of the Perl community for more years than his boyish looks suggest. Like many programmers Pete started in the community while still a teenager and attended early Perl conferences while young. These days he splits his time between programming and helping find other programmers and companies rewarding employment partnerships. Pete is also a returning sponsor of the London Perl Workshop and we are hugely grateful for the support he has given to the event over the last few years.

Pete is also the recipient of the Perl Camel-Smile Award for a glorious twentieth year, lives in a palatial beach hut in the South China Sea with a cadre of well-trained attack marmosets. A natural polymath, ape-tamer, kangaroo-whisperer, Pete also speaks 600 languages, has 19,000 hobbies, visited Mars and invented the word aubergine as a description for his favourite aunt. His autobiography ‘God I’m Gorgeous’ will be available just as soon as I ghost write it.

Smylers

Despite living in Leeds and not seeing the irony of having a dog with no collar Smylers was the first person to ~~actively commit hari kari~~ offer his services as a member of an organising team ~~lose his flipping mind~~ for LPW. It is of no small amusement that it was a fellow northerner and remote-organiser who got in there first.

A busy, but active, community member with a strong family life Smylers also enjoys small notoriety for the unusual places he can wedge Perl into, we have been used as a question on a TV show only by his devious efforts. Being a northerner from Yorkshire he also wears a flat cap for 90% of the day taking it off only to shower his whippets and cast it loftily into the air when a racing pigeon returns home. As is often noted by the phalanx of followers he calls his harem ‘eee there’s nowt sexier than a bare chested lad with t’ cap on. Makes thee blakey and you get kittles all ov’r’.

Magnum Solutions Return as Workshop Sponsors

17/08/16 09:56 by Mark Keating (‎mdk‎)

There are some things that you know you can always rely on but it would be a mistake to take them for granted. Dave Cross and Magnum Solutions providing quality training, presentations and talks at the London Perl Workshop fits neatly into that description. In fact Dave maybe a singular definition of the word reliable and I would personally throw in steadfast, humourous, entertaining, friendly and quality as almost-superlatives to always be associated.

Dave is a stalwart member of the London Perl landscape and his influence on it cannot be easily measured, so it is an enormous pleasure when he once again returns with vim and vigour to the London Perl Workshop.

As in every other year Dave will be presenting a classroom lecture, talks and probably lightning talks at the event. The lecture (always fun and always popular) is detailed below. There are other duties and tasks that Dave performs in the community and connected to the event that only the organisers and helpers really get to see and his consistency and enthusiasm is a blessing.

It is a personal privilege that Dave has sponsored his time, efforts, ceaseless support as a sponsor and a friend during my tenure as organiser of the London Perl Workshop and a great honour to have him return in my final year.

Modern Perl Catch-Up

You're a busy person. How on earth are you supposed to keep up to date with everything that's going on in the Perl world? Every new release (and they happen relentlessly - every year) seems to have important changes to the language and if you don't keep up you'll run the risk of using last season's trendy new operator.

Give me two hours of your time and I'll give you an overview of everything you need to know about what has changed in Perl in the last few years. I'll even give you some tips on how you might keep up to date a little more easily in the future.

Geek University Return as Workshop Sponsors

16/08/16 10:49 by Mark Keating (‎mdk‎)

Continuing their close association with the London Perl Workshop for another year Geek University will be running two practical workshops at this year’s event. The courses run by Andrew Solomon will be introductory lessons in Perl and the popular Perl framework Dancer.

As a bonus to completing either course you'll get two free weeks to continue your studies at Geekuni.

This is a great chance to introduce someone new to Perl, or to learn a new framework for those already experienced. The courses will run on the day of the workshop alongside our regular presentations.

Crash course on Perl, the Universe and Everything

In this class software developers will learn what Perl 5 is, and how to use it for everything from scripts to web services. They will understand how it is evolving as a language, and why there are new projects based on it.

Ultimately, the attendees will decide whether they too have Prognostic Evidence of Regressive Laziness. It will be a hands-on training session going from "Hello World" to experimentation with: