Ripples

Michael: 00:00

Hello, and welcome back. This is episode 8 of ripples. I am your cohost, Michael Dyrynda. And joined with me as always is the lovely, the hairless, Greg Skerman.

Greg: 00:11

I'm always hairless, mate. What are you talking about? I haven't had hair in well, let's not talk about that.

Michael: 00:17

Alright. So, good, good couple of, episodes that we've had now with some guests. We had Aaron Francis on, we had Richard Jackson on. We have another guest lined up for next episode. But this week, we thought we would just sit down and touch base on where we're at with our own things, probably more specifically, Greg.

Michael: 00:36

But I have some progress on our current AU branding for this year as well to talk about, not just the branding, but, like, the whole conference persona, I suppose, if if you wanna use some kind of marketing terminology to talk about where we're at. So Nucleus, who are our branding partner for Laracon Australia, are putting together the finishing touches on website and marketing bits and pieces and all of that kind of stuff. But I do have some vague details to talk about. Still no venue announcement at this stage, but, Yeah. We can we can talk a little bit about in more detail as far as what the the conference is gonna look like this year and just just what we're trying to achieve in terms of providing the the networking opportunities and and the connectedness around the event, not just like the 2 conference days themselves.

Michael: 01:28

But, before we we dip into all of that, Greg, how have you been with your your rippling?

Greg: 01:35

Yeah. It's been, it's a funny time of year, actually. I think, you know, everyone's coming into budget season. So there's a lot of people who are interested in talking, but they're not necessarily in putting their hand in their wallet at the

Michael: 01:45

Mhmm.

Greg: 01:47

At the moment. So I'm actually caught up with a, a former colleague that I used to work with back at ARUP, which is a big international consulting engineering firm that I worked in for a long while. Mhmm. And he he runs he runs a consultancy, himself now and has, you know, a relatively large engineering team. Within that, we sit down for coffee and had a talk, and that kind of prompted me to actually put a right guide together because so far, everything has just been a dirty spreadsheet.

Greg: 02:22

Yeah. Boots dropping stuff. So put a bit of effort into into a rate guide, which kind of really helped coalesce some of the things that I wanna be talking about, which was good, because it kind of it lets me have a consistent message when I'm talking to people. It gives us, like, this stuff that I do. This is the stuff that I don't do.

Greg: 02:44

Like Mhmm. You know, I'm not gonna be your CTO for hire. I'm just here for coaching and specifically coaching in these areas. So that was really good. I've had I've got a couple of clients now that are kinda getting very close to the end of their engagement and winding up.

Greg: 03:04

At least one of them may turn into a renewal. I'm I'm hoping that that will be the case. Right. We've had some really, really productive conversations. It's been mutually beneficial, I think, to have those chats because his particular challenges, challenges that I've probably definitely faced in the past but haven't faced recently.

Greg: 03:27

So it's sort of Mhmm. Forcing me to reach back into the bag of tricks and put myself in the shoes of what would slightly earlier at ISA Point Greg be doing, versus 7 years on. Yeah. So that was that that's that's going really well. I've got some great feedback as well from from the people I've been working with, which is which is awesome.

Greg: 03:50

And we've also sort of tend gently, to this whole thing. We've got a new sponsor for the Brisbane Laravel Meetup, and we've we've teed that up. I'll be speaking at the Brisbane Laravel Meetup, sort of maybe potentially, trialing a talk that I have submitted for Laracon AU. It wouldn't be the exact same talk, but just to kind of, like Yeah. See how some ideas, work.

Greg: 04:21

And it looks like it's gonna be a big one. So there'll be plenty of networking opportunities there to see whether or not, anyone needs a hand. The topic's kind of well, it's all public knowledge, I guess. The topic's actually looking at the first habit that I spoke about in at Laracon AU and digging into that deeply. One of the one of the challenges I've had and it's it's also become a bit of a hook is that because the talk was 7 things in 30 minutes.

Greg: 04:48

Right? The the it's like a couple of minutes per thing. So there's a there's a lot of what I think you should be doing, but not a lot of how I think you should be doing it. So that's kind of, people have come up to me and said, well, how do you that sounds really interesting. How do you do that thing?

Greg: 05:04

And this this talk's kind of digging a little bit more into how do you work in small steps, like, some specific strategies to go about Yeah. About doing that because it's really easy to say, hey. You should work in small steps. You should commit at least like, everyone should be committing daily. All of us daily commit should be going into production.

Michael: 05:25

Mhmm.

Greg: 05:25

But how you actually do that? It's easy to say. It's not easy to do. So

Michael: 05:30

Yeah.

Greg: 05:30

Going through Yeah.

Michael: 05:31

Actually, I I saw a bit of commentary and feedback on your talk specifically around, you know, it's it's great to stand on stage and give a talk about this, but to to actually be able to give context and and to dive deep on these things is is a good idea as well. And and it gives you some stuff to kind of go deep on and to show that these are not just very high level things. These are actual lived experiences that, you know, we have actually done these things, and this is how we've got there, which, you know, in the context of a 30 minute talk, is not really something that you can go deep on if you wanna, you know, hit all your points. And I had someone someone submitted this year, for 2024 to speak, and they're like, you know, here's 10 plus things. I'm like, no.

Michael: 06:16

No. No. You need to you need to narrow it down. This this kind of talk, I think Geoffrey Way has actually said this kind of stuff in the past where the the kind of talks that are really great to give at at conferences in a lot of situations is, like, here are 5 things that you can do with Laravel or here are 5 things you can do with form requests. You know, that kind of stuff to pick out 5 key things.

Michael: 06:39

And if you have 10 ideas, that's great. But pick the 5 really good ones. Because you found last year that 7 was hard to cram in.

Greg: 06:46

Yeah. 7 was ambitious. And, I mean, it it's only 7 because I was playing on the book title. Right? I was you know, it was, you know, if I had said 6 habits, it kind of would have thought, like I think don't don't think it would have, seemed as appealing because it was pretty obvious what Right.

Greg: 07:03

You know, in the talk title, like, what I was getting at. But it was it was ambitious, and it took a lot of refinement. I think my first pass at that talk was, like, an hour and a half. So I had to take an hour and a half for the content and Yeah. Distillating the half an hour, which I I think gives people a taste.

Greg: 07:19

And I think it's, you know, I hope that the message I got across was that we're actually doing this. This is actually possible. Here is a little bit of evidence that shows that we're doing this. But, it the stuff that hit the cutting room floor was the how. Because, like

Michael: 07:33

Yeah.

Greg: 07:34

I could probably talk for 2 hours on how you build continuous deployment pipelines. It's it's a big in in and of itself is a massive topic.

Michael: 07:43

Each of these things are their own topic, their own conference talk, you know. Yeah. Even, like, if you are creative, you could look at Greg's talk from last year and you could poach one of those 7 ideas and dive deeper into it and submit that as your own talk. So yeah. I think I think there's definitely opportunities there, you know, to to build on, to extrapolate from, to, you know, steal and and and augment and submit your own talk on the back.

Michael: 08:08

You know, Greg said something really interesting or another speaker said something really interesting about this in passing. Pull out a whole other other topic of, you know, presentation there

Greg: 08:17

as well. So And look at our our way of doing it, and my way of doing it is just one way of doing it. There are, like, probably I mean, even if I was to, like, and I'll go a couple of talks in for Laracon AU right now. I don't know if any of them will get selected or if the one that I recently posted will get selected. Who knows?

Greg: 08:34

But even if that tool did get selected, again, in half an hour, I'm just gonna be talking about the specific strategies that worked for us, in that space. Mhmm. But that's not to say that I that other people might not have different ideas, might not have competing ideas or even conflicting ideas on that. And I'm all about it. I want I wanna know better ways of approaching.

Greg: 08:55

My my sort of view on this stuff is that at the moment, this is my best understanding of how to build software and how to build a live quarantine. But I don't know that it's the only way or the best way, generally. I don't think anyone does. So, you know, the more ideas that you can get out there, even if they complete opposition and I mean, I think, you know, I didn't so much see it at Laroc and IU, but haven't seen it at conferences before where you you always have 2 speakers back to back who are saying completely the opposite things. And they're all like Yeah.

Greg: 09:20

And that's kind of really interesting because you're seeing both sides of that that conversation. So, like, there's no there's no, like, set narrative here where everyone's, like, agreeing with each other. And I think that that disagreement is useful.

Michael: 09:32

Yeah. I I think the disagreement is useful. It gives people, you know, perspectives of both sides of the aisle or, you know, multiple angles of the of the same thing, you know, looking around a a center client. Everyone kind of with their own own view of that thing. I think it's a it it can be good, but it's a fine line to walk, especially when you don't know exactly what speakers are gonna say necessarily.

Michael: 09:58

You know, you put 2 talks up against each other that are conflicting or competing or, you know, opposite sides of the spectrum. And it's like, you know, is there going to be we we had a couple of years ago, a couple of talks, that that, like, I didn't think much of it at the time, but, you know, there were a couple of talks that kind of lent on each other a little bit, that that had to deal with post conference. So it was, yeah, it's always a delicate thing to to do. And it depends on, you know, who's presenting and and and how they present it in in terms of how that goes. So

Greg: 10:34

I think also too, like, in a 30 minute talk and I so I tweeted, off the back of one of your posts about submission submitting that, you know, even though I I don't have any sway on anyone getting a getting a slot, that's a 100% Michael's world. But I want everyone to have the opportunity if they've got to talk. So if people are sitting on the fence about it, I I sort of opened my DMs and said, hey. Just reach out. And and someone did reach out, and, I had a couple of people reach out actually, which is probably an interesting topic myself.

Greg: 11:05

But one of them sort of asking and and gave me, like, a list of talk ideas that he had. They all sound really great. But in my opinion, in a 30 minute talk, there's there's 2 peep there's there's 2 groups that you really need to get the attention of. The first group is Michael. You need to get his attention in the brief.

Greg: 11:19

Otherwise, like, if it's not, you know, if it doesn't seem interesting or exciting, it could be the most interesting and exciting talk possible. If it's not, it's not gonna get selected. And then you have to hook the audience. And one way one surefire way of doing this is to be a bit edgy, be a little bit controversial, be a little bit opinionated. And that kind of does mean that in some regards, you will create some division in the audience.

Greg: 11:42

And I don't think that's a bad thing. I actually think that's that's something you actually you want people to think. Right? You want people to be, you know, to get mad. And then I'm gonna go talk to that guy after the talk, and I'm gonna it's that kind of thing where that gets people to listen.

Greg: 11:53

I think people will listen to something that they're more challenged by than something that's kind of like Yeah. You know, a dry talk on the specific mechanics of test driven development or whatever. That's been done like a thousand times before, and it's no longer a contractual. So yeah. I mean, I think

Michael: 12:08

And the specific mechanics of test driven development are pretty much established. You know, there are different tools to to get there, but it's like, we don't necessarily like to go and watch any of those things. The Yeah. As you say, it's not being challenged is a good thing. Learning things is obviously, you know, a a big part of what people expect out of conference talks, but being challenged on on your understanding of the world is, you know, we we had the the accessibility talks.

Michael: 12:32

We had Hadama last year talk about, you know, willfully introducing friction into your applications as, like, you know, it really was challenging your assumptions about what friction is and when it can actually be used for good. So, you know, those kinds of things are always interesting. So if you've got, you know, what you might consider challenging or controversial, like, these are all things. I don't I don't know what the conference looks like until I have all of the submissions in front of me, and I try and piece together something that is that is technical, that is that is soft, that is, like, cohesive. That, like, sometimes there will be talks that lean one one off the other.

Michael: 13:10

You know, we had the front end accessibility talk, but we also had the back end accessibility talk last year just to kind of see different, again, perspectives of the same kind of topic. So don't and and, you know, we spoke about this with Risa. Don't let the fact that you are not you don't consider yourself an expert in the field stop you from presenting a topic. You know, it's it could be your take. It could be your position.

Michael: 13:35

It could be your understanding. It could be your enthusiasm that really sells something to people. So, even even something like LiveWire, which I know that you've been diving into now. Like, people didn't get that when Caleb first shipped it. You know, he saw this thing called Phoenix LiveView and he's like, we can build that for Laravel and he built it and he demoed it.

Michael: 13:51

And everyone was like, this is amazing, but it's not for me. And here we are, you know, 7 years later, 6 years later, and it's, like, really popular. And especially with some of the controversy and like for back end developers like me, you know, you and I had this discussion just last night. You know, I don't want to ship in the tool chain and learn, you know, other front end technologies when I want to build what realistically amounts to a fancy CRUD application, where all I'm doing is creating some records, updating some records, deleting some records. I don't I don't need to build on build in this whole other tool chain.

Michael: 14:29

So being able to just stay in something that I'm familiar with for those situations is really handy. So

Greg: 14:36

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's I mean, I I was definitely in that camp. I was definitely the, not for me. That's crazy.

Greg: 14:43

You know? I'm I'm old enough to remember doing similar things by hand in jQuery where you would make a request to a server, extract a piece of HTML from a document, and then stitch it back in. Mhmm. But, yeah, I've I've I've I I definitely have been playing around with it for a little while. Just, I mean, you know, and I was speaking to Josh Josh Hanley about it actually yesterday because I was stuck in a 5 plus years of playing around React has kind of, like, twisted my my thinking on the front end in a particular way.

Greg: 15:17

Mhmm. Mhmm. And and Josh has basically just said to me, think of it like Blade Plus. Like, stop thinking of it as a front end framework. I could think of it more as blade plus on sprinklers, which Yeah.

Greg: 15:29

When you kind of think that way, I mean, you yeah. It it it tends to make a little bit more sense. By the way, I I still think I'm doing it very, very poorly because I think I I I bring a lot a lot of front end development baggage, to the party which, things aren't working the way that I expect them to, but that's not that's not Livewire's fault. That's just 5 years of being deep in React. Yep.

Greg: 15:51

But yeah. I mean Absolutely. Again, these these sort of get back to the point. I I think, yeah, a bit of controversy in your talk is good, but that kind of also means that you you know, I've said it before that the 30 minute talk is gonna be reductive. It's gonna be it's not gonna be a big it's not gonna be a deep dive.

Greg: 16:08

It can't be. And, you know, a conference full of 30 minute talks is really a conference full of slightly longer than lightning talks, really. And that's not a bad thing. Yeah. I'm trying to introduce as many ideas we can in in the shortest amount of time possible.

Greg: 16:24

But, yeah, again, I I think me being able to mine into that and see whether or not there's, you know, another talk or, you know, because I have to build a talk for it. I'm producing content anyway. And, you know, if it doesn't go anywhere, then it's a pile of blog posts or a pile of LinkedIn posts or, you know, other it help me refine it it will help me refine my thinking when I'm actually coaching people on this stuff as well. So I can, I can I can, you know, perhaps deliver answers to difficult questions which means people get more value for their money, in the time that they're spending with me? So

Michael: 16:57

Yeah. That's the other thing. You know, learning or or teaching something, you know, standing standing in front of an audience and teaching them something helps to reinforce the idea for yourself as well and and, you know, really, solidify your understanding of that topic. So, you know, even if even if it's something that is new to you, keep at it. You're gonna dig into it.

Michael: 17:18

You're gonna learn about it so that you can put together a really informative talk. And that's what you end

Greg: 17:23

up with. And as you say, you don't

Michael: 17:25

have to put heaps of time. Right. Exactly. Don't have to put heaps of time into it. You don't have to have a fully baked talk, just an idea.

Michael: 17:32

And you have to have enough of an idea to sell that to, you know, whether it's me as the conference organiser or any other conference that you happen to submit to, that, you know, this is the one that you should pick. And then you've got heaps of lead time to then put that together.

Greg: 17:46

Yeah. For sure. Yeah. That's kinda where we're at with with with my my ripples. It hasn't been it hasn't been, amazing from a financial front, but there's definitely, there's definitely green shoots there.

Greg: 17:57

I think time of year is is is a big thing. I mean Mhmm. We're sort of very close to the end of the Australian financial year. We do have to say Australian financial year because as it turns out, people in 25 countries listen to this now, which is a little bit mind blowing. So, you know, people's budgets are a little bit stretched.

Greg: 18:16

And so it's a good time to get ahead. If you're in the consulting space, it's a good time to get ahead and for sort of July, so that, you know, you're considered at the front end of people's budgets, not at the back end where people are trying to make Yeah. Very small amount of money, last until the end of the year so they can hit their financial goals. Yeah. I think, yeah, I think next financial year will be will be pretty big for me on that front.

Greg: 18:40

That there's there's definitely a lot of opportunity there. And yeah. Other than that, just focusing down on some ideas for I wanna get a couple more, talks submitted if I can. I've got a few ideas rolling around in my head. And then getting on with, hopefully, getting on with preparing a talk for 2024.

Greg: 19:02

So on that, you've got some some stuff to share. How's your stuff been going, mate?

Michael: 19:09

My stuff has been going, very well. So we we teased on Twitter some of the branding. So so we've launched with, like, this brown and yellow kind of placeholder branding.

Greg: 19:23

We we

Michael: 19:23

are we are not using anything quite I mean, if you saw the branding from last year, which was like full color, you know, the whole the whole rainbow. We are we are not gonna go back to just, like, in a lie, basically. So, we we as I said, I think I've said previously, we are we are all in on this make waves idea, you know, kind of building on from what became the unofficial kind of theme of of 2023 in in ripples. And and so that's like all all same ahead at the moment. So Nucleus, as I said at the top of the show, is is just working through some some of the finer aspects of the the brand launch and and the website launch.

Michael: 20:04

We'll have some details around tickets, when tickets will go on sale, as well at that point. But everything the the full the full breakdown of, obviously, where it is, we know when it is. It's the 7th 8th November. We know it's in Brisbane. But we'll have all the details around when tickets go on sale, when where where it is the venue, which I'm I'm very excited about.

Michael: 20:27

It's a it's a great spot. Get, get on the website, laracon.au if you wanna know more. Submissions are still open. If, if you're still, you know, we've talked about it last couple of episodes. We're always looking for ideas.

Michael: 20:41

The submissions are open still until 17th May. So plenty of time to come up with an idea or 2 and and send that through. But, yeah, we've got a we've got a bigger venue this year. We're we're looking at, like, 30% bigger or something like that than than what we were last year, 25, 30%. So, more room for more people.

Michael: 21:00

We're we're packing way more in. We've said before that we're catering both days. We're doing after dark on Thursday. We're doing, a networking event straight after the conference on Friday. Plan to arrive early.

Michael: 21:12

Plan to leave late. Bring your family. Brisbane's a really nice place for getting around with your family. There's lots of stuff to do, you know. Bluey's World opens, depending on who you ask, in August or the week of Laracon.

Michael: 21:24

So it might be a bit of a bit of a madhouse there. But, if you've got young kids, Bluey's World is a great place to be. Now down the road to to the Gold Coast, can't complain there. We are very much in the heart of the CBD. So very easy to get there, accommodation nearby.

Michael: 21:40

And we're putting together all kinds of things in terms of, we'll have discounts for the air train as well. So getting from the airport to the CBD will be will be easy. And then, you know, where can you go if you wanna eat or drink or hang out? We're gonna have stuff on Wednesday night for attendees. We're just trying to figure out exactly how we kind of, quote, unquote, ticket that.

Michael: 22:02

Just more from a logistics perspective for the venue So they know, you know, how many people to expect and how many staff to have on and things like that. So the, the ticket purchase form will be a bit more comprehensive this year in terms of, like, we're gonna ask you we're actually gonna ask questions. We wanna try and get some demographic data as well because, know, it's nice to have that information so we know, you know, for this year, what kind of people are are there for next year. You know, what kind of talks do we need to aim for? What kind of topics?

Michael: 22:31

What kind of skill levels are we targeting? You know, it's it's obviously difficult. We we could put together a Laracon in terms of, you know, this is what it looks and it feels like. But in terms of the audience in specific, you know, if we pour out a heap of advanced topics in there, is that gonna be good for, you know, a mostly junior audience? Last year, we had a lot of first timers.

Michael: 22:53

Whether or not there were, like, new people or just new to the conference is, you know, un unclear. So don't don't, get upset when you see this this wall of questions when you when you submit. I will try and keep them short and easy to answer, multiple choice and things like that. So, yeah. We've got a combination, discounts organized with one primary venue, which will be about 5 minutes from the venue.

Michael: 23:20

And then, second one, which is a little bit further away and then a whole bunch of other places if you wanna stay in other parts that are sort of, you know, comfortably walking distance, but, you know, a little bit further further afield that are close to the venue, that are close to, you know, train stations and things like that. So, heaps and heaps and heaps of stuff that we're gonna do. You know, try and make this as action packed and as, you know, socially energised energetic energized as possible. So, yeah, keep your eyes out. I think sometime next week, like, this week in the context of, like, when you hear this episode, we will have more details out in the wild.

Michael: 24:00

So we're just scratching to the finish line there on the on the website. So yeah. Yeah. Twitter, LinkedIn, if that's where you wanna follow. Subscribe updates on the website.

Michael: 24:11

You will be the 1st to know when this stuff happens. And make sure you go onto our Twitter and look at the branding video that we shared. Watch it all the way to the end. Right?

Greg: 24:26

Yeah. I I I do know where the location is. And, like, connectivity wise, it's really, really great. I mean, I know from some of the guys in my team that came to Sydney last year, It was a fair hike for them to get from their hotel just because of where, Monkey Bar was. They're like, there's public transport on the doorstep of this this place.

Greg: 24:50

It's near a bunch of great sort of local watering holes, fantastic local food. I mean, Brisbane's got Brisbane kind of got a bit of a stealth, foodie scene and bar scene and cafe scene. So, kind of ticks all the boxes there, which is really good. Excited to see people come to my hometown. It'd be it'd be it'd be great.

Greg: 25:19

I'm hoping to be able to send my whole team. This is not a promise if anyone from my team is listening, but there's definitely there is definitely a proposal forward to, to try and bring bring everyone along. So, any any of the other businesses in Brisbane, you know, it it's kinda rare in PHP conference space for Brisbane to get, like, a marquee conference like this. Usually, you've gotta go to Sydney and Melbourne. So, it's a good opportunity to come out of the woodwork and socialize and listen to some great talks.

Greg: 25:54

And, yeah, it's gonna be I think it's gonna be huge. Definitely, from what I've heard, it's gonna be big, like, twice as big as as last year in terms of just

Michael: 26:04

And you haven't heard, like, you heard some stuff that you haven't heard as you have. So, yeah, I'm I'm very, very much looking forward to to to putting this on this. Yeah. I'm I'm excited to get up to Brisbane for a week and and check it out. We have I have locked in multiple speakers already.

Michael: 26:25

So keep submitting. We still got 12 slots to to hand out to to people. You know, trying to trying to kind of I know that, you know, submissions are open until 17th, and I'm not gonna pick all of the speakers before then. But I'm picking a number of speakers that I know are are gonna get people excited about the conference and and get them to to sort of come and and see what we're all about. So I've also been pretty excited by some of the I've been keeping an eye on the the subscribers for for the mailing list.

Michael: 26:59

I'm just kind of excited to see the kinds of businesses, you know, that are Brisbane local. So, you know, we are touching on a lot of a lot of businesses in Brisbane that do seem or in Queensland that do seem to use Laravel. So it's exciting to be able to meet them and and, you know, establish those connections with those people as well, which, you know, we had a we had a lot of people that were in Sydney purely because I think the event was in Sydney. And, you know, hopefully, those people will come and come and travel up to Brisbane. It's it's not as as bad as you think it is.

Michael: 27:32

It's it's quite lovely. And, the people there are lovely and and and the, the whole experience is pretty nice as well. So, yeah, definitely definitely looking forward to it. I'm I'm looking forward to not have to talk in vague terms and and, like, be very cautious about what I say and how I say it because I know that that Steven Ray Scott is is always trying to scope out where this venue is. So,

Greg: 27:57

yeah.

Michael: 27:59

I'm glad to not have to be so careful about what I say.

Greg: 28:03

Yeah. Yeah. I, he's a mess for sure.

Michael: 28:12

I got, oh, I tweeted about this the other day. I got them. You can hear it rough from here. I got my little, my little handcuffs ready to go.

Greg: 28:19

So what's that about?

Michael: 28:23

You see. There was there were so we did we did some box pops last year. Jack did some box pops for us, to to use for our kind of event, announcement this year. And so as I was going through those box pops and and stitching together this this kind of trailer, I suppose, for Laricon AU, there was just something in there that I thought I enjoy what he has said in isolation. But the first thing that popped into my head was I need to get some handcuffs and I need to, I need to put a gag into this video as a result of it.

Michael: 29:00

So, yeah, I have I have kind of stitched together loosely what this video looks like. I need to get some, some more, into it, and I need to record, like, my bits, the things that I'm gonna say, which is, like, it's a 2 minute video. I promise it won't keep you forever. It's just gonna talk about what the event is, what to expect if you're a first timer, not to be afraid to come and things like that. So, very look.

Michael: 29:25

There's just so much going on at the moment. We're trying to keep tabs on the venue and what marketing stuff we're doing and just planning, planning, planning like that. And and people think that planning the conference is just a madhouse of, like, stuff all the time. It it really does ebb and flow. There are periods of time where it's like, put heaps of time in and do lots of stuff and, you know, stay up late and get up early and and, you know, work through lunch breaks and stuff to to get it done.

Michael: 29:51

But there are, like, weeks at a time where not much happens. So

Greg: 29:56

Is moving it to New Sydney, like, causing, like because I'd imagine that whilst whilst it was in Sydney, like, a lot of the relationships are already established and so on. Is there is there a challenge in moving it to a new city that, like, increases the workload, or is it pretty much just a clean sheet of paper every year?

Michael: 30:14

Yeah. Not really. I mean, it was easy because we knew what we were getting in terms of the venue. So I knew that the monkey bar crew were amazing and and that they would look ask look after us there. So my, like, main thing at the moment is we're going to a new theater with a new technical crew and, you know, just working figuring out what the working relationship is.

Michael: 30:32

In terms of, like, vendors and stuff, we're still, like, we're still gonna use some of the vendors that we had in Sydney because we're happy with the the stuff that they've done. The the people that printed all of our t shirts and speaker gifts and all of that kind of stuff. Last year, they're actually based in Brisbane. So that actually makes it easier because they don't have to ship things from Brisbane to Sydney. And then, like, we're flying up the same video crew that we had last year.

Michael: 31:00

We're flying up the same photographer that we had last year. So it actually worked out to be cheaper to like, more more economical for us to to bring up the same cruise and pay for their flights and pay for their accommodation than it was to get someone based in Brisbane, which I thought was odd. But I thought, well, it was about the same. And I'm like, well, if it's gonna cost me the same, I'm gonna go with people that I know and that I had working relationships with. And, you know, we'll bring them along to events and and look after them while they're there.

Michael: 31:27

So

Greg: 31:28

Yeah.

Michael: 31:29

Sounds good to me.

Greg: 31:30

So have there been any any challenges on the on the CFP front? I know you've been sort of banging the CFP drum pretty hard.

Michael: 31:38

Yeah. I mean, like we've, we, our numbers are not where they're at last year, and I don't know what what that is, why that is. I've seen a lot of a lot of people that submitted the last year have submitted it again this year. Yeah. Which is which is fun.

Michael: 31:52

But, like, we we haven't seen the same volume of of of talk submissions either this year, which is the main thing that that was surprising to me. I thought, you know, we'd get a lot of people, put put their talks in and things like that. So it'll be interesting to see where where we end up. We've still got another 3, 4 weeks of submissions. And, yeah, we'll we'll go from there and and, you know, have a bit of fun.

Michael: 32:16

I'm sure everything will work out in the end. So

Greg: 32:19

Yeah. Yeah. It is,

Michael: 32:21

For those of you who don't know, we do we will pay to fly you into Brisbane and we will put you up for 3 nights in a hotel and we will feed you.

Greg: 32:32

So, you

Michael: 32:32

know, as long as you can get time off from your your day job or whatever it is that that you do. Like, no, it's not it's not, not a horrible experience coming to speak at Laracon.

Greg: 32:44

It's worth speaking to your boss too, like, because you are yes. You go to speak at a conference so that you can, put yourself out there and build your your brand and your standing in the community, but you're also an ambassador for the company that you work for. So it's there is a there is a a a, an argument to be had with your boss about giving you the time to go and do the traveling. Mhmm. Because, you know, aside from my team and maybe the product team, not many people in my company knew anything about what I was talking about even after they watched the talk.

Greg: 33:22

But the level of excitement and the the fact that the the the whole company felt like, they had, an ambassador on a what is a a global conference. Like, it's it's it's not just some backwater meetup in the middle of nowhere. This is like a fully, authorized piece of a massive global

Michael: 33:45

One of the big four.

Greg: 33:46

Yeah. That that that's that's huge. It's a huge feather in the cap of, you know, the companies that you work for. So if you're sort of shy about it because you're not sure your boss will let you go and, promote yourself at a conference, then, it's definitely worth sort of having that conversation. You'll probably find that, it works out in, to your advantage.

Michael: 34:09

It's it's always a strange one as well. Like, they're out there being an ambassador for themselves, but also, as you say, an ambassador for their brand or the company that they work for. But, you know, if if you're the kind of company that is worried that, like, sending someone to professional development conference to improve their skills is going to take them away from your company, then there are potentially other considerations to be had. Like, they're going to learn. You know, they're going to appreciate that, oh, my company is investing in me to go to this event, to learn things, to, you know, meet other people, to, you know, see what they're all about.

Michael: 34:49

I don't think it's like, I find it extremely unlikely that you're gonna meet someone and, you know, immediately you're gonna go and wanna work for them. You know, I don't think there's enough context for for that kind of stuff that you would flee your job. Like, you are you are sending your people to improve their skills so that they can bring that back and then improve what they're doing in in their day to day with you. So

Greg: 35:12

Yeah. What's the, what's what's the the the the saying? What if what if my people learn something and then they leave? Or what if they don't and then they stay? Yeah.

Greg: 35:21

That's right. Yeah. And, look, I think I think sometimes people can feel a little bit awkward about asking their boss to go and, like, get paid time off work to not work. But, yeah, like I said, you are flying the flag for the company that you work for. You can give your company shout outs on stage.

Greg: 35:39

Most of what you Mhmm. Ultimately talk about is the stuff you do in your day to day anyway. Right? So it's Yeah. Yeah.

Greg: 35:47

Either implicitly or not, you're talking about the company that you work for when you're when you're up on stage.

Michael: 35:52

So And, like, you know, we talk about we talk about personal development, but think think of it as more professional development. You know, we have I working in the finance industry now, like, our our people in the business, they they have actually mandate a number of hours a year that they must do professional development. Like, they have to go to things. They have to keep their up to date. You know, it's it's just part of the course in finance that that you go and do these things in in tech.

Michael: 36:18

It's like, well, I'm not gonna send my people to these things because, like, they're gonna wanna go and work with someone else. It's like, not what this is about. Not at all. No.

Greg: 36:26

So No. I mean, and again, like, yeah, you might meet somebody in a few years' time. That relationship might turn into something, but it's again, this is the this is the horrible

Michael: 36:36

story. Years.

Greg: 36:37

It's no no nobody is offering you a job after seeing you speak on stage for 30 minutes. That's That's right. That would be that would be somewhat wild. Mhmm. But yeah.

Greg: 36:51

Cool. Well, how are we going for time?

Michael: 36:56

I think we're we're good to we're good to wrap. Awesome.

Greg: 36:59

Well, this has just been Michael and I rabbiting on about things. We like, Michael said, we got we have a guest lined up for the next show, which would be really exciting. Someone local in Australia, so we don't have to either get up really early or have them stay up really late. That's late. Yeah.

Greg: 37:18

It will be it will be a nice change. I've got a couple of other people too who we've we've reached out to. So there's a bit of a pipeline of people who want to come and tell the story. If you have been enjoying this and think you have something to contribute, that you'd like to talk about, you're welcome to come and take over the podcast for an episode. Just reach out to Michael or I on Twitter or Telegram or something.

Greg: 37:44

Yeah. Actually, it was really, it was really, excited to see that we've, we've broken through 500 listeners. So that's, Yeah.

Michael: 37:52

We we did that. We hit that milestone this week. Just gone. So thank you for those of you who are listening. Even if you are only list listening to to listen to our guests, we, we're I mean, that's that's what the show's here is to to, you know, bring these people to the the fore and have them tell their stories and, you know, see that, that there are other people out there that are just putting themselves out there and seeing what's what's coming their way as a result.

Greg: 38:17

Yeah. Alright. Well, you can find us on ripples.fm or on Twitter and LinkedIn and all the other normal places. Until next time, I've been Greg.

Michael: 38:32

I have been Michael.

Greg: 38:34

And we'll see you all before.

Michael: 38:38

Bye for now.