This year we are trying something new at ZendCon, we are providing Unconference space for attendees to create their own sessions. To help facilitate this, we have asked someone to be the Unconference Chairperson. This person won’t be in charge of setting the agenda or approving sessions, the attendees will do that. This person will be the coordinator, the facilitator, the person in charge.

This year’s ZendCon Unconference Chairperson is Patrick Reilly of OmniTI. Here’s a short bio for those of you who don’t kow Patrick.

Patrick Reilly is a software architect at OmniTI, where he designs and implements scalable solutions for highly trafficked sites. He is an author and maintainer of several open-source and closed-source software products and is a member of the PHP development team. He is also a speaker at various open source conferences such as OSCON, LISA and Recent Changes 2007.

I talked to Patrick about the ZendCon Unconference this year an what he message wanted to get to the ZendCon attendees. Here’s what he had to say.

You my friend are now an active participant! Let’s get those ideas out of the hallway and back into the meeting room…. welcome to our first annual ZendCon Unconference. If you are sick of being just another person in the audience, today’s your day, you just earned a promotion.

Together we can choose topics of interest and utilize the mountains of expertise available in the room. Everyone is able to be a source and share their unique experiences with fellow PHP developers – you all can and will be called on to share.

So, I guess congratulations are in order, you are indeed our next esteemed speaker – and yes you will be called on, so make sure you don’t fall asleep or daydream…

Things are shaping up for ZendCon and the First annual ZendCon Unconference is just one more way that you can get even more out of the conference.

The Early Bird registration for ZendCon expires on August 15th so if you want to take advantage of that (and you are reading this before August 16th) then visit the ZendCon registration page now. Here are some other important links.