oliverdavies.uk/source/_posts/croeso-php-south-wales.md

---
title: Croeso PHP South Wales!
date: 2018-08-01
excerpt:
  Last night was the first meetup of Cardiff’s PHP South Wales user group.
tags:
  - php
  - php-south-wales
  - meetups
has_tweets: true
---

Last night was the first meetup of Cardiff’s [PHP South Wales user group][0]! It
was a great first event, and it was great to meet a lot of new people as well as
catch up some familiars within the 36 (according to meetup.com) attendees -
including some [PHP South West][9] regulars.

Organised by Steve and Amy McDougall, it was held in Barclays’ [Eagle Lab][1]
which was a great space, and it was cool to be back in Brunel House having
worked in that building previously whilst at Appnovation.

{% include 'tweet' with {
    class: 'my-6',
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    content: '<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Pretty cool being back in the centre of Cardiff. <a href="https://t.co/kh7Oi2tPDD">pic.twitter.com/kh7Oi2tPDD</a></p>&mdash; Oliver Davies (@opdavies) <a href="https://twitter.com/opdavies/status/1024377438611156992?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 31, 2018</a>',
} %}

## Speakers

[Rob Allen][2] was the main speaker, who gave an interesting talk and a brave
live demo on serverless PHP and OpenWhisk. I always enjoy watching Rob speak,
which I’ve done a number of times at different events, and it was great to be
able to chat for a while after the meetup too.

{% include 'tweet' with {
    class: 'my-6',
    data_cards: true,
    content: '<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Great to see ⁦<a href="https://twitter.com/akrabat?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@akrabat</a>⁩ speaking about serverless PHP at the first ⁦<a href="https://twitter.com/phpSouthWales?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@phpSouthWales</a>⁩ meetup. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/php?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#php</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/phpc?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#phpc</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/cardiff?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#cardiff</a> <a href="https://t.co/Q9YaQ6O1fB">pic.twitter.com/Q9YaQ6O1fB</a></p>&mdash; Oliver Davies (@opdavies) <a href="https://twitter.com/opdavies/status/1024359937063956484?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 31, 2018</a>',
} %}

We also had a couple of lightning talks, starting with [Ismael Velasco][3]
giving an introduction to progressive web applications (PWAs). I can see some
potential uses for this on my current work project, and I look forward to seeing
the full talk soon).

I gave an updated version of my [Tailwind CSS lightning talk][4], and enjoyed
being able to show some examples of new sites using Tailwind such as [Laravel
Nova][5], [Spatie][6]’s new website and PHP South Wales itself!

{% include 'tweet' with {
    class: 'my-6',
    data_cards: true,
    content: '<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Lightning talk time, first <a href="https://twitter.com/IsmaelVelasco?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@IsmaelVelasco</a> talking about <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/PWA?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#PWA</a> 😎🎉 <a href="https://t.co/KrJGZlIp7V">pic.twitter.com/KrJGZlIp7V</a></p>&mdash; PHP South Wales (@phpSouthWales) <a href="https://twitter.com/phpSouthWales/status/1024377906456420352?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 31, 2018</a>',
} %}

## Conclusion

It’s great to have a meetup in Cardiff again, and having thought about organsing
something myself previously, I’m glad to see someone step forward to do so. This
shows that there's still a strong PHP community in Cardiff and South Wales, and
hopefully this will be the first meetup of many. I’ll look forward to seeing the
local community grow!

Thanks again to Steve and Amy for organising, Eagle Labs for hosting, the
sponsors, and Rob and Ismael for speaking.

It would be great to see even more people at the next one. If you’re interested,
take a look at the [group’s website][0], [meetup.com group][7] and [Twitter
profile][8]. Alternatively, get in touch with myself or one of the organisers
for more information.

**Croeso ac iechyd da PHP South Wales!**

[0]: https://www.phpsouthwales.uk
[1]: https://labs.uk.barclays/locations/cardiff-en
[2]: https://twitter.com/akrabat
[3]: https://twitter.com/IsmaelVelasco
[4]: /talks/taking-flight-with-tailwind-css
[5]: https://nova.laravel.com
[6]: https://spatie.be
[7]: https://www.meetup.com/PHP-South-Wales
[8]: https://twitter.com/phpsouthwales
[9]: https://phpsw.uk