¡Viva Perl!: Official Announcement of the Call for Speakers

by Mark ‘mdk’ Keating & John ‘genehack’ Anderson

The fourteenth, annual, Yet Another Perl Conference North America (YAPC::NA) has officially opened its call for speakers on the conference website.

The event, to be held in the wonderful city of Orlando between 23–25th June 2014, is inviting speakers of all levels of ability and experience to submit to this event.

Our theme this year is “¡Viva Perl!”. As such, we will favor talks that embrace the theme when deciding which submissions will be presented. However, with a number of tracks over several days, there is a great deal of room on the schedule.

We are always particularly excited to promote talks that embrace diversity or are from neophyte community members. If you have never spoken at a Perl conference before, we would love it if this could be your first.

The Perl community, YAPC organisers, and The Perl Foundation embrace the principle of no-barrier to entry and as such are open to the submission of papers from people of any background. If you wish to discuss this further with the organisers please do not hesitate to contact us at talks@yapcna.org, or to submit your abstract and use the organizer comment box to open a dialogue with the event organisers.

The deadline for submissions is midnight EST on 15 February 2014. Please note that early submissions will have more time to discuss their requirements and acceptability with the conference staff and the presentation selection committee.

We look forward to receiving your submission, and to seeing you in Orlando in June. ¡Viva Perl!

Job Fair

The Job Fair is underway in Room 2.120 of the Thompson Center.

This is a great opportunity to visit the Sponsors and learn about career opportunities available from the many companies. It is also a chance to pick up some of the special swag that the companies have brought along just for you.

If you are looking to further your career or to get an understanding of who is hiring, or simply want to come along and thank the sponsors please visit.

You can also make a donation to The Perl Foundation while you are there to help them continue to support you, Perl and our community.

The YAPC::NA Hackathon is still going on!

This YAPC we’ve provided a hack-a-thon space for the entire week. Come meet, hack, contribute! Below is a picture of some hard working perl hackers who may need company. You can find the hack-a-thon at Thompson (TCC) floor 2 room 2.122

Bring Your Games To YAPC::NA Tuesday Morning!

The YAPC::NA banquet and game night will be happening at The Stage on 6th Street at 6:30pm on Tuesday night. If you bring your games (board games, card games, whatever kind of games) to the conference in the morning, they will be shuttled to the Game night just after the Lightning Talks.

Immediately after the lightning talks, catch the shuttle in the LBJ parking lot and it will take you directly to game night. Drinks will be served when you arrive and dinner will be served shortly afterwards.

Dinner will be catered from Salt Lick BBQ. Not to worry, there will be a vegan option.

Have the appropriate amount of fun!

How and Where to Park at YAPC::NA

Howdy YAPC::NA attendees!

This is Jonathan “Duke” Leto here. The main YAPC::NA conference begins tomorrow. If you are driving to the conference location (The Thompson Conference Center) make sure you park in LOT 40. Again, make sure you park in LOT 40.

If you park in LOT 39, which is close, you will be entering a world of pain. You don’t want that. For your visual pleasure, here are some pictures of the parking lot entrance.

In the picture above you can see an example of a rare “Wild Ingy”. Make sure not to feed them, as they can be violent during mating season.