Mohammad S Anwar

To begin with "The Perl Conference in Glasgow" was my first ever YAPC. Prior to this, I was only regular to London Perl Workshop. It was the gang at German Perl Workshop that I attended earlier encouraged me to come to YAPC as well. I think it was worth attending
the event. To make it even more fun, I brought my young family with me to explore the city as well.

I arrived at the Glasgow Central railway station about 7pm on Tuesday 14th Aug. I was staying at Rennin McKenzie Hotel, just 2 minutes walk from the Glasgow Central station and 5 minutes walk from the conference venue. The actual event started on 15th Aug. I had my talk scheduled on 16th Aug. So I took the opportunity to take the city tour by bus. It was beautiful with lots of museum and green parks. In the evening we went to a local Indian restaurant "Bombay Blue", which had bad reviews about the service but good reviews for food. I must agree the service was pathetic and food was OK. Anyway we just filled our tummy and came back to hotel. I had good night sleep before the big day. I woke up early next morning as I didn't want to miss the fun. I arrived at the venue around 7:00am and found out none present. Luckily I found poster with regard to the WiFi details. I connected my phone to the free WiFi available and started tweeting random thoughts to keep myself busy.

Around 8:00am, I saw people started coming. I collected my Eligo goody bag with my speaker ID. The first talk "Webframeworkless Async API", I attended was by Thomas Klausner. I, sometimes, wonder how he managed to deliver the matter with such an ease. The second talk of the day I attended was by Tina Muller about "Git Tips & Tricks". I always wanted to meet her. She was supposed to give talk at the last German Perl Workshop but for some reason she couldn't make it. Since I use git day in day out, it was great to know the tricks, so thank you Tina. I am glad that I finally met her. After that I had my talk scheduled at 10:40. So I went straight to the allotted room. I am always nervous before my talk. What makes me comfortable is smile on the face of the attendees. To my surprise, I saw Dave Cross and Barbie sitting in the front row. I can't tell how proud I felt by their presence. It was dream come true for me. Talk went through smooth and little over the allotted time. It always happens with me. Once I start talking about subject, there is no stopping unless someone says so. The subject "How to become a CPAN contributor"
is very close to my heart. I am very passionate about it. I have been through a lot in my journey so far. I wanted to share my experience with the people in the room. During the talk I mentioned that sometimes I had to wait for 3 years for any response from the author. But at times, I get the response and merge within 30 seconds. And I mean it "30 seconds". One such author was sitting in the front row "Dave Cross". To which Dave replied, if he sees PR from me, he knew it would be good enough. This is by no means a small thing. It means a whole world to me coming from Dave Cross. It gives me even more energy to do more PR. After talk people came and said they liked my talk. In particular, I met a guy, Hussain, if
I remember his name correctly, after the talk. He said my talk was very motivating and encouraging.

During the break, I got the opportunity to talk to Kivanc Yazan. This was the first time, I met him face 2 face. It was great knowing him.

After my talk I went to attend a talk "Perl 6: Signatures, Types and Multimethods" by Simon Proctor. It was great talk and I liked it very much. I would like to get my hands dirty with the tips I received. Then comes "Lunch break", I got the opportunity to talk to Lance Wicks. It is always fun talking to him. He even shared an idea that I would like to pursue near soon.

Post lunch break, I attended the talk "TestML - Data driven testing" by Ingy. I have submitted PR to some of this distributions. Therefore I really wanted to say "hi" to him but couldn't gather the courage to do so. Then comes another gem "Vue.js for Perl hackers" by none other than Thomas Klausner. There was so much for us to keep it interesting. I will definitely explore it later.

Now comes the moment of the day. As per the schedule it said "In conversation with...", I had no clue who she was, honestly speaking. Halfway through the talk, I realised she is the better half of "The Larry Wall". The conversation was very thought provoking. At the end of the conversation, I went straight to Larry Wall and requested him to sign the post card. He very kindly not just signed the post card but also stamped it as well. I am going
to keep it framed forever.

The day ends with lots of interesting Lightning Talks.

After the event, we (my family and I) went to different Indian restaurant "KoolBa". Food and service were great.

The following day, 17th Aug was planned for "Edinburgh City Tour". We took early train to Edinburgh and spent all day in Edinburgh. Kids enjoyed it a lot. Came back to Glasgow around 8:00pm and went to another Indian restaurant "Rishi". On the way, I saw Lance Wicks roaming around with his friends. Again food and service were great. The next day 18th Aug, we came back to London.

Overall, it was great experience for me and for my family at the same time. Already looking forward to the next at Riga.