The Perl Whirl starts today. I have to admit reading Casey’s blog did make me wish that I was going. However, I’ve just looked at the program again to remind me why I decided not to. Having attended quite a few Perl conferences in the past I have been disappointed by the number of new talks that appear at these events. I understand that people will always pay to hear Dominus, Randal and Damian but when I’ve already seen some of these talks three times it’s not surprising that I’ve lost interest in them. At first I thought this happened because people give their Oscon tutorials and presenations at YAPC. However, it seems more likely that the conference organisers think that because people paid/came to hear Red Flags last year some others will probably pay to hear it again this year. (It is one of the best tutorials that I have heard).

Most of the new material at the Perl Whirl is on the topic of Perl 6. I don’t know how new this will be – I’ve heard Damian speak on Perl 6 at least three times by now! I must admit that Perl 6 doesn’t interest me enough to pay to go the other side of the world to hear someone speak on it. Actually I don’t think I would even fly to London to hear about it. I also couldn’t justify it commercially as Perl 6 isn’t available to use.

Hopefully, I will get to hear some new material at YAPC::Europe and Oscon.