ZendCon 2010 is still several months away (it runs November 1–4, 2010), but the Call for Papers is officially open. Jayson Minard, ZendCon 2010 Conference Chair, sent the news to ZendCon veterans just yesterday, but that doesn’t mean that the rest of us who haven’t presented at this PHP conference can’t join the fun!

I attended my first ZendCon last year, and I had a blast. I don’t consider myself a rank newbie by any stretch, but having never been part of the PHP “circle” per se, it was eye-opening to look at the program book and see the wide range of talks being presented by so many fascinating people. And of course, the 2009 conference program began just as this year’s will: with the call for papers.

Minard mentions a number of topics for which they’re looking for proposals, including PHP development and best practices; working with SQL databases, search engines and alternative data stores; UI, AJAX and Rich Internet Applications; agile processes and project management; and real-world case studies, designs and data models—among other areas.

The call for papers ends on May 6, 2010, so be sure to submit your proposal before that date. The proposal submission system is a bit spartan, and for someone like me who hasn’t submitted before, it can be a bit daunting to see all of the various conferences listed (it looks to be a shared proposal submission system)—but don’t let that dissuade you from submitting an idea if you know it’ll be a good one for the PHP community. Be sure as well to fill out your speaker profile before getting too far; you’ll need to have the required information there to submit your proposal.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to inform the conference organizers of my idea for a talk. I encourage you to do the same!