Yesterday was an incredible day for Ibuildings. I have never experienced anything like it before. Never expected or anticipated so much talk, chat and blogging on one person's move from one company to another. I knew that Cal Evans was popular in the community, but didn't realise fully what a celebrity he is. Wow... what an incredible addition to our team..
I saw Cal present in a London PHP seminar 2 years ago. Even though it was very techie and well above my head, I could see how everyone in the audience was captivated and mesmerised by his incredible presentation skills, confidence and lovely interaction with the audience. At that conference, I realised for the first time what an incredible following one language could have. I have been involved with many languages in my life, but never witnessed such admiration and fanatical adulation of a programming language. The more I explored, the more fanatics I found, the wider the community and the more passionate the supporters.
At the same time I met Tom, Jeroen and Ivo from Ibuildings. I caught the bug and we decided to join forces and create the "number one" PHP Company in Europe.
We knew that in order to do that we need to get some superstars and create the 'A Team'. So we got Mikko from Finland, Helgi from Iceland, Lorenzo from Italy, Marcello from Portugal, Vito from Singapore, Arpad from London, Lorna from Leeds, Ian and Ben from Brighton and the list goes on. I must say that I have never come across so much talent, knowledge and passion in my life - makes me feel 20 again

. If I add to that the great team we have in the Netherlands, with people like Ivo, Stefan, Sandy, Boy, Marc, Peter, Martin and many others, I can definitely say that Ibuildings today is one of the leaders & influencers in the PHP world.
By bringing Cal on board, to head up our PHP Centre of Expertise, I believe that we have shown how serious we are in pushing PHP forward, towards the Enterprise.
Let's be clear on our mutual goals: we all want to see the largest and most successful companies in the world use PHP - we will all be proud of that achievement. Ibuildings wants to help make that happen.
It also reflects our commitment to the community, with Cal, the number one community herder in the PHP world, continuing to do what he does best - carry the PHP flag!
What can you expect? Cal's knowledge, community focus and charming personality will be visible throughout Europe. He will organise seminars and conferences, be our 'face' in the community, create new training material and other useful collateral, such as Best Practices, and contribute to the continuing growth and maturity of the community.
As you might have already gathered, I am extremely excited that Cal has chosen to join Ibuildings and to help us achieve our strategic objective - to be the Number One PHP Company in Europe. Cal: Europe awaits you.