Laravel Advent is a new project by David Piesse to bring you a new interview every day for the month of December. To go along with this each day will feature a giveaway, with the total prizes valued at over $10,000!
As Laravel Advent is a new project I thought it’d be great to sit down with David and find out more about the motivation behind this.
Hi David, Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
I am from England, 30 (ish) and have two boys under 4 causing mayhem at home. I started development in high school making an MMORPG. Since then I did a degree in Geography and now my day job is the Developer / IT Guy for a company specialising in Counter Narcotics Satellite Mapping (among other things) in Afghanistan.
How did you get into Laravel?
I was using Slim for a demo in 2014 and happened across a list of other frameworks. Laravel just clicked for me and I rewrote not only that work project but three other side projects I was so digging Laravel (I guess 4.1 or 4.2)
What reason did you decide to start this project?
My wife will tell you that I was getting stressed and when I get stressed I make another side project to focus on. What ‘actually’ happened was yes; I had a stressful day and my mind began to wonder. I had just ordered the kids chocolate advent calendars and realized that I could build an advent calendar in Laravel super easy!
Then I realized that a long-term goal of mine of returning all the favours and help I have received from the Laravel community was also possible.
So I built a surprise daily advent calendar and have gone around looking for sponsors. We are currently at over $10,000 in gifts and coupons. The community has been very generous!
Any issues with this project?
Yes – Just this week I had to fly on a literal last minute trip to Dubai and will not be at home to see the actual launch of Laravel Advent. Thankfully everything is automated!
Are you hoping to make this a yearly thing?
Totally! This has been a great experience and I hope next year to not only do a different twist on the advent calendar with even more gifts but incorporate the Thanksgiving period too. Many developers rely on a Thanksgiving rush in sales and I think there is an opportunity to help these guys even more!
What is the best way for people to stay up to date when new interviews are published?
Go to laraveladvent.com where every day at 12 midday UTC there will be a new interview.
Before the launch on December 1st, you can register to be emailed at midday so you don’t miss a minute of festive fun.
I will also be publishing a daily tweet or two from @mapdev and I hope the community will echo these around to spread the cheer!
