With a group of Liipers, we recently travelled to Brussels, Belgium, to attend the Symfony Conference, the place to be for the Symfony developers community. We even brought our handmade mascot, Paulette, the chicken, for the occasion. After a scenic train ride through Paris, we arrived in the charming European capital city, greeted by the festive glow of Christmas lights.
Some exciting new features have been unveiled exclusively
The conference kicked off with none other than Fabien Potencier, the creator of Symfony, announcing the next component to join the Symfony family ā the "Terminal Component". This exciting addition to the framework is like an early Christmas gift, promising to make it even easier to build interactive applications directly in the terminal.
Following the unveiling, a series of tech talks captivated the audience. Among others, there were sessions on Symfony workflows, the exploration of effective strategies for implementing multi-tenant architectures within Symfony applications, as well as the latest developments in PHP Unit testing with the creator of this tool, Sebastian Bergmann himself. We also enjoyed some fun presentations, like the talk held by Rick Kuipers entitled "Symfony is RAD". It was so much fun watching him live-code and deploy a new Symfony application on the spot.
An opportunity to think beyond strictly tech and to socialise
It was not all about tech, as Sofia Lescano's captivating presentation shared her personal experience of causing production outages ā not once, but twice! Her raw honesty resonated deeply with us, as we empathised with the challenges faced by developers in such situations. Mary Thomas' subsequent talk provided valuable insights into overcoming personal weaknesses and turning them into strengths.
Socialising with fellow Symfony enthusiasts was a highlight of the conference, as a get-together was organised at the Museum of Bande DessinƩe. Developers from diverse backgrounds gathered to exchange knowledge, share experiences, and strengthen the Symfony community.
A hackday to learn and directly contribute to the open-source project
To cap off the event, participants were invited to get their hands dirty and directly contribute to the Symfony project. We learned how to easily fix bugs or create new features, immersing ourselves fully in the open-source spirit of the project. In other words, practice over theory, and open over close; needless to say, we enjoy this at Liip.
Liipers and Symfony Enthusiasts Gear Up for the Next Adventure
The conference concluded with a renewed sense of enthusiasm and camaraderie among us Liipers and the fellow Symfony enthusiasts gathered for the occasion. We all eagerly await the next Symfony conference, scheduled to take place in Vienna in December 2024, yet another fantastic December tradition. We look forward to continuing our learning and contributing further to this thriving open-source project. In the meantime, my colleagues and I were all inspired to apply what we learned during these few days in our ongoing and upcoming Symfony projects. Something meaningful to add to our New Year's resolution, I guess :)