Our Experience at Laracon EU 2025: What We Learned and Our Key Takeaways

As an exhibitor and a Silver Sponsor at Laracon EU 2025 in Amsterdam, we experienced the Laravel community’s vibrant energy firsthand. Over 700 attendees gathered at the Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ, Amsterdam. It was not just a conference – it was a celebration of collaboration, innovation, and a shared passion for Laravel.

Caneco’s welcome speech set the tone, emphasizing inclusivity, encouraging interactions, and of course, selfies. From keynotes to “unconference” sessions, the atmosphere was electric, fostering meaningful conversations and a sense of belonging within the global Laravel community.

Our participation offered invaluable insights and networking opportunities at our booth, highlighting why Laracon continues to be a landmark event for web developers passionate about Laravel. Below, we share a comprehensive summary of the two-day event, including keynotes, announcements, our experience, and key takeaways.

Keynote and Sessions

The conference featured a diverse range of speakers, including core Laravel developers and community leaders. Keynote sessions highlighted the continuous growth and relevance of Laravel, emphasizing its ecosystem built for productivity.

Here’s the summary of it:

• Diana Scharf’s talk on “Have you met Ada? Word Embeddings with Laravel” was a standout, simplifying the concept of word embeddings and demonstrating how to use OpenAI’s Ada model within Laravel applications. This session highlighted the growing importance of AI in the Laravel ecosystem.

• Ryan Chandler’s session, “From Zero to Static Analysis Hero,” was also quite insightful, focusing on using PHPStan to detect errors early and improve code quality.

• Marcel Pociot presented the fundamentals of performance optimization in Laravel, explaining application caching, queues, Opcache, and the profiler integrated into Laravel Herd.

• We also found Bert De Swaef’s session, which showcased advanced Laravel features and services to address real-world project challenges, particularly interesting.

• Kévin Dunglas presented “API Platform for Laravel,” a package that enables the creation of high-quality web APIs.

All the Big Announcements at Laracon EU 2025 

The conference was packed with significant announcements from Taylor Otwell and other key figures in the Laravel ecosystem.

We were particularly excited about:

Laravel Cloud

The demo of Laravel Cloud and its pricing structure was impressive. The ease of deploying projects directly from a GitHub repository, configuring databases, and managing queues and storage within the Cloud dashboard is a game-changer. The auto-hibernating database feature for side projects is also a smart move. We see the potential for Laravel Cloud to streamline the development process, especially for smaller projects and those new to the framework.

New Laravel Starter Kits

The introduction of new starter kits to replace Breeze and Jetstream caught our attention. These kits, built with modern front-end libraries, offer a refreshed approach to scaffolding Laravel applications. While the lack of a plain Blade starter kit might be a concern for some, we believe the update is a step in the right direction, providing developers with more contemporary options.

Laravel Nightwatch

Jess Archer’s presentation of Laravel Nightwatch was a highlight. The ability to monitor Laravel applications at such a granular level, with insights into Eloquent queries and request timelines, is invaluable. The focus on minimizing performance impact is also commendable. Nightwatch has the potential to become an essential tool for Laravel developers, offering a comprehensive solution for application monitoring.

Fusion

Aaron Francis’s Fusion, which allows writing PHP code inside Vue.js components, presents an interesting approach to combining front-end and back-end logic. While the all-in-one file concept might not appeal to everyone, the project demonstrates the innovative spirit within the Laravel community.

Inertia.js Acquisition

The acquisition of Inertia.js by the Laravel team is a significant development. This move signals Laravel’s commitment to providing developers with robust tools for building modern web applications.

Also, Taylor Otwell’s keynote unveiled Laravel 12 with zero breaking changes, which will be launching on February 24, 2025, along with Laravel Cloud, new starter kits, and Laravel.com.

The Booth Experience: Networking and Community

Our booth saw a steady stream of visitors eager to learn more about ViitorCloud and our expertise in Laravel development. We engaged in discussions about Laravel Cloud, AI integration, and Web3 solutions, positioning us as a bridge between cutting-edge technology and practical business applications.

We had the opportunity to connect with developers, sponsors, and speakers, fostering valuable relationships and exchanging knowledge. We were particularly impressed by the collaborative spirit of the Laravel community and the willingness of its members to share their knowledge and experiences.

And to add more fun to the conversations, we arranged some games at our booth. We had more engaging and energetic conversations over these games and laughs.

Here are its glimpses:

What We Learned

We learned many things from all the people we met and the event itself. It is hard to summarize everything here.

But here are our key takeaways:

• The Importance of Community: The Laravel community is active and supportive.

• The Future of Laravel: The framework continues to evolve, with a focus on productivity, developer experience, and ecosystem growth.

• The Value of Static Analysis: Implementing static analysis can lead to more robust and maintainable codebases

All these invaluable insights have reinforced our commitment to Laravel excellence and energized our team to push boundaries in delivering innovative solutions. These learnings inspire us to continue our journey of creating transformative digital solutions using Laravel’s robust ecosystem.

“ViitorCloud has always believed in Laravel’s potential to revolutionize web development. Our experience at Laracon EU 2025 has strengthened our resolve to leverage Laravel’s powerful ecosystem and emerging technologies like AI and Web3 to build rapid, scalable applications that drive real business value. We are building future-ready solutions that empower startups and enterprises to thrive.”

Rohit P, CEO, ViitorCloud Technologies

Let’s Meet at Laracon India

Laracon India is scheduled for March 8th and 9^th, 2025, and promises to be an exciting event with 1000+ attendees from more than 20 countries. We encourage everyone we met at Laracon EU to join us in India for another opportunity to learn, network, and celebrate.

We believe that the exchange of ideas and experiences between the European and Indian Laravel communities will be mutually beneficial.