Dutch PHP Conference, Amsterdam 2025
In March 2025 I was lucky enough to get the change to present at the Dutch PHP Conference in Amsterdam. My talk, "Avoiding Déjà Vu: Building More Resilient APIs Using Idempotency," explored what idempotency is (and, importantly, how to pronounce it!), its role in API resilience, and the critical mistakes it can help developers avoid. The conference was run jointly with the AppDevCon and WebDevCon, which meant a lively mix of attendees and subjects covered.
The Conference
The conference was held in the Pathé cinema in Amsterdaam Noord. The venue being a cinema was a great choice: comfy seats, popcorn to snack on (after the Stroopwafels), and a massive screen for the talks was a unique experience as both a speaker and attendee. I once worked in a cinema, and the last time I stood facing an audience with the big screen behind me was to explain that the projector had eaten their film and they'd have to go home early. Thankfully my talk this time had a much warmer reception!
As an attendee, the day was packed with really interesting talks. Some personal highlights were:
- Mike Lehan's "Your Software is Mission-Critical" - this was a great closing keynote, on the importance of remembering the human impact when designing and building software systems.
- Florian Engelhardt's "Parallel Futures: Unlocking Multithreading in PHP" was an interesting look at the do's and don'ts of effectively managing concurrency in PHP code.
- Jeff Watkins' opening keynote "Symbiotic Futures: The Human-Machine Love Affair and the Evolution of Experience" was a thought-provoking session on hopes for a symbiotic relationship with the machines. Jeff's visuals were amazing too - very cinematic and apt for the big screen!
- Neel Bhatt's "The tech behind Buienradar: How technology keeps you ahead of the weather" disappointed the flat-earthers by proving the earth is round in this deep-dive into the tech behind the Netherland's busiest weather app.
- Hugo Hamon's "Keeping your legacy PHP codebase alive!" had a lot of useful examples of tools for keeping your app up to date - I hadn't come across the symfony pollyfills before!
The conversations around the conference were great also - very excited in particular to see the progress of the JsonPath work Alexandre Daubois is doing! It's a really interesting component with huge potential benefits, and the work Alexandre is doing is fantastic. I'm looking forward to seeing how it progresses, and how it can be used in the wild.
It’s a sign of a great conference when your biggest challenge is deciding between multiple interesting sessions at the same time. There were plenty of really interesting talks I couldn't get to, so am looking forward to the videos being released soon. And the continuing trend towards socks-as-vendor swag is one I am very happy about!
My own talk went fairly well. It was the first time I gave this particular talk, so the usual nerves and blind panic beforehand were all present and correct. Thankfully the audience were very kind, charitably laughing at all of the cheesiest jokes! After the session, there were some great questions from the audience, and some really interesting conversations afterwards. It's incredibly validating as a speaker to finish a session and find some very specific and detailed questions coming back from the audience - it's a great sign that they were engaged and interested in the topic.
Amsterdam
The conference being in Amsterdam was also fantastic, as it allowed me to enjoy some sightseeing before heading home. The Royal Palace is definitely worth a look, filled with phenomenal statues and artwork. I spent a few hours walking around it, which thankfully helped to offset some (not all!) of the damage caused by the many pit-stops I made around the city to get delicious Dutch fries with mayonnaise.
One to watch!
The Dutch PHP Conference was a great couple of days, and one which I'd have no hesitation in recommending you attend. The talk mix was super, the conference location itself was great, and the backdrop of Amsterdam in the spring helped too.
Overall the conference was superbly organised, great fun as both an attendee and speaker, and I am looking forward to returning next year!
CyberWiseCon 2025
In May 2025, I'll be presenting Digital Cat-and-Mouse: Strategies to Outsmart Scrapers, Phishers, and Thieves at CyberWiseCon in Vilnius, Lithuania. From selling 10 Downing St, to moving the Eiffel Tower to Dublin, this talk covers real-world examples of unconventional ways to stop scrapers, phishers, and content thieves. You'll gain practical insights to protect assets, outsmart bad actors, and avoid the mistakes we made along the way!
Get your ticket now and I'll see you there!