International PHP Conference, Munich 2024
I had a fantastic time at the International PHP Conference (IPC) in Munich last week. There were a lot of really high quality talks delivered by fantastic presenters - I've plenty of homework to take away, from all the new tools and techniques I've learned about! The organisers were also good enough to let me up on stage for a while, and briefly sate my internal extrovert.
Munich is a great destination also - a beautiful city to walk around, with plenty of delicious street food offerings. As conferences go, this is definitely one to check out!
The Conference
This conference was spread over 5 days, between workshops and conference talks. I was unfortunately only there for one day, but managed to pack a lot in! It's also a hybrid conference, with attendees both in person and virtually, via the devm.io platform. As a speaker, this presents an interesting challenge - keeping an eye on both questions in the room as well as any potential ones coming up online.
The conference itself had plenty of really interesting talks. The opening day keynote by Garth Henson was an interesting exploration of the limits of AI when it comes to creativity and storytelling. It's a fascinating topic, and one that Garth presented really well. It set the tone well for a really interesting day of talks.
Another stand-out talk was Mike Lehan's talk, Hack Yourself: Intro to Pentesting With ZAP. I'd not come across ZAP before, but it's a really interesting tool for anyone looking to get started with security testing. Mike's presentation was super too - very engaging, funny, and informative. It's a mark of a great presenter that they can roll with the punches when things don't go to plan. In Mike's talk, he was in a conference room with a big screen that had been on all morning, and decided to go to sleep. A fancy new TV without obvious buttons, and a remote that was nowhere to be found. Mike handled it like a pro, and the audience were all the more engaged for it!
Learning about ZAP was great, and was a theme for my time at the conference - it was a great conference for being exposed to new and interesting tools, plenty of homework to take away! There was a good deal of time between talks, which meant plenty of time for networking and chatting with other attendees. The variation in attendees was fantastic - the conversation could and did move between extremes like GDPR compliance, growing up in the USSR, the challenges people on the spectrum have with AI-generated images, self-publishing books, and the new features coming to PHP 8.4. The organisers did a great job of attracting a really mixed group of attendees, and it made for a strong group!
For my part, I was delivering an adapted version of a talk I'd given previously, helping backend developers to improve frontend page speed. I'd given the main talk a couple of times, so was far more comfortable delivering it. Unfortunately with the way the scheduling worked, there were 2 other really interesting talks at the same time as mine, but such is life at busier conferences!
Thankfully the folk at my talk seemed to enjoy it. The IPC are great at encouraging feedback for their speakers from the audience, and I was delighted to get the positive results afterwards. This is a nice touch and not something that happens at every conference, but as a speaker it's great to get feedback which can help you improve for next time.
Munich
Munich is a lovely city to walk around, especially at that time of year. I was a little early for the famous Christmas markets - they were being set up while I wandered the city centre - but there was still plenty to see and do. And eat! Munich is great for street food, and I think at one point I was more kebab than man, having absolutely no self-control around kebab shops.
The tower in the city centre is worth a climb, with some great views. For fans of the original Charlie and The Chocolate Factory movie, the Munich rooftop view will look familiar!
As with many old European cities, Munich tends to have lots of interesting things tucked away around random street corners, so if you're there, give yourself plenty of time to wander aimlessly - you never know what you'll end up seeing!
Strong recommend!
Overall I would strongly recommend the International PHP Conference. It was really well-organised, with a fantastic mix of speakers and attendees, in a great location. Definitely worth a trip!
Dutch PHP Conference 2025
In March 2025, I'll be giving a talk at the Dutch PHP Conference in Amsterdam. I'll be talking about idempotency – what it is, why it’s so useful, and how big players like Stripe and AWS leverage it in production. Expect real-world examples, practical takeaways, and a deep dive into making your systems more robust and reliable.
Get your ticket now and I'll see you there!