1. All my mistakes by Jeffrey Way

Jeffrey Way, known for his popular educational platform Laracast, delivered a great keynote about his personal experiences and lessons learned over the last couple of years while working on various projects. He spoke about the mistakes he made, including overengineering certain parts of the codebase, allowing low-quality pull requests, and embracing new technology too quickly. This honest and reflective look into the real-world struggles of a developer provides valuable lessons for all in attendance. Jeffrey's talk was a reminder to reflect, don't overcomplicate code and make mistakes.

2. The future of PEST by Nuno Maduro

Nuno Maduro's keynote on the future of PEST, the PHP Testing Framework, was a true highlight of the conference. With a demo of the new features of PEST 2.0, including the new "watch" feature that reruns your tests each time you make a change. The ability to test your architecture by checking for any leftover "dd"s or "dump"s in your code or checking certian classes are not used in your controllers. The "todo" feature and the "profile" flag, which allows developers to benchmark their tests and track performance over time, were also introduced, making PEST 2.0 an even more powerful.

The keynote was a great lead-in to Christoph Rumpel's talk on "Getting Started with TDD" later that day which left me feeling very excited to focus more on writing tests and adopting a TDD mindset. The combination of these two keynotes provided a comprehensive overview of the importance of testing and how PEST 2.0 can help improve your code.

3. How much Computer Science do Web Developers need? by Kai Sassnowski

Kai's keynote was a captivating exploration of the relationship between computer science and web development. He challenged the audience to consider the importance of recognizing patterns in their work, rather than relying solely on memorization of complex computer science concepts.

The talk emphasized that recognizing patterns allows developers to identify similar problems and to find more efficient solutions by learning from what has worked for others. This approach enables developers to improve their problem-solving skills and to be more productive in their work while trying not to reinvent the wheel for a second time.

Also big thumbs up for Kai's pixel art illustration during the keynote, Loved it!

4. From git init to Packagist by Freek Van der Herten

The live demonstration from Freek van der Herten was a tour-de-force of Laravel package creation. In just 30 minutes, he showed the audience how to write and publish a Laravel package from scratch.

The demonstration was both engaging and educational, with Freek providing a step-by-step explanation of the process using the Spatie's skeleton package. He covered everything from setting up the environment to publishing the package on Github and Packagist.

Throughout the demonstration, Freek shared some small tips and tricks for writing a solid package ready for you to use and for other developers to explore. He also highlighted the best practices for publishing a Laravel package, including documentation, testing, and continuous integration.

Overall, Freek's presentation provided valuable insights for attendees to take back to their own Laravel projects. Also, as a fellow Belgian I was proud he defended the true origin of fries for a global audience! Thanks Freek!

5. Give your Laravel App some AI by Marcel Pociot

As a developer, Marcel Pociot's keynote on "Giving your Laravel App some AI" at Laracon was a real eye-opener for me. Marcel showcased practical examples of how to integrate AI into Laravel projects, including a demonstration of using AI to suggest code snippets while searching the Laravel documentation. Before attending this talk, I never truly grasped the potential of AI in web development. I viewed AI as more of a buzzword business used to impress clients, but Marcel's examples and insights changed my perspective.

I was amazed to see how AI can bring real value to users and enhance a project in ways I wasn't able to imagine before. Marcel's talk was the perfect introduction to the topic, inspiring me to tru incorporating AI into my own projects. I highly recommend Marcel's talk to any Laravel developer looking to expand their skillset and add a new dimension to their projects. The use of AI in web development is no longer a distant future, it's here and now and Marcel showed us just how easy and impactful it can be (expensive too).

Laracon EU 2023 was an unforgettable experience, filled with inspiring keynotes, insightful workshops, and a welcoming community. From Jeffrey Way's lessons to Marcel Pociot's demonstration of AI integration in Laravel, the conference was a valuable opportunity to learn and grow as a developer. I can't wait for the next one!