Your next PHP conference talk is already in your codebase

Your next PHP conference talk is already in your codebase

The query that slowed everything down. The framework upgrade that uncovered years of hidden assumptions. The first test you managed to write around a particularly stubborn piece of legacy code.

At the time, you were probably focused on getting the work done. But looking back, what did you learn? And how much easier would it have been if someone had shared a similar experience beforehand?

If you have ever considered speaking at a PHP conference but struggled to find a topic, start with your own codebase. The problems you have worked through could hold exactly the lessons another developer needs.

Start with the task that needed a second look

Think about a recent task that turned out to be more complicated than expected.

Perhaps a Composer dependency blocked an upgrade. An API behaved differently under load. A background job occasionally processed the same action twice, and tracking down the cause took longer than fixing it.

What made the problem difficult? Which clues helped you investigate? What did you try before finding an approach that worked?

Those details give a conference talk its substance. They help the audience follow your reasoning and recognise where your experience might apply to their own projects.

Your existing application has something to teach

You don’t need to have created a framework or contributed to PHP core to share useful knowledge.

Maintaining an application gives you plenty of decisions to explore. How do you introduce static analysis into a large codebase? Where do you start with automated testing? How do you change an API without unexpectedly breaking its consumers?

Working within constraints makes those questions interesting. Your team may have limited time, incomplete documentation or integrations that cannot easily change.

Explain those constraints. Show why you chose a particular approach, what it improved and which compromises remained. That context helps other PHP developers assess whether your solution would work for them.

Tell the story behind the fix

A before-and-after code example can show what changed. Your explanation can show why the change mattered.

Imagine a slow endpoint. You could present the final optimisation, but there is more to explore: how you reproduced the issue, what you measured, which assumptions proved wrong and how you checked the result.

The same applies to an architectural change or a framework migration. What evidence supported the decision? How did you introduce the change safely? What would you do differently next time?

If an approach failed, include what you learned from it. Be clear about the circumstances and avoid presenting one project’s outcome as a rule for every application.

Find a focused PHP conference talk idea

A broad subject becomes easier to develop when you narrow it to one question. For example:

• Testing: How did you add meaningful tests around code with tightly coupled dependencies?
• Performance: How did you find the cause of one slow request?
• Static analysis: How did your team introduce PHPStan into an existing project and decide what to address first?
• Framework upgrades: How did you prepare a Laravel or Symfony application for an upgrade while continuing feature development?
• Architecture: How did you untangle one dependency that made changes difficult?
• Teamwork: How did your team make code reviews more useful and easier to act on?

Choose an experience you can explain with concrete examples. One well-explored problem can give attendees plenty to take back to their own work.

How to submit a PHP conference talk

Once you have a topic, define who the session is for and what they will learn.

Try completing this sentence:

“After this session, PHP developers will be able to…”

Use your answer to shape the abstract. Describe the problem, the approach you will explore and the practical takeaways. Make any required knowledge clear so attendees can judge whether the session fits their experience.

Ask a colleague who wasn’t involved in the project to read your proposal. Can they explain why they would attend? Their questions can help you spot missing context or an overly broad scope.

Before including code, screenshots or project details, check what you can share publicly. Prepare simplified examples where needed.

Share your experience at Dutch PHP Conference 2027

At Dutch PHP Conference, we welcome technical and non-technical sessions that help developers deepen their knowledge and improve how they work.

That includes the PHP ecosystem, frameworks, architecture, testing, performance, security and DevOps, alongside communication, teamwork and the business side of development.

Whether this would be your first submission or your next conference appearance, look at a problem you remember solving. What do you understand now that you wish you had known at the start?

The Dutch PHP Conference 2027 Call for Papers closes on 18 December 2026. All talks are presented in English.