SymfonyCon Amsterdam 2025: Our Recap and the Highlights
After an iconic first edition in 2019, SymfonyCon made its big comeback to Amsterdam. From the start, you could feel the energy of a highly anticipated conference: more than 1,200 attendees, 39 nationalities, the biggest Symfony community reunion of the year, great discoveries... and a fun atmosphere. This year was extra special because it was the 20th anniversary of Symfony. SensioLabs was there: we'll tell you all about our experience there!
A Groundbreaking Opening: Symfony AI & Symfony 8
The conference started off with the keynote by Fabien Potencier, which is always one of the highlights of the event. This time, he surprised the audience by deploying Symfony 8 live on stage. The release was a shared ritual with the whole audience, and it was done step-by-step. When the progress bar hit 100%, the attendees went crazy! Symfony 8 was officially available worldwide 🌍
As the deployment was finalizing, Fabien reflected on the evolution of software development and the increasing integration of AI. He emphasized the importance of HTTP when interacting with AI models and underscored the crucial role of the HTTPClient component.
Fabien then introduced Symfony AI, a topic that fueled much of the discussion throughout the event. Several talks that followed showed how Symfony aims to make AI more accessible and truly useful in everyday life. This trajectory is part of a continuum: innovating without losing sight of the values that have been at the core of Symfony for 20 years..
Two Days of Inspiring Technical Talks
For two days, the conference rooms hosted an extensive program covering advanced Symfony architecture, new features in Symfony, API, performance, security, best practices, AI of course, and more.
Each session illuminated different aspects of the framework's current challenges and its evolution. During breaks, interactions between participants continued and also with the Symfony core team. This technical and friendly atmosphere is part of the DNA of the Symfony community.
Two SensioLabs developers also stepped onto the stage this year:
Adrien Roches presented “Blast Off Your CI with Dagger” demonstrating how Dagger can simplify and improve the reliability of CI pipelines, particularly for effectively testing different combinations of PHP and Symfony versions.
Stiven Llupa led a session on “Semantic Search: From Keywords to Intent with Symfony AI”, where he explained how to integrate semantic search into a Symfony application using Symfony AI, sharing examples of architecture and implementation.
Several talks were presented by speakers from the Smile group, to which SensioLabs belongs. These talks focused on the challenges of CI, European strategic autonomy, AI, and searchandising.
All talks are now available for replay, so you can view the conferences you were unable to follow live. You can also purchase access to review all sessions.
A Magical Conference Venue
This year, the conference venue, Beurs van Berlage, a stunning historic brick building in the heart of Amsterdam, instantly wowed participants with its large glass roofs, elegant arches and cozy atmosphere. The place was absolutely enchanting ✨ and perfect for celebrating this special edition.
A lot of people stopped by the official Symfony shop, where Symponies, 20th anniversary collector's hoodies, and especially the anniversary comic book were selling fast.
This special comic book looks at the history of the framework, from its beginnings to major technical developments, including anecdotes you might not have heard yet. It's already a hot item, and it’s selling like hotcakes.
Lots of sponsors, like MongoDB, Upsun, Jetbrains and Storyblok had booths under the arches in the main hall. They presented their solutions and chatted with participants, which made the atmosphere warm and vibrant.
In the center of this huge hall, we were thrilled to greet attendees at our booth. The vibe of the venue inspired us to set up a treasure hunt with 3 enigmas that play off references to Symfony and Harry Potter, spread out across the floors of the Beurs van Berlage.
Participants could also join a second challenge. ZType is a mini-game where you have to destroy as many pieces of Symfony code as possible by typing them at top speed. The level was especially high this time, so congrats to the winners for their impressive reflexes!
And, of course, we can’t forget our delightful hot dog station. They were really good, and we enjoyed serving them to the attendees.
A Great Anniversary Party for Symfony
One of the highlights of this SymfonyCon is going to be the unforgettable anniversary party on Thursday night 🥳 The party was at the Kanarie Club, right at the heart of De Hallen. It's a pretty iconic spot in Amsterdam, well known for its large food court. Everyone had dinner there before heading to the club. It felt truly gratifying to celebrate this meaningful moment with the community.
And, of course, you can't forget the spectacular layer cake commemorating the 20th anniversary of Symfony 🎂 The moment Fabien Potencier cut into it was a powerful symbol for all those who have followed for a while the journey of the framework.
The photo booth, set up just for the event, was packed all night. Everyone there got a souvenir photo of this special night. There was a really cool plastic balls pool upstairs where we could chill with your drink. The fun continued on the dance floor, where the amazing DJ had us dancing until closing time.
We celebrated 2 decades of open source, innovation, and collaboration with a lot of fun, great pictures, and a slice of cake.
This year's SymfonyCon is going to be remembered as one of the great ones. Here at SensioLabs, we're thrilled to have been a part of this amazing journey and to have played a small role in making this unique SymfonyCon even more magical. We want to say a big thank you to the community, the organizers, and everyone we were lucky to meet.
🎉 See you next year… in Warsaw, Poland! Excited to return to where SymfonyCon was born
