Laracon US is always one of the highlights of our year. Sure, it's the flagship Laravel conference, packed with world-class talks and exciting announcements. But on top of that, it's also something else entirely. As a fully remote team spread across the globe and multiple time zones, Laracon is one of the rare opportunities where we all get to hang out in person. We spend plenty of time chatting on Slack throughout the year, but nothing beats sitting around the same table and grabbing dinner together.

This year's Laracon took place at SoWa Power Station in Boston's SoWa Arts District, bringing together more than a thousand developers for two days of talks, community, and everything that makes the Laravel ecosystem so special. And we were excited to be part of it once again!

This year, the Statamic crew in Boston consisted of Jack, Jason, Duncan, Jay, Erin, John, and yours truly (Joshua). Instead of being scattered across hotel rooms, we rented one big Airbnb together, which is almost a tradition by now. So instead of meeting in the lobby, we met in the living room. Morning coffees, late night conversations (and Netflix comedy specials), spontaneous coding/demo sessions, and probably a few too many puns and references.

Monday: Exploring Boston & Laraprom

Before the conference officially kicked off, we spent the day exploring Boston together. We wandered through the Public Garden, walked parts of the Freedom Trail, admired Beacon Hill's picturesque streets, and eventually made our way down to the harbor. Boston is one of those cities where you accidentally end up walking 20,000 steps without really trying. In the evening, Jack and Jason represented Statamic at the speaker/sponsor dinner while the rest of us grabbed Indian food (so good!) and got dressed for what was kind of an unusual event at a developer conference:

Laraprom. Yes, an actual prom.

Hosted by the Mostly Technical guys (Aaron and Ian), Laraprom recreated the whole high school experience, from the gymnasium setting to the decorations. It was delightfully weird in exactly the way only the Laravel community can pull it off.

Tuesday: Conf Day 1 & Statamic Meetup

As always, Laracon managed to strike a very good balance between deeply technical talks, practical takeaways, and the kind of energy that leaves you wanting to build something immediately. The conference itself was great, but the day wasn't over once the talks ended.

After the official After Party, a group of us walked a few minutes down the road to host our own Statamic Meetup at a local brewery. About 30 community members came by throughout the evening, and honestly, these meetups are one of our favorite parts of Laracon. Whether you've been using Statamic for years or were just curious, it was fantastic getting to chat with everyone face-to-face and not just online.

Thanks to everyone who came by, you made our night!

Wednesday: Conf Day 2 & Shoutout to Michael

Day two delivered another packed schedule of rad talks, and while picking favorites is never easy, a few stood out to us (in no particular order):

• Kitze - From Vibe Coding to Vibe Engineering
• Matt Stauffer - Building Software at the Edge of Your Understanding
• Christina Martinez - Whimsy-Driven Development
• Will King - AI Can Do Your Job... What Now?

Here are links to the recordings for both day one and day two of the conference.

The closing panel was an absolute blast. The "Ship or Die" format turned into a Laravel-flavored Shark Tank, complete with live demos and instant feedback from the panel. We were especially excited to see Michael LaRoy, one of our Statamic Partners, take the stage.

And of course, it wouldn't be Laracon without Taylor's keynote. Recently added framework features, new packages, and polished demos. Business as usual in the best possible way.

Thursday: The Vibes

Normally Laracon ends after two conference days. But not this year. The NativePHP team organized The Vibes. Think of it as an unofficial and smaller "Day 3" of the conference where around 100 developers gathered to keep the conversations going. John Koster gave a talk about Tesseract, one of his many secret projects that he's been working on over the last couple of months. It was quite mind-blowing to see it in action and more details about it will be available soon. It takes debugging to a whole other level.

Once that event wrapped up, we collectively made what may have been the easiest group decision of the week: Jump aboard the hype train and go see Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey. A nearby theater was even showing it in 70mm film. Not IMAX digital or laser, but actual film. The historic Coolidge Corner Theatre turned out to be the perfect place to experience it, and if you're ever in Boston — it's well worth a visit. It's like the old days in all the good ways.

We rounded off the evening with one final team dinner before everyone headed back home on Friday. I actually tried lobster for the first time and ordered a classic New England lobster roll. It was clawsome.

Thank You

As remote teams go, we're incredibly fortunate that events like this give us an excuse to spend a week together. Not just building software, but bonding as a team and building friendships within the community too.

A huge thank you to everyone who said hi, joined our meetup, shared ideas, asked questions, and generally made this a rad experience.

The Laravel and Statamic communities continue to be one of the friendliest, most welcoming groups of people we've ever had the privilege of being part of.

We'll be riding this wave of inspiration (or should we say vibe?) for quite a while.

Keep shipping and until next time! 💜