Welcome PHPolks đ
đ It is happening again!
The community event for PHP developers and beyond is back in Dresden!
Join us for a day packed with talks, networking and fun on September 19, 2025.
Why Attend?
- Community & networking â Connect with PHP devs from diverse backgrounds: open-source maintainers, framework experts, architects, and beginners .
- Top-tier content â Talks range from cutting-edge tools and best practices to architecture, testing, and sustainability.
- Local charm â Held in Dresden, with opportunities to explore the local sceneâbreakfast, lunch, and even a stroll by the Elbe.
Speakers
Talk/Workshop
Agentic Applications with Symfony
Abstract
Bio
Christopher Hertel is a seasoned PHP software engineer, Symfony expert, and active speaker in the international tech community. With a strong background in software architecture, agile development, and a deep curiosity for GenAI, he shares practical insights at conferences and meetups across Germany and Europe. As Head of Technical Program at AMCS Group, he drives innovation in enterprise software while contributing to open source and mentoring developer teams.
Talk
Simplify Your Dev Workflow with DDEV
Abstract
Bio
Stephan Hochdörfer is the Head of IT Business Operations at bitExpert AG, a company that specializes in pro-code and low-code software development. In his role, he oversees the software development processes, technical operations, sales, and strategic planning.
Talk/Workshop
Get better, not bigger/Domain Driven Design - A team approach
Abstract
Success for a business is often measured in growth. How much more percent of the market it captures, how much more sales were made, how much more customers it served.
Groth is good, at least for the business. For IT teams and systems this is not necessarily true. Fast growing IT system tend to get overly complex and really hard to manage.
To keep up, we don't just need, more services, more people or more process. We need to get better!
In this talk, I'll share how embracing simplicity and clear ownership can help your business scale without pushing the complexity of your IT systems to absurd levels.
Workshop: Domain Driven Design - A team approach
One of the most important learnings in my software development career is:
If you don't fully understand what you are building, you can never build the right thing.
Waiting for Product Owners or Software Architects to write the perfect specification that you just have to implement to get the perfect result is something I never saw really working.
Domain Driven Design is a strategy to close the gap between business and IT, between problem and solution. In this workshop I will show you three practices that you can start using tomorrow to better understand your business and simplify your applications.
Bio
Sebastian lives in Munich and Cologne supporting teams at CHECK24 developing software.
He started programming with BASIC on the C64 and moved over Assembler and C to languages like PHP and JavaScript.
With roughly 20 years of web experience he specialized in enterprise web applications. He is passionate about automation, performance and maintainable code.
Sebastian is an open source contributor and maintainer of phpbu and a git hook library called CaptainHook.
Workshop
Modernes Secret Management in Kubernetes
Abstract
Zielgruppe:
Developer, DevOps-Engineers, Platform-Teams, Kubernetes-Architekten/Administratoren und Sicherheitsexperten, die moderne und sichere Methoden zur Verwaltung von Secrets in produktiven Kubernetes-Clustern evaluieren oder bereits einsetzen möchten. (edited)
Was dich erwartet:
- Ăberblick ĂŒber aktuelle Herausforderungen im Kubernetes Secret Management
- EinfĂŒhrung in den External Secrets Operator (Funktionsweise, Architektur, Vorteile)
- Best Practices fĂŒr Sicherheit, Zugriffskontrolle und Automatisierung
- Live-Demonstrationen mit
- 1Password als Team-orientierter Secret Store
- AWS Secrets Manager (KMS-basiert) fĂŒr Cloud-native Sicherheit
- Google Cloud Secret Manager mit GCP IAM-Integration
Bio
Patrick is an infrastructure solutions architect and security expert with a strong background in software development. He has been working in the IT industry for more than 25 years and has built and secured many product environments in datacenters all over the world.
Schedule
There may still be changes to the schedule.
| Time | Topic | Speaker | Language |
|---|---|---|---|
08:30 |
Doors Open |
||
09:00 |
Opening |
||
09:15 |
Get better not bigger |
Sebastian Feldmann |
|
10:10 |
Simplify Your Dev Workflow with DDEV |
Stephan Hochdörfer |
|
11:05 |
Agentic Applications with Symfony |
Christopher Hertel |
|
12:00 |
Workshop Teasers |
||
12:15 |
Lunch Break |
||
from 13:15 |
Domain Driven Design a Team Approach (limited to 15 persons) |
Sebastian Feldmann |
|
from 13:15 |
Agentic Applications with Symfony (limited to 15 persons) |
Christopher Hertel |
|
from 13:15 |
Modernes Secret Management in Kubernetes (limited to 15 persons) |
Patrick PĂ€chnatz |
|
from 17:00 |
Outro |
||
from 17:30 |
Community & Socializing |
Venue
move elevator GmbH
KönigsbrĂŒcker StraĂe 76, 01099 Dresden, Deutschland
The venue is located in the Dresden Neustadt, close to the tram stop "Bischofsweg".
The conference talks will take place in the move:elevator lounge. The workshops will be held in the move:elevator workshop rooms.
If the weather is fine, we will have an socializing after the conference on the terrace
Tickets
Sponsors
You can support our community event by booking one of our sponsorship partner packages.
What is a partner package?
- 3 x free tickets
- The first 3 sponsors are also room sponsors
- Company banner at the venue
- Logo and link on our website
- Post on our social media channels
- Visibility in the event app
- Announcement at the opening
- Promotional material including job advertisements
Price: 400,- âŹ
Price for active sponsors of the user group: 300,- âŹ
You want more?
We offer individually priced additions to the partner package:
- Company booth (2x2 meters with 2 representatives)
- Badge and key band sponsor
- Food, cake and drinks sponsor
- Speaker sponsor: Small gifts are presented in the name of the sponsor
- Own slide at the opening
- Exclusive 90 seconds speaker slot at the opening
- Own lecture slot (if the topic fits)
- Use of CONFGAMES: 50 guaranteed conversations
- 1x mobile app sponsor â Look&Feel of the app in your design
Meet the team
Jan MĂ€nnig
Marcel FĂŒhrer
Alexander Hippe
Michael Pokladek
