On September 18th and 19th, I had the opportunity to attend the API Platform Conference in Euratech, Lille. This event celebrated the 10th anniversary of the API Platform project, bringing together the community that has grown around it since its creation. Organized by Les-Tilleuls.coop, the conference has become a central gathering point for about 400+ developers, architects, and tech leaders who are building the future of APIs, supporting more and more every year.
It was my second time attending this event, so I’ve met some people I already knew, and some new faces. It was really great to meet the community again and see so many people with the newly available FrankenPHP elephpants.
The Atmosphere
To be honest, I had no real expectations before going to the conference, and I am really happy to have gone there to learn more about API Platform and the PHP ecosystem and meet awesome people. I really enjoyed my conversation with all attendees, but I want to give a shoutout to Yoan Bernabeu because we discussed a wide range of topics beyond just code. It was a pleasure to finally meet them in person, as I’ve been following them on social media for a while. I particularly enjoy their posts about their hiking adventures and their science fiction book recommendations. We even talked about some great books, including Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Ministry for the Future and Becky Chambers’ A Psalm for the Wild-Built. We agreed that Chambers’ book was really comforting for both of us.
Talks and learnings
What’s great about the conference is that it is not all about API Platform, but about its ecosystem. Talks are about PHP, Symfony, Laravel, databases, servers, some frontend and even some society talks. If you are looking for feedback on the conference, go check Baptiste Fotia’s article on their experience as an attendee at API Platform Conference 2025. They really did a great job at summarizing talks from speakers like Nils Adermann, Laura Durieux, Imen Ezzine, Fabien Potencier, and more.
Community Moments
The PHP ecosystem remains highly innovative, celebrating PHP’s 30th anniversary and API Platform’s 10th. We enjoyed a community meeting on Thursday evening, sponsored by JLRecrutement (a recruitment company who uses an Open Source job board available on GitHub) with some drinks and food at Les Sales Mômes in Lille. It was the occasion to blow “10 years” candles to wish API Platform (and Webby 🕷️) an Happy Birthday.
As usual, after the conference, I was eager to experiment with API Platform upon returning home.
Takeaways
To end this quick review, I asked Rudy and Aziz to tell me one thing they remember the most about the event:
"I found the individuals there to be very engaging in discussions, and the exchanges were genuinely constructive and serene."
Rudy Baer
"I loved the community vibe, it feels very different and more special than others. Also the sofa was conducive to napping, being very comfortable 😅."
Aziz Ouertani
Many thanks to Les-Tilleuls.coop for organizing such a great event, and to the entire community for making it so special. It was a true pleasure to connect with familiar faces and meet so many new people who share the same passion.
Finally, I’d like to extend my thanks and congratulations to Nicolas Detrez for their outstanding photographic coverage of the event. All the images from this article (except the “shocked face” one) are from them and all the photos of the event are available on Flickr.
See you next year API Platform Conference 👋🏻