PHPverse 2026: Everything You Need to Know Before Tomorrow's Free PHP Conference

Tomorrow, June 9th, JetBrains is hosting PHPverse 2026 — a free, fully online conference for PHP developers worldwide. No tickets, no travel, no registration fees. Just a YouTube stream and a lineup of speakers that covers pretty much every corner of the PHP ecosystem.

If you have not registered yet, do it now and get the reminder link. The event runs 11:00 to 17:50 UTC, which means 7:00 AM to 1:50 PM for those of us on the US East Coast. Set your alarm.

Here is the full breakdown of what is coming.

The Schedule

Opening (11:00 UTC) — Brent Roose & Nuno Maduro

PHPverse is hosted by Brent Roose (Developer Advocate at JetBrains) and Nuno Maduro (Staff Software Engineer at Laravel). These two are genuinely entertaining together and the opening sets a good tone for the rest of the day. Worth catching live rather than skipping to the first talk.

PHP Foundation Keynote (11:15 UTC) — Elizabeth Barron

Elizabeth Barron, Executive Director of the PHP Foundation, kicks things off with the keynote. If you read the PHP Foundation’s 2025 Impact Report last week, this talk should add more context about where the Foundation is headed in 2026. Expect discussion around the ecosystem growth, the new Ecosystem Security Team, and the direction of PHP development.

My AI Writes Perfect* PHP (11:50 UTC) — Ashley Hindle

The asterisk in the title is doing a lot of work, and that is exactly the point. Ashley Hindle, Founder and CEO of Fuel, has spent months tuning AI agents to write PHP that he is actually happy to ship. His AI setup writes code that matches his style, follows project conventions, writes tests, and keeps documentation current.

This one is likely to generate the most conversation. The promise of AI that writes production-quality PHP you do not have to fight is compelling, but the details of how he got there are what make it worth watching. He has committed to showing his real day-to-day setup live, not a polished demo.

If you are a PHP developer thinking about how AI fits into your workflow right now, this is probably the talk most immediately applicable to your work.

WordPress is Dead, Long Live WordPress! (12:25 UTC) — Jonathan Bossenger

Jonathan Bossenger, Developer Advocate at Automattic, is making a case that most PHP developers stopped considering around 2015. WordPress, for all the baggage the name carries in developer circles, has been evolving faster than its reputation.

The talk promises a look at block-based development, WordPress’s movement toward modern PHP standards, performance improvements, and tooling. If your honest reaction to “WordPress” is a dismissive groan, that’s probably the audience this talk is designed for. Whether it changes minds or not, the argument deserves a fair hearing.

Packagist Internals (13:00 UTC) — Nils Adermann

Nils Adermann co-founded Packagist, which is the infrastructure that makes the entire PHP package ecosystem function. You composer require something and it just works. Packagist is the reason that works, and most of us have never thought about it beyond that.

This session pulls back the curtain on the scale, complexity, and engineering behind Packagist. If you are interested in systems architecture or how large-scale package registries work under load, this is going to be worth your time.

Running a Large Open-Source Project Like Symfony (13:50 UTC) — Fabien Potencier

Fabien Potencier has been running Symfony for over 20 years. His talk takes a step back from the technical to talk about the human side: the guardrails that keep contributors aligned, the tooling that automates what can be automated, and the patience required to play the long game with a consistent vision.

There is a pointed addition to the abstract: “And AI is now rewriting the rules.” Fabien is clearly thinking about what AI means for how large open-source projects operate, and that perspective from someone who has run one for two decades is more interesting than most AI-in-development content you will find right now.

PHP RFCs (14:25 UTC) — Larry Garfield

Larry Garfield is one of the most active contributors to the PHP RFC process, and this talk covers how that process actually works. If you have ever wondered how a feature idea becomes a PHP language feature, or why some obviously good ideas seem to stall for years while others move through quickly, this is the session that answers those questions.

Larry has direct experience with this process, having co-driven Partial Function Applications and worked on Context Managers. His framing tends to be practical and honest about the friction involved.

Here is a quick look at a recent RFC in action — the partial function application syntax that went through the RFC process earlier this year:

// Partial Function Application (PHP 8.5)
$multiply = fn($x, $y) => $x * $y;
$double   = $multiply(2, ...);    // partial application
$triple   = $multiply(3, ...);

echo $double(5);  // 10
echo $triple(5);  // 15

// More practically: currying array operations
$users = [['name' => 'Alice', 'role' => 'admin'], ['name' => 'Bob', 'role' => 'user']];
$isAdmin = fn($user) => $user['role'] === 'admin';
$admins  = array_filter($users, $isAdmin);

The RFC that made this possible went through multiple rounds of community feedback and significant revision before landing. Larry’s talk should explain exactly why that process takes the shape it does.

How AI Is Changing the Programmer World (15:00 UTC) — Jeffrey Way

Jeffrey Way, Founder of Laracasts, is closing the main session lineup with the broadest take of the day. This one is not about PHP specifically — it is about the developer role and how AI is reshaping it.

Jeffrey has been building and teaching PHP development for over a decade. His perspective is grounded in what developers actually do every day, not in the abstract “AI will replace programmers” framing that tends to dominate this conversation. What it means for your career trajectory, your day-to-day workflow, and the skills worth developing right now.

Wrap-Up (15:30 UTC) — Brent Roose & Nuno Maduro

The day closes with the hosts bringing things together. PHPverse has historically included some surprises in the closing segment, so worth sticking around.

How to Watch

Everything streams live on the JetBrains PHP Annotated YouTube channel. No special software required. Register at lp.jetbrains.com/phpverse-2026 and they will send you the link with reminders.

There is also a Discord server for the event where you can talk to other attendees and ask speakers questions during the presentations. The chat on YouTube gets active during these kinds of streams, and the Discord is worth having open alongside it.

If you cannot make it live, all sessions will be recorded and available through the same link afterward.

Why This Is Worth Your Morning

PHPverse reached over 55,000 developers last year with 2,500 watching at the live peak. That is a meaningful cross-section of the PHP community for a free online event. The speakers represent the actual decision-makers for the major PHP frameworks and tools — not just evangelists. Fabien Potencier leads Symfony. Nils Adermann built the package infrastructure we all depend on. Elizabeth Barron directs the organization funding a significant chunk of PHP core development. Jeffrey Way has taught more PHP developers than probably any other single person.

The AI thread running through the day is also interesting. Three of the seven talks engage with AI directly: Ashley Hindle’s practical AI workflow talk, Fabien’s mention of AI rewriting the rules for open-source, and Jeffrey’s broader look at AI’s impact on developers. That is not an accident. This is the community grappling with the same questions you are probably asking about your own work.

If you have been feeling like the PHP ecosystem is moving fast and you are having trouble keeping up with all of it, an event like this is a good way to recalibrate. Six hours, free, from your desk. The recordings will be there after, but the live chat during a good talk is genuinely a different experience.

Set the reminder. It starts at 11:00 UTC tomorrow.