TL;DR: I ran my Refactoring towards Clean Architecture workshop at SymfonyLive Berlin 2026. Smaller room than my previous workshops, but the energy and engagement were top tier. I changed the formula a bit โ more theory, more group exercises, more whiteboard work โ and I think it landed. Below: what I changed, what the attendees asked, and a big thank you to everyone who made it happen ๐
TL;DR:ย I spoke at Boiling Frogs โ the conference I consider the best in Poland. I was afraid my topic wouldn’t be good enough for that room. It was. But the most valuable part of the day had nothing to do with my talk.
Boiling Frogs is the conference I registered for without checking the agenda first.
One day. Three tracks. No filler. The selection is tough by design โ hundreds of submissions, a handful of slots. The result is a room full of people who actually care. Engineers, architects, CTOs, QA specialists, product people โ all choosing your talk over two others running in parallel.
I’ve been attending every year. Getting accepted to speak there meant something to me โบ๏ธ
Oh wow โ itโs already over, but Iโm still riding the emotions from this conference. Thatโs why Iโm here, writing this article for you. I hope you can learn something from my experience and maybe youโll soon find yourself as speaker/trainer at your very first conference โ either in your country or abroad ๐
Iโve been a public speaker since 2023, and ever since then Iโve been applying to multiple conferences. Iโve spoken at events across Poland, sharing my experience and ideas, but for a long time I couldnโt quite make it happen abroadโฆ until SymfonyCon 2025! Iโm truly happy it finally worked out ๐ฅ
In this article, I want to cover everything related to this trip, so treat it as a practical guide on how to apply, prepare, and perform on an international stage โ especially if youโre thinking about submitting your own talk or workshop.
SymfonyCon is the flagship annual conference for the Symfony community โ the main event for anyone building with Symfony in PHP. Thereโs only one SymfonyCon each year, but the ecosystem also includes local SymfonyDay and SymfonyLive conferences/meetups, as well as SymfonyOnline, the online-only conference.
I’ve decided to apply with multiple talks and one workshop, but only the workshop got selected – Refactoring towards Clean Architecture. In this workshop I teach how to refactor the application written in a framework way into Clean Architecture. You can find more (what it is about, outcomes, agenda, etc.) on the dedicated page.