Back in June our Technical Director Thomas and Developer Cristina joined over 300 Laravel and PHP enthusiasts at Laravel Live - a two day conference in London, based at the Shaw Theatre.

Laravel Live 2024 included inspirational talks, networking and opportunities to learn new skills and techniques and it was the first conference Cristina had attended as a member of the Few and Far team.

Cristina tells us about her apprehensions about going to a conference - in an often male dominated industry - what she got up to and what she took about from the two-days in London.

Cristina says:

"The Laravel Live UK event was the first conference of this kind that I ever attended and I did not know what it would be like, I wasn't sure what to expect or what people that usually attend these kinds of events would be like.

However, I was very impressed by the Laravel community, how friendly and helpful everyone was and no matter how experienced or senior someone was, everyone felt approachable and willing to give up their time.

I knew that some of the Larabelles community (an online community for Laravel developers who are under-represented due to gender) would be attending the conference and knowing they were there gave me a little boost of confidence.

The Larabelles aim is to make the world of PHP and Laravel development more accessible to people under-represented due to their gender. They have a directory of members and they even have a Mentor programme which can be accessed via their website for being paired up with someone to support you on your own Laravel Journey.

I met and connected with some of the Larabelles myself and I also got to meet and have a quick chat with Zuzana Kunckova, who is the founder of the Larabelles.

Women in tech at Laravel Live