The emotions start to settle after SyliusCon, and it’s time to reflect on this incredible milestone in our journey. Why a milestone? Because SyliusCon exceeded our expectations in every possible way. We broke attendance records and brought together the key figures of our community, numerous partners, freelancers, and simply all the Sylius enthusiasts from various corners of the world. Lastly, we celebrated the announcement of the stable release of Sylius 2.0, a project our Product Team and contributors have been working on for over a year and a half.

In this article, we’ll take you through the conference’s highlights!

Be(er)fore Party & Speakers Dinner

The day before the conference, we organized a Be(er)fore Party to help participants break the ice and connect with people they’ve known online but perhaps never met in person. The turnout and enthusiasm exceeded our expectations, creating a joyful prelude to the main event.

At the same time, we hosted a Speakers & Sponsors Dinner for our speakers and sponsors. This intimate gathering, held in a unique setting, allowed them to relax, exchange inspiration, and recharge before the busy day ahead. It was also a perfect opportunity to thank them for their contributions to building the Sylius community.

Opening Keynote

The third edition of SyliusCon was officially opened by our CEO, Mikołaj Król, who recapped Sylius’s dynamic growth since the last event.

Mikołaj began by highlighting the events that have strengthened Sylius’s global presence over the past year. He spoke about SyliusDays in Mannheim and numerous community events happening in different parts of the world, emphasizing their importance in building a vibrant and engaged community.

The speech also included the success of our strategic partnership with Platform.sh, which resulted in the creation of Sylius Cloud. This groundbreaking PaaS solution offers businesses the flexibility of the cloud while maintaining full access to their code and data, significantly enriching the Sylius ecosystem.

Another key highlight was unveiling the AI-assisted Sylius 2.0 documentation, designed and led by our Product Owner, Magdalena Sadowska. This new documentation marks a significant leap forward, making it easier than ever to work with Sylius.

Mikołaj also shared that we’ve established 16 new partnerships over the past year, further strengthening the Sylius ecosystem and community.

Mikołaj also introduced some exciting upcoming initiatives. These include a gamified points program for partners, changes to the Core Team structure that will make it easier to join and get appreciated for the input, and a brand-new online course, designed to support developers, product managers and Sylius end-users, that will pave the way for further official certification.

The presentation concluded by mentioning the partners and community members whose contributions to Sylius’s development deserve special recognition. 

• SETONO – Leading Plugin Maintainer – awarded for the unbespoke plugin portfolio the company developed and maintains.
• Webgriffe – Most Impactful Go-Lives – awarded for submitting numerous impactful success stories to our case studies page over the past year
• Emagma – Regional Training Leader in France – awarded for high-quality regional trainings and onboarding many new talents into our ecosystem
• Monsieur Biz – Outstanding Community Initiative – awarded for conducting Sylius ElePHPants initiative
• bit Expert AG – Distinguished Community Voice – awarded for numerous social media and blog activities that empowered our brand
• Dedi – Regional Advocate of the Year in France – awarded for the most impactful regional marketing that includes success stories, articles, high-quality social media posts, and many others.
• BitBag – Most Impactful Implementation – awarded for the door-opening Mytheresa implementation on top of Sylius, the first publically shared 1B€ GMV customer
• Platform.sh, Bunnyshell, Symfony by SensioLabs, API PLATFORM by Les-Tilleuls.coop – Key Tech Providers – awarded for providing us with technology that we depend on a daily basis
• Loic Fremont & Francis Hilaire – Key Core Contributors – awarded for numerous volunteer core contributions that exceeded our expectations and helped us deliver Sylius 2 on time
• Victor Vasiloi & Dimitri Perunov – Dedicated Community Supporters – awarded for supporting the open-source product & ecosystem development by reviewing Pull Requests, solving other people’s issues, and many other supporting initiatives.

A standing ovation to our community – you’re the force behind Sylius’s growing success!

The Conference

After the opening keynote by Mikołaj Król, attendees had the opportunity to explore three thematic tracks tailored to the diverse needs of the Sylius community: the Business Track and two Tech Tracks.

The Business Track 💼 addressed strategic topics for the eCommerce industry. Stéphane Decock highlighted the critical role of communication in IT projects. At the same time, Hélèna Gravelier and Hugo Roche shared insights into the challenges of replatforming a luxury brand like Brunschwig & Cie. Przemysław Połeć provided valuable advice on preparing for migration to Sylius 2.0, and Zrinka Dedic showcased how Locastic transformed retail operations for Tommy.hr. Kuba Zwoliński offered strategies for building accessibility within teams, Gregor Šink delved into integrating multiple stores on a single Sylius instance, and Julien Jacottet closed the track with a success story about Une Petite Mousse, a beer shop powered by Sylius.

The first Tech Track 💻 spanned a wide range of technical topics. Joachim Løvgaard shared best practices for building plugins, while Jacques Bodin-Hullin presented his vision of Sylius as a competitor to WordPress. Francis Hilaire offered an in-depth look at the development of the payment system, and Luca Gallinari and Manuele Menozzi demonstrated how to customize price calculations for B2B needs. Viorel Tudor explained how Freshful personalizes the online grocery shopping experience, and Łukasz Chruściel, alongside Mateusz Zalewski, introduced the audience to efficient background process management. Guillaume Loulier wrapped up the track with a presentation on creating semantic search capabilities using Meilisearch.

The second Tech Track 💻 was equally inspiring. Loïc Caillieux demonstrated how Hotwire can enhance Sylius frontends, and Loïc Fremont explored the evolution of the admin panel, now more flexible and functional than ever. Thomas di Luccio discussed optimization strategies to prepare for Black Friday, while Romain Ruaud presented Gally, an open-source solution for product search. Kévin Dunglas shared updates on FrankenPHP, and Konrad Alfaro captivated the audience with unconventional applications of Sylius, including vending machines. Ksenia Zvereva concluded the track by underlining the importance of documentation in streamlining development projects.

We extend our heartfelt thanks to all the speakers for their dedication, preparation, and inspiring talks. Every presentation uniquely contributed to expanding the Sylius knowledge base and strengthening the community.

Sponsors – those we should really thank for making it all happen

Without the support of our amazing sponsors, SyliusCon 2024 wouldn’t have been possible in such an impressive form. Thanks to them, we were able to create a unique event that not only brought the community together but also strengthened the foundations of our open-source framework. Let’s give them the recognition they deserve and highlight their contributions beyond just the conference!

Thank you to all the sponsors, without whom it would not be possible to even think about organizing such a great event:

Naming Sponsor
Platform.sh for being our Cloud environment provider and making hosting, deployment, CI/CD, and all the environment-related operations much easier for us, our partners, and the merchants running our solution.

Platinum Sponsors

• DATASOLUTION – for an unbespoke support in evolving Sylius in the French region by tailoring its core values to many impactful brands such as Billeterie Paris Saint-Germain, FC Nantes, Gerard Drouot Production, and Musée Nationale d’Histoires,
• Mollie – for being far more than “just” an advanced payment service provider for many merchants running on top of Sylius – a vital part of our community since 2018,
• BitBag – for numerous impactful implementations, donations, plugins, product feedback, and supporting the product since its early days.

Gold Sponsors

• bit Expert AG – for sticking around for another year with impactful marketing that strengthens our brand position,
• Synolia – for being our Leading French Partner and proudly representing us in one of our most significant markets by utilizing Sylius with its customers and legitimizing the solution,
• Les-Tilleuls.coop – for giving us the API Platform, hosting us at their conference, and supporting our solution from the back seat of both tech and marketing,
• Ergonode PIM – simply for being the most involved PIM solution within our ecosystem.

Silver Sponsors

• AKAWAKA – for supporting our core components development voluntarily,
• Webgriffe – for utilizing Sylius in Italy to some of the most impactful customers, submitting numerous success stories, and developing and maintaining numerous essential plugins,
• Gally – for providing an amazing search experience to Sylius and being our evangelist on many levels,
• Adyen – for delivering a cutting-edge payment experience to our Enterprise customer segment,
• Monsieur Biz – for being an unbespoke community voice, long-term Sylius evangelist, numerous impactful plugin maintainer, and simply doing whatever it takes to make Sylius better,
• SensioLabs – for giving us Symfony and promoting Sylius within its community,
• Emagma – for being the unbespoke training partner, meetup organizer, community voice, and a unique local ambassador of Sylius,
• Fifty Deg – for being our involved partner and a fantastic Sylius content editor maintainer called Degditor

Bronze Sponsors

• Centuria – for being a highly skilled hosting / Dev Ops partner in Poland,
• Cyllene – for being our “Digital Transformation Operator” in France,
• Sulu CMS – for being an excellent Content Management System with numerous values shared with Sylius that supports our cause in many related communities.

After Party Sponsor

JL Recrutement – for sponsoring the afterparty and helping us create a perfect environment to summarize the event and make connections, as well as for being the recruitment partner for our PHP-related community members!

Pictures

We’ve collected all the photos from SyliusCon 2024 in one place to make it easy for you to revisit the best moments. Feel free to use and share them – let’s keep the SyliusCon spirit alive – PICTURES!

After Party

After a full day of talks, discussions, and networking, it was time to relax and celebrate during the After Party! Together with JL Recrutement, we created an atmosphere that allowed attendees to fully enjoy the moment.

There were delicious snacks, beer, and wine, along with countless conversations that strengthened bonds within our community. These are the moments when new ideas are born, friendships are forged, and collaborations take shape – driving Sylius’s growth for years to come.

The After Party was the perfect conclusion to SyliusCon – a time filled with smiles, inspiration, and shared joy over the achievements we celebrated. There’s no better way to end such a special day than by celebrating with the passionate members of our community!

Summary

Was SyliusCon 2024 a success? Definitely, but we feel like this is just the beginning. Thank you for being part of this journey and part of our ecosystem – together, we can achieve even more!

For us, SyliusCon is not just a conference – it’s a unique moment when our entire community, partners, and enthusiasts come together to share knowledge, ideas, and energy. These conversations, shared inspirations, and emotions remind us of the incredible strength of our community. It was an extraordinary experience for us and a motivation to keep raising the bar. Challenges lie ahead, but with your support, we know we can achieve even more! 🚀