93: Laracon US Recap  ## Metadata - Author: [[Mostly Technical]] - Full Title: 93: Laracon US Recap - Category: #podcasts - URL: https://share.snipd.com/episode/884a8760-277f-43c8-a4a6-866a2e7584f9 ## Document Notes ## Highlights - **Reward Sponsors in Parties** - Sponsoring the party should come with perks like badges or special mentions to recognize supporters. - Organizers should keep the successful waitlist party tradition alive for community engagement. Transcript: Aaron Francis Party? The game. Let's go into the game, man. Ian Landsman Hold on. Before we do that, we should pay some bills. Let's pay some bills. Which we did not pre-coordinate, so I'm just going to go the first two. You go second two. Deal. We'll do it. So this very important special episode of Mostly Technical is brought to you by Laravel Nightwatch. Nightwatch sees what other monitoring apps can't in Laravel apps. Take two minutes to set up the free plan right now. And before this episode of Mostly Technical is done, you might uncover rogue queries, misconfigured middleware, hiding in plain sight, or the dreaded N plus one. Check them out at nightwatch.laravell I know it's amazing how many people I've talked to who found those things with Nightwatch, which is wild. So I still have to check that out, but on the list. And then also brought to you by Flare by Spotsy. All-in error tracking and performance monitoring for your Laravel application. Check them out at flareapp.io slash performance dash monitoring. Spotsy always doing amazing work in the Laravel community. So thanks to them for sponsoring. All right. Aaron Francis I was bummed, I was bummed, Freak was not there. I kind of expected to see him. Ian Landsman Yeah, no Freak. Maybe next time. Maybe EU. I don't know. Maybe EU. I haven't been to EU in a while. I want to get to EU. I want to get to AU. I want to get to EU. Got to get to AU. EU, I actually did a little research because Michael was insane. He was at Laircon US for three days. And you're from Australia. He literally flew there and is only staying there three days. I was like, what are you doing? Crazy. And he seems fine. He seemed fine. He didn't seem tired or anything. I don't know. He's adrenaline. But yeah, Australia flights are really weird right now because it was like, it's actually quite cheap to fly economy, but to fly business is crazy expensive like more expensive i've Looked this up many times because i've always thought about going it's like twice the price of normal and it's like eleven thousand dollars or something and you've got to be like i don't Think i can fly economy for 24 hours so i don't know i gotta figure that one out but uh at some point i want to get there but i also don't want to pay twelve thousand dollars for a plane i'm not Aaron Francis Paying twelve thousand dollars yeah i'm sorry i'm also not flying standing up in the in the cattle hold in the back so i don't know where that leaves me right exactly that's that's my problem Ian Landsman I can't stand i can't sit in the cat with the cattle for 24 hours no offense but it's a long it's a long flight so it's too too draining back there so i don't know i don't know what i'm gonna Do but and i can pay points but even at that price it's a lot of points so it's like yeah i gotta get you know there is all the ways to gain the points you know it's just yeah i know i i don't even Mind that but it's like the problem is it doesn't work so well when you're like well larikon au is this right like it's not really ([Time 0:20:30](https://share.snipd.com/snip/fdb91d86-b1a1-4dd4-946e-1342441ca895)) - **Satisficing Vs. Maximizing Tension** - There's tension between being a satisficer and a maximizer, with many aspirational claims not matching reality. - Winning both related polls showed this incongruence in people's decision-making attitudes. Transcript: Ian Landsman Going to tell me that more than half the people are satisficers. No freaking way. Aaron Francis I don't believe it's one second. I did a little hand-to combat on this one because people would be like, what is satisficing? And I would explain it to them. And I have a way of being condensing. And so I think I won over both Abby and hugo like man to man on that one so yeah this is some bullshit aspirational crap where they're like oh i aspirationally would like to be a satisficer Ian Landsman Meanwhile i'm like i'm out there trying to get a better job i got three side projects trying to make more money all this stuff but sure you're a satisficer i got it but here's here's why Aaron Francis It's incongruent because you should read the entire menu before you order is a maximizer strategy yes you stop at the first item that that meets your threshold as a satisficer strategy And so the fact that you won the menu one and i won the satisficer ([Time 0:25:55](https://share.snipd.com/snip/43a80d09-68e5-425a-bdcb-a2a54ef217c6)) - **Boost Conference Game Engagement** - Improve interactive games at conferences by clarifying voting options and increasing participant engagement. - Larger visibility and clearer instructions encourage more votes and better audience involvement. Transcript: Ian Landsman But there was only, like, 40 votes on each question. Aaron Francis So you're blaming sample size? Ian Landsman Well, I mean, definitely sample size is wrong. But I would just like to see more votes in general. I think if we're going to do an interactive thing, we've make it we have to improve the interactivity so and i think we need to make it more clear which thing you're voting for you know yes Aaron Francis I think it could be confusing at points because right now it's like aaron says miami is a very sexual city i agree with that so i need to vote for aaron i think it needs to be clearer that like You're voting you agree or disagree and then maybe like under there's like who who said they agree and who said they disagree yeah yeah but honestly no you know i'm happy with these results So i don't really have a lot to complain about you would be people the people are very very smart is i guess all i have to say a bunch of dummies out there. Ian Landsman I don't know what's wrong with people. Aaron Francis This is great. Movies are the ([Time 0:27:41](https://share.snipd.com/snip/52d63aad-e1d9-4128-98b5-8e2e2f5b5d33)) - **Walkability Drives Event Vibe** - Laracon's walkable locations are crucial for attendee experience and networking opportunities. - Proximity between hotel, venue, parties, and food spots greatly enhances the event vibe. Transcript: Aaron Francis The middle of wherever, some crappy city. I won't name a city because all cities are great. As long as like the part where we're hanging in is cool enough to walk around and do all the stuff. That's all I care about. That's all I care about. I didn't go skiing. I didn't see any of Denver. I'm sure people did. But like that's all I wanted was just to be able to have a walkable spot for all the events. Ian Landsman Yeah, yeah. That was that was. Yeah, I was pretty happy with the spot i was i flipped on that a little bit was like when we first couple days i was like denver and like we kept getting kicked out of places like violently Kicked out it was like 10 o'clock like nine o'clock get out of here yeah like uh so that was a little annoying i was like this is annoying like um but it was fine in the end like we shouldn't Have been out too late anyway so that was good for us it's also like a tuesday night or whatever so it kind of makes sense the final night you and me and some other people found a late night Spot so that we just dug deeper and that worked out very nicely when we get to the final night yeah i have ([Time 0:36:30](https://share.snipd.com/snip/97c8540b-102d-48f4-a035-fe8f84680afa)) - **Slide-Free Emcee Success** - Aaron Francis emceed Laracon US 2025 without using any slides or notes on stage. - He prepared extensively with multiple rehearsals and relied only on memory and a backup note card. Transcript: Ian Landsman You emceed. How was that? It's great. Aaron Francis I love emceeing. I think it's so fun. I don't, I get nervous at all. I think it's a blast. I love it. It went well, which is, you know, that's always good. The thing I get nervous about is the talk, right? So I started with a talk. Ian Landsman Yeah, that was crazy. You were like, it's a little thing. Then I look at the schedule. I'm like, well, it's the same length as all the other talks. So that's just the talk. Yeah, I didn't really, you know, I didn't super realize that. Aaron Francis I thought it was a little like, hey, welcome to the party. And then it turned into like a welcome to the party. Here's a full talk. Right. And now we can start. The full talk, yeah. But I think that went well. I tweeted yesterday that I took a risk in that I didn't have any slides. No slides. Yes, I noticed that. No slides, which means no speaker notes, right? Because I didn't even plug in a computer. I had nothing. And I wanted to do that on purpose because I feel like that's the next evolution of speaking. Right. You start, you start with like full slides, stand behind the podium and be a little scared. Then you do like stand behind the podium, live coding. And then you do step out from the podium, walk around, point at people. And then this is, feel like one of the final evolutions, which is you're out from behind the podium and you are there's no safety net. It's just you and whatever's in your brain. That's it. And it worked. I did it. I pulled it off. Ian Landsman What's crazy about it is that you did such a good job with it that like I don't – I didn't even like notice that until like halfway through. And I was like, oh. He's like – because you just did the – you kind of introed the event and then you just kind of kept speaking. Just kept going. Yeah. Then it was like so organic and natural. And I was like, wait a minute. He didn't have slides. He's just like – he's just out there. Like it's like – He's just out there. It was great. So you did great with it. Yeah, you didn't even stumble. Aaron Francis Stumble no no i i was so happy and so proud of myself and the i had a fail safe i in the in my back pocket i had like taken you know when you check into the hotel you get your key card and it's inside A little like a little paper jacket i had ripped open the jacket and written down my main points and i had that in my back pocket just in case i got out there and i was like oh no i don't know What's next and there's nobody that can save me um so i had that in my back pocket but the the transition from like welcome to the show i'm gonna start my talk now is something that i worked On like for for a pretty long time to figure out how do I go from like logistics here are the bathrooms to like you gotta believe in yourself and I found it like it worked I figured it out I Ian Landsman Was really I was really happy with that it was very impressive yeah it was great um I almost think I don't know tell me how it was that never I mean I've talked in a I don't like an impromptu Just like I'm just called up to speak or whatever but not like a planned talk where i'm not gonna have any slides or anything but like i almost feel like it seems liberating in a sense and Almost like obviously there's the fear of like you forget what you're gonna talk about yeah a huge problem but then short of that like the slides are their own weight there's like all The creation of them there's like my pacing of them there's all that stuff where it's like if it's just you talking it's like you can just find your natural flow and there's not this whole Other thing to manage like you are just speaking at a pace you feel is appropriate for the topic or whatever so i don't know how is that like the detail that was actually quite nice there Aaron Francis There's i think two levels to it one is i don't have to prepare slides right and that's always that's always you know that takes a lot of time if you want to do it well. And so not having to actually prepare slides was really nice. And then yeah, being up there, being up there and like being in full control was really nice. And not having a clicker in my hand was really nice. And so there were a lot of great things about it. You know, I texted a friend before I left, who's done a lot of speaking, and he's an attorney. And I said, Hey, here's what I'm thinking. I think I'm gonna go no slides. And he said that he worked with a trial attorney once that was like, if you put up a slide, the people are looking at the slide, and they're not listening to you. Yes, for sure. Right. Like in his case, it was the jury. Um, but I'm like, yeah, okay, cool. I'm going to do this then. Um, and I did feel like I had, I had all of the attention. Nobody was like reading the slides or looking ahead. And that's one thing I would never do is like put six bullet points on a slide and like show my hand before I get there. But still not having to like, the only thing I was worried about was the cadence of the talk I was giving, not like what slide is coming up next. And so that part was super, super nice. So if I can pull it off again, it takes a lot of preparation and a little bit of chutzpah to be like, I'm just gonna do it. But if I could do it again, I think I would sure but i almost think there is a like there's what people actually ([Time 0:40:03](https://share.snipd.com/snip/ea81f1be-c4f1-405d-93b6-f8a473a3f50f)) - **Caleb's Epic Livewire Talk** - Caleb's Livewire talk at Laracon US 2025 was entertaining but overran by 20+ minutes. - His disregard for the time constraints amused attendees but created scheduling challenges. Transcript: Ian Landsman Favorite totally biased live wire i was i've been waiting for this live i've literally been waiting for this live wire talk for five years like that's really, it's like the arc is like Five years. Because I wanted to use Livewire and some help spot stuff and all this stuff. And I waited for Livewire 3. We got Livewire 3, but then we didn't really have the components and stuff. Then we got the components. But then the components really need what he launched in this talk to really work fully to their maximum capacity of speed and everything so now it's as fast as if you're doing reactor View which is like the main thing it's like instantaneous everything and now there's no excuses not to use livewire if you want to stay mostly in pgp land with a sprinkling javascript Like livewire is just there is now is no compromises on that solution and so it was great i need a lot of other cool stuff in there too but uh but like the speed of blade which isn't even really Live wire but whatever it's like that had to happen to make live wire fast and uh some of the island stuff and some of these just niceties um to make just a super interactive feeling application Aaron Francis I think it's gonna be awesome yeah so that was my personal favorite that was i mean that felt like a very uh like i've been i've been reading reddit and i'm going to fix every problem you People have with this yeah and it was like he he he did it like he knocked it out of the park it seems like he answered every single um bad faith question with a good faith answer. Ian Landsman Also, I was gonna say, he channeled his inner godfather. He settled all family business, as they say, godfather. Aaron Francis Something I was gonna say that, but since you said it, yeah, I know that line. Also, he's probably one of the most comfortable and funny speakers that I have ever seen um also does not give a rip about the time i was loving that i was so loving that i was like we were Ian Landsman Like 25 minutes in and i'm like boy he hasn't even gotten to any of the important stuff yet i hope i hope he i hope he did the important stuff that i thought he was working on the production Aaron Francis Crew was furious the laravel staff was confused i was like what the hell is going on i think his slot was like 25 minutes and he went for 40 or 45 and they're like the production staff are On the confidence monitors biggest font you've ever seen in your life flashing get off the stage literally really off the stage that's what it said and he didn't even acknowledge it He didn't even better he didn't even say like oh it looks like i'm i'm running a little bit over but we're gonna keep going nope don't care about you people that's the man i'm gonna do whatever I want to do dude i loved it so much you know i think the audience likes the talk but boy did it mess up the rest of the schedule so i was yeah. Ian Landsman Yeah, I was figuring that like, yeah, it was really funny because I was like, oh, man, like I know I get it because being involved with the conference. So I didn't know how much other people got it. But I was like, man, he is he is way, way over. Yes. Aaron Francis He couldn't see the finish line behind him from where he was standing. Ian Landsman No, so gone and i was loving it because exactly what you said i was like he is not even acknowledging it he's not like what's coming up close man i'm a little over oh let me cut this slide oh Let me get like the show went on yeah he's delivering his show yes i loved it love that was that was brutal that was but see But see, now, I have to say, I was always ill-informed that I would Have thought Livewire is like the smallest part of the sort of JavaScript ecosystem of Laravel. But then they showed that stats about the starter kit. Hank showed the stat that Livewire is the biggest starter kit. So, like. Yeah. I mean. So, it's amazing. So, I'm like, that's even more. Do whatever you want. You've got to take. Disagree. Take as much time Disagree. Take as much time as you need. Aaron Francis If you know, do not do whatever you want, because that's the rest of the schedule and the rest of the speakers. It's the rest of the speakers. If you want if you want more time, get more time up front. That's my only thing. Like he should. I will say he should have had more time i'm fine with that yeah the people loved it it's obviously a popular package framework he's obviously an incredible speaker just ask for more time Yeah that's that's the only thing easier to ask for forgiveness than permission apparently yeah so that one that one really sent the backstage into a tizzy because it was like what the Hell are we going to do? Ian Landsman He was near the end though, but I guess there was like the panel. Which makes it even worse because there's less material to absorb it. Aaron Francis There are fewer breaks and fewer negotiables that we can change. But yeah. Ian Landsman Caleb, you rocked it. Don't take any of that feedback. Aaron Francis Take all of that feedback. It was fantastic. And just ask for more time next year. Do whatever you want. I think another one, there ([Time 0:56:25](https://share.snipd.com/snip/04d12699-5bb1-420b-90d8-2ca74b78af53)) - **Hobbies as Bonding Time** - Make time for hobbies that can double as bonding moments, like learning golf with your kids. - Even busy schedules can allow for quality connections through shared activities. Transcript: Aaron Francis My tweet about red alert too yeah i'll be like hey you remember that tweet that was me come to my party yes yeah that's probably gonna work well okay so after the after dark party which i Think was the first night was the after party um i don't remember exactly where we went maybe i just went were you there yeah i was there we took a picture with mary perry we were hanging Out uh i talked to jeffrey and pavelas for a long time at that party um talked about at the party the fears of education after the party yeah i don't know what happened after the party did Ian Landsman I go somewhere we started all walking somewhere but then i don't remember if you ended up there or where i ended up i don't think you ended up where i ended up did somebody did a group of people Aaron Francis Peel off to play mini golf was that ([Time 1:08:33](https://share.snipd.com/snip/5d2241c2-894a-4c52-a7ca-5752b5c5e972)) - **Protect Your Voice at Events** - Continuous social interactions during conferences may strain speakers' voices over time. - Proper vocal care and techniques are essential to maintain voice health during busy events. Transcript: Aaron Francis Be first day. Gotta go on the first day. Ian Landsman That was a whole other little subplot was like, would my voice hold out? Because like I'm just continuing to talk. Starting right from like, I mean, before the party, but definitely at the party. It's like every single person's coming up to me, wants to say hi. We're talking, which is all awesome. But I'm just like literally not one second when I'm not speaking. I know. Or all those hours then into the night the next day all day into the night and next day all day tonight but it barely held out i'm still a little scratchy from it honestly but it's but i made It through i didn't go totally voiceless i had my singer cough drops i was using so those horrible ones that i also bought that tastes awful not a good taste but not a good taste apparently Work I got to work. Matt Stouffer's wife was telling me, ([Time 1:25:33](https://share.snipd.com/snip/5ece4f84-7da0-4148-8a8b-0206789765d2)) - **Big Sky DevCon Solo Emcee** - Aaron Francis also emceed Big Sky DevCon solo after his co-host had to leave due to voice issues. - He took charge professionally, managing speaker intros and the event flow successfully. Transcript: Ian Landsman Though. I didn't go home. Aaron Francis Didn't go home. You went to Big Sky Con. Went to Big Sky DevCon. Were you regretting the scheduling or it turned out okay um beforehand i was regretting the scheduling it's one of those things where it's like i made these plans now i don't want to do Them and then you do the plans and you're like i'm really glad i made those plans that's exactly the situation exactly the situation i was in um so i flew from denver to bozeman montana Which is beautiful it was also it was also quite warm there um but same kind of deal you know when the sun goes away it gets cooler which is just incredible um so yeah i went to big sky devcon And i was um slated to be the co-emc with the primogen so yeah long story short prime's voice has been giving him trouble for eight months oh my god and he had to he had to leave he like couldn't Do it and so he he intro'd i think you know one or two people and then was like guys i gotta go back to my hotel i can't do this and so it was like it was on me oh and you know what oh my gosh we we loved We love to bear up under a burden. And I think I wasn't even here to yell at you, though. Ian Landsman Oh, my God, you're on your own. Aaron Francis I'm on my own. And it went it just went fantastic. It went great. I think, you know, I was coming off I was coming off the Laracon high and I brought a little bit of like a little bit of organization and structure to my MC duties. And so I, you know, I saw Prime the night before and was like, hey, do you have any plans? And he's like, no, not really. Also, I can barely talk, so I might not do it. And it's like, all right, that's fine. I went back and I did my research and wrote all the intros for the speakers, you know, unprompted. I don't know what was supposed to happen. Like if I had gone up there, but like, I have a way of doing this and I was going to do it my way because it seemed like it was going to be on me. So I wrote all the intros and I, you know, I got to the venue at, there was like a speaker dinner and a brunch before. So I met a bunch of people, but I got to the venue at eight and the show started at nine. I just like i just called a meeting i was like hey all the speakers come over here it's my show now like i mean that's kind of i feel like that's kind of what the organizer is wanting is somebody To like take some of that uh show running off of their plate and so i called them all over and i was like here's my plan i wrote intros i'll confirm it with you tell me anything you want to add, Remove, or change. We're going to do this with the laptops. I'm going to do this with the questions. I'm here if you need anything. I'll save you if anything goes wrong. And then we just ran the show, and it went great. Very, very, very different from Laracon. You know, 250 people, I think 95% of them are local, which is incredibly cool because it is in Montana, and it's like not a huge tech scene. And so like this is their spot, which is very like encouraging that that kind of thing still exists in a post-COVID world. And so the ticket prices, they purposefully kept as low as possible to make it accessible to everyone, which I thought, again, was cool. And a lot of like a lot of juniors and a lot of career switchers, which is something that we need in the industry. And so it went really well. Very different vibes. I felt like a super outsider because it's not, you know, it's more like the the HTMX crew online with the memes and the Twitch and the discords. And I'm like not in any of those. I had to download discord to like talk to the speakers. Um, but it was really, really good. Um, and I'm really glad I did it. I think I, I think I was able to, um, play an important role and fulfill a duty that needed to be fulfilled. Um, and I think I helped make it, I think I helped make it a very good conference. I'm very, I'm very glad I did it. And it was really nice to meet Carson, the main guy, the HTMX guy online. And it turns out he's a professor at one of the local universities. I was like, I should talk about that because I may want to do that too. So it was fun. It was, it was really good. I went out just briefly after there was like a post-show hang at a brewery. And I went out for maybe two hours, met some cool people, and then was like, all right, I'm super gassed. Yeah, I was like, I think I'm done here. So I think I only stayed out till like 9.30 or something. But it was good. I hope to do it again. I like emceeing. If I could somehow turn this into part a career, that would be fun. I think I'd have to do pretty big corporate events to do that. Ian Landsman Yeah, to make it financially worthwhile. Yeah, to get paid for it. Aaron Francis But it was a good conference. So if anyone's ever interested in going to Big Sky DevCon, I would encourage it. It's a lot of fun. Very diverse talks from like Ken Wheeler was talking about how he built a robot to water his plants. And another guy was talking about making HTMX work on phones. You could build phone apps with pure hypermedia. And it's like, this is all over the place in a very fun way. Interesting way. Yeah. Very cool. A lot of of fun. Ian Landsman Cool, that sounds good. Did you have a direct flight home or no? ([Time 1:28:04](https://share.snipd.com/snip/adc9a886-8954-480c-b387-d49bb2208902))