Pete and Matt are back from an inspiring trip to Brisbane for this year’s Laracon AU! It’s no secret that at Simple Pixels, we’re passionate about creating custom web apps with Laravel, and Laracon was the perfect place to dive deep into all things Laravel! Although we loved the entire conference, here’s a few highlights from the trip:
Stephen Rees-Carter : Bulletproof Coding: Essential Cybersecurity
One of the highlights—if not the highlight—of Laracon AU was Stephen’s talk on cybersecurity. As a seasoned penetration tester, Stephen walked us through the top security flaws he encounters in his work. It was incredible watching him perform live hacks and exploits, followed by detailed explanations on how to prevent those kinds of attacks. Inspired and ready to level up, I’m looking forward to diving into Stephen’s Laravel Security course to make our applications even stronger and more secure.
Jess Archer : Laravel Nightwatch Announcement
Leading up to Laracon AU, we heard whispers of an exciting product announcement—and it did not disappoint! The team unveiled Nightwatch, a Laravel-focused application monitoring tool that’s set to raise the bar.
Though we’ve been using other monitoring tools, nothing is quite as optimised for Laravel as Nightwatch. It lets you trace errors to their source effortlessly, ensuring your app performs at 100%. And, as if its functionality weren’t impressive enough, the UI is a masterpiece! Sleek, seamless, and intuitive—Nightwatch was love at first sight. Just look at it!
I’ve already jumped on the waitlist and can’t wait to integrate it into our workflow when it launches early next year.
Mitchell Davis : Mobile apps don’t suck anymore
As Mitchell Davis put it, mobile app development used to suck. Two separate codebases, two editors, two SDKs, and two programming languages to manage for iOS and Android. But thanks to React Native, that hassle is history! Using React (a close second to my favorite framework), React Native lets us build native mobile apps from a single codebase.
Mitchell showed how he used React Native with Expo to build the official Laracon AU app and showed just how easy it is to integrate SDKs. Need a camera feature? Just one npm command and a few lines of code! Plus, Expo’s streamlined deployment lets you connect directly to both app stores and deploy with a single click. You can even push updates without requiring a formal app update.
I’ve been tinkering with Expo for a while and am working on building templates to offer Wagga an affordable option for mobile app development. Exciting things ahead!
Keith Damiani: Zero to launch in 30 mins
Speed, efficiency, and a fantastic developer experience—this is why I love Laravel. Keith Damiani’s talk at Laracon AU proved it, as he built an entire app MVP live on stage in just 30 minutes! But his main message was even more valuable: finish your apps.
Since Uni, I’ve had a long list of projects I wanted to build. Many are half-finished but never launched. Keith’s “30 Projects in 30 Days” initiative is designed to help developers stay motivated, complete their personal projects, and actually launch them.
We’re inspired and ready to push our own projects to production! 💪
Ryan Lovett: You can’t do that with Laravel
When we think of system-critical programming languages, C++ often comes to mind. But what about Laravel? Ryan Lovett, chair of the Australasian College of Paramedicine and fellow Laravel enthusiast, showed us exactly how it’s done.
Ryan runs Skerric, providing emergency management and public safety software—powered entirely by Laravel. Their solutions, including PNG’s ambulance software, handle life-saving tasks like emergency call handling. Ryan demonstrated that Laravel can handle critical applications, provided it’s built right. With principles like redundancy and minimising dependencies, he’s achieved an impressive 99.999% uptime.
See you next year!
We’re pumped about the future of Laravel, and with tools like Nightwatch and ideas learned from the community we’re ready to push the boundaries of what we can achieve.
At Simple Pixels, we’re always looking to create powerful, custom Laravel applications. If you want to build your next Laravel project with us, reach out today—we’d love to collaborate and bring your ideas to life. See you next year!
