The Laravel Community: Why Getting Involved Changed Everything for Us.

I've been thinking a lot lately about what makes Laravel special. Sure, the framework is brilliant. But if I'm being completely honest, it's not the code that keeps us coming back year after year.

It's the people.

After 11 years of building Laravel applications and being part of this ecosystem, I can say with absolute certainty that the Laravel community isn't just a nice-to-have addition to the framework - it's the secret weapon that's transformed how we work, how we grow, and honestly, how we think about software development.

The Moment It Clicked for Me

Back in 2015, I was struggling with a particularly nasty authentication with SAML issue. I'd been banging my head against it for the best part of a day and I just couldn't make things work, Stack Overflow wasn't helping, and I was starting to question my life choices.

Then I did something that felt weirdly vulnerable at the time - I posted about it on the Laravel.io forum. Within an hour, three different developers had responded with suggestions, and one of those suggestions actually worked within an hour i'd solved the problem and I could continue on with my other tasks.

But here's the thing that really struck me - these people gained nothing from helping me. They weren't selling anything, they weren't promoting their agency, they just... wanted to help. That's when I realised the Laravel community was different.

Why Getting Involved as a Developer Will Transform Your Career

Let me be blunt here - if you're a Laravel developer and you're not actively involved in the community, you're missing out on the fastest route to levelling up your skills. And I'm not just talking about the obvious stuff like learning new packages or techniques.

When you start engaging with the community - whether that's attending meetups, contributing to discussions, or helping others with their problems - something magical happens. You start seeing patterns you wouldn't have noticed in your own bubble. You discover that the "clever" solution you came up with last week is actually an anti-pattern that'll bite you in six months (ask me how I know).

But more importantly, you build relationships. Real ones.

Through the meetups we've run or ones we've attended over the years starting from way back in 2014 when I started Jump24 we've been building relationships. Some of these relationships have fostered new clients. Others have referred work to us. A few have even joined our team.

The community isn't just about consuming knowledge - it's about contributing to a collective intelligence that makes all of us better developers.

The Business Case for Community Investment

Now, as an agency, we could easily take the position that community involvement is just warm and fuzzy corporate social responsibility. But that would be missing the point entirely.

Our first proper community investment was sponsoring Laracon EU in Lisbon back in 2023. I'll admit, writing that cheque felt like a big deal at the time. Were we really going to see any return on this? Would anyone even notice our logo among all the other sponsors?

Two years later, we still get enquiries that start with "We saw you at Laracon EU in Lisbon..."

One of those enquiries turned into a great project with an stronger relationship being built throughout. The ROI isn't just financial (though it's definitely been positive) - it's the credibility, the connections, and the constant learning that comes from being actively involved rather than sitting on the sidelines.

Supporting the Local Heroes

While the big conferences get a lot of attention (and rightfully so), it's the local meetups that really keep the community alive day-to-day. That's why we've been so passionate about supporting events like BrumPHP here in Birmingham and PHP Stoke up in Stoke-on-Trent.

These aren't massive events with thousands of attendees. BrumPHP might have 30-40 people on a good night. But those 30-40 people are the ones doing the actual work - building applications, solving problems, and pushing the boundaries of what's possible with PHP and Laravel.

We sponsor these events not because we expect immediate returns, but because we remember what it was like starting out. Having a place where you can ask "stupid" questions (spoiler: they're never stupid), where you can share what you're working on without fear of judgement, and where you can learn from people who've already made the mistakes you're about to make - that's invaluable.

Plus, and this might sound selfish, but these local meetups keep us grounded. When you're heads-down in client work, it's easy to get tunnel vision. These events force us to pop our heads up, see what others are doing, and often realise we've been overcomplicating things.

And these events are always a great place to find developers as one of our devs Jamie Peters kindly put it "Seeing Christopher Millers talk at the first php stoke in January 2023 introduced me properly to Jump24, a company that is as passionate about Laravel as I was, and that made me interested in joining, I think I’d seen the name around a few times in the past, maybe at laracon online? But in person was the first big thing for me, I remember getting home that night and looking more into the company, and the more I looked, the more I wanted to be part of that"

The Compound Effect of Giving Back

Here's something I've noticed over the years - the more you put into the community, the more you get out of it, but not in the ways you'd expect.

When we started writing blog posts about our real experiences - including the failures and face-palm moments - we thought we might be showing too much vulnerability. Instead, it's led to some of our best client relationships because they appreciate the honesty and the fact that we're not pretending to be perfect.

Looking Ahead - Laracon EU 2026

Which brings me to some exciting news - we're going to be sponsoring Laracon EU again in 2026!

After seeing the impact our Lisbon sponsorship had (both on our business and on our team's motivation), this was an easy decision. But more than that, it feels like the right thing to do. The Laravel ecosystem has given us so much over the years - a framework that makes our work enjoyable, a community that's helped us grow, and honestly, a big part of our identity as an agency.

We're already planning which team members to send, what talks we want to attend, and most importantly, which conversations we want to have in the hallway track.

Because if there's one thing I've learned, it's that the real magic of these events happens between the talks. It's the coffee break conversation where someone mentions a package that solves the exact problem you've been struggling with. It's the lunch discussion that makes you rethink your entire deployment strategy. It's the random encounter at the sponsor booth that turns into a three-year client relationship.

The Bottom Line

If you're a developer sitting on the fence about getting involved in the Laravel community, just do it. Start small - join the Discord, attend a local meetup, answer a question on a forum. You don't need to be an expert. Some of the best community contributions come from beginners asking questions that make us all think differently.

If you're running an agency or a development team, consider what you can give back. It doesn't have to be massive sponsorship deals (though those are great too!). Run a local meetup, contribute to open source, share your real experiences - both good and bad.

The Laravel community isn't just a feature of the framework - it's the beating heart of everything that makes Laravel special. And the beautiful thing is, it's not exclusive or gatekept. There's always room for one more at the table.

We'll see you at Laracon EU 2026. Come find us at our booth - we'll have terrible jokes, honest conversations about development challenges, and probably far too many laptop stickers to give away.

In the meantime, keep building, keep sharing, and keep being the community that makes us proud to be Laravel developers.

P.S. - If you're looking for a Laravel development team that's as passionate about the community as they are about clean code, we should talk. We've got over a decade of Laravel experience, we've made (and learned from) pretty much every mistake possible, and we're always excited to work with businesses that understand the value of doing things properly. Get in touch - even if it's just to chat about your Laravel challenges over a virtual coffee.