The European community of PrestaShop developers gathered to talk code, commerce and also open source in Paris, on November 30, 2023, at the PrestaShop Developer Conference. It was so exciting to see approximately 150 people come to follow conferences and other technical presentations, as well as network during the day.

PrestaShop Developer Conference 2023

The event opened its doors at 9AM and very quickly the venue filled up. Attendees were able to enjoy breakfast before diving into the day’s introduction in the main room. Eric Sénéchal, PrestaShop’s Managing Director, took the stage to welcome everyone, explain PrestaShop’s journey and what the company looks like today. Eric Sénéchal then introduced the following speaker, Olivier Fontenelle, which is PrestaShop’s CTO. Olivier Fontenelle presented current, past, future technology and gave a glimpse at presentations taking place during the day. After the previous presentations, the next speaker was Mathieu Ferment, Tribe Engineering Manager at PrestaShop. During his talk, he discussed the project’s accomplishments in 2023, PrestaShop 8.1.0, and unveiled plans for the next major release, version 9.0.0.

After welcoming attendees and Mathieu’s introductory talk, the event truly kicked off with some outstanding presentations from the PrestaShop community. The day featured nearly 20 presentations by 25 speakers, many of whom traveled from distant locations to the Paris area to discuss PrestaShop. I won’t be going into too much detail about the presentations as you will be able to read about them and even watch them in a video format in the next few weeks. Speakers are currently preparing blog posts on this Build blog and three video presentations are visible or planned on Live Update, with more to follow.

During the day, presentations covered a wide array of topics, ranging from module development to new features of PrestaShop. The event also highlighted developer solutions, security concerns, and CI/CD deployment strategies. If you would like to see what was presented during the conference, I can suggest you go to the event’s program on the dedicated website.

Between sessions, attendees took breaks and were able to grab refreshments as well as coffee. It was the perfect time to catch up with some acquaintances, get to know new people, network to better know the community and how to get more involved with the project. Lunch was also a special treat as PrestaShop had organized a pickup buffet and participants were able to enjoy a number of catered foods, still being able to discuss with their peers.

At the end of the day, a special Q&A happened with Eric Sénéchal, Olivier Fontenelle, Clément Paillasse (PrestaShop CPO), Mathieu Ferment and Jonathan Lelievre answering questions. Questions were open to everyone and discussions were very interesting, starting with a summary of the day, top of mind topics for Clément and Olivier. There was also the exciting announcement of FOP Day 2024 in Marseille, questions about more company related topics as well as next project versions, with a special emphasis on PrestaShop 9.

The Q&A session wrapped up, leading into an extended networking period. This lasted until the venue closed, with participants still enjoying being together and talking about their favorite project.

Thank you to all conference attendees and the special presence of participants coming from far away, all your presence at the event was greatly appreciated. This event was a success and it would not have been possible without you, so once again thank you very much for making it such a positive outcome. Looking ahead, we hope to have the pleasure of seeing you again at the next developer conference, which we are planning for 2024!