An evening with Sebastian and Stefan

When Sebastian Bergmann and Stefan Priebsch take the stage together, expect an evening focused not on theory, but on the craft of building good software. As founders of thePHP.cc, they have influenced the conversation around code quality, testability, refactoring, and sustainable architecture in the PHP community for many years.

At this Symfony User Group meeting, they bring that experience to a special format: a public code review of code submitted by attendees.

Together, they will look at real-world examples from everyday development, share direct feedback on structure, readability, testability, and maintainability, and show how even long-lived codebases can be improved step by step.

This is a great opportunity to see how experienced practitioners approach code, which common issues they spot quickly, and which improvements can have the biggest impact in practice.

If you would like feedback on your own code, bring it along. Please make sure to remove any credentials or personal data before sharing it publicly.

The feedback will be constructive, respectful, and focused entirely on helping make the code better.

I most recently presented "An evening with Sebastian and Stefan" at the Symfony User Group Berlin on June 10, 2026 in Berlin.

I present this together with Stefan Priebsch.

About me

My name is Sebastian Bergmann, and I have been working as a software developer and consultant in the PHP ecosystem for over 25 years. I support development teams in creating better software through modern practices, tools and training.

I am deeply committed to Open Source, maintain critical Open Source projects in the PHP ecosystem, and help shape the work of the PHP Foundation as a member of its board. I have also represented the interests of Open Source at the European Commission and am active in the Open Source Working Group ("Arbeitskreis Open Source Software") of the German Informatics Society ("Gesellschaft für Informatik").

I live and breathe Open Source and help shape how developers around the world test, write, and maintain their code.

More events where you can meet me are listed here.

My interactive online training courses are designed to provide you with practical knowledge that you can apply immediately. The next ones starting soon are listed here.