On October 22, 2026, the time had finally come: Meet Magento Germany was back. The Magento Association put it perfectly: Meet Magento is returning to its home country. For me, it was the first Meet Magento in Germany in many years, and that sense of reunion was everywhere.
The event was organized by Simon Sprankel (CustomGento), Rico Neitzel (run_as_root), and Tobias Niebergall (e3n), together with their companies. They were supported by many dedicated volunteers, without whom a day like this would not be possible. A big thank you to everyone involved.
A Magento Community Reunion
If you have been part of the Magento world long enough, you know the feeling: you see each other at conferences, then a long time passes, and eventually you meet again as if no time had passed at all. That was exactly what this day felt like. It was a Magento community reunion.
I caught up with people I had not seen in years, including Ben Marks. I also finally met people in person whom I had previously only spoken to remotely, including Jakub Winkler and Sergej Derzap. A conversation around a standing table really is different from a call or a GitHub comment.
Attendees and speakers came from many countries, so most of the conference was held in English. That makes perfect sense for a “German” Meet Magento: the community has long been international.
On a more personal note, my ElePHPant herd gained a new member: Benjamin Eberlei gave me a Tideways ElePHPant. Thank you!
The Pyramid in Mainz
The venue was the Pyramid in Mainz. I work in Mainz myself and had stood outside the building many times, but had never been inside. It was an excellent choice: easy to reach, plenty of room for multiple stages, and an atmosphere that stood out from generic hotel conference rooms.
The venue also handled the catering, which was excellent throughout. A magician provided the entertainment. In the evening, we headed all the way up to the tip of the pyramid for a party with a DJ. It is hard to imagine a better setting for conversations after the official program.
The Program and Keynote
The program was split across four tracks:
- Main Stage
- Tech Stage
- Business Stage
- Masterclass
The keynote was unusual, and I mean that in a positive way. Steve Richards from Jago, who also advises senior executives, looked back on his life to show how experiences in social work in Africa can connect with modern AI and IT topics. His core message: there is a lot we can take from the past into the future. It was a refreshing change from the usual product keynote. You could tell that Steve was a very experienced presenter. Not everything resonated with me personally, but some of his points certainly gave me food for thought.
The Talks I Attended
I deliberately chose some topics that I do not hear about every day. I get plenty of code and architecture in my daily work; at a conference, I also want to broaden my perspective.
Does ChatGPT recommend your shop?
Tsari Bombelli (Bombelli Analytics) explored whether and how AI assistants recommend online stores. This is a very real question for merchants, as some product searches are now moving from traditional search engines to chat interfaces.
I learned that llms.txt is not really being read at the moment and that robots.txt is more important. But I also took away that this could easily change tomorrow, and that there is no harm in creating an llms.txt file anyway.
The Priority We're Getting Wrong: Security
Jiří Brada (PushON) spoke about security as a priority that too often gets neglected in projects. The timing could hardly have been more appropriate (see below).
My takeaway was that the current patching process in Adobe Commerce and Magento Open Source urgently needs to change.
One sentence that also stuck with me: “Updates must be boring.”
We need proper Composer releases again. I also see opportunities to make greater use of composer audit and adapt it to our needs.
I also learned that the Magento crypt key alone is enough to gain access to the Magento REST API. So make sure to rotate that key regularly.
Brilliant, Then Spectacularly Wrong: A Field Report on Agents in Production
Tobias Zander (Zandups) shared his practical experience with AI agents in production. I much prefer reports like this to polished demos, because they reveal where things actually go wrong. Tobias’s slides included plenty of practical examples of what to watch out for when using agents and what can happen. One topic was the need to rigorously validate agents using “real code,” rather than blindly relying on LLMs.
Having previously worked in the agency world himself, Tobias also offered tips on billing models and what should be included on an invoice.
His slides deserve a mention, too: the entire deck was designed in the style of a retro game. Fittingly, Tobias has also recreated the game Gorillas on his website: https://tobiaszander.de
Everyone Has AI. Why Should Anyone Choose You?
Nicole Mentzen (maxcluster) asked how you can still differentiate yourself when everyone is using AI. It is a question agencies need to ask themselves just as much as merchants do. Since I create quite a lot of content myself, I found it particularly interesting to hear a marketing expert’s perspective.
My takeaway from the talk was that we should think about how we build trust and what makes us distinctive now that everyone is using AI.
The Number One Hallway Topic: PHP2Shell
Hardly a conversation went by without one topic coming up: PHP2Shell. The two critical remote code execution vulnerabilities in PHP core (CVE-2026-109618 and CVE-2026-109619) had been leaked prematurely on October 20. Patches followed on October 21 in PHP 8.2.35, 8.3.36, 8.4.27, and 8.5.12. By the day of the conference, just two days had passed since the leak, and many people in the room had spent the previous night updating servers.
Among others, I had the chance to discuss this with Nils Adermann from the Composer project, who is also active in the PHP Foundation. One point from that conversation has stayed with me: the PHP Foundation is underfunded and urgently needs more sponsors. We in the Magento ecosystem earn our living with PHP. Anyone who can should support the PHP Foundation.
There is also an uncomfortable aspect to this: official fixes are only available for PHP 8.2 and later. Anyone still running older versions now has a real problem. This is not a new argument, but rarely has it been so clear why the ability to keep systems up to date matters more than the next feature.
A big thank you also goes to everyone who worked to fix these vulnerabilities under enormous time pressure.
AI, AI, and More AI
As usual, many talks focused on AI, and it featured heavily in conversations as well:
- AI-driven development: How does our work change when agents write code?
- AI attacking online stores: Attackers use the same tools we do, just with different goals.
- Security as a concern that cuts across both areas and becomes even more important because of them.
Even in personal conversations, you can see just how dramatically AI has changed our everyday work. I mean that in both positive and negative ways.
Final Thoughts
For me, Meet Magento Germany 2026 was above all a reunion. The content was good, the venue was fantastic, and the organization was excellent. But the greatest value came from the conversations between talks, whether about PHP2Shell, AI agents, or simply the past few years.
With four parallel tracks, you inevitably miss something, and there is never enough time for conversations. I mean that entirely positively. Having so many talks meant there was a varied program with plenty to choose from. I had expected a fairly small event, mainly happy that it was happening again at all. Instead, the event exceeded my expectations in every respect. There were so many great conversations and positive emotions.
I very much hope this was not a one-off. The German Magento community has shown that it is still here. Hopefully, we will see each other again in 2027.
