VueConf.US 2025 Recap

I attended Vueconf.US 2025 this past week as it returned to Tampa, Florida! This was a bit of a homecoming for me, as Vueconf.US was where I gave my first-ever talk to a live crowd when it was last in Tampa in 2019. I finally got some time to write, having taken the week off to also celebrate graduations and get some downtime, so here’s a recap and some thoughts on my experience!

My history with Vue

For those unfamiliar with my backstory, I cut my teeth using front-end frameworks with Vue.js back when I worked for Tenet Partners as a full-stack web developer in 2016. When a client requested custom features to help their employees select the right letterhead for their communications, I was challenged to add single-page application-like features to a predominantly multi-page application built on .NET Web Forms. After reviewing multiple options, I landed on Vue.js for its developer experience and progressive approach to installation. I worked with Vue in various roles until my current role at Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, where I work predominantly with React and HTML5 custom elements. All that to say, I have quite a bit of history with the framework.

Two days of great talks

Vueconf.US features a day of workshops, which I didn’t get to attend, followed by two days of talks, the first of which was all stress because I was one of the speakers!

My talk, “Full-Circle: A Time Traveler’s Perspective on Vue,” is a recap of the last ten or so years of Vue’s ecosystem. Like the title suggests, it’s from the perspective of someone who used to work within the ecosystem and is returning to it after years away. When I started researching for this talk, what was a comparison of what I used to work with and what Vue developers are using also became a discussion about the impact of Vue 3’s rewrite, the struggles of major migrations, and the impact engineering decisions can have on developers and engineers.

Giving the talk and hoping all my slides worked was one thing, but it was another thing to be giving it following the creator of the Vue framework, Evan You! No pressure, right?

In addition to giving my talk and emceeing for the afternoon, I got to enjoy fantastic talks by fantastic speakers! I won’t go through every one, as they’ll all be available online at some point, but some talks of note:

• Evan forwent his typical State of Vue-style address to get into the technical details of Vue’s new Vapor Mode
• Daniel Roe and Alexander Lichter of the Nuxt core team spoke about the state of Nuxt development and underutilized features, respectively
• Alex Riviere gifted us the use-magic-props package after teaching us increasingly chaotic ways to define props on Vue components
• Kathryn Grayson Nanz embodied the “Pirate City Vue” theme, encouraging us to ruin our users’ experiences for fun and profit
• Abbey Perini hit us in the feels with her talk about how ADHD can be some developers’ superpower and how they must advocate for themselves
• Nerando Johnson called us all out about our side projects, whether they’re our sidekicks or mentors
• Henry Lie showed us how automating our testing suites (you do have tests, right?) isn’t as daunting as we think

On top of the talks, the “hallway track” always makes for insightful conversations, speaking with developers from around town and the world about their challenges and discoveries. All in, I couldn’t have asked for a more energizing experience. If ever you get the opportunity, I encourage you to attend an in-person conference. Especially in the recent climate of the tech industry, it’s one of the best places to find inspiration, connection, and drive.

Special thanks to Pratik and Vincent of connectevents.io for having me!