PowerShell and Swedish Meatballs: The PSConfEU 2025 Experience

Journey to Malmö

I was lucky, and a little unlucky. First of all, I’m incredibly grateful that Rabobank sponsored my trip. From the ticket to the hotel, it was covered for me. The unlucky part? A small detour from Amsterdam to Stockholm and then to Malmö. Average time: 5.5+ hours. I found this out later, after talking with fellow “dutchies” that I met just before the flight. They went straight to Copenhagen and stepped on the train to Malmö. The time for them: 2+ hours. Way shorter.

Nevertheless, being able to see the clean airport and beautiful nature from the sky of Sweden gave me goosebumps. After landing in Malmö, I grabbed a cab to the Clarion Hotel, which was the exact location of the conference. Having the ability to stay in the same place as the conference was held was helpful.

The kickoff

Rolling out of my bed directly into the big room. The kickoff session was presented by Gael Colas, Rob Swell, and Barbara Forbes, all dressed in colorful attire. Day 1 has started. Grabbing the first bits and pieces on how things got organized, what to expect, and more importantly, how you should treat your fellow IT professionals during the four days. This was a big deal for me, and I think for the most introverted IT professionals out there. Be open to each other, be kind, and have some fun. That was the main message.

After the opening ceremony finished, the famous session “State of the Shell”, given this year by Steven Bucher, started. This session always provides a ton of knowledge around, well, you guessed it already, the current state of the shell. You can’t imagine how far PowerShell has come, but hearing the number that it’s being used, came as no surprise:

• The PowerShell gallery has 450+ packages published every day
• 200 million machines use PowerShell version 7 monthly
• 2 billion PowerShell version 7 sessions per month

That’s the power of the shell. Steven also called the other members of the team on stage to give a quick update on other areas of focus. All the Az modules are now published on Microsoft’s Artifact Registry (MAR for short). Glimpses of AI Shell preview release 4, which is an interactive shell providing a chat interface with language models alongside your normal PowerShell window. Tess Gauthier provided an update on the status of DSC v3.1 and receiving a shoutout on the work I’ve been doing from the start, was just amazing.

Stages on fire

Finishing the state of the shell session, everyone had room to breathe and grabbed lunch that was included. After that, it was on. The stages were on fire: from profiler internals, to WinGet, and back to eating cookies in your browser by Miriam Wiesner. Every speaker delivered comprehensive content you could chew on. The (not so) downside is that you can’t attend all sessions at once, unless you can clone yourself.

Luckily enough, all sessions given by the speakers in different rooms are recorded. These will be published on YouTube later.

Podcast with PDQ

Around PowerShell, there’s a rich community. Most PowerShell experts are active on their blogging sites or participate in conversations on Discord. Others produce videos on various platforms, such as YouTube, Pluralsight, and Udemy. But one is sticking out, delivering a fresh episode every Wednesday.

Andrew Pla, a tech enthusiast I have heard about, proudly hosts the PowerShell podcast. During the conference, he asked me and my fellow Dutchies to do lighting demos. At first, I was unsure, but I figured - why not? The invite came just two hours before the podcast went live, and I didn’t have anything ready. So, I rushed back to my room and quickly crunched out a bunch of scripts on Microsoft DSC v3.1.

The end result? A lighting demo, which can be found on this link.

From podcast to presenting “on stage”

I’m not a natural presenter myself. Even though I want to, there’s always that internal struggle. Some have it as an innate gift to present and really love it. Others have trained themselves to do it.

Said that, after the podcast with Andrew Pla, one day was left. The organizers always plan one hour for people to give short community demos on whatever topic you want to present. Thursday morning, only two sessions were booked in, and I figured after many said, why not grab the stage? It was a goal of mine to stay on stage for more than 100+ people and at first, I wouldn’t have made it. This was because initially, the open area stage was listed in the schedule. These only had room for approximately 20 people. Nevertheless, the pressure was less to do it for 20+ people, instead of 100+.

After submitting my session on “What’s new in Microsoft DSC v3.1”, the stage switched. It was in a big room. The time to give the short demo has also been reduced from 10 minutes to 5 minutes. You can imagine that a little sweat was dropping from my forehead. The tricky part for me? How am I going to crank out a demo where the application is caching content? I figured, why not install the application and pre-cache most of the stuff?

Then, the time came. Three speakers already had to get on stage to switch laptops quickly. I was third in line. My heart rate was rising. The second person was slightly finished earlier, and there I went.

Somehow, when I got on stage, I became laser focused. While I didn’t have much time to prepare and do a pre-demo, it went pretty well. After the demo finished, some people reached out, and I got a few compliments, mentioning it didn’t look like it was my first time.

Conclusion? Pushing myself to get on that stage was an astonishing experience in itself. This event forced me to refine my presentation skills and share my work, which I love doing. And yes, it also built my confidence slightly.

So, you want to go next time?

I made it through PSConfEU 2025 with all my limbs still attached and most of my dignity intact. If you’re planning to go next year, allow me to pass down some wisdom.

I packed for the hotel, forgot the journey

Because apparently, flying from Stockholm and then to Malmö is a thing? When travelling, always check if there’s a shorter way to get to your end destination. I learned this the hard way.

I spoke to actual humans and lived to tell the tale

Turns out, networking isn’t fatal. Who knew? I didn’t really expect anything at all, but I was really surprised at how many were open to chat. Don’t be afraid to talk to strangers.

I showed up for social events

I’m not usually the “mingle and karaoke” type. But I went, and I’m glad I did. There’s always a big dinner organized where everyone is invited to attend. Do it. You won’t regret it later.

I tried to attend everything

Spoiler: you’ll exhaust yourself so that you won’t pick up everything. Pick the sessions that you’d love to attend. Accept that FOMO isn’t part of the package and rest when you need to. Again, the sessions are recorded and can be rewatched.

From Holland with love (and “lengthy” guys)

A very special thanks to my favorite tall sarcasm Dutch shadows, where I spent most of my afternoons. Your company made the experience ten times better, and I was glad to have had several good conversations with you in the late afternoons.

Conclusion

PSConfEU 2025 was a direct boost to my professional growth. The PowerShell community is strong, and events like these bring together like-minded people.

If you can make it to PSConfEU 2026, it’ll be worth it.