The Laravel community continues to expand globally, and now it’s reaching the South Caucasus. On May 14th, the first official Laravel meetup in Tbilisi, Georgia will take place, hosted by RedBerry.
I spoke with Gaga Darsalia, co-founder and CEO of RedBerry, and Nika Jorjoliani, the agency’s Engineering Director, about how this meetup came together, why Laravel has such strong adoption in Georgia, and what they hope to build going forward. You can watch and listen to the full interview here:
Why Georgia, and why now
RedBerry has been deeply involved in the Laravel ecosystem for years as an official partner agency, with a team of around 100 engineers serving clients across more than 15 countries. Despite that, a local meetup never quite materialized until recently.
The turning point came after moving into a new office in Radio City, which finally gave them the space to host community events. The demand, however, had already been there.
According to Nika, much of Georgia’s Laravel adoption traces back to timing. Many developers in the region began their careers around 2015 and 2016, right as Laravel was gaining momentum. That early adoption stuck.
Laravel is a framework that if you start to develop on Laravel, you're going to stay on Laravel.
That long-term stickiness has helped create a surprisingly strong Laravel community in a relatively small country.
What to expect on May 14th
The first meetup is already seeing strong interest, with more than 70 confirmed attendees and expectations of around 150 people in total.
The speaker lineup covers a wide range of topics:
- Harris Raftopoulos will present on value objects, traveling in from Athens, Greece
- Irakli Asatiani will share lessons from running Laravel at scale for millions of daily users
- Revaz Mikeladze will talk about building production-ready AI agents with Laravel
Talks will be held in English, reflecting both the local developer base and Tbilisi’s growing presence as a hub for international and remote workers. This also opens the door to bringing in speakers from outside the country.
Building a community
While this is the first official meetup, the goal is to make it a recurring event. The team is currently considering a cadence somewhere between twice a year and quarterly.
Long term, there is also the possibility of growing into a larger regional event. With neighboring countries in the South Caucasus, the audience could expand beyond Georgia itself. For now, the focus is on consistency and creating a space where local developers can connect and share their work.
They are also encouraging more developers to get involved as speakers, especially those with real-world production experience and unique use cases.
How to attend
Registration is on Luma, and the event is also listed on the official Laravel Community page.
If you are in or near Tbilisi and working with Laravel, this meetup is a strong signal that the local community is growing and worth being part of.
