This was 2024

2024 is almost over, and as a yearly tradition, I'm looking back.

Business-wise

While it was supposed to be stable, it wasn’t...
I somehow lost grip of the course Vulpo was on. I was too deep into development and forgot to double-check the direction the company was heading. I had to take some drastic measures to regain control. But I did…

By the summer, I managed to get everything back on track.

Unfortunately, Maarten left Vulpo in December this year. I'm sure we'll meet again in the coming years, and you never know what happens, right?

We already have some exciting things planned for Q1 of 2025, and we'll be diving into some new technologies as well...

As a Creator

Code with Burt YouTube channel?

On the first of January 2024, the channel had 2,136 subscribers, and we're currently (at the time of writing this) at 3,170 subscribers. 😁
So it's safe to say that the channel is doing well. We even got monetized this year, so I'm making a little bit of money while I'm enjoying making these videos. There is one video that has over 20k views by now, which is still mind-blowing for me.

I'm planning to make another course series in 2025, just like I did in 2023. I know I said I would do this in 2024, but I got distracted, I guess... 😁

To be honest, I would love to reach 5,000 subscribers during 2025 🤩. You can help by subscribing here

Meetups and Conferences.

I only did one speaking gig in 2024: I filled in a vacant spot during our own meetup at Combell in March.
I'm still organizing the Devs.gent meetups in Ghent together with Elian and Freek, every two months on the last Wednesday of the month.

I attended Laracon EU and Laracon US this year, together with Freek. There, I had the chance to meet a lot of fellow YouTubers and content creators in the Laravel/PHP scene.

My inactivity as a speaker this year will change drastically in 2025. I already have two gigs planned, and they aren’t small ones.
I'll be speaking at Laracon EU in Amsterdam in February, and just one month later, in March, at Laracon IN in Ahmedabad (India). Two gigs I'm very excited about! But also a little bit scared, because I'm in the same lineup as some true legends...

Opensource?

Last year, I made Cash-Converter, a package that converts currencies, which I use from time to time.

This year, I needed to check VAT numbers with the VIES API, because I needed this for two projects. I decided to pull it out of the codebases and turn it into a package. After tweeting about it, it took off and now already has over 20,000 downloads.

The package not only looks up the validity of a VAT number, but it also has functionality to retrieve the company address, and it includes a validation rule. Check out the package here.

Personal life

In contrast to 2023, this year was a quiet year for us. We’ve both put our heads down and worked hard.

But we took some time to escape the chaos. We went to Malaga for 3 days without the kids and went to France on vacation with the kids twice, once in the summer and once in the fall.

We have some big plans for 2025, actually Karolien does, on a personal level.

I have to make sure that I make more time for my family in 2025.

Sports

Although I struggled with some injuries, I had a lot of fun running and cycling.
2024 was a year full of PRs. I've run:

• 5k PR (26:16)
• 10k PR (56:36)
• 10 miles PR (1:36:08)
• Half Marathon PR (2:11:20)

I managed to set the 10k and 10 miles PRs in the same event as the Half Marathon PR, which was during the Half Marathon of Ghent in March.

On the bike, I took it a bit easier this year because I was focusing on running the entire year.
But nevertheless, I enjoyed my time on the bike. I even climbed Col de Perthus during a weekend in France with the family.

I also competed in a cross triathlon, which was really hard. I suffered on the mountain bike but never stopped running during the trail run part. I was super happy to finish that event.

The main goal of 2024 was to take revenge at the 70.3 Ironman in Knokke, because we all know what happened there last year... I had to DNF with 2 flat tires.
This year was a different course. Instead of swimming in the North Sea, we had to swim in the canal "Damse Vaart."

The swim was hard; I got tangled in water plants, took some serious hits during the swim corners, and even lost my goggles. During the bike, there was a lot of headwind, and on top of that, my bike computer died during the race, so I was riding without data. I was super happy to spot my parents in the crowd a few times during the bike leg.
I was riding strong, taking the corners well, and keeping that aero position as much as I could.
2k into the run, I already felt it — I had pushed too hard during the bike. I struggled and even had to walk sometimes, especially on the uphill parts.
During the run, my parents cheered me on, and I even had support from friends who were also there to support me and other athletes they know.
This year's edition, I crossed the finish line. Although I finished, I'm not 100% happy with how my race went — I wasn't strong enough during the run.

Maybe I'll be back in 2025 to perform better.

For 2025, I'll be focusing on my core and running. I also started CrossFit to focus on that core.

Closing

That's about it for this year.
At this very moment, I'm enjoying a few days off with my family.
I wish everyone the very best for 2024!

#year-recap, #personal