WordCamp Europe 2023
WordPress Community
For several years now, I’ve been actively involved in the WordPress community. That community is huge and spread all over the world. It consists of enthusiastic WordPress users in all shapes and forms: users, site builders, developers, and more. And precisely because everyone is so widely distributed across the globe, it’s great to meet up in person from time to time. To do something fun together. To make friendships and strengthen existing ones. And that’s exactly what the WordPress community does.
Every year, large and smaller events take place all around the world. Some last a single day, others run for several days. There are WordPress meetups that last just a few hours, and there are WordCamps that can take one to three days. Most countries host one or more WordCamps. Sometimes they’re named after a city, like WordCamp Antwerp, and sometimes after a country, like WordCamp Netherlands. Attendance numbers usually range between 200 and 400 people.
Then there are three truly large WordCamps with significant attendance: WordCamp Asia, WordCamp US (usually around 2,500 attendees), and WordCamp Europe (around 3,000). Every WordCamp is a celebration for its participants. Not only because of the talks, but also because it’s often a reunion of friends who live all over the world.
WordCamp Europe 2023: Athens
This year, WordCamp Europe takes place in Athens from 8 to 10 June. After leading teams for several years, I was asked in 2021 to take on overall responsibility for the event, together with two others: Evangelia Pappa from Greece and José Freitas from Portugal. We coordinate around 120 people, divided across 11 teams.
There’s a lot happening over these three days. The first day is the so-called Contributor Day, where people work together to give something back to WordPress. It’s a free product, and it exists thanks to the voluntary contributions of people like you and me. During Contributor Day, you can work on things like documentation, courses, translations, design, marketing, bug fixing, and many other areas.
The second and third days focus on learning: talks and workshops spread across multiple stages. The topics depend entirely on speaker submissions. These submissions are reviewed and selected anonymously before being added to the programme. Of course, there are also sponsor booths, because without sponsors a WordCamp wouldn’t be affordable. Did I mention that a three-day ticket costs just €35? That even includes free food and drinks, as well as a big party on the final evening.
In the evenings, there are plenty of social events around the city. Sometimes organised by attendees, but often hosted by sponsors.
Does that sound like something for you? Then be sure to check quickly whether there are still tickets available.