WCEU Torino 2024: everything you missed and more!

Anyone involved with the WordPress ecosystem, whether it’s a company or a professional doing business within that ecosystem regularly, or even an end user, should attend an event as significant as WCEU.

If you simply enjoy technology and want to visit a welcoming, dynamic, and historic city, WCEU Torino 2024, organized by the global and local WordPress community, was your perfect weekend getaway.

Table of Contents

• Interested in attending a WCEU?
• The most outstanding Contributor Day you’ll ever see
• What is a Contributor Day?
  • Putting theory into practice
  • Talks, challenges, workshops, a great offer of quality and quantity
• The family photo
• My experiences at WCEU
• WordPress Connect Discussions: The future of WordPress is now
  • Speaking of Matt…
• Event data
• Conclusions

Interested in attending a WCEU?

The correct answer is yes.

The WCEU Europe 2024 is an event where global and local WordPress community organizers have created an event that has brought together up to 3,000 people over three days in Torino.

If you couldn’t attend, I’ll summarize it so you can get an idea and hopefully, we’ll see each other at the next edition.

The most outstanding Contributor Day you’ll ever see

One of my main motivations within WordPress is contributing to the community, both nationally in Spain and globally, across different teams. I’m a big fan of Contributor Days.

What is a Contributor Day?

It’s not just that; it’s also an opportunity to meet contributors, many of whom you regularly collaborate with from different parts of the world.

Efforts are combined to grow WordPress selflessly, establish improvement and refinement strategies for active contribution programs, and generate creative ideas to expand the contributor base.

A Contributor Day is the greatest representation of the Open Source spirit that characterizes WordPress and its community. This time, more than 750 people joined across the different contribution teams that form the heart of WordPress.

Putting theory into practice

As a result of these synergies, months ago at Wetopi, we created a local weekly Contributor Day. A flexible Contributor Day without a specific theme, where people are free to join or leave according to what they can contribute weekly.

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This action comes from constantly being in contact with the global and local community and trying to replicate their actions on a small scale, providing an increase in contributions and enabling onboarding for new contributors in the translation and documentation teams.

Talks, challenges, workshops, a great offer of quality and quantity

It’s impossible to attend everything that a WCEU offers in terms of lectures, workshops, networking areas, and WordPress Connect spaces… As you can see, with the magnitude of events within a WCEU, it’s best to be clear about who you want to see.

That talk by your favorite speaker or the workshop that best suits your tastes. That’s my advice for a WCEU visitor.

Of course, don’t forget to stroll among the dozens of sponsors that help make this event possible. You will always be able to meet community members who contribute their time, and there will always be a little gift waiting for you.

The family photo

If there’s something that will never be missing at a WordCamp, no matter how small, it’s the family photo. And, of course, when we talk about a WCEU, that photo is the reflection of the impressive number of people who are part of the WordPress community, and it is undoubtedly one of the event’s highlight moments.

My experiences at WCEU

A WordCamp usually offers an incredible opportunity to connect with the rest of the community. Naturally, at a WordCamp Europe, these opportunities grow exponentially. In my view, it’s very important to attend an event of this magnitude.

This was my first time, and I had the opportunity to learn, connect with global and local community members, reconnect with friends from the WordPress community, and experience new things that can be very enriching and valuable.

Additionally, in my case, at this WCEU, I was a volunteer and a speaker as a representative of the WordPress Mentorship Program, a program aimed at creating new stable and consistent contributors in local or global projects.

Contributing as a volunteer offers the possibility for the rest of the attendees to enjoy a more welcoming, friendly, and organized event.

WordPress Connect Discussions: The future of WordPress is now

Being considered to represent the mentors in the WordPress Mentorship Program was an honor. In it, we were able to discuss future actions for the next edition with other prominent members of the organization and the rest of the attendees, and many people approached to learn how to start contributing.

It is a project that currently has incredible momentum. In fact, the Keynote by Matt Mullenweg opened with an image of the last “Mentees” who graduated just a few months ago, in which I already served as a Mentor.

Creating pure community!

Speaking of Matt…

Matt Mullenweg, co-founder of WordPress, was brilliant in his Keynote, as always. With his traditional talk, three frenetic days of contribution, volunteering, and lectures ended. A combination that is hard to beat in terms of involvement in a WordCamp.

Afterward, the also traditional and highly anticipated After-Party began, during which I was able to chat with Matt for a bit, and of course, we took a photo together to immortalize the moment. It was undoubtedly the cherry on top of an unforgettable WordCamp.

Event data

For those who love statistics and numbers of a WCEU, the organization did not disappoint anyone with their figures, showing data before the party that will make you think about how important this annual event is, possibly the largest in the world, surpassing in numbers the WordCamps in Asia and the United States.

Conclusions

From an attendee’s perspective, participating, interacting, and enjoying everything mentioned is not only exciting; I would say it’s something worth experiencing at least once in a lifetime at an event of this magnitude to appreciate the unity and strength demonstrated by the global WordPress community.

And you, are you up for attending the next edition?

I hope so, and we’ll see each other in Basel, Switzerland, where WCEU-25 will take place.

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