Last week, several team members from WebDevStudios attended WordCamp US, the largest gathering of WordPress professionals in the United States. As an enterprise website development agency, WebDevStudios utilized the Portland, Oregon, event to meet potential partners and learn new tools and complimentary services that may benefit our clients.
Technically a technology conference, WordCamp US is also a community gathering where more than 1,500 WordPress professionals, in every capacity, convene to share knowledge, contribute to the open-source project, and connect.
This occurs because, at its heart, WordPress is a collaborative community built on open-source code and grounded in respect and diversity. The community abides by a standard of ethics outlined in the Community Code of Conduct, which is upheld at all global and local events to provide a safe, inclusive, welcoming environment for all who attend.
WebDevStudios Contributes with WordPress Professionals
Last week’s event started with a contributor day. With over 400 WordPress professionals in attendance, co-working together to add their expertise and effort to further 25 different teams. The WordPress teams include:
- Accessibility
- bbPress
- BuddyPress
- CLI
- Community
- Core
- DEIB (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging) Initiative
- Design
- Documentation
- GatherPress
- Hosting
- Marketing
- Meta
- Openverse
- Photos
- Plugins
- Polyglots
- Support
- Sustainability
- Test
- Themes
- Training
- WordPress Playground
WebDevStudios Account Manager Laura Byrne contributed her time to two teams at WCUS. “It was great to participate in Contributor Day,” said Laura. “With the Training Team, I reviewed upcoming tutorials and worked with the team to identify ways to market the team better on social media. In the afternoon, I worked with the GatherPress team to groom their spiked backlog. GatherPress is a beta open-source alternative to Meetup.”
Though many teams plan designated WordCamp projects, all are happy to accept help from anyone who wants to join the team for the day. Working “with” someone on a team or project makes getting involved more fun and increases the depth of the experience. The project volunteer work doesn’t stop after the conference, either. Team members leave with ideas about participating remotely and continuing their volunteer service. For instance, WebDevStudios’ team members contribute nearly 40 hours weekly to the WordPress project as an ongoing Five for the Future Pledge.
Sponsors, Speakers, and Organizers Collaborate at WordPress Event
Multiple speakers and panelists presented on various topics throughout the 4-day conference. Innovative ideas were showcased on small- and large-scale websites. WordPress was explored. Questions were asked and answered. Long-held friendships were reunited and reaffirmed. Newcomers were welcomed, and there was swag, lots of swag, at this gathering of WordPress professionals.
Topics for the 2024 WordCamp US covered all levels, from beginner to advanced. The camp’s volunteer organizing team carefully vetted the presentations, ensuring they were informative and worthwhile. Sponsors also played a massive role in making WordCamp US possible, contributing volunteers and resources to the event.
Sponsor booths provided opportunities to learn new tools and initiatives through demos and in-the-moment questions. The sponsor hall served as a gathering place for attendees not attending speaker sessions. Conversations also occurred in the unofficial hallway track between and during sessions. For some attendees, this is often considered their favorite part of the conference.
Brad Williams commented on the hallway track phenomenon, “It’s where the collaboration happens. You see someone you haven’t seen in a while, and before you know it, you’re planning a client meeting together or a podcast.”
This year, Brad strategized a soon-to-be-heard Scale Consortium podcast at WCUS on the final day of the camp. Listen to the Scaling Enterprise episodes here.
WordCamp US is an event that brings everyone together to align on the WordPress roadmap to learn and grow their WordPress knowledge and skills. WebDevStudios advocates WordCamp attendance and has several employees who organize and volunteer at these events. It’s one way we continue to give back to the open-source program and community through Five for the Future.
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