WordCamp Europe 2022 concluded last weekend in Porto, Portugal. The event sold 2,746 tickets and had 2,304 people attend. It kicked off with a record-setting Contributor Day that coordinated the efforts of 800 participants giving back to WordPress and its related projects.
WCEU featured 70 speakers across 26 sessions and 18 workshops, made possible by the efforts of 65 sponsors, 91 organizers, and 164 volunteers.
Attendees and organizers were thrilled to be back together in person after two years of not hosting the event due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Remkus de Vries, one of the founders of WCEU, joined our recent WP Jukebox podcast and commented on the importance of being back in person with fellow WordPress enthusiasts. He characterized WordCamps as the “glue” that keeps the community together.
“I think the glue part is way more important than people thought that it was,” de Vries said. “I think you can say the same thing for what we’re seeing here. Yes, you can be connected. You can have great relationships online and everything, but the real deal is in real life. That’s where you make the actual connections.
“You have things you say that you then in real life have time to correct if that wasn’t the intent that you actually had. All of these little things make up what that glue actually consists of, so not having that for two years creates a like a vacuum of things that are not seen, not communicated, not spoken about, not processed.
“There have been companies started from WordCamps. There have been mergers started. There have been friends made there have been marriages come from WordCamps. Everything happens when you’re together.”
In 2023, the project that is democratizing publishing will be hosting its European conference in the birthplace of democracy, Athens, Greece. The date is set for June 8-10, and the call for organizers has already been published. Check out the intro video below for a taste of what’s to come next year.
If it’s next year then what on earth have I been live-tweeting these last few days from Athens?!!?