Belgrade, Serbia will host the sixth edition of WordCamp Europe, June 14-16, 2018. Prior host cities include Leiden, Sofia, Seville, Vienna, and Paris. Attendees and the massive 221-person volunteer crew gave their enthusiastic approval when organizers announced the event would be returning to Eastern Europe next year.
The Serbian WordPress community has grown exponentially since the first WordPress meetup was held in 2013 at ManageWP’s offices. Now, Serbia hosts meetups in several cities and many of them are averaging more than 100 attendees. Meetup.com is not very popular in Serbia so the WP Serbia Facebook group is used more frequently to organize community events. The group has grown from 600 members to more than 4,700 during over the past two and a half years.
At WordCamp Europe I had the opportunity to interview Jenny Beaumont, this year’s local lead for Paris, along with Milan Ivanović who will lead the local team next year in Serbia. Beaumont shares the challenges of wrangling busy volunteers on the local team and offers Ivanović some advice as he prepares to head up the team in Serbia. Ivanović is eager to acquaint WordPress’ global community with Serbia’s famous hospitality and sums up why prospective attendees should consider attending in 2018: “The food!”
It is amazing how such a small country can have so active WordPress community.
I guess this is what a true love for WordPress and community is and we will all have the chance to experience it next year during WCEU in Belgrade.
I am so looking forward to it!