WordCamp US 2022 was the first in-person WordCamp event in two years. Many contributors are present and shared their tips and experiences to the community.
For those who were not able to attend this once-a-year event, we’re going to go through some of the highlights so you wouldn’t feel that much left out:
What is WordCamp?
Basically, WordCamp is an event for people who are into WordPress.
Here, creators, contributors, and even regular users, gather together and share various ideas that could make WordPress an even better tool.
WordCamp is a lot different than your regular events. It’s not a place where you will find people selling various products and services.
What you will end up seeing are people meeting in hallways, networking together and talking about what’s happening in their own industries.
Some notable names in the industry who are present include:
- Alain Schlesser
- Daisy Olsen
- Matt Mullenweg
- Sajid Islam
- Stephanie Bernal
For more information about the speakers, check out this page.
Day 1: Opening
The first part of day one is for settling attendees as they check in and go through the various booths in the event.
Kathy Drewien, Atlanta WordPress Leadership and Community Developer, gave the welcome remarks and talked about meeting together in person again.
For streaming the sessions, check out these videos:
Here is a summary of what each speaker talked about:
- Nathan Ingram shared some tips for growing a WordPress business.
- Chris Lubkert then answered the question about how small businesses can participate in five for the future.
- Alex Stine and Amber Hinds talked about accessiblity including the testing process, automated testing, keyboard testing, and screen reader testing.
- Christina Deemer shared her thoughts about empathetic and pragmatic look at making content more accessible.
- Cassandra Decker spoke about questions regarding trauma and neurodivergence and what role web creators play.
- Sally Thoun shared her Learn, Do, and Teach method as a cancer survivor and an advocate for accessibility.
- Stephanie Berna talked about improving processes and tracking websites using Google Tag Manager and WordPress.
Day 2: Sessions
The second day was focused on sessions related to culture intelligence, commerce, designer, and many others. Watch the streams for the sessions below:
Here is a summary of what each speaker talked about:
- Peyta Raykovska talked about how working with a multicultural team can sometimes result to miscommunication. She shared some tips for team leaders to develop cultural intelligence.
- Sara Cannon talked about the importance of the web’s accessiblity, especially for disabled people, and how we should practice empathy in the web.
- Beka Rice talked about how single, multi, and omni channels differ from each other. She shared how channels are a big part of helping small businesses succeed.
- Felix Arntz shared how WordPress sites can improve and what the goals are of the WordPress performance team.
- Rich Tabor showed the future of WordPress themes through blocks and full site editing, especially how patterns interact with the editor.
- Adam Silverstein discussed images on the web, the history, and how we got the modern image file formats we’re using. He also shared some best practices about web images.
- Phil Crumm Helen Hou-Sandi centered the message around content creators and blocks are a great opportunity for us to create and build user trust in exciting ways.
Day 3: Contributor Day
The last day was also one of the most exciting times in the event as participants are asked to divide into teams and improve WordPress.
Teams participants on different parts of the WordPress open-source project. Participants can go with a single team or spend the time with multiple teams throughout the day.
WordCamp US 2022 sold 650 tickets — all sold-out. It was a more intimate event compared to its predecessors in the previous years.
By the way, WordCamp US will be back next and will be held in National Harbor, Maryland, on August 23-25. Do you have plans on attending the event? Share your thoughts below.
