AWESEM have been attending WordCamp Europe for many years (in fact, we were at the very first WCEU in the Netherlands in 2013) but this year saw the biggest group of us so far heading off to Berlin for three days of all things WordPress.
As usual it was great to spend a long weekend catching up with long-standing WordPress partners and friends, as well as making some new ones.
Berlin is a fantastic, vibrant city and for some of us it was our first visit, so we tried to see snatches of the city around the conference. WordCamp aside, if you’ve never had the opportunity to visit Berlin we wholeheartedly recommend it – there’s plenty to soak up, whether history, art or food and drink is your thing. Trust us when we say Berlin’s beer offerings are famous for a reason…and the gin’s not bad either!
The good news if you didn’t have a chance to attend WCEU this year is that all of the talks, as well as Matt Mullenweg’s keynote, are available to view online at the WordCamp Europe YouTube channel. We’ve highlighted a few of our favourite talks from the event below, so do check them out for an idea of what you can expect if you’re considering next year’s event.
Day one of WordCamp saw the AWESEM team enjoy talks on everything from change management, developing with Docker, SEO and the art of pricing. Of course, we all came together for Matt Mullenweg’s keynote speech, which had a heavy focus on what is coming soon (and in the future) for Gutenberg. One of the key announcements was the news that native multilingual support is on the WordPress roadmap; this long-awaited announcement was very well-received!
For the entirety of Matt Mullenweg’s keynote, head to the Day 1 Track 1 livestream here.
There were a couple of new features at this year’s WordCamp Europe, including Wellness at WCEU, which ran regular yoga sessions, guided meditations and an introduction to mindfulness, as well as the WP Cafe, where small groups of attendees met in an informal atmosphere to chat about topics ranging from linking the WordPress community together and moving to WordPress. Both of these additions were very well received and proved popular, so it’s likely we’ll see both zones make a reappearance at next year’s event.
On day two the team used their time to visit a diverse variety of talks and workshops, including using customer support to leverage growth, boosting productivity and Vladimír Smitka’s security talk that was one of the most attended events of the weekend.
To watch ‘WordPress Through the Bad Guys’ Glasses’ and delve into an interesting discussion about all things security, head over to the WCEU YouTube channel here.
To help wrap up the event, the weekend’s closing remarks featured some impressive stats in regards to WordCamp Europe 2019:
- 2734 attendees (a WordCamp Europe record)
- 11,700 meals served
- 167 volunteers to bring the conference to life
- Attendees from 97 countries around the globe
- 1m impressions on the WCEU Twitter account across the event
The full closing remarks can be viewed here, including the hotly-anticipated reveal of WordCamp Europe 2020’s location!
A huge thank you to everybody who helped make our WordCamp Europe experience so much fun this year. To the sponsors we chatted with, all of the incredible volunteers who gave up their time to make the event run smoothly, the organisers, caterers, hotel staff at the Estrel and, of course, the speakers who shared a wealth of knowledge through their talks, workshops and panels. We had a fantastic time, as always, and can’t wait for WCEU 2020 in beautiful Porto.
