People of WordPress: Evangelia Pappa

Howdy, WordPress enthusiasts! Today is like no other day. You may ask why?

We are setting the beginning of a very interesting and intriguing series, namely People of WordPress. In this series, Vipe Studio will present prominent personalities from the community, their stories about encountering WordPress, their passion for the world’s largest CMS, and their contribution to it.

Today we take a look at a woman who is at the heart of the WordPress community in Greece, as well as one of the founders of Balkan Women WordPress.

Read her story below!

Tell us about yourself. When did your story with WordPress start?

My name is Evangelia Pappa, and I come from Greece. At the moment, my journey with the WordPress Community counts six years, hoping for many more to come. I have been a member of the Greek Community organizing team since 2015 and a member of the WCEU organizing team since 2018. I am currently working as an HR Recruitment Specialist at WPMU DEV, so my daily life breathes WordPress.

How did you become a member of the WordPress community?

The story began back in 2015 while trying to set up my blog. I noticed an announcement about WordPress enthusiasts gathering for a coffee, and I said to myself, why not? Let’s see what this is all about.

Then I met Evangelos Athanasiadis, @dyrer (Head of Polyglots team in WordPress Greek Community) and got introduced to the world of WordPress, leaving behind other CMSs I had already used. During that coffee break, we established my hometown’s meetup. Since then, WordPress Greek Community has become my new family, full of amazing people contributing to WordPress and the community formed around it.

The journey had just started…

When did you attend a WordCamp for the first time, and what memories do you have of the experience?

My first WordCamp was WordCamp Athens 2016. Such an amazing experience.

During 2016 the WordPress Greek Community organizing team was thrilled to host their first WordCamp. After hosting meetups in 4 cities around the country, it was about time for our first big event. So my first time attending was at the same time organizing a WordCamp.

Sixteen people were working remotely to make a dream come true for several months. When we met for the first time live, all the pieces of the puzzle got together. The event was truly beautiful for the Community creating bonds, networking, seeing the warmth among people, and their passion for WordPress.

I said to myself; this is only the beginning.

Why do you voluntarily contribute to the WordPress community, and what motivates you to?

People do not understand the meaning of volunteering and offering our time and work for free for the Community or the events around WordPress. It might help a bit more by saying, “it’s all about the people”.

You see, watching people at events while networking, sharing skills and knowledge, forming teams, working, building lives and relationships around WordPress is captivating. Building lives might sound strange, but for the past years, for example, myself, I feel having a newly expanded family among the members of the Community. While contributing to WordPress, I got beautiful souls around me. We shared even the most important moments of our lives as well as our daily struggles. We worked together; we laughed together; we became part of each other’s life, traveling, meeting other cultures, sharing experiences.

Another important thing is this is a free tool. A platform supported by millions of people worldwide for free helps to make ends meet and provide for yourself and your family. Isn’t that pure magic? As long as we – the active users and Community – keep WordPress alive, it grows stronger and bigger, solving many of our career issues or work-life struggles. Along with it, the community can grow and support and represent all people forming it.

Don’t forget that everyone is welcome to the WordPress Community. It doesn’t matter your gender, age, knowledge, experience, location etc. We are all equals, and everyone can be part of this. Inclusivity and diversity do matter. And that’s always an open invitation to the whole world.

How was the idea of Balkan Women WordPress born?

We never felt like we were not respected within the WordPress Community, but we seemed to be underrepresented.

All non-binary people carry with them experiences during their lifetimes so far that were not so positive. There is an important thing that keeps us safe here, which is the Code of Conduct. That’s why we wanted everyone to feel and know that WordPress Community is a safe space. When you haven’t met the Community, you might feel shy or even scared of a new beginning judging from your experience so far. And this is acceptable and understandable. But we’re here to help people like us change this feeling, and they need to get to know the Community better for this to happen.

While volunteering at WCEU 2018, I met several women from the Balkan countries, being active members like myself. We discussed the fact that women were not active, attending events, raising their voice, applying to speak, contributing, becoming part of the Community. They just kept being watchers.
As we share many similarities in the culture we’ve grown up with, the Women Balkan WordPress meetup welcomes people from Albania, Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Croatia, Romania, and Turkey.

There were already initiatives within the global community, and we were always eager to create something for women and non-binary individuals. Still, we didn’t have the opportunity due to distance among the countries.

The idea was born during the first lockdown due to COVID-19 when the first online meetups started. We noticed that violence against women and non-binary people. We wanted to give our people a way out, a way to build their lives, a way to ease their minds from being locked in, become more active, get inspired, know we’re a safe space, and grow along with the Community. Our goal and main focus was to support and empower people identified as women and non-binary people. So we chose International Women’s Day symbolically as a date for our first meetup. It was a blast.

What topics concern the meetings of Balkan Women WordPress?

As we grow along with the WordPress Community and we’re part of it, we’ll show our attendees how they can contribute and be more active as members, such as translating a plugin.

We wanted to help them fight public speaking anxiety and find ways to improve their skills and expand their knowledge, as well as to get involved in the WordPress Community. Empowering them to evolve is an important topic and learning about time management, remote working, and applying for a job.

In the Balkan Women WordPress meetup, we love open discussion. Conversations about our experiences and how we’ve overcome difficulties and obstacles might be the first step for someone.

So from daily life to career, to events, work, and several other things that we might not even know about yet are our usual topics.

What do you like most about the WordPress community, and what would you change if you had the opportunity?

I am not quite sure if I will change something at the moment. As the Community grows and there is respect, work, and people supporting each other and WordPress, things can only get better. Respect includes accessibility for everyone and inclusivity, so I mostly adore this within the WordPress Community, being at the same time my dream for the future.

I’m quite sure we’ll keep working in this direction.

Happy First Chapter of our People of WordPress!

We are more than happy to begin our series “People of WordPress” with Evangelia Pappa.

Evangelia is a truly passionate volunteer who seeks to contribute to the best CMS in the world over and over again. Her passion for WordPress is a reflection of the entire WordPress community, and we at Vipe Studio are more than proud to be part of that same community.

Stay tuned for the next editions of “People of WordPress”. And if you know someone who would be a perfect fit for our red chair, don’t hesitate to mention them in the comment section down below.

See you soon, WordPress enthusiasts!

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• Vipe Studio’s Perspective on WordCamp Europe: Conference Day 2
• Vipe Studio’s Perspective on WordCamp Europe: Conference Day 1
• Vipe Studio’s Perspective on WordCamp Europe: Contributor Day

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