WordCamp Europe 2023: Contributor Day, Day 1, Day 2 and Ivan Popov’s Talk [Recap]

by Vipe Team in WordPress Society; Published on 13.06.2023

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What a week! Not only did we travel to Athens and fell instantly in love with the city, but we also attended an awesome Contributor Day and twice as intriguing and captivating Days 1 and 2 of WordCamp Europe 2023!

What can we say – it’s all a mixture of positive vibes, great mood, exceptional attendees and speakers and plenty of knowledge, experience, skills and much-treasured know-how.

So we thought there was absolutely no chance to miss on telling you all about the conference – we wish everyone who loves WordPress was there so that they can enjoy the event as much as we did! However, fret not as we are about to share our perspective on WordCamp Europe 2023 and hopefully get you there, even through writing and reading.

As we’ve wrapped up Days 1 and 2 of the conference, we decided to share with you some of the highlights – we promise they are all definitely worth everyone’s attention! What’s more, we’ll touch upon Contributor Day – what’s better than a day dedicated to mutual work and community engagement? And last but not least, we’ll tell you all about Ivan Popov’s talk – as you know, he was selected as a speaker and had the amazing chance to participate in the conference in Track 1! How cool was that!

Contributor Day Is the Epitome of What WordPress Is All About

June 8 was dedicated to contributing to WordPress – we were thrilled to meet so many enthusiasts, professionals and fans of the CMS coming together and sharing their knowledge and expertise!

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The Megaron International Centre, with all its glory and magnificent setting, served as the best place for the occasion – the amazing hall welcomed hundreds of attendees ready to do their best and contribute to the world’s favorite content management system. Multiple sets of teams dedicated their time and energy: Core, Design, Mobile, Polyglots, Supports and many more groups were situated around the goal of making WordPress better.

One of the highlights of the day was the establishment of an official #Sustainability team focusing on ways to make both WordPress and all future WordCamps more sustainable. Vipe Studio is beyond ecstatic about the news!

Vipe Studio at WordCamp Sofia 2023: Event Highlights

Contributor Day was filled with great mood, hard work and a mutual feeling of belonging – all the much-needed ingredients that help WordPress be the platform it is today. Our team was beyond happy and satisfied for having the opportunity to contribute and claim its spot in the WordPress community – we are thrilled and can’t wait for that same opportunity during next year’s WordCamp!

Day 1 of WordCamp: Highlights and Ivan Popov’s Lightning Talk

What a day was Contributor Day! Excited, thrilled and willing for more, we stepped into Day 1 of WordCamp 2023 with elevated expectations after the day before’s ultimate success!

And boy, did the conference manage to live up to everyone’s expectations!

Day 1 was packed with amazing talks which managed to shed light on various important topics revolving around the WordPress universe! Organized in three tracks, all lectures and talks were not-to-be-missed – our team was beyond happy to have the chance to participate as attendees and learn from some of the best and most proclaimed professionals in the field.

Throughout the day, we were welcoming WordPress enthusiasts at our booth packed with merch, stickers and lanyards. Our team was truly enthusiastic that so many people stopped by and had the chance to chit-chat and exchange views, experiences and opinions. One of the many reasons we love attending WordCamps is precisely the networking opportunity like no other!

WordCamp Europe 2023

Starting from 10 am, we had the chance to witness a great variety of topics on WordPress performance, WordPress blocks, plugins and themes, headless and AI, content creation, design and a lot more – honestly, we’d need probably fifty full-length articles if we want to cover everything that has been going on on stage and go in depth of all professionals’ outstanding performances.

Catching up between the tracks, all attendees had the chance to pick their desired talks. What’s more, multiple workshops simultaneously took place so there was a suitable event for everyone – we are certainly sure that no one felt something was missing.

Bulgarian Speakers to Attend Day 1

Of course, Vipe Studio, as a proud sponsor of WordCamp Europe 2023, is beyond proud of all Bulgarian speakers who attended the event and managed to teach everybody so much about WordPress.

Vipe Studio's Perspective on WordCamp Europe: Contributor Day

Besides our founder and CEO Ivan Popov, three other fellow Bulgarian speakers attended this year’s conference in Athens.

Hristo Pandjarov participated in Track 2 with his topic: “Building high-performance headless WordPress systems – main challenges and solutions”. He touched upon Headless specifics, security challenges, performance issues, SEO tactics considering the headless approach and more aspects in between. It was truly a remarkable talk people can learn a lot from!

Vassilena Valchanova hit the stage on Track 3 with her topic “The Brand of You” – in her own words, “in 30 minutes, I will give you an actionable blueprint for your personal branding strategy. The basis here won’t be The Big Marketing Bucks (TM), but authenticity and professionalism.” Indeed, she succeeded!

And finally, Petya Petkova presented “WordPress extended: build unique websites on top of WP” – in her talk, she covered “customized page builder, flexible CMS administration and fully-customized third-party integrations.” We truly enjoyed her vision!

We congratulate Hristo, Vassilena, Petya and of course, all the other amazing speakers who managed to turn Day 1 into a blast!

Ivan Popov Turned Gutenberg Into the Star of His Speaking Session at WordCamp Europe 2023

Track 1 welcomed our CEO and founder Ivan Popov who has chosen a rather intriguing and promising talk for this year’s conference: “How can any website benefit from WordPress’s editing experience thanks to Gutenberg?” The attendees were delighted to hear about WordPress’s editor Gutenberg’s multiple benefits and superpowers, turning it into a valuable solution for virtually any website or mobile application, regardless of whether they use WordPress or any other CMS.

In his 15-minute long lightning talk, Ivan managed to cover the basics and introduce us to the subject – he started by presenting the topic and gave a shoutout to our tech leads Ivan Viyachki and Svetlana Dicheva, who brought their best to the table in terms of expertise and experience.

Then Ivan went into greater detail when it comes to the usage of blocks and their versatile opportunities – with their help, anyone has the power to decide their website’s content in terms of visuals and functionalities. With the help of precise tech solutions such as GraphQL and Rest API, developers can engineer the editor and implement its numerous features for the building of virtually any type of website. How inspiring is that!

People of WordPress: Aleksandar Savkovic

15 minutes is a short period of time, but Ivan truly managed to cover the topic and provide the audience with living proof that Gutenberg is indeed a powerhouse of its own, with or without WordPress as the main platform.

Here’s the video of Ivan’s talk so that anyone can enjoy it and learn from our founder’s experience with the editor.

Day 2 of the Conference and WordCamp Europe 2023 Closing Remarks

After so many positive emotions and top-notch networking opportunities on day 1, Vipe Studio’s team headed straight into Day 2 where more talks, workshops and closing speeches were awaiting everyone’s attention.

The 3 tracks were once again filled with numerous buzzing and interesting topics that sparked the interest of all attendees. Some of the most widely discussed subjects revolved around design, WordPress’s Gutenberg editor, accessibility, automation, WooCommerce and many more. The workshops were again simultaneously happening as the speakers were presenting their talks – there was truly something for everybody!

Ending Session with Matt, Josepha and Matías at WordCamp Europe 2023

After the much-anticipated group photo that got everybody excited and feeling like an integrative part of the community, we headed to the closing session which, as tradition has it, featured WordPress’s founder Matt Mullenweg, Josepha Haden Chomphosy and Matías Ventura.

Their session was titled “Variations on a Theme: 20 years of WordPress” and highlighted the recent CMS anniversary everyone talked about. The three touched upon the 2023 accomplishments and reviewed WordPress’s roadmap throughout the years. The session ended with the traditional Q&A and all attendees had the chance to ask Matt, Josepha and Matías questions.

In 2024, We Are All Heading to Torino, Italy

Perhaps the most anticipated piece of news for everybody at WordCamp Europe 2023 was disclosing next year’s camp’s location.

Needless to say, we are beyond ecstatic that we’ll be traveling to Torino, Italy in 2024 to attend WordCamp’s next installment! We bet incredible experiences await us – Vipe Studio’s team is already counting the days and is ready to hit the road for more amazing talks, intriguing workshops and a plethora of networking opportunities!