WordCamp Europe 2024 – a big WordPress party at home  

Every WordCamp is special for us. But this one was a bit more special than usual. How come? For two main reasons: its location (Italy, where YITH was born) and because it was the perfect excuse for our team to reunite in our beloved Italy (with no less than 15 YITH members this year). 

This was a huge event: 52 speakers and more than 2500 attendees gathered to show their love and unconditional support to the WordPress community. There we met again with the Italian and Spanish WordPress community and many people who were attending as their first WordCamp. 

On June 12th we were able to enjoy dinner with the Bluehost and Yoast team, whom some of us were meeting for the first time after working virtually on different projects together. This dinner would prepare us for the beginning of our big adventure in Turin: the Contributor Day.   

Contributor Day – A day to share 

Contributor Day was the starting point for a very special event. We gathered at different tables to share knowledge, experiences, doubts and learn from fellow WordPress enthusiasts. We were able to contribute our bit at the tables of themes, plugins and polyglots.  

The Contributor Day reminds us of the value of contributing to a beautiful open-source project that has mobilized an incredible community around the world. It’s wonderful to share an experience or concern with people who may have had the same occurrence, or who have never thought about what you’re talking about. We loved being able to connect with people who shared our values at the event.  

Ausilia Arrigo

I loved attending this WordCamp. After two years organizing WCEU but not being able to attend it, this was for me a great experience. Additionally, I have a very strong connection with the Italian community I feel to belong and with Turin, the city that hosted one of our first WordCamps attended as a company. I want to give special praise to the Italian community, who gave a huge contribution to this event. I met many friends, customers who gave us positive feedback about our products and support, attendees who were curious to learn about our business and how our products can help their own business, spent time with my colleagues/friends, which made us even more united. Well, I can say it was a wonderful experience in every regard.

Following a great community day, our two representatives, Francesco Grasso and Marco Salvo, and Emanuela Castorina as a volunteer, headed to the sponsors’ dinner where they could enjoy the good company of sponsors, speakers and organizers of the event. They had a nice evening surrounded by cars of all models and colors. Afterwards, they got ready for the big day: the first day of WordCamp Europe conferences.  

Marco Salvo

The YITH team has a lot of energy, and we make a really good team together.

First day at WordCamp Europe 

Once we arrived at Lingotto Fiere, we got ready to welcome the onlookers and meet with friends and acquaintances. As a main novelty this year, we shared booth with our Newfold family: Bluehost and Yoast. The three brands were in the same space for the ease of our customers. 

On this occasion, given the huge size of the space in the event, we were able to enjoy many interesting conversations with customers and attendees who wanted to meet us. We’re grateful to each of them for their feedback and conversations!   

It was also the first WordCamp Europe for some of our team members, such as Michelle and Antonio: 

Michelle Hernández

Don’t be nervous or afraid to show up. Especially if it’s your first event, one can tend to be afraid of not being able to feel integrated. But even in huge WordCamps like Europe everyone is open to talking about any topic and getting to know each other. Don’t be afraid to be yourself, everyone is pretty accepting of everyone, so approach the event with a genuine curiosity to learn and you’ll have a great time.

Antonio La Rocca

It was my first experience at WordCamp Europe. It was really great to meet all these people from around the world, hear feedback for the products I developed and have the chance to shoutout the great work that we do both in development and support. It felt a bit overwhelming at times, but I’m part of a great team and when I needed support, there was always someone ready to offer a helping hand.

At this year’s edition, we offered not one but two designs of our famous T-shirts. In fact, one of them was the 2.0 version of one of our most popular shirts with the phrase “Keep calm and clear cache”. Both were a big hit! Some people wanted to know who was behind the designs. The hands and mind of our illustrator, Sara Michieli, are responsible for these beautiful works of art that connect us to the attendees. 

Those who know us already know that we love to bring together humor and the world of development. This is something that unites us with the participants of each event and makes us happy. 

This time we were lucky enough to have a small yet also great help: the youngest members of the team and YITH’s founders’ children, Daniel and Noemi, who spent part of the day handing out T-shirts at our booth. Without their help, the event would not have been the same.  

Francesco Grasso

Surely every moment spent together with the team is a moment of joy and fun. Whether it was the trip itself or the group dinners. I also had a lot of fun at the booth both with my colleagues and with the very young Daniel and Noemi, our tireless assistants!

Moreover, the attendees could enjoy Sicilian sweets, stickers, funny notepads and much more.  

Alessio Torrisi

As always, I felt comfortable within the WordCamp event. I enjoy sharing time with colleagues and having the opportunity to represent the company at official events. WordCamps give us the opportunity to meet in person with customers with whom we usually email, and their feedback is always positive about our work.

After the opening remarks, it was time for one of the attendees’ favorite moments: talks on community, development, themes, design, and much more. Joost de Valk and Juliette Reinders Folmer kicked off the lecture day with “Keynote: Sustainable Open Source is the Future,” which answered questions such as how to make open source sustainable and how to collaborate on it. 

There were a few tips given throughout the day, such as those from Travis Lima, on how to “Boosting Conversions: 10 Tried & Tested Tactics to Turn Visitors into Customers”.   

Giuseppe Madaudo

I love the atmosphere at WordCamps: the people who come to greet us, the hugs, the laughter and the many opportunities to meet new potential clients. Learning about competitor proposals and taking cues from them to enhance our know-how.

The day would end with a workshop where two contestants would have 30 minutes to replicate a famous website using only the WordPress block editor to test quick adaptation, creativity and under time pressure skills. This activity would mark the end to a day full of knowledge sharing and open the way to the Pride Party organized by Yoast, Bluehost and Codeable.  

Pride Party  

To wrap up the first day of WordCamp, we could not miss the fantastic pride party organized by Yoast, Bluehost and Codeable. We danced, enjoyed ourselves, sang and celebrated love and diversity with wonderful people. 

WordCamp Europe’s last conference day 

Talks on community, development, accessibility, design, security, and more took place on the second day of the conference. The day would start with Abraham Waita’s talk “Diverse and sustainable future: How high school teachers in Uganda are nurturing a young WordPress community”, and Vraja Das’ talk, “The Power of WordPress Testing and Automation: Test Types and When to Use Them”. 

Over the course of the day, we welcomed people from different nationalities to our booth with one common goal: to get to know us and learn more about YITH. Thank you to everyone who took the time to talk to us and paint a smile on our faces!  

Inclusion and equality were addressed among the talks, with Siobhan McKeown and Dee Teal’s “Fixing the ladder: getting more women into leadership at WordPress businesses”. They presented proposals on what we can do as a business ecosystem to help more women into leadership positions.   

A mixing sound of English, Spanish and Italian echoed through our booth. Since our team is split between Spain and Italy, we communicate in three languages. We’re able to say some words in Italian and Spanish, as we end up speaking in English as well. We engaged in small conversations in different languages which we thought was awesome. These moments made us really happy!  

Tania González

WordCamp Europe 2024 has been special for me for two reasons. First, to meet with customers, community and friends at the big WordPress party. There, receiving feedback from our customers, we really realize that we are doing a good job, and it’s also important for us to collect comments to keep improving. The second reason is to get most of the team together. We spend a whole year working from different parts of the world and getting together, even if it’s at a WordCamp, is a really special moment for us. Trying to speak Italian and Spanish, giving each other all the hugs we haven’t been able to give each other during the year and working together in person really strengthens the bond we already have in YITH and fills our souls.

Hours before the end of this wonderful event, we raffled two fantastic gifts together with Yoast and Bluehost: an iPad and a mini drone. Dozens of people came to our joint booth where only two people could win. Big thanks to everyone who participated!   

During the event, a customer who has been using over 20 YITH plug-ins since 2017 stopped by our booth to praise our product design and overall work. She emphasized that our YITH Product Add-Ons and YITH Bulk Product Editing are “life-changing”. But she had one fundamental question: how do you pronounce YITH? We wanted to answer this question and would love for you to find out here. Thanks to all of you for your feedback and smiles! 

To round off the WordCamp, one of the most awaited talks would come: Matt Mullenweg would give his iconic closing talk, in which he states that “something that distinguishes WordPress from other platforms is our investment in the update system so that it is always in the latest and greatest version”. If you’re interested, you can click here to watch the full talk.  

We bid farewell to this great Italian adventure. As always, we want to thank organizers, volunteers, sponsors, our Newfold family, and all the wonderful attendees who joined us from 96 countries. See you next year in Basel, Switzerland. 

Torino, un pezzo dei nostri cuori resta con te 🙂