WordCamp Pontevedra 2023 – Thank you, José Luis

Emotions. Nostalgia. Unity. Work. Gratitude. These are some of the words that could define WordCamp Pontevedra 2023. Creating an event like this is challenging, but the situation made it even more so. The result was no surprise to anyone: it exceeded (and more than exceeded) expectations! 

We knew that this event would be a challenge for the entire Galician team following the loss of José Luis, a tireless volunteer and key figure in the Spanish WordPress community. José Luis was important not only for WordCamp, but for the community. For this reason, and for many others, we didn’t want to miss out on the opportunity to participate in and support this great event. 

On the 14th, we headed towards Pontevedra. After a stop in Santiago, we arrived in the Galician city, which greeted us with the best weather we could imagine. We walked through its beautiful streets, enjoyed its gastronomy (yes, we ate a lot of octopus), and spent time together. 

We know Pontevedra isn’t big, but who knew we’d go out to dinner and meet a group of WordCampers? In the end, we had a beer with friends, shared anecdotes, and had a great time. Thanks for those moments! 

Friday workshop collaboration and emotional dinner 

We had the great opportunity to be part of do_action, an event where we got together to plan and build the websites of some local non-profit organizations in a single day. Yes, in one day. If you have never participated in such a workshop, we 100% recommend it! 

Together with a fantastic team of developers, designers and content creators, we created a website for an association dedicated to fighting for migrants’ rights. The result wasn’t perfect, of course. But we were all very happy to have worked for such a good cause. 

A few hours later, we met up with friends from the community and other attendees at the sponsors and speakers’ dinner. There, we were lucky enough to be part of one of the most emotional moments of the event: the presentation of our tribute to José Luis, to his family. 

Our popular T-shirts would have a special meaning in this event: the protagonist would be José Luis, naturally. He would probably argue with us for a few minutes about this detail, but then he would ask us for photos, a T-shirt for himself and certainly for someone who could not attend the event (as he always did). Wajari suggested that we give one of these T-shirts to José Luis’ son at this dinner, since he would not be able to come the next day, and it filled our souls to meet him, to remember his father’s stories, and to see that we had created something beautiful! 

Tania González

José Luis has left a mark in one way or another on almost everyone who has been a part of the community. He always had words of affection, support and anecdotes to share with us. We wanted to do something special to honor him, his family and the community. We were so happy to meet his son and tell stories to the community during the event. We were very fortunate to meet him!

WordCamp day and a lot of octopus 

WordCamp Saturday began with a very emotional welcome, remembering the event’s protagonist, José Luis. It is likely that he would be frowning if he saw the images of him at different moments of the event and in most of the speeches and conversations. 

After the welcome, Pablo Moratinos’ presentation “Cómo vivir de tus contenidos online. Solo la (mi) verdad” (How to make a living from your online content. Only the (my) truth) would kick off a day full of different presentations. The day was filled with presentations on content, web development, design, marketing (and beyond), and networking. All this between lots of coffee, food, laughter and a few tears. 

Many people came to say hello, to get a sticker or a shirt and to get to know us. We had the opportunity to introduce YITH to a lot of people who didn’t know us yet, thanks to all of you who took the time to do so! 

Michelle Hernández

My advice to someone attending WordCamp for the first time (as I did) is to approach the event with curiosity and an open mind. If you do, you will have a lot of fun […] We were able to share many beautiful and even hilarious moments with the community. Meeting so many talented and dedicated people was unforgettable.

And we know that no WordCamp is complete without a party. Starting with the octopus! We lost count of the number of times we stood in line to get another plate of the best food in Galicia. What’s better than octopus, beer and networking? My guess would be the after-party. 

We met up once again in a bar to celebrate a new edition of this WordCamp. Not only that, at the end of the day, more than 20 of us were walking the streets of Pontevedra in search of another place where we could have a good time. It was wonderful to see us looking for a place to have fun together! What was not so nice was to find (without success) a place for so many people. But there are always solutions (and the next day we had more WordCamp). 

Our speaker’s experience 

Nando Pappalardo – ¿Cómo multiplicar tus ventas por 10 utilizando la paradoja de la elección? (How to multiply your sales by 10 using the paradox of choice?) 

Our CEO gave an interesting talk on how to multiply your sales thanks to the paradox of choice. One of the questions was: Is it better to offer more choices and different solutions or, on the contrary, is it better to have limited choices and few solutions? 

Nando answers this question with the help of two experiments: one academic and one using YITHs during the pandemic. Different studies, same results. 

If you were not able to attend the talk and would like to know more about it, or just watch it again, you can do it here >

Sara Presenti

This was our first WordCamp since COVID, so it was very exciting to see the community again, being able to talk about design and how WordPress could evolve in the coming years. Nando and I would like to thank Yoast for sponsoring the play-centre where our children stayed, which allowed us to enjoy the experience and attend many talks.

Last day with one goal: Contribute to WordPress 

To wrap up the event, we enjoyed a day of contributing to WordPress. First, a coffee to help us face the last day of the event. Then we were able to attend three introductory talks to the WordPress community. 

Carlos Rodríguez

It is a good opportunity to see how the different teams are organized and try to give feedback and help improve the process.

Hours later, we split up into different contribution tables and worked as a team with the rest of the attendees. We were part of the “community” table, where we were able to learn how a meetup works and get advice on how to organize one. 

This is what Contributor Day is all about: the sharing of ideas and knowledge, not just for WordPress, but for every member of the community. 

WordCamp Pontevedra 2023 is over, but it will remain in our memories. And the most important thing: José Luis will always be with us. Thanks to him, to his son José Luis, to the organization, to the atendees, to the sponsors and to everyone who was connected to this event because of him. Grazas 😊.