WordCamp Verona 2019: the WordPress family in the city of Romeo and Juliet

Being able to hug the members of the community once again and to spend two days with so many people that share the same passion as you is something incredible that simply cannot be explained. You must be there to understand and perceive the galvanizing energy that comes over everyone.

The organisation of WordCamp Verona was simply great, prepared with attention to the smallest detail. I was also surprised by the huge number of talks, all of them of great depth, both the technical and the non-technical ones.

My personal thanks are for all the organisers and volunteers who put their time at our disposal to make such a big event successful. Congratulations! We’ll see again at the next event!

Every WordCamp begins with the Contributor Day, a whole day to delve into one specific topic or to have the opportunity to repay the Community with a short talk for what you’ve received from it.

As I consider the WordPress Community the strongest thing I have ever seen, I decided to work on the Community table.

The Community turned out to be very inclusive, something that is not common to find elsewhere, and it pays extreme attention to Everyone.

Every WordCamp is the result of a joint effort of the sponsors, of a tight-knit and involved team, motivated speakers ready to share their knowledge and experience as good as they can, as well as people that immediately understand the importance of meeting each other offline.

The networking opportunities and ideas were countless and exchange of views extremely fruitful.

There was room for different kinds of talks: inspirational, entry-level, entrepreneurial, marketing and, last but not least, technical ones, a well-sorted selection for all tastes.

A huge thanks to the YITH staff and to Nando for their extraordinary contribution during the years.

WordCamp Verona was not only the Conference day, but also the Contributor Day. It came first and was full day devoted to teamwork and contribution to the WordPress open source project.

It was nice to see so many people actively working during the Contributor Day, as well as the sponsors’ representative like you! This was a proof of true love for WordPress in the city of Wapeo and Wapetta.

A wonderful WordCamp, perfectly organised. After being an attendee in 2018, this time I attended it as a volunteer and I enjoyed these two days a lot.

Congratulations to the super-hero organisers who have arranged everything with unparalleled passion: thanks ❤

Now let’s get down with WordCamp Verona 2020 😀

I had so much fun and I had the opportunity to understand the spirit behind the community, which is not just a wonderful family, but it’s full of professionals too.

From this WordCamp I’m taking away the energy and the will of sharing that you can hardly find in other similar events.

The best compliment I could dream of, as an organiser, is to hear people tell me that they felt like at home, and it couldn’t be otherwise in the city of Love!

WordCamp Verona was a perfect time to celebrate our local community with friends from all over Italy.

The schedule was rich and ranged from the socalled ‘emotional’ talks dealing with subjects like shyness or the overcoming of one’s own limits – as in Nando’s speech who told his story and the importance of believing in yourself besides having solid technical knowledge – to technical talks dedicated to those in the know.

In any case, the most important thing about WordCamps is the sharing of knowledge and the desire of meeting new people, and there were many possibilities to socialise! A special thanks to the YITH guys, who are always present and they are now an important part of our WordPress family!

An unforgettable weekend within a genuine, inclusive and cheerful community. It was like living out of time.

I spent every free moment with someone, even someone that I had never met before, exchanging tips and opinions, learning and teaching.

What made all this unforgettable to me was the Baptism of fire: the Speech. It was a privilege for me to deal with a professional and well-organised team, as well as speaking with an empathic audience like the one that was listening to me that day.

Shall I say that I’m already looking forward to coming back here again next year?

An unexpected trip. This was WordCamp number seven for me and I’m so proud of my badge showcase on my desk. And yet, even this one brought me something new and delightful. I decided to experience it not much from the business side, but from the personal side and primarily listen to non-technical talks.

Today, I can say that this was a great choice. The speakers brought their own stories on stage and I love stories. We coined a new term, the ‘Emotional Track‘, because of the way we all felt after coming out from that room.

On stage, I saw ‘the human people’ with their own weaknesses and their victories, the mirror of my own life and ambitions.

What I take away from this event is Simone’s talk that literally enchanted me. I devote a substantial part of my time to other people and thinking that I could help them also with my own work was huge inspiration.

And Nando Pappalardo proved what it means to BE an entrepreneur and not just to ACT like an entrepreneur, sharing tips about how important it is to go beyond your own limits, but also how important it is to move them always forward and make an adventure out of your life.

Then, there were lots of friends there. On the one side, the ones you speak with every day in chat and that you want to meet in person, give them a hug, share a relaxed evening with while laughing and thinking of new projects; and on the other side, the ones that have organised every detail and will let the smile cover their faces when they can finally say: “We did it, and we did it well!” (That’s true!)

And finally the sponsors: on the one hand, those people from sponsor companies that you know so well that you end up asking if their family is well, and on the other hand, those people that you’ve never met before and with whom you – unbelievably – manage to speak for over 20 minutes, them speaking English and you Italian, and still understand each other perfectly!

Could it be the magic atmosphere of Verona that made everything enchanted? It might be. In my opinion, it was the people.

In times when most people complain about how technology has replaced the human relationships, attending an event like this gave me the opportunity to put a face to the voices that I had only heard beyond a screen.

For me now WordPress has a real face, which is a mosaic made of hundreds of different people, from users that approach to WordPress for the first time to companies like YITH that have been working with it for years.

Feeling like at home, in your own family, this is what I primarily take away from this WordCamp: it seemed to be at an amazing party with friends from all over Italy. Bravo to all the organisers for the perfect organisation of the event.

We got many compliments this time too, for our work, and this is the best gratification we could get for the daily work that we do every day.

WordCamp Verona was a two-day event full of emotions, interesting ideas, smiles, cheerfulness and YITH was part of all this too.

What you can smell at a WordCamp has no equals and cannot be described. To understand it, you must be in it and live it and you will realise what a beautiful community WordPress has been able to build!

People that meet again each other after countless hours of chat messaging has no equals, like in a real family.
While chatting with Stefano Cassone, we discovered the truth: we’re all WordCamp-addicted, once you’re in, you can’t live without it, and if you really can’t, since you had other plans for those days, well, you end up hoping that you can skip them and catch the first train to go meet your friends.