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Welcome to the Monthly Education Buzz Report, your go-to source for highlights and updates on the WordPress Campus connect, WordPress Credits, and WordPress Student club education initiatives within the WordPress community. This report aims to celebrate, promote, and inform individuals across the WordPress community and beyond about the diverse educational endeavors underway.
26 more events are currently in the planning stages! We are actively working to expand our global reach and bring more educational opportunities to students worldwide. Come find us in the #campusconnect Slack channel.
Event Highlights
WordPress Campus Connect continues to grow globally, with multiple successful events, new resources, and increased community engagement this month.
WordPress Campus Connect Rajshahi
Rajshahi Court College
Date: February 16
Attendees: 91
Varendra University, Rajshahi
Date: February 23
Attendees: 82
All events went over the following topics:
Building a WordPress website from scratch, including domain setup, hosting, WordPress installation, theme customisation, and content publishing.
Freelancing with WordPress, highlighting market-ready skills such as theme customisation, pluginPluginA plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party. configuration, performance optimisation, and client communication.
Open-source contribution and licensing, with an overview of the GNU General Public License (GPLGPLGPL is an acronym for GNU Public License. It is the standard license WordPress uses for Open Source licensing https://wordpress.org/about/license/. The GPL is a ‘copyleft’ license https://www.gnu.org/licenses/copyleft.en.html. This means that derivative work can only be distributed under the same license terms. This is in distinction to permissive free software licenses, of which the BSD license and the MIT License are widely used examples.) and how it enables freedom to use, modify, and distribute software.
The WordPress contributor credits system, learning how contributors receive recognition for contributions to coreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress., documentation, design, accessibilityAccessibilityAccessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility), translation, and community initiatives.
WordPress Campus Connect – Universitata de Lleida (Cappont Campus)
While the event ran smoothly, organizers noted opportunities to make sessions more interactive in the future. Experiments are underway using WordPress Blueprints to help create interactive learning materials for specific concepts during Campus Connect workshops.
WordPress Campus Connect – St. Philomena College, Puttur
Date: January 30 – 31
Attendees: 51
Program topics:
WordPress as a platform for building real-world web applications
The open-source ecosystem
Opportunities for learning and contributing to the WordPress community
WordPress Campus Connect Event in Pakistan – Faisalabad
Organisers shared plans to establish a WordPress Student Club at Career Institute, with the goal of continuing to mentorEvent SupporterEvent Supporter (formerly Mentor) is someone who has already organised a WordCamp and has time to meet with their assigned mentee every 2 weeks, they talk over where they should be in their timeline, help them to identify their issues, and also identify solutions for their issues. and support students interested in WordPress and open-source development.
WordPress Campus Connect Jinja 2025
The WordPress Jinja Community has completed the WordPress Campus Connect Jinja 2025 event series, which involved visits to 12 campuses across Eastern Uganda.
The program ran over approximately three active months, with a two-month pause due to holidays and national elections before resuming when schools reopened in February.
This initiative represents a significant milestone as one of the largest Campus Connect series organised in the region, bringing WordPress education to multiple institutions and expanding the local open-source ecosystem.
A comprehensive recap article and photo collection are being prepared by the organising team.
Other Program Updates
New Handbook Resources: Several new resources have been published to support contributors and program organizers.
New Themes:@debdesign has created a base theme designed specifically for WordPress Campus Connect and Student Club organizers, helping simplify the process of building event websites.
Active mentorsEvent SupporterEvent Supporter (formerly Mentor) is someone who has already organised a WordCamp and has time to meet with their assigned mentee every 2 weeks, they talk over where they should be in their timeline, help them to identify their issues, and also identify solutions for their issues.: 63
Active students: 285
Highlights
158 students from Universidad Fidélitas were onboarded in February as part of the Technology and Society course integration.
The program is currently in discussions with additional institutions in Spain, India, Costa Rica, and Chile, which may join in the coming weeks.
New Pilot Initiative
A WordPress Credits Self-Onboarding Pilot is launching with 14 students from the Krakow University of Economics, beginning in early March.
This pilot tests new approaches that allow students to independently join and begin contributing to the WordPress ecosystem through structured learning materials.
Another session was organised using an interactive quiz format, designed to help students learn WordPress concepts through participation rather than a traditional lecture.
Highlights included:
Interactive exploration of WordPress fundamentals
Questions explaining real-world use cases for WordPress websites
High student participation and engagement
The session was well received, with students finding the quiz-based learning format both fun and informative.
WordPress Student Club GWECA
Held a WordPress Learning Session & Live Design Activity that included a hands-on WordPress workshop combined practical learning with a live website design activity.
Students were introduced to:
The Twenty Twenty-Three theme
GutenbergGutenbergThe Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ blocks
Page structure and layout alignment
Spacing and visual consistency in design
Participants recreated a reference webpage layout, applying their learning in real time while experimenting with design elements and building live pages.
The session provided a valuable opportunity for students to develop both technical and creative website-building skills.
WordPress Student Club ACERCWordPress Student Club ACERCWordPress Student Club ACERCWordPress Student Club ACERCWordPress Student Club GWECAWordPress Student Club GWECAWordPress Student Club GWECAWordPress Student Club GWECA
As WordPress Campus Connect (WPCC) events have continued to grow and mature, so have the processes and documentation that support them. When WPCC was first introduced, we created a separate, WPCC-specific mentorEvent SupporterEvent Supporter (formerly Mentor) is someone who has already organised a WordCamp and has time to meet with their assigned mentee every 2 weeks, they talk over where they should be in their timeline, help them to identify their issues, and also identify solutions for their issues. program to meet an immediate need. At the time, information was limited and we needed a focused group to help define, document, and guide this new event format.
Today, that is no longer the case.
With stronger processes, clearer documentation, and an established foundation for supporting WPCC events, we will be retiring the WordPress Campus Connect–specific mentor program and integrating its responsibilities into the existing Event Supporters program.
Why We’re Making This Change
Over time, we found that maintaining a separate WPCC mentor group:
Created the perception that WPCC events are fundamentally different from other supported event types — which is not the case.
Introduced additional process layers on top of an already well-established mentorship structure.
Limited opportunities to leverage the full strength and experience of our broader Event SupporterEvent SupporterEvent Supporter (formerly Mentor) is someone who has already organised a WordCamp and has time to meet with their assigned mentee every 2 weeks, they talk over where they should be in their timeline, help them to identify their issues, and also identify solutions for their issues. team.
WPCC events are simply another important event format within our community. By integrating WPCC mentorship into the Event Supporters program, we can:
Ensure more sustainable growth for WPCC events.
Empower more contributors to support these events.
Reduce unnecessary process duplication.
Strengthen consistency across event mentorship overall.
What This Means
The WPCC-specific mentor program will be dissolved.
Eligible WPCC mentorsEvent SupporterEvent Supporter (formerly Mentor) is someone who has already organised a WordCamp and has time to meet with their assigned mentee every 2 weeks, they talk over where they should be in their timeline, help them to identify their issues, and also identify solutions for their issues. will onboard as Event Supporters.
WPCC mentoring responsibilities will now be handled within the Event Supporters framework.
Documentation & Resource Updates
To support this transition, documentation has been updated and integrated into existing resources:
Additionally, available WPCC resources will continue to be integrated into established handbook pages as needed.
We believe that dissolving the separate WPCC mentor group and strengthening our existing Event Supporters program is the best path forward. This change allows us to streamline processes, reduce complexity, and build a more resilient and scalable support structure for WordPress Campus Connect events.
Thank you to everyone who has contributed to building and mentoring WPCC events thus far — your work laid the foundation that makes this transition possible.
Bringing WordPress Campus Connect to Malaysia marked an important milestone for open-source education and community-driven learning in the region. On 3 January 2026, the first-ever WordPress Campus Connect event in Malaysia was held at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), Johor Bahru, welcoming students, educators, organizers, mentorsEvent SupporterEvent Supporter (formerly Mentor) is someone who has already organised a WordCamp and has time to meet with their assigned mentee every 2 weeks, they talk over where they should be in their timeline, help them to identify their issues, and also identify solutions for their issues., and volunteers for a day dedicated to learning, collaboration, and open-source exploration.
WordPress Campus Connect is part of the WordPress Education initiative, designed to help students learn by doing — building practical skills with WordPress, understanding open-source values, and exploring career pathways through community-led learning. Hosting this initiative at UTM provided a meaningful opportunity to connect academic learning with real-world digital experience.
Preparing for the Event
Preparation for the event began with close collaboration between the organizing team, volunteers, and mentorEvent SupporterEvent Supporter (formerly Mentor) is someone who has already organised a WordCamp and has time to meet with their assigned mentee every 2 weeks, they talk over where they should be in their timeline, help them to identify their issues, and also identify solutions for their issues.. The goal was to create an inclusive and beginner-friendly environment where students could engage with WordPress beyond theory and gain practical insights into how open-source communities function.
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia supported the initiative by providing the venue and encouraging student participation, making it possible to host the first Campus Connect event in the country. Organizers and volunteers worked together to ensure smooth coordination across registration, logistics, audio-visual support, and on-site engagement.
The event was supported by WordPress Community Sponsors, with funding assistance of USD 300 used for printing, swag, refreshments, and other essential arrangements. We are thankful to the global sponsors who continue to enable community-led learning initiatives across the WordPress ecosystem.
Website Setup
Organizing the first WordPress Campus Connect event in Malaysia also provided valuable insights into the operational aspects of running a community-led education event. These learnings may be helpful for future Campus Connect organizers.
Website Setup and Design
The event website was designed following the same standards used across other WordPress Campus Connect events. Organizers should note that the Campus Connect website environment follows WordCamp.org guidelines, meaning:
The website must be built using GutenbergGutenbergThe Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ (BlockBlockBlock is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. Editor)
Page builders or additional plugins are not available
While this may feel limiting at first, it encourages thoughtful design using coreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. WordPress tools. The dashboard experience is identical to a WordCampWordCampWordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. site, including access to sessions, speakers, organizers, volunteers, and sponsors.
A ticketing page was also enabled, allowing students to register and “purchase” free tickets through the official system, helping organizers manage attendance in a structured way.
Although the setup has constraints, there are still many creative possibilities within Gutenberg. For new organizers, it is recommended to allocate sufficient time for design planning and collaborate closely as a team when structuring the website.
Venue Coordination with the University
Securing the venue required working through the university’s official venue approval process, similar to how venue agreements are handled for WordCamps. This step is essential for scheduling a Campus Connect event officially.
The venue contract process has recently been improved, with options for both paid and free venue agreements, making it more flexible for universities and organizers. Completing this process correctly is a critical milestone before confirming the event date.
Design and Printing Resources
Most of the official design assets are available through Figma, including:
Logos (multiple formats and print-ready versions)
Posters and covers
Presentation slides
Certificates
Wappu illustrations
Sticker-ready logo variations
The organizing team customized these assets to suit the local event while maintaining the official branding. The design kit also helped guide color selection, which was used consistently across digital and printed materials. Having ready-to-use logo variations made printing stickers and materials much easier.
Issuing Certificates of Participation
All participants received e-certificates of participation following the event. For many students, this recognition carried meaningful value, not only as proof of attendance but as acknowledgment of their first engagement with the global WordPress community.
Several students shared that receiving the certificate increased their confidence and motivated them to explore further involvement in open-source initiatives and future WordPress events.
Behind the Scenes
The success of the event was made possible by a dedicated organizing team led by Mohammad Ibrahim as Lead Organizer, with Nasim Miah serving as Co-Lead. The organizing team also included Yves Tan, Kamil Sharip, Eric Low, Teh Yong Li, Peng Hao and Ts. Chan Ler-Kuan, who collectively supported planning, logistics, sessions, and community coordination.
A committed volunteer team supported the event throughout the day, assisting with registration, attendee support, floor management, audio-visual operations, photography, and logistics. Their efforts ensured a welcoming and well-organized experience for all participants.
Student Engagement and Activities
The event received over 100 registrations, with 54 students attending in person on 3 January 2026. Participants represented five different countries, creating a diverse and inclusive learning environment.
Throughout the day, students actively participated in Q&A sessions, interactive discussions, and the quiz segment. Many attendees stayed after sessions to speak directly with speakers and organizers, asking follow-up questions about WordPress development, UIUIUI is an acronym for User Interface - the layout of the page the user interacts with. Think ‘how are they doing that’ and less about what they are doing. design, freelancing opportunities, and career pathways.
The quiz session generated high energy and enthusiasm, with students competing enthusiastically and celebrating the top performers and lucky draw winners.
This milestone at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia demonstrates how community-driven education can create meaningful learning experiences and lasting connections for the next generation of digital creators.
First, the current Team Reps of 2026 would like to thank each one of you for voting. Voting has ended.
You made your voices heard and participated in voting.
Your selection of the two new nominees means they will join the Team Reps in 2026.
What happens next?
The Voting Process has ended, and we are counting the votes to ensure everything was done correctly and fairly.
The next steps are contacting the nominees who have the highest votes. We will ask them again. We want to know if they are willing to accept the role. They would represent the WordPress Project’s Community Team in 2026.
Once they accept, we will announce who they are to the entire community. We will arrange a series of Hand-offs and Onboardings for them.
Welcome to the Monthly Education Buzz Report, your go-to source for highlights and updates on the WordPress Campus connect, WordPress Credits, and WordPress Student club education initiatives within the WordPress community. This report aims to celebrate, promote, and inform individuals across the WordPress community and beyond about the diverse educational endeavors underway.
18 more events are currently in the planning stages! We are actively working to expand our global reach and bring more educational opportunities to students worldwide. Come find us in the #campusconnect Slack channel.
Event Highlights
WordPress Campus Connect continues to grow globally, with multiple successful events, new resources, and increased community engagement this month.
Campus Connect UTM (Malaysia, 2026)
51 attendees
First-ever WordPress Campus Connect event held in Malaysia
Hosted at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM)
Program Highlights:
Introduction to WordPress and open-source collaboration
Knowledge sharing across students, developers, and educators
All WordPress Education initiatives were represented at WC Nepal Contributor Day by @pooja
Discussion Highlights:
15–20 participants engaged (students, faculty, meetupMeetupMeetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. organizers, contributors)
Explored launching programs in local cities
Discussed outreach challenges and practical solutions
Shared pathways for ongoing support and mentorship
Following the recent Campus Connect Kathmandu event:
Organizer shared positive event experience
Two colleges expressed potential interest in launching Student Clubs and WP Credits.
Office HoursOffice HoursDefined times when the Global Community Team are in the #community-events Slack channel. If there is anything you would like to discuss – you do not need to inform them in advance.You are very welcome to drop into any of the Community Team Slack channels at any time.: 4 Education Office Hours sessions hosted this month
The WordPress Credits program continues expanding across institutions and regions with strong academic integration and partnership growth.
Fidélitas University (Costa Rica)
WordPress Credits is now a mandatory component of the Technology and Society course
158 students enrolled in the current cohort (completion expected in May)
5 teachers are being trained to serve as mentorsEvent SupporterEvent Supporter (formerly Mentor) is someone who has already organised a WordCamp and has time to meet with their assigned mentee every 2 weeks, they talk over where they should be in their timeline, help them to identify their issues, and also identify solutions for their issues. for their students
Spain – Vocational School Expansion
Partnerships signed with 2 new vocational schools
5 teachers at one institution being trained as mentors
Program will support:
4 student cohorts (~70 students)
Approximately 8,500 contribution hours
Timeline: late February – June
New Institutional Interest
8 new applications received from institutions across: Spain, Cambodia, Chile, India, & Bangladesh.
External Feature
WPBakery published an ExcerptExcerptAn excerpt is the description of the blog post or page that will by default show on the blog archive page, in search results (SERPs), and on social media. With an SEO plugin, the excerpt may also be in that plugin’s metabox. Talks episode about WordPress Credits featuring Ivana Cirkovic, Isotta, Maciej and can be watched here.
WordPress Student Clubs
Strong participation and energy set the tone for continued workshops and hands-on learning ahead.
WordPress Student Club GWECA — Second Official Event
The club hosted a learning session combined with a WordPress Website Challenge kickoff.
Activities included:
Mini-quiz competition covering WordPress basics, themes, and plugins
Discussion on pluginPluginA plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party. functionality and website enhancement
Introduction to the upcoming Website Challenge: Students will recreate and redesign a real website using WordPress
Two new student clubs were created, bringing our total to 12.
WordPress Student Club GWECAWordPress Student Club GWECAWordPress Student Club GWECA
Howdy Community Team and our hardworking WordPress Campus Connect Organizers!
To date, WordPress Campus Connect (WPCC) events have reached students across 9 locations worldwide, including Kolhapur, Zamboanga, Kathmandu, and more.
We’ve collected organizer and attendee feedback to help improve future events and scale WPCC’s impact. Here’s what we learned:
What’s Working Well
Hands-On Learning Drives Engagement: Students built live WordPress sites, explored hosting, and learned career opportunities in WordPress — particularly impactful for first-time learners.
Skilled Facilitators Make a Difference: Facilitators were highly rated for expertise, helpfulness, and ability to answer questions effectively.
Institutional Partnerships Matter: Schools with prior event experience saw smoother execution and higher participant engagement.
Community Growth: WPCC continues to reach students unfamiliar with WordPress, helping expand the ecosystem globally.
Challenges & Patterns
Technical Infrastructure: Internet speed, local installations, and domain claiming caused delays in multiple events. This is a recurring issue across regions.
Content AccessibilityAccessibilityAccessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility): Beginners found some sessions fast-paced; more scaffolding is needed for first-time learners.
Event Messaging & Participation: Some local communities didn’t fully understand the event’s purpose, leading to lower participation.
Post-Event Follow-Up: Students expressed interest in long-term engagement, such as monthly meetupsMeetupMeetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook., campus clubs, and multi-day workshops.
Next Steps & Action Items
To make future WPCC events even stronger, we should focus on:
Technical Preparedness: Mandatory pre-event tech checks, minimum infrastructure standards, and alternative setup guides.
Better Planning & Timelines: Shorter approval timelines and clear scheduling guidance to avoid conflicts with academic calendars.
Enhanced Participant Experience: Beginner-first content, more hands-on time, competitions, and improved physical setups.
Community Engagement: Clearer messaging for students, educators, and local WordPress communities to boost attendance.
Post-Event Continuity: Developing follow-up roadmaps, WordPress student clubs, and pilot multi-day events.
Key Takeaway: WPCC continues to deliver strong educational value and community impact. By addressing recurring technical and engagement challenges, we aim to turn these events into sustainable pathways for students to explore WordPress and the wider open-source ecosystem.
Thank you to all organizers, facilitators, and participants who make these events possible! Your feedback is invaluable in shaping the next round of WPCC events.
If you feel you have the bandwidth to tackle any of these follow up tasks, please feel free to comment on this post or reach out to Destiny directly in the Make WordPress SlackSlackSlack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/..
Thank you to everyone who participated in the nominations process for the 2026 team reps! It’s now time to cast your vote to decide who will take on this important role this year. (view @webtechpooja‘s nomination post here).
What do Team Reps do?
Team reps act as facilitators. They serve as communicators, helping the team stay organized and connected with other parts of the WordPress project. They guide discussions, support contributors, and make sure the team is aligned with overall project goals.
How to vote?
Voting is anonymous. Please use the form below to send your choice:
When voting, you vote for up to 2 of the nominees. Voting Open: 9 February 2026
Right now, we discourage product-specific talks at meetupsMeetupMeetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. or WordCamps. Even though most people use WordPress through these products. However, I think if a company is engaged with the community at the Global Sponsor level, which right now is 180k/yr (but will probably be more in the future), their product should be fair game for meetups and WordCampWordCampWordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. talk topics. If they’re selected as a Global Sponsor, it means they’re in good standing in the community and that their investment reflects their importance to WordPress users. Let’s make sure that the folks screening talk submissions understand this.
TL;DR: An experimental one-week burst-fire promotion for WordCampWordCampWordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. Asia increased traffic and engagement but did not meaningfully change ticket purchasing behavior. The strongest results came from the WordPress News post, followed by Showcase entries and cultural blog content, while contributor stories and standard announcements underperformed. Future event marketing should prioritize well-timed News posts, showcasing sponsors and local WordPress sites, and cultural content.
Hello, Make/Community readers! @bjmcsherry and I have been actively involved in the promotion and marketing of flagship WordPress events (WordCamp Asia, WordCamp Europe, WordCamp US, and State of the WordState of the WordThis is the annual report given by Matt Mullenweg, founder of WordPress at WordCamp US. It looks at what we’ve done, what we’re doing, and the future of WordPress. https://wordpress.tv/tag/state-of-the-word/.) for the past few years, ensuring that the official WordPress marketing channels (social, email, blogs, livestreams, etc.) deliver relevant event information. We also aim to provide event-to-event recommendations in a world where each event may be in a different location and have a different set of contributors.
While our well-established, long-term drip of event content has effectively garnered attention and engagement, we recently experimented with a burst-fire strategy for WordCamp Asia (WCAsia) to increase urgency, break through the online noise more effectively, and drive additional ticket sales and sponsorships.
Our tactical goal was to make WCAsia content unavoidable by saturating the official WordPress marketing channels, generating conversation online and through word-of-mouth. To avoid completely exhausting our audience and their awareness, the experiment ran from Wednesday, 21 January through Wednesday, 28 January 2026, to maximize our use of mid-week engagement highs. We took the following tactical actions:
Increasing our social posting cadence to 3 posts per day across all platforms (including video shorts), filling all empty slots (those not taken by other announcements) with WCAsia content.
We encouraged others to get in on the excitement, further expanding our reach to other social audiences.
Social profile banners were updated to highlight WCAsia.
A reminder email was sent to global WordPress MeetupMeetupMeetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. participants.
Reminder emails were sent to past WCAsia attendees.
The following data is from Wednesday 21 January through Thursday 29 January 2026, and sourced from Jetpack and the internal ticket reports on asia.wordcamp.org/2026/.
Views: 15,406 (+46%)
Visitors: 5,408 (+83%)
Tickets sold: 49
Insights
Here is what we observed on the course of the experiment:
Overall impact, while comparatively impressive (visitors up 84%), was minimal in absolute terms (roughly 2.4k more visitors). Similarly, while there was a spike in ticket sales (49 tickets sold) compared to recent weeks in January, average weekly ticket sales since October were 69/week. We did not radically shift purchasing behavior.
Standard announcements (calls for organizers/volunteers, ticket announcements, etc.) and contributor stories did not perform well, and in fact performed below baseline performance for content. The poor performance of contributor stories also aligns with that of the now-discontinued People of WordPress series.
The channels driving the most traffic to the site were, in order: Search, Facebook, LinkedIn, X, and Instagram. Compared to the previous week, LinkedIn and X were the standout platforms during this experiment.
Social engagement rate dropped, as expected, but total engagement did increase, suggesting that we were not algorithmically punished for the increased posting cadence during this experiment.
Actions
Here is what we’ll be recommending to organizers of flagship WordCamps in the future:
Saturating our channels had little impact, so we should maintain our typical posting cadence (I.e., posting more will not meaningfully increase ticket sales; event awareness is not holding event attendance back).
Attention and contributor time are limited resources. I recommend that unpopular content, such as contributor stories, be adapted or dropped. There may be an opportunity or audience for this content if we shift focus to the work/contributions rather than the individuals.
I suggest that attention be directed to timely, broadly appealing content, such as the cultural blog posts and relevant Showcase entries. These should be produced early (months ahead of the event) and promoted often, communicating the spirit of the location and the event. Calls for volunteers and organizers can be bundled, rather than released in stages, and then announced in a WordPress News post.
For WordPress News, there should 2 News posts in the lead up to the event: 1 post calling for organizers, volunteers, sponsors, etc. early in the planning process, and another post sharing the event, calling for attendees and filling any gaps.
While much discussion has been held around marketing these events, our thinking should be shifted toward producing a marketable event. What performed well here suggests that we should lean into packaging and promoting the venue/city/culture, education/career opportunities, and sponsor/business connections.
venue/city/culture: Cultural posts have repeatedly been well-read, which is understandable given the number of travelers attending the event. These posts create excitement around visiting the host city. It would be worth exploring what kind of relationships could be built with local restaurants and businesses. Marketing not just the event, but the entire experience (inside and outside of the venue), shows promise.
education/career opportunities: The growth of WordPress education initiatives and the performance of WordPress content on LinkedIn reinforce WordCamps as a place of learning. Adapting the messaging around speakers and talks to focus on their educational value (What will I learn from this speaker?) will likely entice further ticket sales.
sponsor/business: We’ve seen both Sponsor Hall content at past WordCamps and local showcases perform well. These are strong indicators that sponsors bring not only cash, but life and engagement to the events. Sponsor and comms/marketing teams should be more closely integrated. Rather than simply announcing sponsors, we should be celebrating them.
Other data
As we continue experimenting with how to promote flagship WordCamps, and WordCamps in general, I’ll share more info here. Once some learnings and practices are well-established, this information will be moved to a more permanent handbook. In the meantime, please use the comments to ask any questions about this experiment or make additional suggestions.
Thanks to everyone who makes these sorts of experiments possible (too many to list). Without all the contributors, organizers, content authors, and designers, all of this wouldn’t be possible.
