XWP’s WordCamp Asia 2024 Roundup

They say a WordCamp isn't over until you've blogged about it... We had an amazing time at WordCamp Asia 2024. Here's our highlight reel of all the best bits:

The Chiang-Kai Shek memorial in Taipei, Illustrated

Next Stop, Taipei 🇹🇼

Most of our XWPeople’s journey to WordCamp Asia started at their local airport. We had XWPeople attend in person from 7 different countries, and many more watched the event from home.

XWPeople at WordCamp Asia: 🇬🇧🇰🇷🇮🇳🇸🇬🇳🇿🇦🇺🇷🇸

A man holding a passport with a boarding card
@scott-batchelor “I wonder if this means I’m on the Pokémon plane 🤔”
@edmund-chan “1.5 hours more before boarding. Already feeling sleepy…😴”

Day 0: Contributor Day 🙌

Photo courtesy of @WordcampAsia on X

Contributor Day is a special day designated for contributing to WordPress. Attendees arrive at the venue the day before talks and workshops begin to collaborate with new and existing contributors, meet new people, and learn about the different ways to get involved in the project.

This year’s contributor day was a massive success, with 627 contributors (110 of whom were first-timers!)

Day 1 highlights 🚀

The Future of WordPress: Noel Tock

Noel Tock’s talk on the future of WordPress offers a compelling glimpse into what lies ahead for the ubiquitous CMS.

Tock navigates through the challenges and opportunities that await WordPress on the ever-evolving web. From strategies for maintaining competitiveness to facing emerging threats, Tock’s exploration of future scenarios leaves the audience enlightened and ready to embrace WordPress’s journey into tomorrow.

Getting Ready for the Deprecation of 3P Cookies with Alberto Medina

The internet’s reliance on targeted advertising through Third-Party Cookies (3PC) is shifting as major browsers phase them out.

In this talk, Alberto explored the implications of this change and provided practical strategies for businesses and developers to adapt. He discussed cookies’ vulnerabilities, transition tools, and the importance of privacy-centric technologies. Check it out for insights to navigate this transition, safeguard user privacy, and ensure business continuity in a changing digital landscape.

Learn more about the upcoming changes to browser privacy, including the deprecation of third-party cookies

Our Marketing Lead @scott-batchelor even found Alberto chatting with a few other familiar faces just in time to get an official #WCAsia24 polaroid snap!

XWP Team Event: Night Market Munchies 🍡

After a long day at the conference centre for WordCamp day one, our team met up for an evening of exploring, and, of course, because no trip to Taipei would be complete without sampling some street food— eating!

Between us, we knocked out

@scott-batchelorand @utkarsh-patel sampling one of Taiwan’s local delicacy…Stinky tofu 👃

Day 2 Highlights 🙌

WP-CLI for PHP developers with Milana Cap

On day 1, our fabulous WordPress Engineer Milana Cap ran her workshop “WP-CLI for PHP Developers”. This is the sequel of Milana’s WordPress through the Terminal talk, which she has delivered around the globe, where she walks through a set of commands and tools useful for PHP developers.

—But this wasn’t just a live demo of WP-CLI commands. This was zooming out and seeing WP-CLI in collaboration with other tools in the context of PHP developer needs and everyday tasks.

As always, Milana rocked the stage—and we highly recommend checking out her full talk!

Panel: How WordPress can better serve the needs of Enterprise

On the second day of the conference, Human Made’s Petya Raykovska hosted a panel talk with Yoast/Newfold Digital’s Kimberley Cole, rtCamp’s Rahul Bansal, and Human Made’s Lorna Lim on the future of enterprise WordPress.

Participants explored the vast potential of WordPress for enterprise companies, speaking on how enterprise needs are different, the affordances of open source at the biggest scale, and how marketing works in a space where leading by example is so important.

It was also great to see Scale Consortium get a shout-out during this panel!

If you haven’t heard of Scale Consortium before, it is best defined as a collaborative effort by the leading enterprise WordPress agencies, united to address the evolving landscape of the enterprise layer of the platform. Learn More here.

In Person Q&A With WordPress Co-Founder Matt Mullenweg 📣

One of the main events of any WordCamp is undoubtedly the keynote address and live Q&A session with Matt Mullenweg, the co-creator of WordPress and CEO of Automattic.

At the larger WordCamps Matt live-answers questions from the crowd, giving the community a chance to get answers to some of their burning questions. You can watch the full session in the video to see how Matt responded to the following questions: Q&A Starts at 4:43.

Our very own @DjevaLoperka even asked the first question again—making her the first person to ask a question at a Matt Q&A at the last 5 WordCamps—on 3 different continents! 🌎)

WordCamp Asia 2024 at a glance

WordCamp Asia 2024 captured the essence of Taipei through and through. Here are a few stand-out stats from our friends over at NitroPack

  • 3 days full of events
  • 1,800+ participants
  • 70+ countries
  • 50+ speakers
  • 40+ Sponsors
  • 1 Location announcement for 2025… See you in Manila? 👀

Didn't make it out to Taipei this year? Just didn't have time to chat to us? Let's connect via email!