WordCamp’s are always a key event in Big Bite’s calendar, from our local meet up at Whitley Bay, to the somewhat slightly bigger WCUS, which was this year held at the Oregon Convention Centre, Portland. It boasted a busy schedule of workshops, networking and content in the event’s first ever four-day format, and our team was keen to get stuck in, despite a couple of little hiccups with flight delays!
A brand new addition to the WordCamp US calendar, Showcase Day allowed the most innovative uses of WordPress to take centre stage and highlight the infinite capabilities of the number one CMS. From insightful presentations on how WordPress is currently being used to in-depth explorations of how these innovations are technically possible, the day was jam packed with talks from all industries that helped spark ideas for future collaborations.
The day kicked off with a magical talk from The Walt Disney Company, detailing how Disney Connect was designed and launched in record breaking time with WordPress. This was followed by talks from The New York Post, CNN and Vox Media to name just a few, but the day was especially exciting for our team as we were privileged to witness our client, Austin of Amnesty International’s WordCamp US debut. Presenting to the crowd, Austin shared the journey of humanity – the open source theme built by our team, that’s driving a global movement of collaboration. While sharing Amnesty’s WordPress journey, Austin highlighted the importance of providing not only Amnesty’s global movement, but other grassroots organisations, the opportunity to create and maintain best-in-class websites without the need for extensive coding experience.
In addition to an incredible Showcase Day, we loved attending a bunch of insightful talks and workshops throughout the rest of the event from key players in the industry, and of course attending the sponsor parties and many networking opportunities. It was great to reconnect with old friends and make plenty of new ones too. Events like this bring together an amazing bunch of people from the WordPress community, and we feel very lucky to be a part of it.
We’re already looking forward to WordCamp US 2025 which will bring us back to Portland, but in the meantime planning has began for WCEU in June 2025 – we can’t wait to see you all there!
