Spring is maybe the best season to run WordCamps. In fact, if you check WordCamp Central, you will notice that many WordCamps are scheduled for the spring season. Just to name a few, Paris, Vienna, Atlanta, London, Torino, Athens, Rotterdam, Madrid, Miami, Kolkata, and Prague have all held or scheduled WordCamps for March, April, and May.
Artbees started our WordCamp tours in 2019 with two important European WordCamps, WordCamp London 2019 and WordCamp Torino 2019. We participated in one as a speaker and in the other as a sponsor. Below I will share some of our takeaways from these two WordCamps. Let’s dig in.
WordCamp Torino 2019
Just a few months after our last WordCamp in Milano, we got to join another WordCamp with the great Italian WordPress community — WordCamp Torino 2019. The city of Torino is as beautiful as Milan but less expensive. It was, in fact, cheaper compared to many other EU cities.
Torino is one of the tech and industrial hubs of Italy. Communicating with people as a foreigner, of course, is challenging, but Italians are famous for their upbeat mood and hospitality. This all does not only make the city a great destination for tourists but also a great place for WordCamps.
Upon arrival, you can observe the high engagement of locals who are passionate about contributing to WordPress. WordCamp Torino 2019 was very well-organized and planned, too. Food was nothing less than what you could expect from a country like Italy —always savory and delicious!
WordCamp Torino Contributor Day
Like every other WordCamp Artbees has attended, we had a member in WordCamp Torino 2019 as well. Rouzbeh from Artbees contributed to the Marketing team in WordCamp Torino (Contribution day in Italian WordCamps are not a placeholder!).
People seriously work and contribute during this segment and the progress is visible and even palpable. You can see heated discussions and meetings going on during the entire contribution day.
Rouzbeh from Artbees Talked About GPL
At WordCamp Torino, Rouzbeh, CEO at Artbees, discussed a very sensitive and nowadays popular matter: open-source. Within his talk entitled, “Going GPL: What happens when a theme with 100K users goes GPL!”, he shared the story of Jupiter X WordPress theme with 100K customers that decided to change its license to full GPL after 5 years.
As the CEO of Artbees, he explained how he had to be aware of the business implications and risks attached to such a decision. Before making this decision at Artbees, they were very much concerned about the impact this will have on sales, the Jupiter X brand image, and the future of the theme as a whole.
After a short introduction of GPL license and its meaning, he explained the results of this decision, the steps taken to execute the relicensing process, the market’s reaction to it, and finally, the state of the company and our theme after going GPL.
Rouzbeh’s presentation of the Artbees journey towards GPL was worth it for all the WordPress theme producers who are unsure about going GPL. It can also encourage many theme developers to follow the same path. The video of the talk will be available in wordpress.tv soon.
Francesca Marano of WordCamp Torino made a great point regarding Rouzbeh’s talk:
You can not encourage people to contribute to open source for free just as a good gesture or a positive deed. You should show them the real benefit they can get out of it or perhaps a potential opportunity from a business outlook.
Based on the extremely positive feedback regarding Rouzbeh’s talk, you can say that his topic was aligned with what Francesca said as it definitely was trying to explore the business potential of GPL.
WordCamp London 2019
Just about the same time that WordCamp Torino was taking place, there was another great WordCamp happening exactly 1240 KM away! WordCamp London 2019 was held on April 5-7 in London Metropolitan University, and Artbees was one of its sponsors. Fun fact: This was the first WordCamp that Artbees sponsored in 2019.
WordCamp London is one of the most important WordCamps in Europe. Some believe that’s the second most important WordCamp (after WordCamp Europe) in Europe and a great opportunity to obtain the pulse of the WordPress community in entire Europe, as there are attendees from every part of Europe, and not just the UK.
I, Maziar, and Babek were representing Artbees’ very own Jupiter X in its booth on April 6 and 7. Rouzbeh was only able to join us on April 7 Sunday after he held his talk in Torino!
WordCamp London Contributor Day
As you may know, Contributor Days are an integral part of WordCamps and truly symbolize the culture that WordPress promotes. Tens, sometimes dozens, and sometimes hundreds of passionate people gather in different teams in every WordCamp and contribute to WordPress however they can (I have co-authored a blog post about the culture of contribution in WordPress in WordPress.org Marketing blog and talked about this in extent).
Artbees had a representative in WordCamp London 2019 Contributor Day as well! As part of the MakeWordPress Marketing team and along with other great members and reps such as Siobhan Cunningham and Yvette Sonneveld, we worked on different tasks related to the Marketing team. I personally wrote a WordPress success case study you will read soon on wordpress.org Marketing blog.
A Vibrant Talk Lineup!
WordCamp London had a vibrant array of speakers talking about a wide variety of topics such as copywriting, business growth, content monetization, accessibility, content syndication, open-source, SEO, cognitive design, cookies, recruiting, e-commerce and technical topics such as HTTP/2, GraphQL, Laravel, Serverless, Redux, and more.
Below, I want to name a few very interesting talks you might have missed! In which case, do not forget to watch them once they are on wordpress.tv:
Sales Funnel = Sausage Maker?
Websites For Freelancers 101
JAMstack and WordPress: Friends or Foes?
Mindful Design: Designing with Presence for Purpose and Inclusion
5 Steps to a Faster Website and Higher Google Rankings
Are You Ready To Publish? – The Afterlife…
Accessibility Testing for Content Managers Workshop
Effective Copywriting Tips for Better UX
Using WordPress To DO_ACTION
Introduction to Web Components
Fireside Chat: Building a Culture of Safety
An Introduction to WP-CLI
5 eCommerce Trends to Implement Now
Jupiter X in WordCamp London
During the days of manning our booth as a sponsor of WordCamp London 2019 (April 6 & 7), we witnessed a very dynamic range of people stopping by to ask about Jupiter X. We received a lot of good insights and feedback about Jupiter X and a round of applause for our decision to go GPL! We also happened to meet some of the old Jupiter users in London who had been using Jupiter since 4 years ago.
As you can deduce, Jupiter X had a booth in WordCamp London 2019. So, I had a limited time attending talks or side events. However, I was lucky enough to manage my time to attend important events such as a very useful meetup regarding marketing that was held by MakeWordPress marketing team.
In this one-hour meeting, many ideas, trends, and practices regarding marketing were discussed and many questions were answered. I myself discussed the relevancy of testimonials in 2019 and received different ideas about that!
This was our first WordCamp London experience and for sure, not the last one. WordCamp London 2019 was organized by a veteran team (Led by Dan Maby) with many volunteers contributing to it in different sectors. WordCamp London gives everyone who does something with WordPress a unique chance to connect with the UK WordPress community and explore various opportunities.
WordCamp Torino 2019 and WordCamp London 2019 were a great kickstarter for Artbees’ WordCamp presence in 2019. The experience we collected in different parts of these great WordPress gatherings, from contributing to different teams to speaking with them to showcase Jupiter X is priceless and will definitely help us with the future of Artbees and Jupiter X.
However, that’s just the beginning for 2019! Stay tuned with us for great news with upcoming WordCamps such as WordCamp Athens 2019, WordCamp Plovdiv 2019, WordCamp Europe 2019, and more. 😀
Have you ever been to any WordCamp? Do share your experience with us and the Artbees community below!
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