Every year, WordCamp Europe brings together thousands of professionals·and passionate·es from WordPress come·Europe (and beyond). Three days to exchange, contribute, learn... and together advance the open source platform that equips more than 40% of the web.
This year, it was in Basel, Switzerland, from 5 to 7 June, and several members of Be API were there. The opportunity to share what is retained from this edition, between conferences, good practices and immersion in WordPress culture.
Contributor Day: Putting your hands in the heart of the project
Before the conferences, the WordCamp starts with an entire day dedicated to the contribution. The objective? Actively participate in the WordPress ecosystem, joining one of the many project teams: documentation, translation, accessibility, design, performance, core...
When you've never contributed, it can be intimidating. But the welcome is kind, and everything is done to accompany the first steps. Elizabeth, who lived her first WordCamp Europe, tells us: « I didn't know where to go at first... But I was well guided. I was told the different teams, how it worked, and I quickly felt integrated. »
She joined the translation team, while Paolo contributed to the Query Loop block documentation (two tickets resolved) and participated in the performance table.
For us, contributing is to keep a direct link with the evolutions of the core, to adjust our practices... and continue to « do our part » in a project that is used daily. This is also the value of a WordCamp Europe: this constant link between technology, community and transmission. Organizational side: fluid logistics, volunteers with small care, inclusive atmosphere.
« What struck me was kindness. There is a real desire to include everyone. It's great to find these values that are defended in Be API, on such a wide scale. »
🔎 Key figures for the 2025 edition
- +2,800 participants·es come·over 90 countries
- 650 contributors mobilized from the first day
- +60 conferences & workshops on 3 parallel tracks
- +40 stands in enterprises, ecosystem products and initiatives
What have we learned in practice?
The next two days, place at the conferences. No "big trend" that takes over this year, but a beautiful diversity of topics. Among the themes:
- Artificial intelligence : plugin-first approach, targeted uses, attention to ethics and transparency.
- Accessibility : in direct connection withEuropean Accessibility Actwhich comes into force this year.
- Performance & eco-design : subjects now well anchored, but in constant evolution.
- Multilingual & Multisite : always at the heart of the concerns for complex platforms.
- And of course: SEO, inclusive design, content strategy, experiment contributing...
On the technical side, some insights that have marked us:
- WordPress Playground mature: simulate environments, test plugins, automate QA... without installing anything locally.
- Performance tools to (re)test: Treo.sh, WebPageTest, and always the good old combo "device + connection + location" to check finely.
- LInteractivity API progresses: a native approach to managing dynamic interfaces without external JS framework.
- IA side, experiments around Local models usable via plugin or API, to remain data controller.
« I liked the session about automated testing with Playground. It is a lever to dig for our QA phases. We can go faster, with more reliability, and even simulate user interactions. » Paolo, developer
Finally, several conferences on multilingualism and multi-site were used to compare approaches. As a result, shared good practices largely confirm our current choices. Always reassuring!
An event, yes, but above all a culture
Beyond talk, what marks us every year is the WordCamp spirit. The one that brings together technical profiles, design, business, marketing... around the same desire: to advance WordPress together. The WordCamp Europe is to get your feet back in the WordPress house, in version XXL. And it feels good.
This 2025 edition also highlighted real attention to inclusiveness, diversity of formats and representativeness of profiles. We can speak IA generative or SEO local, without ever losing sight of what links us: open source culture, and collective.
In closing, Matt Mullenweg and Mary Hubbard shared the ongoing projects: accessibility, performance, AI... Work axes assumed, which show that WordPress continues to evolve, without losing sight of its fundamentals.
But one of the real challenges, which was also felt in the marginal discussions, is that of renewal. « There were mostly elders in the room. We feel that the community is aging... and that it is necessary to continue to make WordPress "sexy" for the new generations. »
The challenge: How to keep WordPress alive, attractive, engaging for more junior profiles? How to transmit this open source culture, while remaining in line with the new uses and expectations of digital professionals today?
At Be API, this is a question that is taken seriously. And we believe that several avenues are essential to answer this question:
- Embark new profiles as soon as they are trained by offering mentoring, facilitating access to the contribution
- Continue evangelization, but without dogma : explain what WordPress really allows, in its diversity of uses, and in relation to current issues
- Pay attention to weak signals : what the new profiles expect, what throws them away, what they find fluid or frustrating. And not be afraid to challenge existing ones.
What the WordCamp reminds us of is that it is not enough to say that WordPress is "modern" or "adaptable": we must show it, test it, make it live in concrete contexts, and leave room for those who arrive with new ideas. That's why we keep going every year.
Conclusion
Participating in WordCamp Europe means being present where things happen. We come back with ideas, meetings, confirmations, sometimes even new practices to test. We can see how much our practices fit into a global, living, moving project.
This allows us to stay aligned with the ecosystem, to adjust our projects to good practices, and to continue to do what we like: quality WordPress, for real needs.
