After a great time in Berlin in 2019, WordCamp Europe was cancelled in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic. I cancelled a trip to Porto in 2022 due to the uncertain travel situation, and I also decided against visiting Athens in 2023 out of concern about the potentially high temperatures. So five years had passed since I last took part in the biggest event on the WordPress calendar.
With around 2,500 participants – twice as many as at WordCamp US or WordCamp Asia – WordCamp Europe in Turin was a really big event. The Lingotto Conference and Exhibition Centre is a huge venue that was packed with people, sponsor stands, catering and the three stages on which the talks took place. As it turned out, the place was almost too big to take in everything I had planned. I spent most of my time meeting and chatting with familiar faces from the online community.
I would have liked to have seen more presentations – I’m definitely planning to do so at the next event. Due to the size of the conference, it was difficult to have more than a brief conversation with anyone – although I did manage to enjoy a few very agreeable aperitifs and dinners with friends and colleagues.
I was also invited to the pre-conference event by a colleague and enjoyed first-class food and a pleasantly small amount of alcohol. It was nice to see Anne-Mieke, Remkus, Michelle, Simea and other colleagues from the community again and to make a few new contacts.
Due to the large number of participants, I was only able to network a little with new contacts. So it was all the nicer to meet Jem, Gaz and Darren from the UK “in real life” for the first time and to chat to them and with a few others from different countries.
Because I was moving around so much – between 15,000 and 20,000 steps a day – and getting tired, I got a little emotional towards the end of the event. When it was announced in the closing video that WordCamp Europe 2025 would take place in Basel, it was a moving moment.
