Two weeks ago, along with thousands of other WordPress creators, developers, and users, the majority of the BerryPress team converged on Kraków, Poland for WordCamp Europe 2026. This was the first WordCamp Europe for BerryPress, and only the second time that BerryPress’s co-founders (Anna, our CEO, and Jonathan, CTO) met in person (the first time was at last year’s WordCamp US in Portland). And we wanted to tell you all about it, together!
One word: Magical
Jonathan: After our time at last year’s WordCamp US, I had high hopes for our time together during and after WordCamp Europe. Once again, the opportunity to collaborate in person, network with the community, and have fun together blew my expectations out of the water. It feels impossible to summarize the past couple weeks in a single word, but if I had to choose one, it would be “magical”.
As a small and tightly integrated team, we have spent countless hours over the past year collaborating via text chats, video calls, GitHub commits, Google Docs, and more. But I was reminded again that none of those online interactions come close to meeting the level of creativity, inspiration, and connectedness that can arise from even a condensed period of time spent together in the same room. Online communication offers a level of convenience in bypassing the extra time and cost that needs to be invested to bring members of a global team together to one location, and for day-to-day work this is a very good thing. But once again the travel time (days, in my case!) and expense was well worth it for this opportunity to meet up offline.
Homecoming & Looking Back
Anna: For me, this WordCamp Europe was truly special. Not only because it was held in Poland – my home country – allowing me to reconnect with so many familiar faces, but also because it marked a major milestone. Exactly one year ago, I attended my very first WordCamp, which was also held right here in Kraków.
Back then, BerryPress had just launched, and we were actively looking for our very first team members. Our website wasn’t even showing up on Google yet, and we only had a handful of products to our name.
Fast forward to today: BerryPress is a team of seven. Most of our team members were able to meet up at this WordCamp, and I am incredibly thankful to everyone who was able to attend. Having a multi-national, remote team scattered across different corners of the world makes moments like this even more special. Bringing everyone into one place makes us realize how much stronger we are together – and it makes our bond feel more like friends than just a business.
Over the past twelve months, we’ve expanded our product portfolio, grown through both native development and strategic acquisitions, and built a rock-solid foundation for the future. On a personal note, over this last year alone, I’ve attended five WordCamps, spoken at one of them, and learned more than I ever expected.
And believe me, for an introverted person, that was truly stepping far outside my comfort zone – and I regret absolutely nothing!
True Spirit of Community
Anna: This year, joining Jonathan on the Plugin Review Team for my first Contributor Day was an incredible feeling. But some of the most profound moments happened during casual conversations in the hallways.
We had valuable chats with plugin developers and product owners that helped us validate our future roadmap. We actually learned that a few features we were considering building will likely become native parts of WordPress or WooCommerce in the future. As any product owner could tell you, knowing what not to build can be just as valuable as knowing what to build.
Another favorite moment perfectly captured what makes this community so unique. For months, we had been struggling with a stubborn technical issue with a payment method in our plugins store. During the event, a few brilliant developers sat down with us, helped investigate the problem, and together we found a solution. It’s finally fixed now! Sometimes the absolute best part of WordCamp isn’t a scheduled talk – it’s the selfless people willing to grab a laptop and help a peer out.
Jonathan: The first event of WordCamp for Anna and I started bright and early on Thursday after only a few hours of sleep following my arrival at the Kraków airport. For the first time, we joined Contributor Day to experience giving back to WordPress in a new way. Besides having fun working with other members of the community (“fun” is another recurring theme when describing my experience at WordCamp Europe!), it was great to see the work that the Plugin Review Team does to help ensure that plugins in the plugin directory (including our own!) are secure and compliant. Thank you!
More members of the team joined us for one or both of the main days of WordCamp, Friday and Saturday. It’s pretty much impossible to fit in everything that WordCamp has to offer in only two days: talks, meetings, networking, exploring sponsors, good food, and hanging out as a team. For us, this WordCamp turned out to be less focused on attending lots of talks and more on the “people” part of the event. After all, missed talks can be viewed online later (even as I’ve been traveling, Anna has been catching up on WordPress.tv!), but there is no good substitute for missed in-person connections.
We spent lots of time enjoying the outdoor seating area in the mostly dry weather, wandering the sponsor areas checking out what others in the WordPress space are up to (and collecting swag, of course!), and having both impromptu chats and scheduled meetings.
Our Top 3 Talks
Anna: With our schedules packed with networking and team meetups, sitting down for talks was a luxury. However, there was one presentation I absolutely made sure to catch live in person, and two others that I couldn’t wait to deep dive into once I got back home and the official videos dropped online:
“Why WooCommerce Loves Its Competitors“ by Rodolfo Melogli – We watched this one live, and it was pure gold. Rodolfo used a brilliant cake metaphor: competitors don’t steal your slice – they grow the entire market. He showed that competition validates demand, drives product specialization, and acts like a free R&D department where the whole ecosystem learns from the winners. Even giants like Shopify help by raising the bar and pushing everyone to innovate.
“Two Worlds Collide: WordPress at CERN“ by Joachim Valdemar Yde & Francisco Borges Aurindo Barros – A case study on why CERN is migrating over 1,000 websites from Drupal to WordPress. They explained how they bridge engineering standards with user needs, managing infrastructure via Kubernetes and automated updates. They also shared how their custom migration tool automatically translates Drupal data directly into Gutenberg blocks.
“Nobody Knows What You Know (and That’s Your Problem)“ by Vassilena Valchanova – A guide on how tech experts and freelancers can build personal brands by sharing knowledge. Vasilena explained how to define your audience, find unique content angles, and use AI as a strategic sparring partner rather than a shortcut for generic text. She emphasized that personal branding is an act of generosity that connects your ideas with the right people.
The Next Generation: WP Credits Program
Anna: Another part of WordCamp Europe that blew me away was watching students showcase their work through the WordPress Credits program. Seeing what these young minds built in just a few months was incredibly inspiring. But what happens behind the scenes is even better – this initiative gives them a taste of real-world professional culture, teamwork, and problem-solving.
It also tackles a massive disconnect in our industry. While universities often rely on outdated curriculums, leaving students without practical, hands-on experience, the WordPress ecosystem is absolutely thriving. In fact, as Ivana Ćirković pointed out in her insightful talk (backed by WP Bakery), there are currently over 700,000 open roles waiting to be filled globally.
People often ask how to get started with WordPress. For me, that journey began back in high school with a simple project to market my home city. I truly believe that’s still the absolute best way to start – through raw experimentation, making mistakes, and building things just for the fun of it.
The WP Credits program perfectly captures that exact spirit. It proves you don’t need a heavy IT degree to build for the web. WordPress is, at its core, community-driven, and a massive part of our ecosystem thrives on non-technical talent: designers, writers, translators, and creators.
After Hours
Jonathan: When you only see each other in person every year or so, every minute counts. Plus, it’s not possible to control the time of day that inspiration strikes. So the evening of each day after WordCamp extended well into the early hours of the next morning, including time spent at after parties and back at our shared accommodation. Technically they were long work days followed by short nights, but to me they didn’t feel like work at all – instead, the days and nights flew by, fueled by caffeine, excitement, and love for the work we do and who we do it with.
Our “after hours” extended to “after days” as four of us (myself, Anna, Kacper, and Selena) spent a few more days working and playing together (including starting a spontaneous project we can’t wait to share!). The lines between work and play were often very blurry!
Looking Ahead
Jonathan: Eventually everything comes to an end, and so did our time together in southern Poland. Though that time didn’t feel nearly long enough, I’m returning home with new ideas, exciting plans, and anticipation for what lies ahead for BerryPress, shared with Anna and the team left behind. We look forward to sharing the benefits of our time together with you in the form of new products, enhanced features, and new energy for fighting the never ending army of bugs!
Anna: We came back from this year’s event with not just memories, but a clear, actionable vision for our next chapter. Our time at WordCamp, combined with the inspiration from the sessions and talks, left us highly motivated. We came home ready to dive in. We can’t wait to show you what we will build next!
See you at the next WordCamp! We look forward to picking up where we left off next April for WordCamp Kraków 2027.
Want to stay in the loop on what we’re up to? Join the BerryPress community on Facebook or subscribe to the newsletter below.