We just attended Wordcamp Asia and did we love it! Here’s a quick summary of the event and what we loved.

The first-ever regional WordCamp for Asia, WordCamp Asia 2023, took place on February 17-19, 2023, in Bangkok Thailand. The event was held at the True Icon hall in the Iconsiam shopping mall and entertainment complex, and attracted a total of 1,299 attendees, including designers, developers, bloggers, business owners, and other WordPress enthusiasts from around the world. The event featured three speaking tracks, with 60 speakers sharing their knowledge and experience on a wide variety of WordPress topics, including design, business, marketing, and technical topics such as security and coding. In addition to the speaking tracks, the event also included a Contributor Day, and was supported by large array of sponsors, resulting in a great expo area where attendees could learn about the latest tools, products, and services related to WordPress, and collect a lot of free swag! Including t-shirts, stickers, and other merchandise from the sponsors.

Keynote

The keynote speaker at WordCamp Asia 2023 was Matt Mullenweg, the co-founder of WordPress and the CEO of Automattic. Unfortunately, Matt wasn’t able to attend in person due to family circumstances, but he held an AMA via a video linkup. The video had a few hiccups, but the content of the keynote was insightful and thought-provoking. Matt discussed the importance of embracing new technologies such as artificial intelligence tools, particularly the Chat GPT, which he thinks will become increasingly important in the future of WordPress. He talked about how these tools can improve the user experience for WordPress users and enhance productivity of creators and developers, and spoke about how he had seen an entire WordPress plug in written with Chat GPT. Matt also spoke about his initiative, “Five for the Future,” which encourages individuals and companies to spend 5% of their time and resources to contribute to open-source projects such as WordPress. He emphasised the importance of ensuring the long-term viability of open-source projects, and how everyone in the WordPress community can contribute to this goal. Overall, Matt’s keynote was informative and thought-provoking, and provided attendees with valuable insights into the future of WordPress and open-source projects. Despite the technical hiccups, the video linkup allowed attendees to hear directly from Matt and engage with him through the AMA.

Highlights

The engaging speech on “How To Create A Content Machine,” presented by the talented Le-an Lai Lacaba. Le-an masterfully deconstructed the process of repurposing a single piece of content for various platforms such as YouTube, blog posts, carousels, and LinkedIn posts. Her genuine and open approach to sharing her remarkable journey to 10,000 YouTube subscribers and 36k TikTok followers within just two years was truly inspiring. The practical advice Le-an offered on managing content calendars and databases proved invaluable for everyone in the audience, leaving us all motivated and better prepared to launch our own content machines.

“Open Source and Large MarTech Stacks” by Karim Marucchi was another great talk.  As avid fans of integrating marketing systems into WordPress websites, we found the talk to be packed with valuable insights. Karim, the CEO of Crowd Favourite, shared real-life examples of how Open Source solutions and the WordPress platform have delivered more to clients by going beyond APIs and data integration. The talk gave us an incredible idea for a new product that we’ll be launching soon! Karim emphasised the growing need for digital solutions to collect data, interpret results, and enhance client experiences by seamlessly integrating with existing marketing workflows. He illustrated how WordPress serves as the Open Source “hub” that successfully works with the MarTech 8,500 Stack, shaping the future of Digital Experience Platforms, Omni-Channel, Agile CMS, and more.

“Optimizing Core Web Vitals for your WordPress website.” As a team that highly values website speed for improved usability and SEO rankings, we found Mashhood’s presentation to be particularly relevant and valuable. Mashhood emphasized the importance of not only having a fast website but also delivering an exceptional user experience to achieve higher conversion rates. He guided us through the world of Core Web Vitals, explaining their origins, implementation, and the steps we can take to enhance our websites for better user experiences. The insights shared by Mashhood Rastgar resonated with our focus on performance and usability, providing us with practical knowledge to further optimise our websites. His talk has undoubtedly inspired us to delve deeper into Core Web Vitals and ensure that our websites continue to excel in both speed and user experience.

Conclusion

WordCamp Asia 2023 was an invaluable experience that brought together a diverse group of WordPress enthusiasts. The event provided a platform for knowledge sharing, networking, and inspiration, with presentations covering various aspects of the WordPress ecosystem. The keynote by Matt Mullenweg, along with other standout talks, left a lasting impression on attendees, fuelling their passion for the platform and motivating them to contribute to its growth. As we reflect on the lessons learned, we look forward to applying these insights to our own projects and eagerly anticipate the next WordCamp Asia.