Published on by Ant Miller, Director of Client Engagement
The inaugural WordCamp Asia was held in Bangkok Thailand from the 17th to the 19th of February 2023. Crowd Favorite sent myself (Ant) and Karim to represent Crowd Favorite on this stage. It was an intense event, with innumerable meetings with peers from across the industry. Including many fascinating talks, side events, and of course Karim on stage presenting our vision for WordPress as a lynchpin for Enterprise digital infrastructure. Let me take you along on our journey and share some highlights of WordCamp 2023.
Future: The Enterprise Gap
The days leading up to a WordCamp are great opportunities to connect with members of this community and get together for side events. One such event is the WordPress Enterprise Gap. A panel discussion focused on Enterprise Brands, and how digital experiences for their customers can be improved and supported by embracing the power of Open Source. Organized by HumanMade, the speakers included:
- Ivan Kirstiano, Senior Engineer, Human Made. GDE, Web Technology
Topic: Google-docs-like collaborative editing in WordPress - Karim Marucchi, CEO, Crowd Favorite
Topic: The DXP Enterprise Gap - Miriam Schwab, Head of WordPress Relations, Elementor
Topic: Enterprise Expectations: meeting & exceeding the expectations of Enterprise with WordPress - Stéphane Boisvert, VP Engineering, XWP
Topic: The Privacy Revolution and its Impact on the Enterprise
Following the lightning talks, is a panel with top Enterprise WordPress Agency leaders to discuss "The Challenges of WordPress in the Enterprise Space."
The audience consisted of agencies and hosting companies with significant Enterprise engagement. With conversations around what is next for large brands and how agencies are rising to the challenge in this space. Highlighting the collaboration and importance of this event was Karim’s final assessment. Focusing on how collaboration between the enterprise facing agencies, hosting, and product firms is essential for continued growth.
A special thank you to Petya Raykovska for her input to the event! She organized, emceed, and chaired the panel. Then the next day ran the translation group table and then the next day did a talk at WordCamp Asia 2023.
Sharing Ideas & Learning Together
The core concept of WordCamps is to bring everyone together to participate, share ideas and get to know each other. WordCamp Asia was no exception, the two full days of talks were phenomenal. In addition to Crowd Favorite’s CEO, Karim Marucchi being a speaker, I had the opportunity to emcee several amazing sessions. Let’s take a quick look at just a few of the amazing speakers from WordCamp Asia.
Karim Marucchi
Karim brings his expertise and knowledge to help brands with their digital transformations. And at WordCamp Asia, he delivered that information to those that are leading change in Open Source. The talk was great and the Q&A session was superb too. Check out the full video, with introduction by Robert Windisch, CIO, Inpsyde, and supportive contributions from Noel Tock, Owner & Chief Growth Officer of Human Made.
Petya Raykovska
Leading with Cultural Intelligence:
Strategies for breaking the invisible boundaries of global business.
This was a great talk from Petya exploring specific scientifically defined dimensions of cultural difference that can be usefully explored to improve the way colleagues from across different cultures can work together. As a remote company, Crowd Favorite’s team come from a range of cultures, and this talk shows a great framework for engaging with that difference, celebrating it, and working to give us all a great experience. Loved it!
Topher DeRosia
If you need reminding about how amazing the WordPress and Open Source Community can be, this is the talk for you. Topher has great energy and does a lot of good for the community – he’s almost the storyteller in chief, the keeper of the tales.
Carl Alexander
A look at serverless WordPress
There was a bit of buzz leading up to this talk, and Carl delivered. You will learn so much in these 40 minutes, even if you are not well versed in backend systems or a developer. It is well worth it!
Raushan Jaiswal
WordPress Marketing: How to Leverage Digital Marketing to Increase Sales
This was a really well put together talk on the basics and even some good strategic elements on a few key areas of digital marketing. It was a real pleasure to meet Raushan, to learn his story, and to emcee his talk.
WordCamp Asia 2023 had three tracks of content for two full days! It was an impressive lineup of speakers and topics. Be sure to check out Matt Mullenweg, CEO, Automattic - WordCamp Asia 2023 Live Q&A.
To see the full event and videos of all the talks:
Making Connections at WordCamp
WordCamps are a great opportunity to connect with the Open Source and WordPress community, a place to see friends and make new ones. Whether it is volunteering at the Contributor Day, attending the pre/post events, or catching up with people between talks, WordCamp Asia 2023 proved to be successful for engaging with others. Here are some of the highlights of WordCamp Asia 2023:
Thank you to everyone we got to spend time together.
Elementor Crew: Ariel Klikstein, CTO and CoFounder and Eran Alon, VP Business Strategy it was great to grab lunch together. And thanks to Myles Lagolago-Craig, CEO, and Francesca Marano, Director of Engineering Learning and Growth, XWP thanks for your company at dinner. The WP Engine social event on the rooftop bar was quite a view and allowed great conversations with Johnny Harris and Taco Verdonschot!
The always welcoming Yoast team, Thijs de Valk, CEO, Chaya Oosterbroek, COO, and Taco Verdonschot, Head of Relations, and their team. Inpsyde team who always brightens up the event with their charismatic energy and signature neon green shirts. Robert Windisch, CIO, thank you for your emcee skills introducing Karim for his talk. Great to connect again with the Gravity Forms team and Travis Lopes, Founder. Special thanks to Carl Alexander, Alberto Medina, Thijs de Valk and Alex Frison for your conversations at the after parties.
Whether it is grabbing a quick bite to eat or catching up between talks, it is always a pleasure to be with the amazing members of the WordPress Community.
And last but never least,
Thank you WordCamp Asia 2023
Thank you to all of the volunteers, contributors, agencies, attendees, speakers, and sponsors for making this inaugural event so amazing. To see all of the fun and memories captured by the community check out the WordCamp Asia 2023- Public Photo Album.
To learn more about how Crowd Favorite provides Open Source Digital Solutions for the Enterprise, or chat about your project, contact us here!
