I was at WordCamp Gliwice 2023

I had the pleasure of being a speaker at WordCamp Gliwice. Was it a bit stressful - yes, was it amazing - also yes.

Gliwice

I have never been to Gliwice before, so I was interested in the city. And I must say it surprised me very positively - especially with how green it was and with the amazing coffee place called Kafo. Sadly I didn't have too much time to walk around more, but next time for sure, I will. It's another case when a Polish WordCamp motivates me to see a city I wasn't planning to visit.

What I loved

Most of all, I enjoyed meeting all my friends. And while WordCamps are great for learning new things, having a chance to hug everyone is much more important. Does this mean that WordCamp is just a social event? Far from it. I had many talks about WordPress's future, headless architecture, WP in a browser (AKA WordPress playground), how bumpy the road to becoming a developer can be, and many more.

I also was proud to see that many things we introduced during WordCamp Łódź were also used here. This means that in 2019 we made some good decisions after all 😄

My favorite talks?

WordPress without a server by Adam Zieliński. WordPress Playground is a fantastic tool. So it would still be impressive even if Adam would go in front of the room, show it, and didn't speak a word. But he explained really well why Playground is such a helpful tool. I also agree with how he started - "WordPress is difficult".

I also enjoyed the presentation by Krzysztof Dyszczyk about AI. He did a great job summarizing the current AI state and how it will affect us.

It was the first time on stage for Adam Kanigowski. He decided to talk about my favorite JS framework - Astro. And while it was visible, he was a bit nervous, he did a fantastic job pointing out why using Astro with WordPress is a great choice.

And last but not least - Bartek Nowak explained why Juniper (a starter theme used at Osom Studio) is a great way to start your WordPress project. I'm proud to see how Bartek evolved - we worked together at Osom Studio.

I also enjoyed being on the stage. I had both workshops about Astro and a presentation about headless WordPress. I'm pleased with how both of them went. I am also delighted with the fact that many people are trying new approaches to WordPress.

What I liked a bit less

Coffee sucked 😄 But I was prepared for this, and together with Maciek Swoboda, we found a workaround for the future.

But seriously, there were too many marketing-related talks for me. The first day was dominated by it. I'm not saying it isn't good, though. I think it's great that the organizers decided to try it. Based on the survey, we'll know whether it was a good try.

The second thing I didn't like was the Q&A at the end of the day. While we introduced this in Łódź, I think having a Q&A after each block (3-4 talks) would be better.

Key takeaways

It was Lovely, Amazing, Great, Incredible, Fantastic, Superb, Wonderful, Excellent, Splendid, Terrific, Fabulous, Magnificent, and Stunning. Really it was. I mentioned earlier this year that I would spend more time outside of WordPress, but I still love all the people here and don't want to miss any chance of meeting them.

See you next year in Wrocław - I'm already thinking about my presentation topic.

I also want to thank Kinsta (the fantastic place I work at) for helping me with everything I needed for my talk and workshops.