WordCamp Europe 2025 Organizers Share Insights

Michelle Frechette:
Welcome to WordPress events talk. Today we are meeting with organizers from WordCamp Europe 2025 and it’s my distinct pleasure to be here speaking with all of you. I purchased my flight and I purchased my hotel, so I will be there and I’m very, very excited to meet you all in Basel this year. So why don’t we kind of go around and say who we are, what you do with WordPress when you’re not organizing. Maybe tell us what you are doing as an organizer, so what your role is. And I’d love for people to know where in the world you are sitting today so they know how far you’re coming to be in Basel. So Ivelina, tell us where you’re located, what you do with WordPress and what your role is on the organizer team, please.

Ivelina Dimova:
Hi, I’m Ivelina Dimova. I’m currently in Portugal. I am a senior developer at awesome Motive outside of Webcam Europe and at WhatComp Europe. I am team lead of attendee services team where we basically assure that the attendees have good time. We are taking care of registration badges, childcare swag and many other little things. We are the people that respond to the contacts inbox. For Boot Camp Europe, we are issuing visa invite letters for everyone who is traveling to Europe from somewhere outside of the European Union. And I’ve been doing that for five years more or less now. And I think I’ve been to all the WordCamp Europe since the very first one. It’s my favorite event of the year.

Michelle Frechette:
Excellent. I love that. I have been to every WordCamp us, so I know how that feels to have that like badge of honor. Wendy, why don’t you tell us about you?

Wendie Huis in ‘t Veld:
Sure. My name is Wendie. I’m currently located in Eindhoven. That is also where I live. I am a pretty homebound person. My job is a product marketing specialist for One.com, a hosting company. I am the WordPress expert. So basically I work with sales and marketing teams to make sure that they describe the WordPress products correctly. And currently in WordCamp Europe, I am one of the team leads of the communications team together with Luca and we make sure that newsletters go out, social media posts, things on websites, all the good stuff that you all read and see. And we are this year starting to experiment with little videos on Instagram and on TikTok, so.

Michelle Frechette:
Oh, I have seen those. I have liked them every time I see them. So you’re doing a great job because I’m noticing all of the things you’re doing. I love it. How about you Valerie? Tell us about you.

Valérie Galassi:
Hi everybody, I’m Valerie, I’m French. I’m living in the southern France on the French Riviera in Nice. As a job, I’m a freelancer, I am a front end developer and I work with the WordPress since more than 10 years now and I contribute quite a lot with WordPress for organizing WordCamps, meetups and translation. And now I joined for the second time the WordCamp Europe and I’m part of the team volunteer team. I’m working with Francesco which who is the lead of the team. And now we have accepted all the volunteer, we had it on the slack and now we are going to give them some shifts to be organized for during the event.

Michelle Frechette:
Fantastic. Excellent. Val, over to you.

Val Vesa:
Hello ladies. Hello everyone. I have been doing social media since I don’t even want to admit how many years. So this is my job, my passion. My love and a huge hobby of mine has always been photography, even since high school. So this year also and so many other work in Europes and in the past I help organize the photography team. So that is the team that you will then thank for all those great shots that oh, remember this shot? Remember this shot? Remember this photo? We have about 20, 22 photographers this year approved and accepted into the team. We’ll also be playing with some videos, some stories, so most likely Wendy and her team will get a lot of content from us also live and also after the event.

And this year we will try to also have the photos of the previous day uploaded to Flickr the next morning so that we don’t wait two months to get, you know, the shots. A lot of investments have been made in gear, time processes. Many of the photographers are repeat photographers. I think we have about 10 or 12 of those, you know, previously with us so they know what needs to be done. And if I have an ask for everybody coming to the event is every time you see a photographer you can signalize, you know, with your hands, face, eyes, if you’re okay or not to be in the photo. Sometimes we just care so much for that shot that we don’t ask People for. Hey, could you. Because if we ask, you’re going to be in an unnatural position or oh my God, he’s going to take a photo now. But if you don’t see us doing it and then we show you the photo, you usually say, oh my God. That’S such a good photo of me.

Michelle Frechette:
And where are you? Where are you located?

Val Vesa:
I’m located in Transylvania, but as you can see, there’s no bite marks.

Michelle Frechette:
So you are the vampire. Since you have that before.

Val Vesa:
Well, I don’t know what to say. Let’s just leave it out for in the smoke.

Michelle Frechette:
Open for interpretation. That’s right.

Val Vesa:
Yes, yes.

Michelle Frechette:
And finally, Patricia. Last but not least, of course.

Patricia B:
Thank you, Michel. I’m Patricia. I’m in Geneva, Switzerland, in the French speaking part of Switzerland. I have been contributing to WordPress for many years now. At the start, only organizing Meetup local meetup in Geneva and then WorldCamps Geneva 1 and then the Swiss ones and now WorldCamp Europe. Besides organizing WordCamp Europe, I do a lot of other things in the mostly in the community team. Like I’m being an event supporter, which is a new name for WorstCamp Mentor. So I’m currently mentoring WordCamp in France, in Toulouse that is upcoming in May. I am also involved with the Gatherpress project to one day replace meetup for our local events. I help in the mentorship program. There will be a new version of that contributor mentorship program and I try to help in the fight for the future. And previously in the sustainability team. All these are projects that are dear to my heart. So that’s why I contribute that many hours to the project. Yeah, on my personal project I will not list them because there are too many on hold. But one is an aggregator for the news about open source CMSs of course, among which is WordPress because for many years I struggled to find all the news. You know, I need to have like an exhaustive list of everything for WordCamp Europe.

I’m in the local team. We applied as the Swiss community. So not all of us in the local team are in Basel itself. We are a team of five. Three are in Basel and then there is me, Michel in Lucerne and myself in Geneva. But we applied as the Swiss community. It has been a long time dream to apply for WordCamp Europe and we finally decided to do it. I think it was when we were in Porto in 22 and we said let’s think about it and Michel proposed Basel because it’s the best place in our opinion for welcoming you all. It’s a very nice small city, very walkable, very, very nice to visit. And you will see it will be amazing. In the local team, what we do is we take care of the stuff like the catering, the venue, all the contact with the city. And we had amazing support from the city Congress Board.

We also take care of the swag and that kind of thing. And also the social event. And social event is the event for speakers, organizers, volunteers and sponsors. Media partners on the Thursday will be in a very fine location that is only is a secret because it’s only for people who are invited. And yeah, we are helped in the local team by Production Pool, which is a company that helps for seven times now since it was in Belgrade in 2018. They are very much helping. And without Production Pool, that’s the company name, we would need to be at least 15 or 20 people in the local team and not five only because they do everything about the production of for example, sponsor booth and everything with the venue.

Michelle Frechette:
One of the things that as an attendee, especially as one of the media partners at past events as well, I sit and wait so carefully through the closing remarks. We’re all like waiting and I’ve got a tweet ready to go to say where it’s going to be next year. And I’m just waiting, waiting, waiting to see it come up on the screen. And last year in Torino, when it was announced it was going to be in Basel, I think we were all like, where’s Basel? Because it was like, wait, I know, Switzerland, but where is it in particular? And then the video that you had all created to introduce us to Basel was a wonderful way to introduce us to the thing, you know, to where we were going to be.

And then people started to turn to each other and say, but Switzerland is so expensive. But I found on your website that you can do Switzerland on a budget. I have discovered in booking my own hotel rooms that it’s no more expensive for the hotel there than it was in other places that we’ve been before. So I think some of that fear has been allayed by your team. And I appreciate so much the work that you’ve all put into that to make sure that it is something that everybody can attend. So I have some questions for you. But first I wanted to give my thanks. You will have Contributor Day, I assume that is the. That will be the first day and then the two. It’ll be the first day that we’re all there together. Correct. And how are you excited about this? I know we. Registration for Contributor Day isn’t open yet, so we don’t have numbers. But how many are you hoping to have at Contributor Day and what are you hoping that we will accomplish as a team together? Who wants to answer that? Wendy, can I talk to you first? I’ll ask you.

Wendie Huis in ‘t Veld:
Yeah. So what I know from Contributor Day is that we are hoping for 700 people. And what I am hoping, well, to be fair, I just want to be with the people. I know contributing is about contributing, but for me, Contributor Day is also about being with the people. And I do hope, like, I think most years we get some new people to onboard because that would be really nice if we get some new contributors and some people who have never considered contributing to be curious. So, yeah, I’m hoping for that.

Ivelina Dimova:
Yeah. About the Contributor Day, that’s a great reminder. That’s a separate registration from the actual ticket for the bootcamp. And it would be great if everyone who wants to join the Contributor Day goes in there and register with the same email that they bought the ticket, because otherwise it’s very hard to locate them. Some people register on both places with one personal email and another one with work email. So then we are trying to give them access to Contributor Day and we can’t find them. Same is valid for the workshops. So there is separate registration for the workshops where everyone needs to go and register so they can book their place.

Michelle Frechette:
I will tell you that I attended so many WordCamps until one day somebody said, you should come to Contributor Day. And I said, over. Well, I don’t. I’m not a coder what I contribute because I didn’t know early on that it’s every team and that you don’t have to be a developer or coder to contribute on Contributor Day. And since then, I’ve attended all the Contributor Days and become a table lead at very many WordCamps for the photography team, the photography group. And so there’s so many things. If you’re listening to this and you think, what could I possibly contribute? If you’re a photographer who’s taken good, you don’t even have to be professional. I’m not a professional. If you take good photos, come to the photos table. If you can speak more than one language, go to the polyglots table. And there’s so many things that you can do. There’s so many places and you can table hop.

Nobody says you have to stay in one place all day either, which is nice. And I know that if Milan is there, she will have her cookies and so she will Always win when it comes to table leads. I see that you have workshops this year and I think the workshops will be exciting. I think that’s one of the nice things that people have added, teams have added over the last, you know, several years, is to not just have different sessions to hear people talk, but workshops to help you move things forward and what you’re doing. But the workshops will run longer than a regular talk would. So if you look at the schedule on the website, which is europe.wordcamp.org 2025 and you look at the schedule, you’ll see that the workshops actually run over several periods, several different session talks. And so there’s more in depth. You can actually do a little bit more with what you’re doing. So you’re actually getting your hands into your websites and working that way, which I think is a great thing.

Ivelina Dimova:
Yes.

Wendie Huis in ‘t Veld:
Another good addition about the workshops is that it does require some preparation. So you will need to bring a computer and each workshop lists what requirements your computer needs to have. Those will be checked. So if you think, oh, well, whatever, I’m just going to see. Yeah, well, let’s. I mean, I think it’s better to be well prepared and to be honest about this. These requirements will be checked when you come to the workshop. If you’re, if you’re, if what you bring does not fit the requirements, the place will go to somebody else. Yes, workshops are super popular. It’s, it’s really nice because it’s an in depth option of learning something new that goes a bit further than just scraping the surface. So they’re really popular and we want people to get the most out of it.

Michelle Frechette:
So workshops and Contributor Day, you do need to register for. You’re just having your ticket is not enough. But you don’t have to register for particular sessions to hear talks. You can choose the day of, if you want to go back and forth between different talks. And so just so that people are clear that when you register, you’re not choosing which sessions you’re going to, unless of course, you’re hoping to get into a workshop, in which case please register in advance and make sure that you’re coming prepared for that. Absolutely. I also love to see when you have childcare available because sometimes it’s difficult for parents, either single parents or a team of parents who want to come and don’t want to leave their children back home with grandparents or paid babysitting. And so having childcare, I think is very important. Who could talk a little bit about what the age range is for childcare and what the expectations are for that. Ivelina Dimova?

Ivelina Dimova:
Yes, this also falls into my team responsibilities. So the child care this year is working for kids from 3 to 10 and will be working all the three days of the event. It’s a really amazing option. As a parent, I have two kids. I recently visited one of the webcams in Spain where I’m usually based, and they have childcare in all the work across Spain. So that was the favorite thing for my kids in this trip. They still ask when we’re going to go back to Madrid so we can go to the childcare of the vodka. So I’m super happy that we are able to offer this computer as well. There are already maybe six or seven kids registered in the past week or so that we opened the childcare. So I hope that this will allow more parents to join and to have a really fun day with their kids.

Michelle Frechette:
And childcare is free or is there a cost for that?

Ivelina Dimova:
Yeah, it is free.

Michelle Frechette:
It’s free, which is wonderful. But you do need to register in advance, correct? If you’re bringing your child?

Ivelina Dimova:
Yes. There is a form on the website where you can register your child and we’ll get this request and then forward it to the child care agency. There is a licensed child care agency that the local team organized. So they’ll come, they’ll prepare entertainment for the kids, different materials to do the puzzles.

Michelle Frechette:
We’ll make sure that we have all of these links on the show notes. So if you are listening to this, just go to our website or go to get the specific links. But you can find them all, of course on the WordCamp Europe site as well. And in case anybody’s curious, WordCamp Europe is in June. It’s coming up very quickly. June 5th through 7th, I think we haven’t mentioned that yet. Val, on the photography team, what are you excited to take photos of and are you hoping that other people will get involved in taking photos? Not necessarily officially as a team, but will there be opportunities that you will put together ideas for people to do photos and maybe submit some of them to the photo directory@WordPress.org as well?

Val Vesa: Yes, to all of that, but to go into a bit of a details, we don’t want to spoil any surprises we’re preparing. But yes, there will be at least one corner of something where people can go and take photos with the branded background of the work In Puro, we’ll have any photographer that goes around the building is trained and will be able to take a portrait. I have been doing this for a few years, you know, portraits of people at work and not necessarily just walking around the venue, but you can also sit down and you know, let’s say semi professional background that you can use then that photo for your LinkedIn profile. Or if you want to, you know, change your WordPress profile photo or something like that. Because people are more relaxed at an event than actually when they have to go for a photo shoot. Right? So we can get you in a position and in an attitude where you feel relaxed, you feel calm, you like the way you dress. You came there to be comfortable and not to be stressed about your tie or you know, some stuff like that.

Michelle Frechette:
Just brush your hair first, just.

Val Vesa:
If you have. But also it’s a very good reminder that there’s a lot of diversity at these events. So as photographers, as organizers of the photography team, we always make sure to remind photographers that they should make sure that everyone is included. Of course to be included you have to be there. So we cannot invent, you know, we’re not going to use AI or Photoshop to add people, but if you are there and if you’re not looking like us, you’re still going to be in the photos. And we want to make sure that we have everyone there. There will be a family photo as every year. So that, what that means is that literally everyone at the event—sponsors, participants, organizers, volunteers and so on—will be gathering in a pre-designated area to have a photo taken. I think in Porto, if I’m not mistaken, we had one taken from a crane in front of the building. So there’s, there’s a lot of, let’s say, inventive ways of getting people on that photo. And also to have in that photo the photographers, meaning one of them will have to go up, take the photo and then switch and then be back into the group. So maybe there will be a bit of a Photoshop in that specific photo, but other than that.

Yeah, anything that if you go to Flickr, for example, and you look up the WordCamp Europe or WordCamps for that matter, but we’re talking about WordCamp Europe now, you’ll see every year as the years progress, you know, some faces are always there, some are new faces. Every year we get new people and it’s always a delight for us because most likely we’re not going to know everyone by name. But because photographers have a very good visual memory, we do see faces. Oh, you’ve been here last year. Oh, you’ve been here two years ago. Something like that. And then what I found to be very, very emotional even was when people that you have known for years come and bring their kids or they, you know, young adults, then adults, because they grow and time passes and we all get older and older and then the new generation comes in. This is why I appreciate the fact that was talking about we have childcare so that you are not missing out just because you have kids. So you can come there and be with your children and, you know, have them enjoy this event. And then with parents’ approval, photographers will also make sure that is memorized on a photo. So, you know, I’ve been with my child to this WordCamp and here’s the photo. And you know, da, da, da. Again, you can use the photo or not, but we’re going to make sure that we take the photo so that it is captured.

Michelle Frechette:
Thank you. To the miracle of hair dye. I don’t get any older every year because my hair is not getting grayer. So it’s just not as purple this year. Let’s talk a little bit about the number. Oh, Patricia.

Patricia B:
Yes, yes. I just wanted to add something about what Val say. I absolutely love that photo, that group photo of everyone. So it’s very nice if everyone listens to when it is announced. So we have as many as possible people on that picture. And also I remember last year, Michel, yourself, you were just in front of the WCEU hashtag, you know, the big hashtag that is on stage. The Styrofoam. Or is that the word in English?

Michelle Frechette:
Yes.

Patricia B:
And if you want an anecdote about this, I carried them, those big letters in my big car from Torino to Geneva and I bring them to Basel, so we don’t redo it. It’s always full of wonderful memories and this big photo, even if we don’t see the people in the back, you know, of course, because. But it’s so nice and it bring me, you know, like goosebumps every time I look at those. Yes, same than the announcement video that you talked about. I often have goosebumps.

Michelle Frechette:
Yes.

Val Vesa:
The family photos are always a very good, or should I say memorizing asset because as I said, people get older, but also people pass away. And then sometimes we even remembered at WordCamps people who have been with us and unfortunately have passed on. And then because of the photos again. Because of all these teams of photographers running like crazy all over the hallways, the, you know, every room you can capture those moments of, oh, this person was here in 2019, 2022. And then, so, you know, let us help you memorize every moment of this. And then look back once you for some reason no longer are able to join. Okay, here are all the photos that sort of have my own track record of participation.

Michelle Frechette:
And one of the nice things about that photo is it’s not. I mean, my iPhone takes good photos, of course, but it’s professional equipment. So even if you are in the back, it’s high quality, you can zoom in and you can still recognize faces, which I think is a wonderful thing too, because our photography, it’s not a.

Val Vesa:
Specific camera, it’s the camera you have. On you that’s the best camera.

Michelle Frechette:
Exactly. But for a family photo that size, a professional camera helps a lot. For resolution, I will say. Yeah. But in general. Yeah. People ask me all the time, what’s the best camera? And I say the one in your hand. Absolutely. Let’s talk numbers a little bit. So traditionally, WordCamp Europe has been the biggest WordCamp every year for numbers. How many tickets have you sold so far? And it doesn’t have to be to the exact number if you haven’t checked today’s website, but. And how many are you budgeted for? So how many are we hoping to see arrive in Basel?

Ivelina Dimova:
So far we are around 10 tickets and we are hoping for 2,000 maximum. 2,200. Because we are so close to the event, it’s less than previous years, but we expected that with Switzerland, even if it’s possible to make it on the budget, it’s still more expensive than previous years. So we expected that it’s possible for some people not be able to afford to go to Switzerland. And of course there is still time to the event. So we’ll see what the final number will be this year.

Michelle Frechette:
Nice. And how many organizers are on the team this year?

Ivelina Dimova:
200 ish.

Patricia B:
80, I think. I think it’s 80 now.

Michelle Frechette:
That’s something.

Ivelina Dimova:
90 something if we have to be precise. But I don’t really know the exact number at the moment because across the years some people decided to start step down because of various reasons. Some people joined or changed positions in the team.

Patricia B:
Can I jump in about the prices in Switzerland? Yeah, actually in Europe there has been high inflation in some of the neighboring countries and Switzerland, which was already higher, didn’t see that inflation that much. So it’s more balanced now. But as you said Michel, about the hotel price, if you look at Torino last year, it’s about similar. The food in Hora cafe outside is a bit more expensive, but overall it’s if you come to Europe, it would be just a little bit more but not like double or three times the price of all your world travel. And also it’s called the heart of Europe. It’s very easy to come by train from France, Germany from it’s really centrally located. So it’s very easy to come by train. And there is an airport as well with a lot of low cost airlines. I loved Porto and Athens, but it’s like at the corner of Europe you fly here, you can go by train or by car is here. I say by car, but Basel is best not to go with car. By the way, it’s a very walkable city. But yeah, that’s all what I wanted to say about the prices in Switzerland. I know the reputation, but it’s not always. It’s more nuanced than that. And there’s been other factors that make that maybe we have less attendees, maybe less. Also volunteers. And maybe Valerie can talk about volunteers. Also other factors this year that made some of the numbers a bit lower.

Michelle Frechette:
When you talk about transportation, I have to mention that I have seen video and heard talk of people in Basel traveling to work by getting in the river and floating down the river. And at first I thought this might be a hoax and that they’re trying to make people like me believe that. But it is true. But that’s not how we have to arrive at WordCamp, is that correct? We don’t have to swim to WordCamp to get there.

Patricia B:
You don’t have to. But it’s a very nice, enjoyable activity that a lot of people in Basel do. And some even go to work like that because they have waterproof bag. You put all your clothes in and it’s very popular. You can see less. We were last August for One of the organizer visits there and you see so many people in the water. It’s very popular activity. Yes.

Val Vesa:
When it’s hot outside.

Patricia B:
It was even in the. You could see it in the announcement video that you were talking about.

Michelle Frechette:
Bring you some suit.

Val Vesa:
Yeah.

Val Vesa:
We only do this when it’s hot outside.

Wendie Huis in ‘t Veld:
Yeah. But to be fair, WordCamp Europe has not been knotholed in years.

Michelle Frechette:
Yes. Yes. It’s summertime.

Wendie Huis in ‘t Veld:
When Word Computer is happening. Where Word Computer is happening.

Michelle Frechette:
So when you get.

Val Vesa:
There’s going to be a lot of ice cream used.

Michelle Frechette:
You can buy the waterproof bag and you can put your laptop and everything in it and you can go to WordCamp in the river if you would.

Wendie Huis in ‘t Veld:
Like to drop in the Rhine and float away.

Michelle Frechette:
That’s right. So Valerie, can you talk a little bit about the volunteers then?

Val Vesa:
Yes.

Valérie Galassi:
From volunteer’s team. It’s true that this year we have a little less applications, but now I think we’re going to make it with all the people we have. And volunteer is a very helpful shift during the event because they will help everybody to have a very good event. We have some people from everywhere, from India, from France, from us, from Canada, from everywhere. And it’s a very nice task to do on the event. And I said before we onboarded them on the slack and we are going to give them some shifts. And now because at the beginning of the organization of the Word camp it’s not. We have not too much work. But then at one moment everything is. We have a lot of work now because we are very close to the event. So now it’s a bit more hard to do. But we are a very good team. We are very flexible. We help ourselves during all the day. If someone is missing, someone else is taking the task. So I hope all the people who need visa will have their visa. That’s a question that is very hard for us to manage because we don’t know immediately if they have their visa or not. There are so many, many tasks to do. There are so many shifts. The most wanted is to. To be at the registration desk in the morning and all during the day. And the swag desk is. Everyone wants to do that. And we have some also people who can be MCs to welcome the speakers during the conference. And these are the three task chiefs. They want a lot.

Ivelina Dimova:
So we are trying to make it easy and smooth and no one needs to wait. So if we have enough volunteers and they’re excited to get up on one hour earlier, that would be great.

Michelle Frechette:
That’s even Better now one of the.

Val Vesa:
First faces you see. So you know that’s the first impression. As you come for illustration.

Michelle Frechette:
So happy people is a good thing.

Patricia B:
Before to be an organizer. I have been four times a volunteer and it’s true that I always wanted to be at registration. I remember I harassed quote unquote the organizers of the attendees team. I want this one of the volunteer team, sorry to say. I absolutely want this role because yeah, I love to see the people coming in and I think it’s a very pleasant role for volunteers. So we see everyone, we get hugs.

Ivelina Dimova:
Yeah.

Patricia B:
I just want to mention that before to be an organizer for two years I have been four times a volunteer and. And it’s true that this registration task is a very pleasant one and I remember harassing the volunteer teams of previous years. I want to do that, I want to do that. So yeah, it’s very nice because you know, you see all the people coming in, you get the hugs from your like long distance friends. And yeah, this year also I have my 18 years old son who is going to be a volunteer and I told him about the registration and to grab it before the other volunteer. Yeah, I mean it’s a very popular one and I understand why because I love it as well.

Michelle Frechette:
Absolutely. It’s the one where everybody sees your smiling face and they feel welcomed. So it’s, it’s very coveted as we would say. For sure. In past years there have been questions about accessibility, especially from me because I use a mobility device. This year I haven’t been asked anything personally, which tells me that you all have it under control, that I will have no problems getting around at all. So I wanted to make sure that if people are also coming with wheelchairs and crutches and whatever issues they may have that you are all prepared to help people who may have disabilities as far as accessibility. So maybe you have more information that you can add. Ivelina Dimova.

Ivelina Dimova:
Yeah, yeah. As Mario I know the venue is accessible. It’s one of the biggest congress centers. But I think that actually Patricia can add more information because she’s been there the most of us has only been once for the venue visit and that’s as much as I know at this point.

Patricia B:
Yes, it’s important for that venue and that venue is a congress center and accessibility as well as sustainability, important topic for them. There is information on that on the congress center website and post is going to be published by our comms team here.

Wendie Huis in ‘t Veld:
Yes, we are working on it. I am working on it.

Patricia B:
So basically there is nothing to worry for you, Michel. And it’s true that you might want information before. So this is going to come. And yeah, this venue is used to big events anyway, and this is addressed.

Michelle Frechette:
And when I tell you that I don’t worry, I mean it. I have. I don’t worry anymore because I know that everybody is thinking about those things, especially since everybody knows me, they think about, oh, if Michelle’s going to be there, we need to make sure she can get in the building, for example.

Wendie Huis in ‘t Veld:
And use the bathroom with the team during the venue visit. Checking especially for accessibility issues. There are elevators everywhere. The pathways are quite wide. The city is not the most accessible per se, but I’m used to that. Very good.

Valérie Galassi:
If I can add something, we have also shifts for volunteers who will help people with the accessibility. So we have shifts for that also.

Michelle Frechette:
I’m very, very happy to hear all of that. I wasn’t concerned myself, but I want to make sure that other people who may have mobility issues especially are aware of the fact that you’ve all thought about those things in advance. So I appreciate that very much. My last question to all of you is, well, it’s two parts. First, what are you most looking forward to at WordCamp Europe? And second, how long will your vacation be after WordCamp Europe because you have done so much work? Valerie, you first. What are you most looking forward to?

Valérie Galassi:
What I really like the most in work camp is that I can meet all my friends all around the world. And also because you can meet also some speakers very famous in the WordPress community. Not only speakers, but people like you, Michel, because I’m following you everywhere. And I will come a day or two days before the WordCamp to have some fun. And actually, when I go to WorldCamp Europe, I can visit some very nice countries like Athens, Porto and everywhere. So that’s. That’s a good package.

Michelle Frechette:
Perfect. And Patricia, what are you most looking forward to?

Patricia B:
The hugs. Same as Valerie said, there are people that we see only once a year, you know, and to see those long distance friends, it’s always such a joy. And you were asking, where will you go to early days. But actually, even if we work a lot, for me, I, I look forward to Word Camp Europe every year. Like, I, I should look forward for my family holidays, you know.

Michelle Frechette:
Yes.

Patricia B:
It’s like, yeah, counting days and stuff.

Michelle Frechette:
Val.

Val Vesa:
Well, I’m not gonna break the, you know, fun here and I’m just gonna say people as well. But yeah, I even spoke with some of my friends that I have met during WordCamps, and I think I was actually doing a statistics of my own, and I think about 40%, which is a lot of my friends, my lifetime friends, have been sort of popping up out of WordCamps, various WordCamps. People that you just meet and you shake hands and then you hug and then you sit down and then you have meals and then have another meal. And then you talk about life, you talk about kids, then you talk about family. And sometimes you end up having business together, sometimes you have projects, sometimes mergers happen, sometimes, oh, we have the same idea. You have the same idea. Let’s do a startup together.

So coming to a WordCamp, in my view, is not just going to an event, but is actually being part of a much larger family. And I know some people are afraid of naming family and, you know, feeling like a family, all these things, but when it feels like that you have to say it as it is, you can’t just fake it. And some of those conversations that you can just pick up where you left it a year before. And it’s like I’ve just gone out to get some water and come back. And it’s actually, it’s been a year. And then meeting new people. And I said, my biggest drive is to see the younger generation coming into the community. There’s a lot of us there. You know, I’m not going to say numbers, but let’s say older. And I want to see much, much younger people coming in and filling those spots and being excited about the community. It’s not just being excited about the code, because as you said, Michelle, not everyone is a coder. I’m not a coder, I’m not a developer.

I may understand some parts of some code in the View Source if I go in the browser, but if I speak more languages, I will definitely be sitting at the polyglot table and contribute today. And if my language has plugins that I use on WordPress that are not translated already, I will do that because I want to make sure Romanians, I want to make sure Germans, I want to make sure, you know, all these other people that are not only English, because, you know, by default all of the plugins and themes and so on are written directly into English. Even that, if you do that, if your goal is, I want to go there and I’m going to take the, I don’t know, the Yoast plugin, I’m going to take the whatever plugin you want, Gravity Forms, and I’m going to translate it into my language because it’s not already or because it’s insufficient. Maybe they have only a few lines translated.

Michelle Frechette:
Right.

Val Vesa:
And do that. And that’s going to be a huge. Help to anybody else coming after you. Trying to use that same plugin and maybe not being very savvy at knowing English or, you know, whatever other languages they have already.

Patricia B:
Val mentioned making friends and maybe meeting potential business partners. But I know a lovely story and because there are organizers and it’s a public story, so I can tell Marseille, they met at the word camp. Not worth camp here, but World Camp Poland, they met at a word camp, they fell in love and they got married. So that’s such a lovely story. And they are both organizers with us this year. So I would just want to story.

Michelle Frechette:
So maybe one of the sessions we will have speed dating. So maybe I’ll find a partner. I’m kidding. Ivelina Dimova, what are you looking forward to?

Ivelina Dimova:
Well, same seeing the people. It’s been so many years since that very first World camp European Light in Netherlands, which sparked the idea. And it was so exciting to see everyone. And then we kept the tradition of doing it every year, meeting the same friends. Really, there’s people that you see once a year. And I’m really looking forward to that. And on the vacation part of the question, I’ll probably do the same thing that I did for the venue visit and I really recommend it. Go to Italy instead of directly to Switzerland and take the train to the Alps. And that’s really beautiful. I saw it once in the winter and I’m really looking forward to seeing how beautiful it is now in the summer.

Michelle Frechette:
That sounds beautiful. And Wendy, what are you looking forward to?

Wendie Huis in ‘t Veld:
So, of course the people. But also there is one place I get to dance every year and that is the after party at Wear Camp Europe. So looking forward to that as well. Already practicing my dance moves, just so you know. And I am driving to Basel because it was really complicated to get there by plane. And my car just got a, like a big upgrade. I have a very old car and it got a big upgrade. And my dad said it will take you for 10 years and you can take it anywhere. And I was like, interesting.

Michelle Frechette:
Let’s test that theory.

Wendie Huis in ‘t Veld:
I’m gonna do a little road trip. It’s not that far. It’s six hours from where I live to Basel. But yeah, maybe a day or two to get there and then just have a little adventure on the way.

Michelle Frechette:
So, yeah, and I’m going to say I’m looking forward to the food because I. It’s the people. It’s really the people, but also the food and the coffee. I like experiencing coffee all over the world. I didn’t even start drinking coffee Till I was 48 years old and now I love coffee. So there you go. I look forward to the coffee. I’m looking forward to the food very much. I love experiencing food all over the world and discovering new flavors and things that I love. And maybe chocolate. I think the Swiss are known for chocolate as well, so I might have to bring some of that home for my family when I come home.

Well, I want to thank everybody for joining us today. Ivelina Dimova, Wendy, Val, Patricia, and Valerie, thank you for being here. I will also say that if you are coming to WordCamp Europe, make sure you hit the vendor hall as well. The sponsors are what really drive and keep those prices down. So it’s only €50 to attend this year and the reason is that we have all of the sponsorships that help with that. And speaking of sponsors, do the Woo will have a booth at WordCamp Europe this year in the vendor hall. So make sure you stop by to see Bob Dunn and there should be many of us who are also hosts that for the different shows. And we will look forward to seeing you there as well. So thank you all for being here today and talking to us about this upcoming amazing event.