It’s WooSesh 2024

BobWP:
Hey, BobWP here, and welcome to WordPress Event Talk, a Do the Woo podcast show, and we are back. It’s that time of the year when it’s WooSesh time, and I thought I would bring in Brian Richards—oh, everybody behind the scenes and in front of the scenes as well. He’s just a jack-of-all-trades and has been putting this on for some time. Welcome, Brian.

Brian:
Well, thank you very much, Bob. It is a joy to be here on what I consider to be the greatest, if not the only, outlet for WooCommerce.

BobWP:
Thank you.

Brian:
Thank you. Kudos to you for building such a huge, I guess, media arm with all of the hosts and all of the different shows. It’s fantastic. Hard to keep up with at times, in fact, because there’s so much going on.

BobWP:
Yeah, yeah, it is. I know. We were just struggling with time zones, and that’s another thing that comes with the territory.

Brian:
Yeah, time zones are a constant struggle.

BobWP:
Yeah. So WooSesh is coming up on the 29th and 30th of this month. Why don’t you give an intro for those who may not know what WooSesh is—maybe a bit of history and what it’s all about?

Brian:
Yeah, I would love to. WooSesh is the flagship virtual conference for people who work with WooCommerce. Whether you are a WooCommerce store owner, an agency or independent building stores for others, or an in-house developer working on a WooCommerce store, this event is for you. I imagine there’s 100% overlap between people listening to this podcast and those who would want to attend WooSesh. It’s a 100% virtual and free-to-attend event. Officially, it’s live on October 29th and 30th of 2024. It’s always in October, and every session is recorded. If you miss the live broadcast, which is likely if you’re outside of a convenient time zone, you can watch the recordings afterward for a full week before they become members-only videos on WPSessions.com.

The broadcast this year will be from noon to five Eastern Time, which is four hours behind UTC. Conveniently, the website, if you go to WooSesh.com, translates all schedules, times, and dates to your local time zone. So there’s no confusion about when things are happening. This is the eighth installment, and it’s been a ton of fun to host every year. Each year, we open with a keynote from the WooCommerce team, where they share what’s happened over the last year and where WooCommerce is heading. Often, they announce or reveal a fun surprise, which I love. I’m just as surprised as everyone else when they do that. I also try to find interesting voices and case studies from around the globe showcasing novel ways of using WooCommerce. This year, as we get into the schedule, there’s no shortage of that—lots of cool stuff happening all the time.

BobWP:
So eight years, wow, time flies. I just expect it every October now—very cool. Let’s touch on the schedule because I was looking at everyone on it, and while I don’t know all of them, I do know a good amount. Is there an underlying theme, or can you encapsulate it?

Brian:
I can. There’s a very loose but distinct theme this year: exceptional customer experience. It may sound narrow, but as you unpack it, it can touch literally every aspect. Store owners talk about delivering customer experience to their shoppers, product managers discuss how they improve customer experience for those using their product, and customer experience happens in various places—security, privacy, delightful interactions, animations, checkout flow improvements, and UI choices.

BobWP:
I think it’s interesting how a topic like that seems narrow but is actually broad when you look at all the different pieces. As you said, visuals, animations, and even something like checkout flows all affect customer experience. Now that you’ve said it, I’m going to go back through and look at everything again—it totally makes sense. Very cool.

Brian:
Yeah.

BobWP:
So, two days packed with that. What happens at the end of each day? Is there something special?

Brian:
As a matter of fact, yes! Each day concludes with a live Do the Woo broadcast where we recap all the sessions. On day one, we often focus on what the Woo team announced in their keynote. We’ll occasionally invite speakers to join us. On day two, we recap everything from that day and the whole event, plus we announce the winners of the Seshie Awards—community-driven awards that started last year. I’ve been wanting to do them for years, and it took me six full years to convince myself that it’s okay. I have the authority to run these awards because I can gather enough people to nominate and vote on winners.

For those listening, nominations close on Monday, October 21st, and voting runs through October 29th. On day two of WooSesh, we’ll announce winners for categories like best store, best extension, best developer, best agency, and most innovative use of WooCommerce.

BobWP:
Very cool.

Brian:
Yeah, it’s a lot of fun. Last year, there were so many cool submissions. I learned that Chia—Chia Pets and Pet Rocks, which are part of the same company that also makes the Clapper—runs their website on WooCommerce. I found that out through the Seshie Awards. On the Chia website, if you go to chia.com and remain inactive for about a minute, chia plants start growing across the entire website! There are other animated elements too, but I don’t want to spoil it. It’s really fun.

BobWP:
Yeah, now I’ll have to check it out! I encourage everyone to do the same. I’ll put those dates in the show notes, and his site is easy to navigate. You can find everything you need at WooSesh.com. So, who’s doing the State of the Woo this year?

Brian:
This year, Beau Lebens and Tamara Niesen will be speaking. Paul was on board, but he’s been on sabbatical, and his schedule has been wild, so we all agreed it would be best if he didn’t have to jump into delivering the keynote this year. He’ll be hanging out, though.

BobWP:
Yeah, I recently recorded a podcast with Beau about the roadmap, and it might be interesting to see if he elaborates or shares more exciting things at WooSesh. So, about sponsors—you’ve got to have sponsors to keep this free, and I see eight listed. Who’s behind this and making it possible?

Brian:
I’m so grateful for every sponsor who works with me. I’ve been running WooSesh for eight years, and WordSesh even longer, and it would be impossible without the financial support of sponsors. They believe in the event and want to support the community. This year, we’ve got Bluehost, Yoast, BigScoots, Mindsize, Metorik, Patchstack, Weglot, and WP Sessions.

They help cover the time and costs of putting on an event of this size. Many of them also bring great content to the event, whether through case studies or by sharing their experiences. It’s wonderful working with all of them.

BobWP:
You never know. You try to curate certain ideas, but then something amazing comes along that wasn’t even planned. It’s great to hear. October 29th and 30th—anything else to add?

Brian:
Yes, for anyone registering this week, I encourage you to register as soon as possible. The registration form includes optional questions about how you use WooCommerce, which helps speakers tailor their talks to the audience. It’s in your best interest to fill out the form early and truthfully. All data is anonymized and helps us create a better event. It’s been tremendously helpful for our speakers to know who’s in the audience.

So, for those attending WooSesh this year or in the past, thank you. I hope you get as much out of it as I put into it!

BobWP:
Yeah, having that data would definitely help speakers address the audience’s needs.

Brian:
Exactly. As a speaker myself, it would have been helpful to know who’s in the room so I could focus on what’s relevant to them. I love being able to provide that information now.

BobWP:
Cool. One last thing—you said everyone can register for free, and you have a whole week afterward to watch the recordings. Where do those go?

Brian:
I’m glad you asked! All recordings go to WPSessions.com, which is my main platform. WooSesh and WordSesh were born out of that. The site is members-only because running these events costs a lot, but paid members help make it possible. All the past sessions and around 400 presentations are available there.

There’s a wide variety of content—from WooCommerce basics to advanced topics like building payment gateways. So if you’d like ongoing access to these resources, you can become a WP Sessions member at WPSessions.com.

BobWP:
Alright, there you have it. I’ll just mention that on

day one, Courtney Robertson and Jonathan Wold will be doing the recap, and on day two, it will be Marcus Burnette and Robbie Adair. They’re great at having a good time, asking good questions, and hosting fun conversations. Brian, thanks again for asking us to be a community partner. We’re excited to get the word out and get everyone signed up!

Brian:
Thank you for having me! I hope to see all of you at the event. After you register, drop into Slack and say hi!

BobWP:
Alright, thank you, everyone, and we will see you at WooSesh.