BoldGrid ♥ Community at WordCamp Europe
WordCamps
WordCamp Europe Recap
This weekend, our community manager Jesse Owens and our open source evangelist Mike Demo headed to Berlin for WordCamp Europe.
Demo and Jesse arrived in Berlin without any real hassle, unlike some people.
Marcel Bootsman, a Dutch WordPress consultant at Nostromo, stole the spotlight for the weekend with his act of charity.
Marcel walked over 718 kilometers (446 miles) from his hometown Berkel en Rodenrijs (near The Hague) to Berlin in order to raise funds for DonateWC, a non-profit that provides sponsorships for people without the financial means to attend a WordCamp.
It’s wheels up on the way to @WCEurope! #WCEU pic.twitter.com/A34TbUmBcA
— BoldGrid (@boldgrid) June 18, 2019
Next stop #wceu! pic.twitter.com/BlBcQBUbFw
— Mike Demo (@mpmike) June 19, 2019
Marcel Arrives
They made it!!!! @mbootsman finished a 748km walk from his home to #WCEU. On his last steps, he was accompanied by @glueckpress#WalkToWCEU pic.twitter.com/zi71UyZ3rW
— Carole Olinger ? (@CaroleOlinger) June 19, 2019
Demo and Jesse had an opportunity to interview Marcel about his walk a few weeks ago on the BoldLife Podcast.
WP D&D
Wednesday evening, Demo and Jesse joined a party of brave adventurers to rescue a small medieval village from a vile creature of darkness.
Organized by Dungeonmaster Luc Princen, and accompanied by Carole Olinger, Alain Schlesser, Andrey Savchenko, Sergey Biryukov, and David Mosterd.
Demo (Ranger) and Jesse (Monk) began to feel the effects of their overnight travel, so they (heroically) sacrificed themselves battling evil and retired for the evening.
Contributor Day
Jesse volunteered to lead the Training Team’s table for Contributor Day, as the team worked to complete a lesson plan curriculum. The day was a phenomenal success all around, as 167 new contributors, over 230 experienced contributors, and 34 team leads gathered to make WordPress better.
#WordPress #Training Team people are contributing at @WCEurope @jessecowens #WCEU pic.twitter.com/Q0dtYF1uZg
— Chetan Prajapati ⓦ (@iamchetanp) June 20, 2019
Hey @JulieKuehl you’ll get a kick out of this intro #WCEU pic.twitter.com/YSfXUfRGQq
— Jesse C Owens @WCEurope (@jessecowens) June 20, 2019
Mullenweg Speaks on Gutenberg
Matt Mullenweg’s keynote talk about the present state and future of the (Gutenberg) WordPress Editor was delightful, informative, and packed to the gills.
This was the crowd for @photomatt‘s talk at #WCEU. The house was packed! pic.twitter.com/FuUofchf54
— Jesse C Owens @WCEurope (@jessecowens) June 23, 2019
Coffee Break
BoldGrid’s sponsorship this year was the Coffee Break sponsorship, where along with WPMU Dev we treated the community to coffee, pastries, and other refreshments just after Matt Mullenweg’s keynote. In past years this sponsorship typically included branded disposable coffee mugs, but in order to meet the organizing team’s goal of reducing the environmental impact of the event, we opted instead for napkins, sugar packets, and a banner.
What Does Community Mean?
In this author’s opinion, one of the best talks of the weekend was Joomla Co-Founder Brian Teeman’s The Power of Free.
In it, he went in-depth about what it really means to have the freedom of community in an open-source project. Particularly interesting is his explanation regarding the use of the word “Free” in Free Open Source Software when it should more accurately be “Freedom.”
WPEngine Afterparty
Official Afterparty
At the 80’s-themed afterparty, Demo and Jesse got into the 80’s vibe by interviewing members of the WordPress community on a Cassette Tape recorder. Yes, a real one. And they turned it into a Podcast.
Looking Forward
We’re looking forward to sponsoring WordCamp US in November this year, and we’re especially looking forward to visiting the amazing location for next year’s WordCamp Europe- Porto, Portugal.
We’re also in the process of producing a mini-documentary about our experience at WordCamp Europe this year, look forward to it coming soon!BoldGrid Post and Page Builder
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