In recent years, I’ve almost always been at WordCamp Europe as a volunteer. I’ve actually only missed a few. Last year in Basel, I finally stood on stage myself and, with my talk on Multilingual WordPress for developers, got to give something back to WCEU – an exciting experience!
At WordCamp Europe 2025 in Basel, we also opened our own Multisite table at Contributor Day for the first time, and a few weeks later, we repeated the whole thing at WordCamp US 2025 in Portland. WordCamp Europe 2026 was not going to be an exception, so together with my colleague Bernhard Kau, I signed up with the Contributor Day organizers.
At WCEU 2026, as an attendee
There was no way I was going to miss Krakow. But this time I’d promised myself to actually see something of the city, too. In Basel – to be honest – I hadn’t managed that, which was a real shame. So this time I deliberately limited myself to a single task:
Table Lead at the Multisite table, no other volunteering.
Because I had fewer commitments this time and didn’t have to spend my free moments only on networking, I had the chance to actually catch a few sessions.
I especially enjoyed the CERN keynote. It was great to have such a positive opening for WCEU. CERN is now betting on WordPress and has migrated a huge number of sites from Drupal to WordPress.
I also took part in the workshop “Build your first AI-powered WordPress plugin”. I’d already attended it in the US; this time, the demo was considerably more polished.
As Table Lead at the Multisite table
Some time ago, I started getting more involved in the Multisite component, and eventually became a maintainer of the “Networks & Sites” component.
Last year, I pushed hard to get the REST API endpoints for the WordPress Network Admin into Core. That mattered to me because I’ve long been working on modernizing the WordPress Network Admin, and without this API, a modern, JavaScript-based interface stands on very shaky ground.
For a long time, though, I didn’t make much real progress. It felt a bit like a one-man fight. This year, Jonny Harris was at Contributor Day too. He is – like me – one of the three maintainers of the component, but on top of that, he’s also a Core Committer. That makes a difference: what gets discussed at the table suddenly has a much more direct chance of actually landing in Core.
At the table, we had several good conversations, among others with John Blackbourn, and a few demos around DataViews and DataForms. These are the new building blocks WordPress will use to build lists and forms in the admin going forward. It quickly became clear to everyone: without REST API endpoints for Sites, we won’t get any further here. By the end of the day, Jonny was very motivated – he’ll take another run at the pull request with the REST API endpoints.
What I’m taking away from WordCamp Europe 2026
Once again, we had two or three people at the table who dove into Core contributions for the first time. All of them either successfully set up a development environment for WordPress Multisite or delivered a pull request. That’s exactly what Contributor Day is for.
I went home with a very positive thought: I’m no longer fighting alone like Don Quixote for the REST API in Sites. This can turn into real teamwork. And JJJ, the third of the “Networks & Sites” maintainers, whom I got to know in the US, was also positive about the idea.
Conclusion
For me, WCEU is also always a place where I mentally recharge. WordCamps are, above all, events for meeting friends. And WordCamp Europe is something like “meeting friends, but on a big scale”.
If you really want to make a concrete difference, then genuinely go to a Contributor Day. And if you’re looking for good networking, all the more so. As a flagship event, WCEU is exactly the right occasion for that.
See you at the next WordCamp.
Photos: Christoph Daum
