Last week I attended WordCamp Torino 2016, the first Italian WordCamp in several years.
The event took place on April 1st and 2nd, and it was incredible to see the community come back to life.
Since the last WordCamp in 2012, the Italian WordPress scene had gone quiet, but in just nine months, a group of passionate contributors managed to revive it, organize local meetups, and finally bring WordCamp back to Italy.1
That energy and collaboration were exactly what our community needed.
Table of Contents
Contributor Day
The first day, April 1st, was Contributor Day, only the second ever held in Italy (the first was a few months earlier in Milan).
About a hundred contributors joined across various teams: Polyglots, Accessibility, Theme Review, and Core.
I led the support team together with Cristiano Zanca. We reviewed a few topics from the WordPress.org support forums, each person writing their reply. Then we discussed all the responses together, analyzing tone, clarity, and accuracy, and created a final version for one lucky user who suddenly received seven answers all at once.
It was a fun, collaborative session that showed how much you can learn by helping others.
WordCamp Day
The next day was the main event.
I attended as a sponsor, representing WooCommerce, so I spent most of the day at the booth. Unfortunately, that meant I couldn’t attend any of the talks, but I heard from many attendees that they were excellent — half in Italian, half in English — with both local speakers and members of the international community, including Petya Raykovska.
Many attendees stopped by to learn more about WooCommerce and Jetpack.
It was a pleasure to talk to them and other sponsors about what we can do for users and what they can do for us. Attending as a sponsor isn’t just about promotion; it’s about listening to real feedback and using it to improve the product.
The Happiness Bar
Like every good WordCamp, there was also a Happiness Bar, a place where attendees could ask for help directly from volunteers. It’s one of my favorite parts of any WordCamp. Seeing people help each other in real time really captures the WordPress spirit.
If you want to see more photos or read others’ impressions, check the official WordCamp Torino Facebook page. Both have great photos and stories from the event.
What’s Next?
The local community in Milan has already submitted their application for WordCamp Milan, so keep an eye out and grab your ticket as soon as they’re available.
And if you’re in Austin, come meet us at WooConf. If you can’t make it in person, streaming tickets are available so you can still join the event remotely.
- Petya Raykovska. “In 9 months, the Italian #WordPress community grew from 0 to 10 meetups and a WordCamp.” X. Retrieved on April 4, 2016. ↩︎
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