Juan Hernando 5:28 pm on January 28, 2026
Tags: community-team ( 220 ), feedback ( 11 ), meetup ( 21 ), team-goals ( 8 )

2026 Big Picture Goals: Our Focus on Meetups

Mary just published the 2026 Big Picture Goals for the project, and we wanted to share what this means specifically for our Community Team work this year. Education-related goals will be discussed in their own context, so this post focuses on the major priority that affects us directly: revamping meetupsMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook..

Why meetups matter more than ever

Meetups are explicitly called out as the primary front door to the WordPress community. With WordPress Credits and Campus Connect scaling quickly, we’re going to see more new people looking to get involved. Meetups need to be ready to welcome them and, critically, turn that curiosity into active participation.

As the post highlights:

“Meetups are where people build confidence, relationships, and momentum. When they work well, they turn curiosity into commitment.”

Building on what works

Many meetups are already doing great work bringing people together. In 2026, we want to expand and strengthen what’s working by adding more opportunities for active participation alongside the presentations and social gatherings that meetups already do well. This means:

Adding issue-focused sessions where attendees work together on real WordPress problems
Expanding hands-on learning opportunities tied to actual WordPress needs (complementing presentations with practice)
Providing clear next steps that move people from meetupMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. participation into contribution on Make teams
Exploring new topics together: As AI tools become more common, meetups are natural spaces where people can learn together how these tools fit into WordPress workflows

What we need to do

This evolution requires support from us as a team. Here’s what we think our priorities should be for Q1 and beyond:

Immediate actions (Q1-Q2 2026)

Review and strengthen current meetup resources
- Audit the Meetup Organizer Handbook to ensure it supports this broader approach
- Identify what additional guidance organizers need for running hands-on, issue-focused sessions
Connect with our meetup organizer community
- Review all existing meetup groups to understand current activity levels
- Reach out to organizers to share these goals, learn about their challenges, and offer support
- Contact groups that haven’t met recently to explore options: finding new co-organizers, revitalizing the group, or respectfully closing inactive chapters
Create practical resources for organizers
- Templates for hands-on session formats and issue-focused meetups
- Suggested workflows for connecting meetup attendees to Make teams
- Sample “next steps” pathways for different skill levels
- Guidance on facilitating learning sessions about emerging topics like AI tools in WordPress
Highlight and share what’s working
- Identify meetups already running successful hands-on or contribution-focused sessions
- Create ways to showcase these examples to inspire other organizers and mentorsEvent Supporter Event Supporter (formerly Mentor) is someone who has already organised a WordCamp and has time to meet with their assigned mentee every 2 weeks, they talk over where they should be in their timeline, help them to identify their issues, and also identify solutions for their issues.
- Develop a system for celebrating and amplifying innovative meetup formats

Mid-term work (Q2-Q3 2026)

Enhance organizer training and onboarding
- Update orientation materials to include guidance on active participation formats
- Include resources on mentoring new contributors who attend meetups
Strengthen the meetup-to-contribution pipeline
- Work with Make team reps to ensure they have clear onboarding for meetup attendees
- Create better visibility of “good first issues” that meetup groups can tackle together
Improve coordination with Education programs
- Establish clear pathways for WordPress Credits and Campus Connect participants to find local meetups
- Provide organizers with context on what these program participants will need

Success metrics

We should be tracking:

Number of meetups incorporating hands-on/contribution-focused sessions
Growth in meetup activity and attendance
Organizer feedback on new resources and guidance
Success stories we can share with the broader community (meetup attendees who became contributors, innovative session formats, community impact examples)

How you can help

This is a team effort. We’d love to hear from you:

Organizers: What would help you add more hands-on, contribution-focused elements to your meetups? What’s working well right now that we should amplify?
Program and event supporters: How can we better support organizers as they expand their meetup offerings?
Everyone: What examples have you seen of meetups that successfully move people into contribution? Which groups should we be highlighting?

Drop your thoughts in the comments or pingPing The act of sending a very small amount of data to an end point. Ping is used in computer science to illicit a response from a target server to test it’s connection. Ping is also a term used by Slack users to @ someone or send them a direct message (DM). Users might say something along the lines of “Ping me when the meeting starts.” us on SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. (#community-team). If you are able and willing to help with specific tasks (updating handbook content, creating templates, coordinating with Make teams, or reaching out to organizers) let us know.

Next steps

We’ll be scheduling a team discussion in the next couple of weeks to break down these priorities and assign ownership. In the meantime, if you’re organizing or mentoring meetups, start thinking about what one hands-on session could look like in your community, or share an example of something great that’s already happening.

2026 is about momentum. Meetups are where that momentum begins. Let’s make sure we’re ready to support, celebrate, and grow together.

Props @harmonyromo @nukaga @4thhubbard for reviewing the post.

#community-team, #feedback, #meetup, #team-goals

Dan Knauss 6:45 am on January 29, 2026

Following our latest gathering tonight, @clemom and I discussed these very welcome questions. These are my considered thoughts on what’s working well and things the community can help amplify in meetupsMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. like ours.

Local Foundations — After a year of rebooting on Meetup.com in 2024, in 2025, we secured the ideal local venue and network support from the local startup incubator/coworking and event space, which sponsors a cluster of tech meetups. Recognizing, thanking, and connecting with those folks would be an impactful way for the community team to support these foundations. We also want to start some outreach for potential local sponsors or anyone who will help pick up some of the costs, which are currently for food and beverages. Swag, especially stickers, is always loved — especially Wapuu.

Marketing/Comms — Consistently meeting at the same time and place while activating dormant social media (mainly LinkedIn) and existing #wordpress SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. channels has consistently drawn a diverse group of 10-20 participants with minimal promotional effort. That effort is stymied by proprietary platform silos we’re in. The local “mega-meetupMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook.” group we are part of has its own account on meetup.com, which we cannot use since we’re in the WP account. However, they want to get off Meetup (as the WP community does too), so the local dev community (and our meetup members) might be interested in adopting and even contributing to GatherPress. A key pain point for us all is the lack of an easy way to publish an event once and see it published everywhere else we want it to go.

Deepening Engagement / Enabling Leadership — The emerging coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. of consistent attendees that’s begun to self-organize and take leadership (in the group and also WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. Canada) is composed of students and recent graduates from just one local post-secondary institution. WordPress is at the centre of at least one course in their digital media and info tech program, and WordPress is frequently featured in graduating students’ capstone projects. Helping us get faculty more directly involved and exploring WP Credits with them would be a logical next step. It’s been raised, and there’s interest.

Balancing broad appeal and technical focus — The student capstone projects are interesting and impactful because they deliver a WordPress solution for a real local client and celebrate a real win in the local community. Giving students the opportunity to showcase their work at the Meetup led to our biggest turnout so far, since the student team, their client (a local choral group), family members, and extended community came out for it. A demo of a hockey league management and game scoring app built on WordPress had a similarly large turnout of nearly 30 people.

Both of these special events led to very engaged Q&A sessions and breakdowns of how the work was done. One drew a developer (and male) heavy audience. One drew a much more mixed audience and was led by three women. (Age and ethnic diversity are always very consistent no matter what the topic is.) I feel this sort of programming, where we create a platform for people (especially students) to showcase their work, will remain essential to enliven and broaden the group with the celebratory energy and excitement it generates. We’ve also seen how technical topics can bring in new people if they are more WordPress-adjacent, such as ActivityPub or headless WordPress using a particular JS framework.

Sprinkling breadcrumbs, invitations, and incentives toward contribution — I’ve seen the natural progression of self-motivated steps toward contribution happening on two levels that support each other:

1) Promoting opportunities with the meetup (and WordCamps) eventually connects with someone’s desire to speak, lead, or assist in some way. They need clear ways to contribute to the event and community work. That’s the organizers’ job to provide and constantly offer as an invitation. It’s best to casually pitch a mix of low to moderate effort opportunities.

2) Hands-on technical workshops lead to questions and curiosity over unknowns explored and surprises encountered, from bugs and weird things that happen, to the Wow! factor. Anticipating some of this and preparing some “dig deeper” resources that lead to wp.org docs, tutorials, and Slack is key. I haven’t consistently done this yet. It would be great to have some packaged workshops or “junior dev gateways” — an online learner’s intro to a specific APIAPI An API or Application Programming Interface is a software intermediary that allows programs to interact with each other and share data in limited, clearly defined ways. with links to good first issues, Slack channels, docs, roadmaps, release notes, and specific contributors in mentoring roles.

Some examples of “gateways” from tonight’s meetup were stumbling into the limitations and unexpected abilities of Studio’s AI assistant. This was the perfect cue to talk about the Abilities API (It knows we have GraphQL installed!) and WP-CLIWP-CLI WP-CLI is the Command Line Interface for WordPress, used to do administrative and development tasks in a programmatic way. The project page is http://wp-cli.org/ https://make.wordpress.org/cli/ (We can see and execute commands suggested and explained by the AI!) To the extent organizers are up to date with these tools, we can explain them and suggest where to go to learn more. If someone asks if we can set up a Postman account to experiment with WordPress APIs, we can Google that or follow up later to say “this already exists, and @coords has an excellent REST APIREST API The REST API is an acronym for the RESTful Application Program Interface (API) that uses HTTP requests to GET, PUT, POST and DELETE data. It is how the front end of an application (think “phone app” or “website”) can communicate with the data store (think “database” or “file system”) https://developer.wordpress.org/rest-api/. and Postman video on YouTube.” (Connect people to knowledge and other people.)
- Juan Hernando 2:09 pm on February 1, 2026
  
  Dan, thanks so much for this detailed reflection! There’s a lot here that resonates with what we’re trying to accomplish. The work you’re doing in Edmonton with the student showcases and building those venue partnerships is exactly the kind of thing we want to support and amplify.
  
  I really like your “junior dev gateways” concept. That sounds like something we should explore further as we build out resources for organizers. Let’s connect about this, I’d love to hear more about how you’re approaching it and see if we can package some of these ideas for other groups.
Marcel Bootsman 10:49 am on January 30, 2026
MeetupsMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. really are the front door, and if we want more hands-on sessions and a stronger meetupMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook.-to-contribution pipeline, we have to make and keep organizer life sustainable.

A few things I’d love to see baked into the 2026 approach so organizers feel supported, not squeezed:
- A lightweight “sponsorship starter kit” for local meetups: outreach template, what is allowed, example tiers, and how to thank sponsors without turning the meetup into a sales pitch.
- Clear guidance on what costs can be covered and how to request support (venue, snacks, travel for a speaker, accessibilityAccessibility Accessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility) needs). Even small budgets prevent burnout.
- Encourage co-organizer models by default: simple playbooks for sharing responsibilities, rotating formats, and succession when someone steps back.
- Recognition that “show up every month” is work: celebrate the invisible labor, and keep feedback loops open so the handbook and templates match reality.
If we get the support and sponsorship piece right, we will not just revive meetups, we’ll keep them healthy for the long run.
- Juan Hernando 2:11 pm on February 1, 2026
  
  Marcel, you’re hitting on something really important here. If we want organizers to be able to sustain this work, we need to give them the tools and support to do it without burning out. Your points about sponsorship guidance, budget clarity, and co-organizer models are all things we should prioritize, absolutely agree. And the recognition piece matters too, this work is often invisible, and we need to do better at celebrating it. Thanks for naming these so clearly.
Moses Cursor Ssebunya 11:13 am on January 30, 2026

The things I love. I would love to participate on this. I’d be happy to help
- Juan Hernando 2:12 pm on February 1, 2026
  
  Moses, that’s great to hear! We’ll be scheduling a team discussion in the next couple of weeks to break down specific tasks, so keep an eye out for that. I know you also know how to improve internal processes in the team, so we’ll be happy to work on them too. Thanks so much!
Amber Hinds 3:22 pm on January 30, 2026

I love this initiative! @joedolson and I have been working to revamp the theme accessibilityAccessibility Accessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility) ready guidelines and I have created a process for standardizing the testing process and reporting issues back to theme developers. (See https://youtu.be/XR-bZWqtr5s?si=ZHzMt2oGy14bst_- ) I could very easily turn this into an interactive workshop that meetupMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. organizers can give (or I could give remotely) to walk people through the testing process. This would be a great way for people to learn about accessibility and give them a concrete way to start contributing to the accessibility team. Let me know if that’s of interest and we can work out the details.
- Juan Hernando 2:13 pm on February 1, 2026
  
  Amber, this sounds perfect! An accessibilityAccessibility Accessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility) testing workshop that gives people a clear path to contribution is exactly what we need. I think this could be a really valuable resource for meetupMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. organizers. Let’s talk about how we can help package and share this more widely. I’ll reach out to coordinate. Thanks!
Sebastian Misniakiewicz 9:59 am on January 31, 2026
MeetupsMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. are very important because they are the first steps to a WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. – and sometimes even a WordCamp Europe 🙂

We used to have Meetups in Poland and one local WordCamp. When I joined the Community 2023 our Community growed rapidly – 2024 there were 4 WordCamps, 2025 – 3 and this year Poland is hosting WCEUWCEU WordCamp Europe. The European flagship WordCamp event. 2026.

How do Meetups in the host city, Kraków look like?

We changed the schedule – instead of organising a MeetupMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. every 3 months we are organising them every month. It enhances the Community because we are meeting every month – not every three months.
We changed the focus – instead of focusing at the beginning on sponsors we are focusing on users. I noticed that when we had a sponsor and a free pizzas and beers then a lot of people were attending Meetups IMHO not for the Community but for free food. Last time about 40 people signed in via Meetup and … there were 40 attendees! When there were pizzas and beer about 40% people that signed via Meetup were present.
We are meeting in the venue where our WordCamps were hosted. The cooperation with the venue is not only during a WordCamp.
Our Meetups are divided into 2 parts. We are beginning with a set of 3 presentations with Q&A sessions. It lasts approximatelly 2 hours. Then we are moving to a pub where we continue the networking – for the next 2 hours.
I am using LinkedIn and its Sales Navigator to look for people that mentioned WordPress on their profiles to invite them to the network and then to the Meetup. It allows to be in touch with the potential members of the Community. And I have to say that:
- many people are not aware about not even Meetups but WordCamps as well!
- after their first visiting our Meetups they are very impressed and … are appearing next Meetups what shows that consequence in looking for new members of our Community works!
My takeaways?

thanks to the WCEU 2025 in Basel and the presentation about Meetups I can confirm that if Meetups are organised every month then it has a big impact on the local Community

the stress has to be put on the Community – not on “How to find sponsors” because you are not focusing on what is the basis.

removing sponsors and putting stress on the Community resulted in reinforcement of the local Community – more and more “old folks” are attending – because it is not about pizzas and beers.

being in touch with the venue – which is the university – after a WordCamp can make something bigger – that venue is now a part of the WordPress Credits programm 🙂 (plus we can have a hall for free – what makes it easier to get close to the new generations.

I hope that we will be ably to meet in Kraków this year to discuss ways what we can do more to make Meetups better and better 🙂
- Juan Hernando 2:16 pm on February 1, 2026
  
  Sebastian, the transformation in Kraków is really impressive. Monthly meetupsMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook., community-first focus, and that LinkedIn outreach approach are all smart adaptations that I think other organizers could learn from. The point about attendance quality when you shifted away from sponsors and free food is really interesting too. And the university partnership is exactly the kind of deeper integration we’re hoping to see. Thanks for sharing what’s working!And yeah, looking forward to continuing these conversations in Kraków at WCEUWCEU WordCamp Europe. The European flagship WordCamp event. 2026!
  - Sebastian Misniakiewicz 2:44 pm on February 1, 2026
    
    Community first approach is always the best approach 🙂 – it is a bit more difficult to start but it is worth it. CU in Kraków!
jaapwiering 3:18 pm on February 2, 2026

Thank you for focusing on MeetupsMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. this year! Organizing Meetups is a lot of fun and also very rewarding. It’s great to meet so many interesting people who all share a love for the WordPress community.

😡 Time and energy are wasted working with the MeetupMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. platform. The organizer UIUI UI is an acronym for User Interface - the layout of the page the user interacts with. Think ‘how are they doing that’ and less about what they are doing. is poor, communication with members is confusing, and some forms of communication are not saved. A more straightforward solution would help. I looks to me like a vendor lockin.

🥸 WordPress Meetups do not have a formal legal status (in the Netherlands). Creating a foundation for a single WordPress meetup is expensive relative to the amounts received and spent. Without a formal status, it is impossible to open a bank account. Meetups currently handle money in cash, in kind, or as a financial reserve within a company. None of these options provides meetups with a solid financial structure.

🥱 Announcements in the WordPress dashboard are very austere and only show the event name, date, time, and location. More appealing announcements would help.
- Juan Hernando 7:23 am on February 13, 2026
  
  Jaap, thanks for raising these practical issues, they’re exactly the kind of on-the-ground challenges we need to address.
  
  The MeetupMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. platform limitations are a known pain point, and we’re working with GatherPress as an alternative. The dashboard widgetWidget A WordPress Widget is a small block that performs a specific function. You can add these widgets in sidebars also known as widget-ready areas on your web page. WordPress widgets were originally created to provide a simple and easy-to-use way of giving design and structure control of the WordPress theme to the user. announcement format is something we can discuss about how to make it more appealing and informative! Regarding handling money, noted too!
Franz Wieser 8:32 am on February 4, 2026

We, from Linz in Austria, first met with interested people around 2011 to discuss WordPress. Since 2015, we’ve held the WordPress MeetupMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. Linz every month, and we’ve never had a passive presentation. Instead, we’ve always had a large, informal table discussion where everyone can and should ask questions. We gather ideas, offer help for self-help, and encourage experimentation, sharing, and exchanging knowledge. I think that’s the key to our meetup’s success over the past 10 years. For a long time, I’ve been explaining our system to other meetupsMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. that complain that despite great presentations, attendees don’t come.

My current attempt at WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. Vienna is to hold a session called “WordPress Meetup goes to WordCamp.” I’ve also already told someone from WCEUWCEU WordCamp Europe. The European flagship WordCamp event. about it, and they like the idea too.

This session isn’t a workshop or a presentation, but simply a gathering around a large table, offering help for self-help, and my big goal is to inspire attendees to start their own WordPress meetups in their own communities.

Best regards, Franz Wieser
WordPress Meetup Linz
- Juan Hernando 7:25 am on February 13, 2026
  
  Franz, the informal table discussion format in Linz is a great example of what we’re hoping to encourage more of. Ten years of consistent monthly meetupsMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. without passive presentations is impressive, and I love that you’re bringing this approach to WordCamps.
  
  Let’s definitely talk more about this, we can even prepare something during WCEUWCEU WordCamp Europe. The European flagship WordCamp event. Contributor DayContributor Day Contributor Days are standalone days, frequently held before or after WordCamps but they can also happen at any time. They are events where people get together to work on various areas of https://make.wordpress.org/ There are many teams that people can participate in, each with a different focus. https://2017.us.wordcamp.org/contributor-day/ https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/.’s Community table. Thanks for sharing what’s worked!
Erica Varlese 6:05 pm on February 4, 2026

I’m interested in helping! I’d love to help with outreach to meetupMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. organizers, and I can also lend a hand with any documentation updates/templates.
- Juan Hernando 7:26 am on February 13, 2026
  
  Erica, that’s great! We’ll definitely need help with both organizer outreach and documentation! I’m counting on you!
SHAO 4:12 pm on February 10, 2026

I’m one of the five co-organizers of the WordPress MeetupMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. in Taoyuan, Taiwan, and I’d like to share some of our experiences and insights.

Since 2019, our meetup has been hosting vibrant and engaging in-person events. Like Taipei, Taoyuan is one of Taiwan’s cities with a long-standing, active WordPress community. Except for a few cancellations during the height of the pandemic, our meetup has continued consistently over the years.

From 2019 to 2024, I transitioned from being a regular attendee to a coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. organizer. In 2025, I became one of the main organizers, and together with a few other community members we revitalized and refined the structure and format of our events.

To ensure stable funding for venue costs, we reached out to sponsors and secured light sponsorship at affordable rates. Most of our sponsors are freelancers — regular meetup attendees and long-term contributors to the WordPress community. Their ongoing support not only helps financially but also strengthens our local network.

Our meetup is held at a community-focused café that supports employment opportunities for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, adding a meaningful social impact to our events.

To prevent organizer burnout, we intentionally adopt a multi-organizer model, where each person focuses on their strengths — whether that’s design, promotion, event hosting, or logistics. This collaborative approach is a key reason we’ve been able to stay enthusiastic and sustainable over time.

We host one main speaker session every month, where a guest shares a topic related to WordPress or web development. Sometimes finding speakers can be challenging, especially when no one signs up — but having multiple organizers with different connections helps us secure presenters regularly.

A core value of our meetup is building connections with every participant. Our events are not just about knowledge sharing — people come because they enjoy the atmosphere, have fun, and build friendships. Many attendees gradually become regulars and friends of the meetup.

What matters most to us is that people feel seen and welcomed — not just as “attendees,” but as part of the community. I went through that journey myself: attendee → co-organizer. And we want to make that journey possible for others too: with consistent participation and small contributions over time, someone can naturally grow into a core member — and eventually have the opportunity to become a co-organizer.

We also have Lightning Talk sessions, where people can either present something quickly or ask questions. After the main talk, we always set aside time for open discussion and casual networking. If someone feels shy about asking questions in front of the whole group, they’re always welcome to speak privately during the social time afterward.

However, one trend I’ve observed is that fewer beginners now attend meetupsMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. to ask questions, possibly due to the rise of AI tools. With AI handling many entry-level queries online, fewer newcomers feel the need to come in person just to ask questions.

In Taiwan, most people do not use Meetup.com, but we still have to use Meetup.com to post events in order to reach more users through the WordPress dashboard.

As a result, some people give up attending events simply because they are unfamiliar with how to use the platform, while others show up in person without registering in advance.

The lack of a local-language interface on Meetup.com is also one of the contributing factors.

Please excuse any awkward wording — this article was translated with the help of AI, and some phrasing may not be perfectly accurate.
- Juan Hernando 7:31 am on February 13, 2026
  
  SHAO, thanks for sharing such a detailed picture of how the Taoyuan meetupMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. operates. The multi-organizer model you’ve built, where everyone focuses on their strengths, is exactly the kind of sustainable approach we want to support and encourage elsewhere.
  
  Your observation about AI tools affecting beginner attendance is really interesting. And the Meetup.com language barrier issue is a concrete problem we need to address, totally agree.
  
  The journey you describe, from attendee to organizer, is a path we want to make possible for more people everywhere. Thanks for laying out what’s working in Taiwan!
Carlos Moreira 12:37 am on February 12, 2026

MeetupsMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. have been an important part of my journey in WP. I went from attending meetups, then WordCamps, presenting at meetups, presenting at WordCamps, then organizing meetups and WordCamps.

I love it, but volunteer/organizer fatigue/burnout is real! As it was already mentioned, there’s a lot invisible labor and there should be ways to make it sustainable and these aren’t always clear or available. So improvements to what is already in place would be great!

I’ve seen more people having the same journey as me and contributing a lot to the community, but less and less every year.
What we see works well is the social moment afterwards, we go for dinner together and the first timers who join the dinner, are almost guaranteed to come back. First timers that don’t stay for dinner.. we might never see them again. The social part of the meetupMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. is much more important than the topic covered. Building community and friendships, networking, that’s what brings people back.

I see Franz mentioned they never had a ‘passive presentation’ but rather informal table discussions, which is interesting. 90% of the time we have presentations+QA, I wonder if this is boring for people attending for the first time.
Which makes me remember something else.. Might be slightly off topic, but what do you think the role of Contributor DayContributor Day Contributor Days are standalone days, frequently held before or after WordCamps but they can also happen at any time. They are events where people get together to work on various areas of https://make.wordpress.org/ There are many teams that people can participate in, each with a different focus. https://2017.us.wordcamp.org/contributor-day/ https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/. could have here? On local WordCamps (not flagship events) we see a lot of curious people attending Contributor Day for the first time, but getting a bit overwhelmed of what it means to actually contribute and how the day works. Except for polyglots, onboarding for other teams is just too complicated, so the tables convert to some nice sharing/discussion hubs, which is also great! And I wonder if this is also an entry point we should explore more? We’ve been experimenting a bit in our WordCamps with the Contributor Day, transitioning to a ‘Community Day’, some things have worked, others not so much, other ideas were good but not well implemented. But I believe that the relaxed nature of the ‘pre-event’ day is the perfect environment to give first timers the real feel of the community, invest more in the informal part, still with structured topics, but place the ‘contribution’ part as side-effect, not the main goal of the day. Potentially newcomers would then start attending meetups already with a different energy.
- Juan Hernando 7:37 am on February 13, 2026
  
  Carlos, you’re touching on something really important here. The social component creating more lasting connections than the formal content is valuable insight. It suggests we should be thinking about how to better support and encourage those informal moments and “follow-ups” after the meetupMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. itself.
  
  Your point about Contributor DayContributor Day Contributor Days are standalone days, frequently held before or after WordCamps but they can also happen at any time. They are events where people get together to work on various areas of https://make.wordpress.org/ There are many teams that people can participate in, each with a different focus. https://2017.us.wordcamp.org/contributor-day/ https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/. potentially serving as an entry point is worth exploring. I remember the very interesting panel discussion at WC Lisboa last year about the Portuguese community and how some people who were relatively new to the community valued those connectors who helped them feel more integrated, meet more people, learn about events, and not miss out on any. Let’s keep trying thing in WC Portugal this year and then share what works better!
Juan Hernando 7:39 am on February 13, 2026

Thanks to everyone who’s taken the time to share feedback and ideas here, this has been incredibly helpful. We’re seeing clear themes around organizer sustainability, platform improvements, hands-on formats, and the importance of the social aspects of meetupsMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook..

We’ll be publishing a follow-up post soon that recaps what we’ve heard and outlines next steps, including how people can get involved in specific working areas. In the meantime, this conversation stays open if anyone else wants to jump in with thoughts or examples from their communities.

Really appreciate all of you taking the time to contribute to this discussion! ❤️