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We have four flagship WordCamps in 2027: Europe (Spain), Asia (Malaysia), US, and a first edition in India. Each one runs somewhere between half a million and a million dollars of income and expense.
Each budget is built by a different team, in its own spreadsheet, in its own currency, in its own shape — and that part is genuinely fine. The people building these budgets are negotiating venue contracts, arguing catering minimums down, and tracking deposits across timezones, mostly as volunteers. They know their events far better than I ever will, and the last thing I want is to tell them how to build a budget.
The part that didn’t work was my side of it. I’m meant to know what’s coming and flag it early, and given how separated everything was, I was more reactive than proactive. With four flagships landing in one year rather than three, the timing of large payments matters more than it used to.
Where the problem actually was
Not the budgets. Each one was reasonable on its own terms. All of the issues were in the gaps between them.
No view across events. Each team could see its own payment schedule. Nobody could see three events with large venue deposits landing in the same three weeks. That’s a cash problem that only exists at the top level, and I wasn’t positioned in a way to notice it.
Every file a different shape. Categories varied event to event, so nothing added up without me mapping it by hand each time — which meant I did it rarely and late.
Currency handled differently in each file. Some used a fixed rate, some pulled a live market rate. A live rate sounds better but is worse: the same event’s dollar total changes every day, so no report ever reconciles to the one before it. And a rate that moves is the wrong rate for a payment made months ago.
What I built
Four separate event budget files and a single rollup file, with the design principle throughout being to ask the event teams for as little as possible.
One budget file per event. Each keeps its own line items, currency and working style. The only shared requirement is that every file has an identical summary tab in the same place. That one tab is the whole integration.
Categories that are our actual account names. Not a set of categories invented for this. Each budget line gets tagged to a real account from our books, which means nothing gets re-keyed at year end and variance conversations use one vocabulary instead of two. Most lines in the template arrive already tagged, so the teams are checking rather than starting cold.
One view that reads all four, live. It pulls each event’s summary tab, populates my rollup, and converts everything to dollars. Nobody sends me a file, and nothing I do writes back into theirs.
Actual dollars spent, read from the books. The most important thing for a local team is to watch their own budget in their own currency. The dollar side is mine to keep tabs on, not theirs to worry about.
Our accounting system already records the actual exchange rate and the local-currency amount on every foreign payment we make, and every event expense is already tagged to the event it belongs to. So rather than re-entering anything, the rollup reads actual dollars paid straight from the ledger, by event, through an importer in the rollup file.
That gives a clean split. Budgets and forecasts come from the teams in their own currency, actual spend comes from the books in dollars, and I can compare the two without anyone doing the same work twice.
Knowing what’s coming, not just what’s gone. The ledger tells me what’s been paid. It can’t tell me what falls due next July, because a venue balance nobody has invoiced yet doesn’t exist in the accounting system.
So each budget line now carries a due date alongside its amount, and the rollup turns those into a cash calendar — expected outflow by month, all four events side by side. That’s the part I couldn’t do before. Each team could always see its own payment schedule; nobody could see three events with large deposits landing in the same three weeks. Now that shows up as a spike in a single row, months ahead of the invoices.
Filling in a due date is optional. A blank one just means the money is in the budget but not yet on the calendar.
The process from here
The rhythm is deliberately light. I’d rather the teams see me at agreed moments than feel watched:
Kickoff — budget drafted, categorised, in the shared folder
Approval — cap agreed, and the budget number stops moving from that point
90 / 60 / 30 days out — variance checks, with the 60-day one looking across all four events together for cash
A month after — actuals in, and we see how close the forecast was
In between, I only get in touch if something flags.
In closing
Four teams were each doing perfectly sensible work in four separate spreadsheets, and the problem wasn’t any of the spreadsheets — it was that nobody owned the space between them.
The templates are now with the 2027 flagship organising teams, and I’ve asked all of them for feedback. This is a first version and I fully expect it to have problems I haven’t caught yet. I’ll post again once we’ve run a full cycle with it, including the parts that didn’t work.
Konnichiwa, and hello. Welcome to your monthly roundup of practical ideas, community updates, and results from organizers around the WordPress community.
What happens after the workshop
WordPress Campus Connect UCR Esparza, Costa Rica
A growing set of education programs gives organizers practical ways to help learners move from workshops into lasting WordPress participation. The Facilitator Training Program offers self-guided courses and facilitation guides, while a proposed WordPress Credits retention program would give graduates clearer routes into contribution, credentials, mentoring, and opportunities. Start by choosing one available course and considering whether your community could host it.
WordPress Campus Connect UCR Esparza shows how that pathway can work locally. Students completed five workshops, developed websites over several weeks, and presented their projects at an event attended by 45 people. Organizers looking for a repeatable model can pair preparatory workshops with a final showcase that welcomes educators, professionals, and community members.
A WordCampWordCampWordCamps 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. is not the only kind of WordPress event, and it is not the one most groups should start with.
A weekday morning online meetupMeetupMeetup 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.. One community reached its eighth session in August, showing that a simple recurring online format can become a dependable series. Choose a consistent time, keep the agenda focused, and make joining easy for people who may not attend an evening or in-person gathering.
A project showcase after a short workshop series. At WordPress Campus Connect UCR Esparza, students attended five workshops, spent several weeks building websites, and then presented their work to a jury. Organizers can copy the sequence: teach, allow building time, and finish with presentations that recognize participants’ progress.
A prepared facilitation guide, taken to a school or campus. First-time facilitators used the program’s course and guide for online sessions in Bangladesh and an in-person workshop in Kolhapur. Their feedback also improved the program’s forms, language, and flexibility for future facilitators.
Group of the Month: Chiba WordPress Meetup, Japan
Chiba WordPress Meetup, Japan
The Chiba WordPress Meetup turned a translation task into a shared contribution session on August 23. Eighteen participants divided the Dinosaur Game pluginPluginA plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party.’s description, instructions, and FAQ among themselves, and an experienced contributor reviewed the Japanese translations. The group translated the entire introduction page during the session. For a meetup elsewhere, the pattern is simple: agree on one manageable piece of documentation, divide it into small tasks, and arrange a knowledgeable reviewer before everyone starts.
Also worth knowing
An organizer is asking how you run online office hoursOffice HoursDefined times when the Global Community Team are in the #community-events Slack channel. If there is anything you would like to discuss – you do not need to inform them in advance.You are very welcome to drop into any of the Community Team Slack channels at any time.
Do you run online office hours for your meetup group? One organizer is looking for advice on the format. Share how you schedule sessions, handle questions, and make newcomers comfortable.
Tip of the month for sustainable events:
Add a short reminder to your event page asking attendees to bring a reusable bottle and take only the food, napkins, and swag they expect to use. The Sustainable Events Handbook has a ready-made set of attendee tips you can paste straight in.
Worth watching
From the archive, Hector de Prada’s Tips for hosting a successful WP meetup in your city at WordCamp Europe 2025 shares lessons from restarting a meetup and building attendance. It is aimed at organizers starting a group or trying to bring more people to one that already exists.
MeetupsMeetupMeetup 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. of the Month
Local meetups run in far more places than this. Everything, everywhere, is on events.wordpress.org.
Open calls for speakers:
Worth passing to your group. Someone who has never spoken before is usually one nudge away from it, and a first talk at a nearby WordCamp is how a lot of organizers started.
Send your recaps and photos and your group goes in Meetups of the Month. Every group that shares one is included, so ask your group’s permission and send it. Group of the Month is for a story another organizer can learn from, and you can put any group forward including your own.
Did we miss your event? Possibly, and we would rather know. Send your recap in #community-events or #campusconnect for the next issue.
Tell us what you want to read here too. If there is a section missing, a format you want explained, or a question you wish someone would answer, say so and we will build it into the next issue.
Each issue opens with a greeting from a language spoken where one of the featured groups is based. This month it is Japanese, from Chiba. If you would like your language to open an issue, tell us.
Thanks for everything you do to grow and support the WordPress community.
This post proposes a combined Education Sponsorship Fund for WP Credits and WordPress Campus Connect (WPCC) students, added as a standard package to the Call for Sponsors for every flagship WordCampWordCampWordCamps 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. (WordCamp Asia, WordCamp Europe, WordCamp US).
Two prior efforts already did a version of this, independently of each other and without a shared fund or process:
WordCamp US 2025: two WPCC students attended the event, including inaugural scholarship recipient Andrés Parra, sponsored by WordPress.comWordPress.comAn online implementation of WordPress code that lets you immediately access a new WordPress environment to publish your content. WordPress.com is a private company owned by Automattic that hosts the largest multisite in the world. This is arguably the best place to start blogging if you have never touched WordPress before. https://wordpress.com/ (The Repository). This was the first time WPCC students reached a flagship WordCamp.
WordCamp Europe 2026: five WP Credits students were fully sponsored (travel, hotel, tickets, and Contributor DayContributor DayContributor 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://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/) by Automattic, Elementor, Hostinger, and WPBakery, through the WordPress.org Education Student Sponsorship. Sponsors were listed on the WCEUWCEUWordCamp Europe. The European flagship WordCamp event. sponsor page and a venue banner. In a follow-up impact report, sponsored students rated the experience 8 to 10 out of 10.
Both were organized ad hoc, per event, without a published recommendation form, selection criteria, or funding structure. This proposal formalizes that work into one repeatable fund covering both programs.
It follows a discussion in the WP Credits team huddle on August 26, 2026, where combining the two programs’ scholarship efforts into a single fund was raised as a beneficial next step.
Why it’s important
This is about people first. For a WPCC or WP Credits student, a flagship WordCamp isn’t just a conference, as we know, it’s often the first time their contribution work (a Make team commitment, a workshop, a mentorship) gets to stand next to the people who built the software they’ve been learning on. That’s the kind of moment that turns a student into a lifelong contributor.
It’s also about our team’s goals. Community Education keeps coming back to one word: sustainable. We don’t want programs that depend on someone remembering to ask a sponsor at the last minute. We want a system that runs the same way every time, so organizers and mentorsEvent SupporterEvent 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. can nominate a student with confidence instead of hoping something comes together.
And it connects to the business case flagship organizing teams already care about: sponsors get real, visible recognition (buzz report mentions, logo placement, a presence at Contributor Day) for a contribution that’s easy to say yes to and easy to explain internally.
From my experience watching the WCEU cohort’s impact report, the sponsors weren’t hard to convince: they just needed someone to hand them a clear, ready package. That’s what this fund is. 🙂
How we will go about doing it
I want to pose something to us: rather than rolling this out across every flagship at once, let’s pilot it at WordCamp Asia 2027 first, learn from it, and then bring a refined version to WordCamp Europe and WordCamp US.
Here’s the shape of the trial:
One combined fund (not two separate asks): WPCC and WP Credits sponsorship efforts merge into a single Education Sponsorship Fund, so sponsors and organizers deal with one process, not two.
A baseline cohort for WCA 2027: 3 WPCC students and 5 WP Credits students (8 total), covering flight, hotel, and event ticket. This mirrors the WCUSWCUSWordCamp US. The US flagship WordCamp event. and WCEU cohorts we already know worked.
Built into the standard Call for Sponsors for WordCamp Asia, not a separate fundraising campaign organizers have to run on the side.
A published recommendation form, filled out by WPCC organizers, WP Credits mentors, or faculty. Not an open student application. It asks for a contribution summary, a portfolio link, why this student stands out, what the opportunity would mean for them, whether they’re under 18 or need a chaperone, and an optional, sensitively handled note on financial need.
Selection on two criteria: sustained contribution track record (not a single event), and the quality of the student’s WordPress.orgWordPress.orgThe community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/ profile or personal site. A small review committee of education program managers plus a rotating mentorEvent SupporterEvent 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. or organizer seat, weighs these alongside diversity of region, program, and contribution track across the cohort.
A funding target of $30,000: $24,000 for the 8-student baseline, plus a $6,000 reserve for education materials and on-site activities at WCA. Minimum sponsor contribution is $3,000 (one full scholarship), with no maximum and no leftover funds — anything raised above target goes straight into that event’s education activities.
Equal recognition regardless of contribution size: a monthly Education Buzz Report shout-out, logo placement on the event’s education page and printed materials, presence at the Contributor Day and Community tables, and a mention in each recipient’s required recap blog post.
Because this is a trial, I want us to treat WCA 2027 as our learning cohort. If it works the way I think it will, we take what we learn and build the next version for WCEU and WCUS. If parts of it don’t work, we’ve only had to fix one event’s process, not three.
What are the actions needed to make it happen
Build the recommendation form, including the age and chaperone flag, in time for the WCA 2027 Call for Sponsors.
Draft the combined guidelines page, merging the existing Campus Connect Flagship WordCamp Scholarship Guidelines with the scholarship option already in the WP Credits sponsor guide, and add it as a standard line item to the WCA 2027 Call for Sponsors template.
Staff the review committee for this cycle, I’d love to collaborate with WPCC organizers and WP Credits mentors on who takes the rotating seat, rather than deciding that alone.
Brief the WordCamp Asia 2027 organizing team early, so the fund is part of their sponsor planning from day one instead of something added on later.
A few things I still need to confirm before we lock this in, and I’d genuinely welcome eyes on:
A lightweight rubric for judging “portfolio excellence” consistently across reviewers.
How sponsorship funds get received and disbursed for a combined fund, and how we track the education-activities reserve. cc @harmonyromo
What consent, insurance, or Foundation policy applies when a selected student is a minor or needs a chaperone.
I don’t want to build this in a vacuum, so feedback from WPCC organizers and WP Credits mentors is welcome before this moves forward. If this trial goes well at WordCamp Asia 2027, I think we’ll have something worth taking to every flagship WordCamp after it. 🙂
Welcome to the Monthly Education Buzz Report, your go-to source for highlights and updates on the WordPress Campus Connect, WordPress Credits, and WordPress Student Club education initiatives within the WordPress community. This report aims to celebrate, promote, and inform individuals across the WordPress community and beyond about the diverse educational endeavors underway.
WordPress Campus Connect
WordPress Campus Connect (WPCC) had campuses reporting in from three countries this month, with one event drawing attention well beyond the WordPress community itself.
WPCC Perpus Soetta, held at the public library in Tegal, Indonesia, on August 9, organized by Kharis Sulistiyono (@kharisulistiyo). One participant built her first website using only her right hand after an arm injury, a moment organizers called one of the most inspiring of the year. The event went on to earn coverage from five local news outlets, including Puskapik and Times Indonesia.
WordPress Campus Connect Kolhapur opened its second season on August 29 at KIT’s College of Engineering, Kolhapur, India, organized by Makarand Mane (@mkrndmane). More than 100 students attended the hands-on workshop and built their first WordPress websites.
WordPress Campus Connect at IIM Udaipur and Pacific Udaipur, India, on August 31, organized by Niha Khan (@dr_niha_khan). More than 140 students took part in what she described as the first Campus Connect held in Rajasthan.
WordPress Campus Connect Surat kicked off its multi-campus series with a session at SSASIT on August 29, organized by Alkesh Miyani (@alkesh7) and the WordPress Surat Community. Two more campuses, VNSGU and TDEC, are scheduled to follow in September.
Two more events are in the works. St Philomena College (Autonomous) in Puttur, India, submitted its application on August 19, with organizers also hoping to start a WordPress Student Club on campus once the event is confirmed. And WPCC Sukkur IBA University in Pakistan is scheduled for September 7 after a wave of interest pushed expected attendance well past the original estimate, prompting organizer Jamshed Ali to ask the community for advice on scaling logistics and budget for a much larger crowd. If you’d like to help plan an event like these, join the conversation in #campusconnect on the Make WordPress SlackSlackSlack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/.
WordPress Credits enters September at 42 partner institutions across 16 countries and 91 active mentorsEvent SupporterEvent 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., with 191 students currently working on contribution projects and 352 graduates in total. August was by far the program’s biggest graduation month yet: 145 students completed their internship in a single month, close to 40 percent of every graduate the program has produced since it began. The completion queue is essentially clear, with just three students in pending review.
The team also launched wordpresseducation.org, a shared dashboard for mentors and students that replaces the old process of handing each mentorEvent SupporterEvent 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. an individually filtered, password-protected spreadsheet view. Mentors got access in late August, giving them one place to see their students, meeting notes, and reports instead of piecing it together by hand. CUNY City Tech, the program’s first partnership with a US public university system, became the first partner to run the new WordPress Credits Developer Track, with 12 students starting the track this month.
WordPress Credits also had its first Education Table at a WordCampWordCampWordCamps 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. US Contributor DayContributor DayContributor 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://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/, held in Phoenix from August 16 to 19 alongside Campus Connect, Student Club, Faculty Training, and the AI Literacy through WordPress course. The table’s call for US-based mentors turned up Corey Hall (@coreyhall93), a community team contributor from South Carolina who joined as a mentor shortly after. Separately, Destiny Kanno opened a discussion on August 14 about what comes after WordPress Credits, looking at how a graduate retention path might work now that the program has added 150 graduates in just two months.
New cohorts kept arriving throughout August. Kishoreganj Polytechnic Institute in Bangladesh, confirmed as a partner in July, sent its first Credits students this month, most heading into Polyglots translation work. Students from Liceo Experimental Bilingüe José Figueres Ferrer in Costa Rica continued onboarding into the Costa Rican Spanish translation pilot Rita Robles Loaiza wrote up in July, while a wave of students from Universidad Fidélitas wrapped up their own internships, several contributing to the WordPress Photo Directory. Gabriel Loayza (@gabrielloayza) published eight original photographs documenting public high schools in Costa Rica, and Evelyn Masís Guillén published 38 photographs of heritage architecture in Cartago and San José, both with full accessibilityAccessibilityAccessibility (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) metadata. Elsewhere, Bangladesh Credits graduate Atikur Rahman (@atikur_rahman) completed a Bangla translation of a WordPress Credits course lesson, making the material easier to reach for future students in the region. Looking ahead, 52 students are now past their scheduled end date and awaiting final review, with another 130 due to finish between now and December, worth watching so the queue the program just cleared doesn’t build back up.
WordPress Facilitator Training Program
The WordPress Facilitator Training Program prepares people to teach WordPress topics through self-guided courses on Learn WordPress and facilitation guides for running two- or three-day workshops. In August, Pooja Derashri (@webtechpooja) shared a recap of the program’s first official in-person workshop, held in July at D. Y. Patil School of Engineering and Management.
More than 20 faculty members attended the two-day pilot and built their first personal WordPress sites, while getting a full walkthrough of Campus Connect, WordPress Credits, Student Club, and Credentials so they can help run these programs on campus going forward. Derashri also ran a separate WordPress Credits session for students, and had what she described as productive conversations with the school’s HOD, Dean, and Vice Chancellor about bringing WordPress into the curriculum and possibly into the formal grading system through WordPress Credits. She credited Snehal Kashid (@snehal5774) and Makarand Mane (@mkrndmane) for helping the workshop run smoothly.
WordPress Student Clubs
The WordPress Student Club at Ahmad’s Education in Dhaka, Bangladesh, kept up its momentum this month. On August 4, organizer Atikur Rahman hosted a meetupMeetupMeetup 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. where mentor Muhibul Haque (@devmuhib) introduced members to WordPress Credits, and the group is now preparing both to enroll in the course and to host its own Campus Connect event.
Get Involved
Education Initiatives
WordPress Education offers three practical ways for learners to develop skills, gain practical experience, and build confidence as open sourceOpen SourceOpen Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL. contributors.
Back in April, we introduced the WordPress Facilitator Training Program: a free, open, community-powered path for anyone who knows WordPress and wants to teach it. There’s no application or gatekeeping; just a course, a facilitation guide, and the confidence to run your own workshop.
Five months in, here’s where things stand.
What’s Actually Happened
The program launched with one course, Leading WordPress Education Programs, and the plan was always to pilot it at one campus, then validate at two more. That’s exactly how it’s played out.
@devmuhib (Muhibul Haque) ran the first pilot, delivered online to two schools in Bangladesh: Ahmad’s Education and Kishoreganj University, 7 attendees across both sessions. Ahmad’s Education has since grown into a full WordPress Credits program, 5 graduates so far, with one, Atikur Rahman, now leading the school’s student club. Kishoreganj University is now a part of WordPress Credits.
@webtechpooja (Pooja Derashri) delivered our first official in-person workshop at D.Y. Patil School of Engineering & Management in Kolhapur, India (July 23–24). The Kolhapur visit opened conversations with the HOD, Dean, and Vice Chancellor about bringing WordPress into their curriculum, which is exactly the institutional buy-in this program is meant to unlock.
Both Muhibul and Pooja are facilitators who’d never run this program before, working from nothing but the course and the facilitation guide. That’s the whole premise working as intended, and the loopLoopThe Loop is PHP code used by WordPress to display posts. Using The Loop, WordPress processes each post to be displayed on the current page, and formats it according to how it matches specified criteria within The Loop tags. Any HTML or PHP code in the Loop will be processed on each post. https://codex.wordpress.org/The_Loop keeps tightening: Pooja’s feedback after her workshops added a way for facilitators to flag technical issues, an open-ended comment field, and a “would you recommend this” question, which all now live in the form. Muhibul’s feedback opened up the online delivery format, and both shaped the program language to allow for Facilitators to be flexible with the teaching content.
A Note on Program Leadership
@webtechpooja is stepping in as lead for the Facilitator Training Program going forward. If you have questions, want a workshop scheduled, or are thinking about facilitating for the first time, she’s the person to reach.
Leading WordPress Education Programs: a 9-module self-guided course plus a full 2–3 day facilitation guide This course is aimed at teaching educators how to own the WordPress Education Programs within their own educational institutions.
AI Literacy through WordPress: a 3-module self-guided course plus a full 2–3 day facilitation guide. This course is aimed at university students and early-career professionals, no prior AI or WordPress experience needed. This will also be the program’s first credentialed course, a portfolio- and credential-ready complement to the AI Leaders micro-credential, and the model going forward: every new topic we add to this program should carry or work toward a recognized credential, not just knowledge for its own sake.
Come in as a learner and start with the course, or come in with existing expertise and start from the facilitation guide directly, see the handbook’s “Two Pathways In” for how that works.
Thank you to everyone who’s put this program into practice this year, especially Muhibul Haque and Pooja Derashri, for running these workshops and telling us honestly what needs to change. 🙂
Last Saturday, August 29, we had the opportunity to host WordPress Campus Connect UCR Esparza, an event that brought together students, professors, and members of the WordPress community for a day filled with learning, projects, talks, and, above all, community.
But the story of this event began long before that Saturday.
Students, Community and Teachers posing for the photo
Building Partnerships from the Start
One of the first steps in making the event a reality was finding sponsors who wanted to support the initiative. Together with my team, we visited different local businesses in person to share our idea, explain what WordPress Campus Connect was about, where and when the event would take place, and, most importantly, why we believed it was important to create this kind of space for students.
Some of these businesses decided to believe in the project and become our sponsors. From that moment on, we stayed in close contact with them and received their support throughout the entire organization process.
One of our sponsors also gave us a valuable opportunity to conduct interviews with different members of the team, where we were able to explain what the event was about, its purpose, and what we hoped to achieve. This helped us introduce the initiative to more people and expand our reach before the big day.
A Day to Learn, Share, and Create
Finally, Saturday, August 29, arrived.
During the morning, we welcomed participants as they arrived to take part in the experience. The event brought together 45 people, primarily students from different universities in the area.
The day began with several talks. We had two WordPress professionals who shared their knowledge and experiences, as well as students from different fields who had the opportunity to share their own perspectives and what they had learned.
We also had a coffee and snack break during the morning, giving participants an opportunity to meet one another, have conversations, and begin building new connections.
Giveaways, Piñata, and Community
Beyond the learning experience, we wanted the event to have the fun and welcoming spirit that makes our community so special.
Before lunch, we held a raffle with prizes made possible through the support of our sponsors. Then, during lunchtime, we had one of the most fun moments of the day: a piñata! 🎉
It was a chance to relax, spend time together, and enjoy ourselves after a busy morning of activities. We also provided lunch for all participants, thanks to the support that helped make the event possible.
WordPress Campus Connect UCR Esparza Participants
Student Projects
One of the most important moments of the day was the presentation of the projects developed by the students.
These projects did not happen overnight. The participants had previously taken five workshops and spent several weeks developing their own ideas and building their websites.
During the event, they had the opportunity to present the results of all their hard work to a jury made up of two professors and one member of the WordPress community.
Four students were ultimately recognized and awarded for their projects. These prizes were made possible thanks to one of our sponsors and the budget we were able to raise for the event.
But there was something even more special: all the students who presented their projects received a ticket to attend WordCampWordCampWordCamps 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. Costa Rica 2026, taking place this September. This means that the learning and connection with the community do not end with Campus Connect, but can continue at the next major WordPress gathering in Costa Rica. 🇨🇷
An Afternoon Full of Ideas
The afternoon continued with a series of lightning talks, featuring students and members of the WordPress community. We had three presentations that offered different experiences and perspectives in a dynamic and engaging format.
We also had a second snack break, which once again became an opportunity to talk, share experiences, and strengthen the connections among participants.
To wrap up the day, we held the remaining raffles, with prizes once again made possible through the generosity of our sponsors and the support of the event coordination team.
More Than an Event
WordPress Campus Connect UCR Esparza was much more than a one-day event.
Behind those hours of talks, projects, prizes, food, and laughter were weeks of planning, finding partners, communicating with sponsors and participants, organizing workshops, and working together as a team.
It was also an experience led by five female students from the University of Costa Rica, @lornamurillo@mpaulaos@brittanygarcia@luzfp06@alimezg who took on the challenge of managing the entire organization process. From planning and coordination to the design and creation of the event materials, the team was involved in every detail: T-shirts, pins, keychains, and other elements that helped give WordPress Campus Connect UCR Esparza its own identity.
In the end, we brought together 45 people and created a space where students, professionals, professors, sponsors, and community members could come together around something we all share: the desire to learn, create, and contribute.
A huge thank you to all the sponsors, students, professors, community members, and everyone who contributed to the coordination and organization of the event. Without their support, trust, and enthusiasm, WordPress Campus Connect UCR Esparza would not have been possible.
From the early planning stages to the day of the event, they were there every step of the way, offering their guidance, support, ideas, and encouragement. Having people who believed in the initiative and were willing to be there throughout the journey made a huge difference.
Thank you for being there from beginning to end and for helping us turn this idea into reality. We truly appreciate your time, support, and commitment to making this experience possible
WordPress Community
What Comes Next?
If there is one thing this experience taught us, it is that you don’t have to wait for someone else to take the first step.
If you are a student and there are people at your university, in your city, or in your community who are interested in learning, creating, and sharing around WordPress, you can take the initiative and create a space like this too.
What if the next Campus Connect starts at your university?
An idea can begin with just a few people, a conversation, and the desire to do something different. With the support of the community, local partners, and sponsors, that idea can grow into an event that helps other students discover new skills, build confidence, and connect with new opportunities.
So, if you have an idea for bringing WordPress Campus Connect to your area, take that first step! The next group of students ready to learn, create, and share might just be waiting for an initiative like yours.
Oli otya, and hello. Here’s what organizers have been running around the world, plus what’s worth trying next.
WordCampWordCampWordCamps 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. US opens Sunday
WordCamp US 2026 runs August 16 through 19 in Phoenix, opening with Contributor Day on Sunday. Tell your group about it even if nobody can travel, because Contributor DayContributor DayContributor 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://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/ is where a lot of people make their first contribution to WordPress and no experience is required. There is a Connector Table for anyone who arrives not knowing where to start.
Three events you could run, from easiest up
A WordCamp is not the only kind of WordPress event, and it is not the one most groups should start with.
Coffee and Code: The handbook’s description is hard to argue with: it “can be done in a coffee shop or any space where you can get coffee and they will let you use their wifi.” No speaker, no budget, no projector to fail on you. If your group has gone quiet, this is the one that restarts it. Eight more like it are in the event formats handbook.
A translation session: The Chiba group in Japan translates English documentation into Japanese together. They have done it about once a year for four years. The next is August 23, and it needs no speaker either. An evening turns into a contribution that stays on the site.
Walk into the college near you: Universidad del Valle de Guatemala hosted the country’s first Campus Connect on August 1. Nine teams spent half a day building sites for their own student associations, 44 students and 10 mentorsEvent SupporterEvent 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. in one room. It takes real planning, but the Community Team walks you through it.
Group of the Month: Bulamogi College Gadumire, Uganda
Bulamogi College Gadumire (Uganda)
Their Campus Connect lost electricity partway through. No laptops, no slides, nothing to project. The team taught WordPress out loud to about a hundred students instead, finished the session, and everyone walked out with certificates. The room was the point.
Also worth knowing
Your meetupMeetupMeetup 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 can have its own channel in Make WordPress SlackSlackSlack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/:
The Community Team is creating channels for local meetup groups, locale communities and flagship events. To get one, join #community-slack-migration and post your group name, your Meetup.com URLURLA specific web address of a website or web page on the Internet, such as a website’s URL www.wordpress.org, and the channels you want. Your existing message history can come with you, and Karen Arnold’s post covers the rest.
Eleven ready-made sessions you can run without building one
Learn WordPress just published hands-on activity kits, built for exactly the meeting you do not have time to prepare. Eleven are live, each running 60 to 90 minutes, and each is a single download holding a facilitator guide and a slide deck. The guide already has the learning objectives, the setup notes, the step-by-step activities and the debrief questions in it. Pick one and run it. The announcement has the full list.
Tip of the month for sustainable events:
Check whether your venue has somewhere people can refill a water bottle. The Sustainable Events Handbook asks for “a system for refilling water bottles that doesn’t rely on drums,” one of the few venue questions that costs nothing and cuts real waste.
Worth watching
Why the path from a classroom to a contributor matters.
Event formats in the handbook, and most need no speaker at all.
100
Countries with a WordPress meetup group, across 707 groups.
0
Laptops at Bulamogi’s Campus Connect after the power cut. They ran it anyway.
MeetupsMeetupMeetup 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. of the Month
WordPress Meetup Shanghai (Shanghai, China)Campus Connect Tegal (Tegal, Indonesia)Campus Connect Kishoreganj (Bangladesh)Chiba WordPress Meetup (Chiba, Japan)WordPress Nairobi Meetup (Nairobi, Kenya)Universidad del Valle de Guatemala (Guatemala)WordPress Vadodara Meetup (Vadodara, India)WordPress Brisbane Meetup (Brisbane, Australia)Campus Connect Kyoto University of Advanced Science (Japan)Campus Connect Kolhapur (Kolhapur, India)WordPress Kolhapur Meetup (Kolhapur, India)
Local meetups run in far more places than this. Everything, everywhere, is on events.wordpress.org.
Open calls for speakers:
Worth passing to your group. Someone who has never spoken before is usually one nudge away from it, and a first talk at a nearby WordCamp is how a lot of organizers started.
Not a talk, but the same shape: the WP Credits developer track wants input from developers and teachers by the end of August.
Over to you
What is the smallest event you have run that still felt worth doing? Tell us what it was and who showed up, and we will run the answers next month. Reply in the comments below, in #community-events, or by email to support@wordcamp.org, whichever you already use.
This newsletter is built from what you share!
Send your recaps and photos and your group goes in Meetups of the Month. Every group that shares one is included, so ask your group’s permission and send it. Group of the Month is for a story another organizer can learn from, and you can put any group forward including your own.
Did we miss your event? Possibly, and we would rather know. Each issue is built from what gets posted in #community-events and #campusconnect, so anything that did not land there is invisible to us. Send it over and it goes in the next issue.
Tell us what you want to read here too. If there is a section missing, a format you want explained, or a question you wish someone would answer, say so and we will build it into the next issue.
Each issue opens with a greeting from a language spoken where one of the featured groups is based. This month it is Luganda, from Uganda. If you would like your language to open an issue, tell us.
Thanks for everything you do to grow and support the WordPress community.
WordPress Credits is working. Students around the world are contributing to real projects, earning academic recognition, and graduating with a WordPress.orgWordPress.orgThe community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/ profile they can point to. What we have not built yet is what happens after that.
Right now, graduates leave the program with no defined next step. That means a lot of the momentum we built together such as the onboarding, the mentorship, the contribution work, stops at the exact moment a graduate is most capable of giving something back.
The tracking issue for this work is on GitHubGitHubGitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories that can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers. Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged by the repository owner. https://github.com/: https://github.com/WordPress/Community-Team/issues/1083
What We Are Proposing
We want to move WordPress Credits from a one-time experience to the first step in a longer contribution and career pathway. The proposal has three phases, starting with lightweight infrastructure changes and building toward a self-sustaining pipeline.
Main takeaways:
Give every graduate a clear next step. Right now the wrap-up flow ends without directing graduates anywhere specific. We want to change that with discipline-specific routing: dev-track graduates get pointed toward a WordPress Developer Certification and jobs.wordpress.net. Other tracks get equivalent routing based on what they contributed during the program.
Build a credential pathway graduates can see. The arc we are working toward: WordPress Credits (contribution program) → continued contribution → Developer credential received → ecosystem opportunity. We want graduates to be able to see the full path at the moment they finish the program, not discover it piece by piece after the fact.
Ensure students see their place in our contributing community. The arc we are working toward: WordPress Credits(contribution program) → continued contribution → peer mentoring → community leadership
Create scoped graduate contribution projects with Make teams. One of the most consistent barriers to returning is not knowing where to start. We want to work with Make WordPress teams to identify and tag real, appropriately scoped tasks that graduates can pick up. These are not new contribution areas — they are existing work made more accessible as a defined entry point.
Connect graduates to ecosystem opportunities. We are in conversations with ecosystem companies who have expressed interest in the WP Credits talent pipeline. The model we are exploring: companies fund certification exam seats for graduates, with one verifiable post-graduation contribution unlocking the seat. In return, companies get first access to graduates who pass and warm introductions to strong candidates. We are also pointing graduates to jobs.wordpress.net, where their WordPress.org contribution profile functions as a verified, public portfolio.
What We Are Looking For from the Community
This proposal touches several parts of the WordPress community, and we would love input before we move into execution:
Make team members: We want to collaborate on scoped graduate contribution projects: real tasks your team needs done, tagged as appropriate entry points for graduates returning to contribution. If you are on a Make team and interested in being part of this, please comment below or reach out in #wpcredits.
Ecosystem companies: If your company hires WordPress talent and is interested in exploring the exam seat model, we would love to talk. You can comment here or reach out directly.
Experienced contributors: If you have been through a structured contribution program yourself, whether WordPress Credits or something similar, we would love to hear what would have brought you back after graduation, and what would not have.
The full proposal includes a phased timeline, a tiered definition of what “returning to contribution” means, a 25% Tier 2 retention target for the dev-track pilot (benchmarked against comparable open sourceOpen SourceOpen Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL. programs), and a research foundation grounded in what has worked at LFX Mentorship, Outreachy, and GitHub Campus Experts.
We are not building everything at once. Phase 1 is infrastructure and one re-engagement message. Phase 2 is the dev-track pilot. Phase 3 is expansion to other tracks.
Feedback at any of these stages is welcome.
Questions or thoughts? Comment below or join the conversation in #wpcredits on the Making WordPress SlackSlackSlack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/.
For the past year we have been telling the story of WordPress Credits through updates and posts: students turning open sourceOpen SourceOpen Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL. experience into skills that launch careers, institutions building contribution into their teaching, mentorsEvent SupporterEvent 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. guiding it all. Starting today, you don’t have to take our word for it.
TheWP Credits dashboardis now live, and it shows the growth and impact of the program as it happens: students enrolled, institutions involved, contributions flowing into WordPress, new sites built and skills unlocked, plus testimonials from the people living the experience. Data refreshes weekly, pulled directly from our program records and WordPress.orgWordPress.orgThe community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/ profiles, so what you see is always the current state of the program.
Join us
The dashboard is public, and so is the invitation. There is room for you in this program:
Universities and schools: bring real open source contribution into your curriculum and give your students experience they can stand behind. Find out how you can launch your WordPress Credits program and fill out our interest form, and we will get in touch.
Companies: sponsor the program and connect with an emerging generation of WordPress talent.
Take a look at the dashboard, share it with a school or company that should be part of this, and come build the next generation of WordPress contributors with us.
See you at WCUSWCUSWordCamp US. The US flagship WordCamp event.
If you are coming to WordCampWordCampWordCamps 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. US, this is the easiest way to start the conversation. We will be at the Education Table during Contributor Day on Sunday, so come sit with us, explore the dashboard together, and see how you or your organization can get involved. The rest of the days you will find us around the venue, and we are always happy to talk students, schools, and contribution, so if you spot us (@peiraisotta and @gomp), stop us. We also deeply hope to meet in person some the students and mentors behind the numbers on the dashboard.
