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X-post: WordPress Contributor Toolkit 2.0: A redesigned app, in your language

X-post from +make.wordpress.org/core: WordPress Contributor Toolkit 2.0: A redesigned app, in your language

Monthly Education Buzz Report – September 2026

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

September was the busiest month WordPress Campus Connect (WPCC) has had so far. WordCamp Central lists 13 Campus Connect events held during the month across India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Costa Rica, and Spain, plus the multi-week Surat and Ajmer series. Campus Connect now makes up 64 of the 138 community events on the 2026 calendar, more than any other format, according to the Community Events dashboard.

77

Completed Events

140

Participating Institutions

7800+

Students Reached

From campus to the 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. stage

WordPress Campus Connect Beenova opened on September 12 in Cartago, Costa Rica, with 52 students aged 17 to 24 from the Empléate program run by the Ministry of Labor and Social Security for young people in vulnerable conditions. Students heard talks from Sammy Arburola and Gianko, painted their own Wapuu, and created their WordPress accounts before the day ended. Sponsor HHC Academies covered the day and, with it, WordCamp tickets and transport for the whole cohort. Organizers were Sebastián Zúñiga, Sammy Arburola, and Gianko, supported by volunteer 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. Johazz, Gerardo Venegas, Juan Prendas, and Francisco Leiton.

A week later, WordCamp Costa Rica (September 18–19) sold out at 368 attendees, and at least 100 of them were Campus Connect students from Beenova and UCR Esparza. Stefanía Venegas, who placed second in the UCR Esparza project showcase in August, was one of the main speakers with “Your WordPress site is already generating data: learn how to read it.” @lornamurillo published the full recap of WordPress Campus Connect UCR Esparza, an event organized entirely by five female students from the University of Costa Rica.

Three events in one month in Gujarat

@chean200891 organized his first WPCC at OM Education Campus, Junagadh (September 7–8), the first WordPress event ever held in that city, where more than 90 students built their first websites. He followed it with Adani University, Ahmedabad (September 19), with 80+ students and seven faculty members, and Gyanmanjari Innovative University, Bhavnagar (September 28), which drew 150+ students and 15+ faculty and made the local newspaper.

Surat finished its first series, and the college asked for more

Organized across three colleges as three chapters, Aarambh at SSASIT (August 29), Udaan at VNSGU (September 12), and Pragati at TDEC (September 26), WPCC Surat 2026 closed with 470+ registrations and 300+ students attending, together with 20 to 25 faculty members who received certificates. The college has since asked for a dedicated faculty training session. Lead organizer Sajid Ansari worked with co-leads Alkesh Miyani, Priyanka Sida, Hardik Kukadiya, and Amitkumar Dudhat, with @webtechpooja as Event SupporterEvent 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..

A Coruña: one program leading into the next

At the Universidad de A Coruña (September 30), teachers Carlos Longarela and Ana Cirujano guided students through building their first site, and a former attendee of the Liceo La Paz Campus Connect returned to share her journey from WPCC into WordPress Credits. Liceo La Paz hosts a repeat Campus Connect on November 30.

Campus Connects held in September

Program updates

  • @piyopiyofox published Keeping WordPress Campus Connect true to its purpose, asking organizers to build events around what students do: create a WordPress.orgWordPress.org The 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/ account, build a first site, make a first contribution. The handbook was updated to match.
  • She also proposed a WordCamp Education Sponsor Fund for Flagships, one fund to bring WPCC and WP Credits students to flagship WordCamps, piloting at WordCamp Asia 2027 with eight students.
  • @desrosj proposed identifying WPCC and WP Credits participants on WordPress.org profiles, including each participant’s mentorEvent 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., so experienced contributors can spot and support newcomers.

Planning your own event? Join the #campusconnect 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/ channel.

WordPress Credits

September was the biggest intake month yet for WordPress Credits. As of the October 1 monthly snapshot, the program counts 45 partner institutions, 363 graduates (up 13 since mid-September), 522 WordPress sites created (up 28), and 459 first contributions made. The live dashboard shows 924 students joined to date across 17 countries, contributing to 15 WordPress teams, with an 88% graduation rate and 87% of graduates recommending the program.

New cohorts and partners

The #wpcredits channel filled with introductions all month, led by a large new cohort at Universidad Fidélitas in Costa Rica and joined by students from Italy, Bolivia, Spain, Bangladesh, and CUNY City Tech. Two firsts stand out: Colegio Universitario de Cartago started its first cohort with about 20 Big Data students, and high school students from Liceo Experimental Bilingüe José Figueres Ferrer are translating WordPress.org MetaMeta Meta is a term that refers to the inside workings of a group. For us, this is the team that works on internal WordPress sites like WordCamp Central and Make WordPress. into Costa Rican Spanish. Rowan University in the United States moved to the agreement stage, mapping Credits hours onto academic credit, with a first cohort planned for spring 2027, and UIN Banten became the second Indonesian institution to sign a Credits agreement.

From student to mentor

Atikur Rahman, who graduated from WP Credits earlier this year and leads the student club at Ahmad’s Education in Dhaka, is now a WP Credits mentor, supporting the 17-student cohort that started on September 21. New mentors also joined from Serbia, Romania, Spain, and Costa Rica. Program admin Rita Robles Loaiza won first place at the 18th Latin American Women in Computing Conference with a paper on WP Credits.

Courses and tracks

WordPress.org News also featured the program in Students Built 108 Websites in Two Weeks, covering cohorts in Bangladesh, Uganda, and Costa Rica.

WordPress Facilitator Training Program

@piyopiyofox published The WordPress Facilitator Training Program, Five Months In, tracing the first complete outcome chain: @devmuhib’s online faculty workshop in Bangladesh led to a full WP Credits program at Ahmad’s Education, five graduates, and one graduate now leading the school’s student club and mentoring the next cohort. @webtechpooja conducted an in-person faculty workshop at Texas International College in Nepal, where 11 faculty members took part in a hands-on session with help from @regankhadgi. @webtechpooja is now program lead, and two courses are open to anyone who wants to teach WordPress: Leading WordPress Education Programs and AI Literacy through WordPress.

WordPress Student Clubs

@devmuhib published Proposal: Rethinking how Student Clubs actually run, the first full definition of a club’s lifecycle from application to offboarding, with a readiness checklist for institutions, a mentor for the first 60 days, an eight-indicator health score, and three paths for graduating club leaders. A baseline audit of all recognized clubs starts in October.

Other Happenings

Get Involved

Education Initiatives

WordPress Education offers three practical ways for learners to develop skills, gain practical experience, and build confidence as open sourceOpen Source Open 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.

See something in the community that should be noted here or in a future newsletter? Comment below!

Stay tuned for next month’s update!

Props to @peiraisotta for collaborating on this with me.

#campusconnect, #education-buzz, #wpcredits

WordPress Credits is opening sponsorship tiers

WordPress Credits is a program of the WordPress FoundationWordPress Foundation The WordPress Foundation is a charitable organization founded by Matt Mullenweg to further the mission of the WordPress open source project: to democratize publishing through Open Source, GPL software. Find more on wordpressfoundation.org., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and it connects students at partner institutions with real contribution work on the WordPress project. We began with eight partner institutions, and in our first year we have worked across 17 countries and reached over 900 students. If you want to watch it happen, the WP Credits dashboard refreshes weekly from our program records and WordPress.orgWordPress.org The 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.

That growth is the reason for this post. The program has reached the point where curriculum, translation, tooling, and the work of bringing new institutions on board all need steady funding behind them, and our current sponsorship setup was never designed for that. So we’re piloting new ways to support the program and the students, from in-kind mentorship through to funding an entire program. This is a test for 2027: we’ll run it, publish what we learn, and adjust or retire what doesn’t work.

Thank you to the sponsors who got us here

Weglot and Automattic have supported this program since it was an idea on a page, sponsoring the people who have designed, built, and worked to ensure the program improves and adapts to the needs of students and the community. Along with WPBakery, Hostinger, DreamHost, Hosting.com, Raiola Networks, Cloud86, Smarthost, Villa Sostaga, Elementor, miniOrange, and Novamira, they have also sponsored 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. who guide students, and contributed products that students use throughout the program. Mentors sponsored through Five for the Future have done the daily work of guiding students, cohort after cohort. None of the numbers above would exist without them, and the tiers below are built on what they made possible.

The tiers

Our community is vibrant and evolving, and we love stepping into new territory: trying, adjusting, and learning from what works and what doesn’t. That’s what has allowed a community more than 20 years old to evolve, overcome a global pandemic, and thrive. Starting in 2027, we’ll pilot the following tiers and refine them as we learn. These tiers cover WordPress Credits, and WordPress Campus Connect events stay separate from them.

FriendSupporterBackerChampionPartner
AnnualIn-kind (5ftF)$5,000$10,000$15,000$30,000+
Name on the partner page✓✓✓✓✓
Mention in the mentorEvent 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. feature✓✓✓✓✓
Acknowledged in the sponsor thank you post✓✓✓✓✓
Logo and description on the partner page✓✓✓✓
Badge for your own site✓✓✓✓
Annual program report✓✓✓✓
Named for what you fund in program communications✓✓✓
Report covering that cost line✓✓✓
A self-written educational post about the sponsored product*✓✓✓
An additional self-written sponsor post with factual, value-neutral information about additional products*✓✓
Invitation to the annual education partners session✓✓
Co-hosted webinar or event✓✓
Named as program partner on the program you fund✓
Named in launch communications✓
Program-specific report✓

*Sponsor posts are drafted by the company and published on wordpresseducation.org once the education team has reviewed them, so that everything we publish stays useful to students first.

Expand this section to read the list of the tiers instead of a table
  • Friend, in-kind through Five for the Future. For companies sponsoring mentors through Five for the Future. Company name on the partner page at wordpresseducation.org, a mention in the mentor feature, and acknowledgement in the sponsor thank you post.
  • Supporter, $5,000 a year. Everything above, plus logo and description on the partner page, a badge for your own site, and the annual program report.
  • Backer, $10,000 a year. Everything above, plus being named for the specific part of the program you fund, a report covering that cost line, and a self-written educational post about the sponsored product on wordpresseducation.org.
  • Champion, $15,000 a year. Everything above, plus an additional self-written post with factual, value-neutral information about additional products, an invitation to our annual education partners session, and a webinar or event co-hosted with the education program.
  • Partner, from $30,000 a year. Everything above, plus funding a named program end to end, with the exclusive program partner role, a mention in launch communications, and a report specific to that program.

Products donated for student use

Separately from the tiers, sponsors at any level may offer free access to their products for students to use in the program, and the Foundation decides how those are shared. Donated products are offered at no cost to students, require no card details to use, and come with a way for students to export or move their work so nobody is locked in.

Donations may be tax deductible to the extent allowed by law, less the value of any benefits received, and we will note that value in your acknowledgment letter. Donated products and services are not tax deductible. Please check with your own tax advisor.

What the Partner tier makes possible

This is the tier we most want people to look at. A Partner sponsorship funds a complete, named program, the kind we haven’t been able to build yet because we’ve always had to work within what we could afford, which means we can build programs around real needs rather than available budgets. That could be students translating WordPress into languages with thin coverage, students working on 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), or students building sites for nonprofit organizations that could not otherwise commission them, and those are only the first ideas we came up with, so there is plenty of room for others. If you see a need in the ecosystem that students could help meet, we would rather shape the program with you than hand you a list to choose from.

A Partner sponsor is named as program partner on the program they fund, holds the exclusive role within that program, is named in launch communications, and receives a report specific to that program.

Choosing a tier

A program managerProgram Manager Program Managers (formerly Super Deputies) are Program Supporters who can perform extra tasks on WordCamp.org like creating new sites and publishing WordCamps to the schedule. is reaching out to every current sponsor over the coming days to talk through which tier fits, and to make sure nobody ends up in a tier that asks more of them than they intended. If you sponsor the program today, you will hear from us directly, so there is nothing you need to do.

If your company is not yet involved and you would like to be, the application form is here.


We are glad to talk it through first if that is easier. You can find us in the #wpcredits channel in the Make 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/, or send us an email at education@wordpressfoundation.org, and we’re always happy to answer questions before you commit.

#wpcredits

WPCC event payment arrangement in Indonesia

Most WordPress Campus Connect (WPCC) events in Indonesia are organized by universities and schools that are new to WordPress and to the Community Program. To keep payments simple for them, we’ve set up a local payment arrangement is being shared here for transparency.

Why a local approach

  • Events in Indonesia can’t use CampTix, and international wire transfers are a poor fit for small local vendor payments.
  • Until now, events have relied on the Lead Organizer’s bank account or local sponsorships
  • New organizers shouldn’t have to front costs from their own pockets or take on that financial overhead for a first event.

The payment process

WordPress Community SupportWordPress Community Support WordPress Community Support PBC is a Public Benefit Corporation, created specifically to be the financial and legal support for WordCamps, WordPress Meetup groups, and any additional “official” events organized within the WordPress Community Events program. (WPCSWordPress Community Support WordPress Community Support PBC is a Public Benefit Corporation, created specifically to be the financial and legal support for WordCamps, WordPress Meetup groups, and any additional “official” events organized within the WordPress Community Events program.) funds are graciously being held locally by @devinmaeztri, a Indonesian WPCC event mentorEvent 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., who pays vendors in IDR on behalf of each event.

  1. The organizer sends the mentor the vendor’s invoice and payment details.
  2. The mentor pays the vendor.
  3. The organizer submits a Vendor Payment request which is verified and marked as Payment Sent with a note that it was paid locally
  4. The mentor records each payment in spreadsheet with the date, event, item, payee, and status. WPCS has access to the ledger for tracking purposes.

What success looks like

Every event runs its sessions with no finance issues, and all items are reported in line with the WordCamp Organizer Handbook: Budget and Finances.

This setup is specific to WPCC events in Indonesia. Any questions or feedback is welcome in the comments.

#community-management, #community-team, #wpcc

Community Inboxes are now on FreeScout

Thanks to @obenland and the team, the migration from Help Scout to FreeScout is complete for all Community team inboxes.

Please start using FreeScout for your community team work now: https://freescout.wordpress.net/

What to know

  • Use filtered views instead of search: MetaMeta Meta is a term that refers to the inside workings of a group. For us, this is the team that works on internal WordPress sites like WordCamp Central and Make WordPress. is working to get the search fast and effective. Until then, use the filtered views we’ve created, or you can also try searching within a tag.
  • Documentation is updated: We’ve updated text and screenshots that referred to Help Scout, but if you see anything we’ve missed, please update or flag it.
  • You can use old Help Scout links to find conversations in FreeScout.

Finding & Using the Conversation ID:

  1. Grab the conversation ID from the old link. It’s at the end of the URLURL A specific web address of a website or web page on the Internet, such as a website’s URL www.wordpress.org, or just before ?viewId if one exists.
  2. Paste it at the end of this URL: https://freescout.wordpress.net/search?q=%23

For example:

Old link: https://secure.helpscout.net/conversation/3483220102/1139127?viewId=abc
ID: 1139127
New link: https://freescout.wordpress.net/search?q=%231139127

That loads the conversation in FreeScout with its new URL, so you can update the old reference.

Questions?

If you have questions about using FreeScout for Community team work, ask in the #community-team channel 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/.

A hackathon instead of a workshop, a sold-out WordCamp full of students, and a first contribution in an hour

Hola, and hello. Welcome to your monthly roundup of practical ideas, community updates, and results from organizers around the WordPress community.

Worth celebrating

WordPress Youth Day Nicaragua. Kids and teenagers in Managua spent Saturday, October 10 building websites and online stores at the third WordPress Youth Day Nicaragua, in hands-on workshops split by age from 9 to 18.

The organizers’ recap counts 113 participants: 62 of them at their first official WordPress event, and 52 of them girls.

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. Guatemala. Organizers planned for 150 people on October 10 and welcomed 162, with 20 speakers across two tracks and about 30 organizers and volunteers.

WordCamp Costa Rica. The September 18 and 19 event sold out at 368 attendees, and at least 100 of them came from Campus Connect UCR Esparza and Campus Connect BeeNova. The second-place student from the UCR Esparza showcase featured in last month’s issue was one of the speakers, with a talk on reading the data your WordPress site already collects.

New groups. Limón, Costa Rica joined 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. chapter program on October 14, the same week as Gandia in Spain, Mostviertel in Austria, Cincinnati in the US, and Gwalior in India. Graz became Austria’s fourth meetup city in September, and Philadelphia held its first WordPress meetup in a very long time on September 24.

What happens when the workshop becomes a challenge

Campus Connect organizers in Dhaka noticed that students already line up for hackathons and programming contests, so they tried one at Stamford University Bangladesh: two days of online hackathon, then a day of seminar and workshop. Around 180 people registered, about 100 of them for the hackathon, across three tracks for beginners, designers, and developers. The result was 40 websites and 82 new WordPress.orgWordPress.org The 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.

The write-up is honest about what did not work. About half of the registered students never took part in the hackathon, and some beginners stopped when they got stuck with nobody online to help. The organizers are now weighing a sequence of a Learn WordPress course, then a workshop, then the hackathon, and they are asking for ideas in the comments.

It lines up with new guidance for Campus Connect: build each event around something students actually do, such as creating a WordPress.org account, building a first site, or making a first contribution, rather than a day of talks. The Event Formats & Standards handbook page has been updated to match, so check it as you plan.

And when students build something, give them a stage. Making space for the next generation of WordPress builders describes students presenting their sites at WordCamp Europe 2026, and a sponsorship tier that brought WordPress Credits graduates to the event as volunteers and contributors.

Three formats to borrow this month

  1. A one-hour contribution session. WP LATAM ran its first online mini contribution session on September 30: 20 photos submitted to the Photo Directory, 10 strings translated, and one video subtitled, with 80% of attendees contributing in those areas for the first time. A draft guide for mini contributor sessions covers 30 and 60 minute versions, and its authors want organizers to try it and report back.
  2. Bring a pluginPlugin A 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.. When storms cut transport links across Chiba Prefecture, the Chiba WordPress Meetup moved its September 27 meeting online and asked everyone to introduce one favorite plugin. Two people the organizer had met at 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. gave lightning talks on plugins they are building, and several attendees showed plugins of their own. It works online or in a room, and it needs almost no preparation.
  3. A campus series with a name for each stop. Campus Connect Surat ran its sessions as a named journey across partner colleges, starting with Aarambh, “the beginning.” Across three colleges, more than 470 people registered and more than 300 students attended, and one college asked the team to run a similar session for its faculty.

Group of the Month: WordPress Ahmedabad, India

The September WordPress Ahmedabad Meetup drew more than 80 people, and one of its organizers spent the same month taking WordPress to three campuses. Campus Connect at OM Education Campus, Junagadh on September 7 and 8 was the first WordPress community event in Junagadh, and more than 90 students built their first website on day two. Adani University, Ahmedabad followed on September 19 with more than 80 students, then Gyanmanjari Innovative University, Bhavnagar on September 28 with more than 150 students, more than 15 faculty members, and coverage in the local newspaper. For an established group, the pattern is worth copying: lend the people and habits you already have to a nearby city that has never had a WordPress event.

Also worth knowing

Meetup groups are moving to events.wordpress.org

An update on community groups explains the move off Meetup.com for roughly 700 groups. Members will join the new groups themselves with a WordPress.org account, so start asking your members to create one now. Groups willing to run real events on the new platform as a pilot can say so in the comments, especially groups outside Europe and North America and groups that don’t meet in English.

Who can organize a meetup event?

A Tokyo co-organizer asked a fair question after three handbook pages seemed to disagree. The answer they got: any community member can run an event without being a co-organizer, but should coordinate with the group’s co-organizers, who confirm the person is trustworthy and following the Five Good Faith Rules. The post proposes writing that down in one place. Add your view in the comments.

Students are organizing their own Campus Connect

Campus Connect Universidad Fidélitas in San José on November 12 and 13 is the WordPress Credits contribution project of three students, one of them the lead organizer. The tickets include a “Conectá a alguien” option that helps cover materials for the students attending.

Keep your event website working after the event

Instead of leaving a dead countdown and a ticket button, turn it into a closing page: photos with credits, talks with slides and WordPress.tv links, recaps, and a clear invitation to join your local group. WordCamp Costa Rica 2026 is doing it now, so you can watch theirs change.

Organizing in the US or Canada?

Events in the US and Canada: the plan through 2027 lays out three stages, starting with getting meetups back on track, and offers a menu of event types rather than a mandate. It is worth reading in full if you organize there.

A profile marker for Campus Connect participants?

A proposal suggests marking Campus Connect and WordPress Credits participants on their WordPress.org profiles, along with their mentorEvent 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. or facilitator, so experienced contributors know who to welcome and support. Comments are open.

By the numbers

368

attendees filled a sold-out WordCamp Costa Rica, at least 100 of them from Campus Connect.

162

people came to WordCamp Guatemala, against a plan for 150.

82

new WordPress.org profiles came out of the Campus Connect hackathon at Stamford University Bangladesh.

80%

of attendees at WP LATAM’s first contribution session were contributing in those areas for the first time.

Coming up

DateEventWhere
Oct 24, 2026WordPress Day for AI Faro 2026Faro, Portugal
Oct 24, 2026 – Oct 25, 2026WordCamp Islamabad 2026Islamabad, Pakistan
Oct 24, 2026 – Oct 25, 2026WordCamp Sofia 2026Sofia, Bulgaria
Oct 25, 2026WordPress Campus Connect Trasa CoWorking Space, TegalTegal, Indonesia
Oct 30, 2026WordCamp Johannesburg 2026Johannesburg, South Africa
Oct 30, 2026 – Oct 31, 2026WordCamp Brasil 2026Belo Horizonte, Brazil
Oct 31, 2026 – Nov 1, 2026WordCamp Valencia 2026Valencia, Spain
Nov 5, 2026 – Nov 6, 2026WordCamp Canada 2026Vancouver, Canada
Nov 6, 2026WordCamp Manchester 2026Manchester, UK
Nov 12, 2026 – Nov 13, 2026WordCamp Netherlands 2026Netherlands
Nov 12, 2026 – Nov 13, 2026WordPress Campus Connect Universidad Fidélitas, San JoséSan José, Costa Rica
Nov 13, 2026 – Nov 14, 2026WordCamp Pisa 2026Pisa, Italy
Nov 14, 2026WordPress Campus Connect Manila, PhilippinesMetro Manila, Philippines

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.

Over to you

Have you tried a contribution activity at your meetup, even a small one? Tell us what people finished and what got in the way, so the next organizer can plan around it.

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. Send your recap in #community-events or #campusconnect for the next issue, which publishes Friday, November 13.

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.

Need support or guidance?

The Community Team is here to help. Email support@wordcamp.org or join us in #community-events on the Making 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/.

Each issue opens with a greeting from a language spoken where one of the featured groups is based. This month it is Spanish, for the organizers in Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Costa Rica featured above. If you would like your language to open an issue, tell us.

Thanks for everything you do to grow and support the WordPress community.

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Our First WordPress Campus Connect Hackathon: What Worked, What Didn’t, and What’s Next?

Over the past few months, we have been visiting universities in Dhaka, Bangladesh and speaking with students about WordPress, technology, their interests, and activities.

We’ve noticed hackathons, programming challenges, robotics competitions, cybersecurity competitions, and similar activities are already popular in many universities. There was a clear excitement around the idea of competing, building something, and proving what you can do.

In most of the campus connect events, we generally try to conduct workshops. But there is one issue we experience with the traditional workshop model:

Students often learn because we are asking them to learn!

What Changes When Learning Becomes a Competition?

A competition creates a different environment. Students have a problem to solve. They have to search for information, read documentation, experiment with different approaches, and build something themselves.

That is why we wanted to test whether a hackathon-based approach could be a better way to introduce WordPress to university students. Recently, we tried this at Stamford University Bangladesh as part of our Campus Connect program.

The experience gave us both positive and negative findings. More importantly, it raised several questions that we think are worth discussing with the community.

What We Tried

Our Campus Connect program followed a three-day format:

  • 2 days of online hackathon
  • 1 day of WPCC Seminar and Workshop
  • Approximately 180 registered, among 100 student registered for hackathon
  • 40 websites created (We are working to publish website lists on the event website soon)
  • 82 WordPress profiles created

We designed three different hackathon tracks so that students with different skill levels could participate.

Discover WordPress

This track was specifically designed for students who had little or no previous WordPress experience. Participants were asked to research WordPress online, learn about its purpose and use cases, answer related questions, and build a basic website.

The goal wasn’t to make them WordPress experts. The goal was to answer a simpler question:

Can a student who doesn’t know WordPress learn enough independently to understand what WordPress is and what it can do?

This was the most popular track, with around 20 participants.

Designer Track

The designer track had around seven participants. Participants were given different website creation tasks.

Since we knew the participants were mostly beginners, we didn’t want to judge them purely based on professional-level design quality.

Instead, we looked at things like:

  • Was the website customized?
  • Did the participant simply import a demo?
  • Did they make an effort to improve the design?
  • Did they show creativity?
  • Did they complete the assigned task?

We wanted to reward learning and effort rather than simply the most polished-looking website.

WordPress Campus Connect SEU

Developer Track

The developer track had only two participants. They were asked to create basic WordPress plugins. Both had experience with other technology stacks but had never created WordPress plugins before.

AI tools were allowed. The requirement was simply to create something functional.

One participant created a related-posts pluginPlugin A 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., while another created a counter plugin.

Although participation was low, this track demonstrated something interesting: developers familiar with other technologies can potentially use AI, documentation, and experimentation to quickly start exploring WordPress development.

What we’ve learned?

Our first experiment wasn’t perfect, but several things worked better than we expected.

Students Are Willing to Learn When There Is a Challenge

One of the strongest arguments for this format is self-directed learning. When a student is given a problem instead of a lecture, the learning process becomes more active.

  • They have to search.
  • They have to experiment.
  • They have to make decisions.
  • They have to solve problems.

This is very different from simply following a workshop instructor.

Anyone Can Participate

WPCC SEU

The Discover WordPress track gave us another positive signal. We often assume that students need to know something before they can participate in a technical competition. But a well-designed beginner track can give students an opportunity to learn while competing.

However, the challenge needs to be designed specifically for beginners. Giving a complete beginner an advanced WordPress development task will probably discourage rather than motivate them.

Competition Creates Motivation

Students already seem to have a strong interest in competitive activities. Instead of asking:

“Would you like to learn WordPress?”

We can potentially ask:

“Can you solve this challenge using WordPress?”

The second question creates a very different motivation. Students aren’t only learning technology. They are trying to accomplish something. That competitive element can make learning more engaging.

Drawbacks of the hackathon format

Although we received a large number of registrations, approximately 50% of registered students did not participate in the hackathon. This raises an important question, Why?

Based on what we observed, difficulty may be one factor. Some students started the challenge, answered several questions, and then stopped. For a student who doesn’t know WordPress, even a relatively simple task can become intimidating if they don’t know where to start. And in an online hackathon, there is another problem:

Support isn’t always immediately available.

If a student gets stuck and there is nobody available to explain the next step, quitting can become easier than continuing.

Should Beginners Be Put Directly Into a Hackathon?

This is probably the biggest question we are currently debating. Imagine a student who has never used WordPress. We tell them:

“Here is a hackathon. Build something.”

Is that really a fair starting point? Maybe!

But perhaps there is a better approach. Instead of:

Workshop → Go home

or

Hackathon → Figure everything out yourself

We could try:

Participate on Learn WordPress Courses  → Workshop → Hackathon 

For example, we could first run a short workshop introducing WordPress. Then give students a small challenge that they can complete within an hour. But again, this is something we need to test rather than assume.

Judging Is Another Major Challenge

A mixed-skill hackathon makes judging more challenging because beginners, designers, developers, and experienced WordPress users bring different strengths. Creating separate tracks can help address these differences, but it also makes the judging process more complex.

Multi-track vs one challenge for all?

Should we introduce multiple tracks, such as WordPress Security, eCommerce, Development, and Design, to allow participants to focus on their areas of interest? Or would it be better to create a single challenge that covers different aspects of WordPress?

Multiple tracks could encourage participants to explore their strengths and specialize in specific areas, while a single challenge could provide a more unified experience and make evaluation easier.

Which approach would work best for engaging university students with different skill levels and interests? I’d love to hear the community’s thoughts on the advantages and challenges of both approaches.

What We Think So Far

Based on this first experiment, we’d love to hear the community’s thoughts on how hackathons and workshops can complement each other in WordPress Campus Connect. What role should each format play in engaging university students and helping them learn WordPress?

So perhaps the best approach isn’t Workshop vs Hackathon.

It may be:

Workshop + Challenge + Hackathon

The workshop provides the foundation. The small challenge builds confidence. The hackathon creates the opportunity to apply that knowledge independently. This is our current thinking, but we don’t consider it a proven model yet.

Where We Want to Go From Here

We are interested in taking this format to more universities in Bangladesh. But we don’t want to simply copy the same event and run it again. We want to improve the model first. What positive and negative do you see on this approach? Can you suggest some improvement or share new ideas that we can try?

We Want Your Opinion

This is where we would really like feedback from the WordPress community. We are not presenting this as a finished or proven model. This was our first attempt.

How can we design a hackathon where a student who knows nothing about WordPress can participate, learn something meaningful, and finish the event feeling more confident than when they started?

We would love to hear both positive and negative feedback.

If you’ve organized hackathons, workshops, university programs, WordPress events, or similar competitions, we’d especially like to hear what worked for you—and what you would do differently.

Making space for the next generation of WordPress builders

This started as a small experiment at WCUSWCUS WordCamp US. The US flagship WordCamp event. 2025, grew stronger at WCAsia 2026, and hit a real milestone at WCEU 2026, where students from Kraków University of Technology, Kraków University of Economics, and VIII LO high school took the stage to show the WordPress sites they built over the year. It was one of the strongest sessions of the event, and I want to thank the WCEUWCEU WordCamp Europe. The European flagship WordCamp event. 2026 team for making room for it. Watching young people present real, professional work in front of a packed room is exactly the kind of moment that turns curiosity into contribution.

WCEU 2026 also pioneered a sponsorship tier that funded WordPress Credits graduates to attend the event, and the impact went well beyond the stage. They volunteered throughout the event, joined 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://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/, shared their experience in a session, visited every sponsor booth, and had a blast at the parties. Watching them want to stay is the clearest sign this works. And that impact shouldn’t end when the event does: one of our goals should be creating a pathway for these students to stay connected to the community afterward, whether as contributors, volunteers, organizers, or even 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. for future cohorts.

That’s also the reason for this post. Education feeds the entire WordPress ecosystem. Every student who builds a site, joins a contributor day, or presents their work is a potential future contributor, organizer, agency owner, or pluginPlugin A 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. author, and every flagship event that gives that work a stage compounds that effect for years. If we want WordPress to still have 20+ more years ahead of it, we need a steady pipeline of new builders, and flagship events are where that pipeline becomes visible to the whole community.

I don’t want this thread to debate whether Education should have a presence at flagship and major events. The last three cycles already proved it works. I want us to agree on how we make it work consistently, so every organizing team isn’t rebuilding the conversation from scratch, and so we can move faster and smoother starting with WCAsia 2027.

What I’m proposing

A lightweight, repeatable framework to pilot in 2027 that any flagship or big event team can plug into their planning, rather than a rigid template:

  • A bridge per team. One or two people from each organizing team should be appointed early as the WordPress Credits team’s point of contact for Education. This person doesn’t need to own an edu track, they just need to help us plan the logistics and timing on their end. (We’re also discussing whether it’s worth having someone from the WordPress Credits team embedded directly in the Speakers/Local Organizing team — thoughts are welcomed)
  • Reserved space, not a fixed format. One to three slots reserved for our programs at each flagship event. These don’t have to sit in a dedicated education track. They could be a workshop slot, part of opening or closing, or wherever makes sense for that event’s schedule and audience — the format should follow the outcome we want: showcasing student projects tends to work best on stage, while introducing students to contribution often works better as a workshop or as part of Contributor Day.
  • A pathway for student participation. Where possible, explore sponsorship or travel-support mechanisms, building on the model piloted at WCEU 2026, that allow WordPress Credits graduates and participants from other Education programs to attend the event, volunteer, join Contributor Day, and present their work. Reserving space creates the opportunity, but for students from other countries or regions, actually getting there can still be a significant barrier.
  • Flexibility on timing. Student and program features often can’t be confirmed as early as a standard call for speakers requires. We need organizing teams to build in some flexibility for these slots to be finalized a few weeks out rather than months. This matters especially because academic calendars don’t align with 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. planning timelines, and cohorts, student projects, institutional approvals, and student availability may only become clear much closer to the event date.

Questions for organizers

  • Who from your team can take on the bridge role for your event?
  • Where in your schedule do one to three slots for Education realistically fit, and does that depend on the format we bring?
  • What’s the latest point in your planning timeline where you could still confirm a feature like this?
  • What existing sponsorship, scholarship, or travel-support mechanisms could be used or adapted to help students participate?

I’d also like us to agree on a small set of shared metrics to track going forward, nothing too complex: number of students participating, Contributor Day participation, volunteering at the event, post-event contributions, and how many remain engaged with the community after three or six months. This would help us move from individual success stories to comparable evidence across events.

Next steps

Please leave your thoughts, suggestions, and answers to the questions above in the comments by October 30. Once we hear from each team, I’ll put together the framework based on what’s realistic across events and share it back here before we start applying it to WCAsia 2027 planning.

Tagging the 2027 flagship event lead organizers and mentors, but everyone on the organizing teams is welcome to chime in! Please feel free to add anyone I might have missed: @wpwebhost, @onealtr, @nukaga, @julians3, @lanche86, @emmawager, @crixu, @nilovelez, @malgra, @meganmariemarcel, @krupajnanda

Kudos to the following people for co-writing and reviewing this post: @karenalma, @celigaroe, @roblesloaiza, @francescodicandia, @naseem10, @krupajnanda

How can we make the most of a WordCamp, Campus Connect, or WordPress Event website after the event ends?

For weeks, or even months, an event website works nonstop. It’s where people find the schedule, get to know the speakers, buy their tickets, see which sponsors support the event, and discover the culture of the community behind it. It’s the gateway to the event.

But then the event ends, the lights go out, and the website stays the same: a schedule full of past dates, a “Buy your ticket” button that no longer works, and a countdown stuck at zero. The website we worked so hard on stops adding value just when more people come looking for it.

That’s why I recommend that communities organizing WordCamps, Campus Connect events, or any WordPress Event turn their website into a closing landing page after the event. There’s no need to rebuild it from scratch. Reorganizing the content is enough to shift the site from announcing the event to telling what happened and inviting people to stay involved.

What to include

  1. Photos and a repository to download them
    Share a selection on the site and a link to the full gallery. Credit each photographer and, if you can, state the license under which the photos can be reused and how to give credit.
  2. Talks with slides and recordings
    For each talk, include the title, the speaker’s name, the slides as a PDF, and the link to WordPress.tv. Videos can take a while to be published, so you can post the slides first and add the videos later.
  3. A call to action: join the community
    This is the most important part. Anyone visiting the site after the event has already shown interest. Add a visible button with a message such as “Did you enjoy the event? Join our community” that links to your local 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.
  4. News, testimonials, and blog posts
    Gather in one place the recaps, posts, and articles written about the event. This shows the event’s impact through the voice of its own community and gives visibility to those who wrote about it.

An example in progress

We’re putting this into practice with 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. Costa Rica 2026. The event took place on September 18 and 19, and we’re turning the site into a closing landing page. You can follow the changes at https://costarica.wordcamp.org/2026/

“Talks and Presentations” for the WCCR26 event. Displays three scheduled talks. Each panel shows a photo of the speaker and includes links to “Download Presentation” and “See More.”
Talks and Presentations Section

Benefits

  • The website stays useful for months.
  • People who couldn’t attend can still benefit from the talks.
  • Speakers, photographers, volunteers, and sponsors get recognition, which motivates them to come back.
  • Interest from the event turns into participation in the local community.
  • It creates an archive for the next organizing team and shows future sponsors what the event achieved.
  • Photos and testimonials show what WordPress is like in your city or country.

In summary

An event’s work doesn’t end when the last day is over. With just a few changes, the website can keep adding value: preserving the memory of the event, sharing knowledge, recognizing the people who made it possible, and, above all, inviting more people to become part of the community.

If you organize a WordCamp, a Campus Connect, or a WordPress Event, I invite you to add this task to your post-event checklist. Your next event starts with the people who stay.

Thank you to @_dorsvenabili and @karenalma for their support and review.

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