I work at WordPress.com and have since 2014. It’s the longest I’ve ever stayed at an organization, and in so some ways, it typically appears like dwelling. However once I landed in Manila final Sunday night to affix a few of my colleagues on the first WordCamp Asia held within the Philippines, it actually was a homecoming. 

Born and raised in Manila, I can’t even start to explain the joys of seeing the worldwide WordPress neighborhood descend onto the busy, raucous streets of my hometown. Out of almost 1,800 attendees, a few third had been native, coming from all components of the Philippines, throughout the 7,107 islands that make up the archipelago. 

Filipinos love WordPress; on WordPress.com alone, they characterize a whole lot of hundreds of recent signups each month, persistently rating the Philippines as one of many prime 5 international locations on this planet for brand spanking new WordPress customers.

The Philippine International Convention Center, a 1970s-era Brutalist behemoth of a construction, served because the official venue for WordCamp Asia 2025. We shared its huge halls, vaulted ceilings, and vivid purple carpets with native college commencement attendees, however the sprawling advanced allowed for loads of room to unfold out. 

Matias Ventura, lead architect of Gutenberg, kicked off the official convention schedule with a considerate and provoking keynote sketching out an thrilling future for WordPress that facilities the person and delivers a friction-free, intuitive expertise. 

A jam-packed schedule of workshops and talks adopted, the place attendees may hear Elementor’s Miriam Schwab focus on the basics of GPL, be taught from digital marketer Chiaki Kouno about what having a truly successful “multilingual” WordPress site actually entails, and choose up ideas from Keiko Muto on how to get started with building an accessible site—plus a lot extra. 

On Friday night time, the WordPress.com workforce hosted a meet-and-greet comfortable hour the place we had the privilege of assembly with native and regional WordPress.com customers. Particular due to Nicole King, Carlo Carrasco, George Buid, Ajit Bohra and his colleagues from LUBUS, Vivek Jain and his crew from rtCamp, Tom and Vicky Morton, and Dika and Diane Fei for spending the night with us. 

WordPress co-founder and Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg closed out the three-day festivities with a Q&A in Assembly Room 1, an oddly generic identify for such an immense, elegant corridor. It’s also called the Rizal Corridor, which appears extra becoming. 

Jose Rizal, after whom the room and 1,000,000 buildings, colleges, streets, even whole cities within the nation are named, is our de facto nationwide hero. He was a 19th-century author, physician, and polymath whose writings helped encourage and ignite the Philippine Revolution in 1896 towards the Spanish colonial authorities. What higher place to shut a convention devoted to the liberty and democracy of open supply than in a hovering corridor named after the person who devoted his life to pursuing freedom of speech and meeting for all? 

By the best way, if you happen to missed the convention, we’ve obtained your again! Most workshops and talks, together with each keynotes talked about above, are actually out there to view on the official WordPress YouTube channel. 

Assume you may need to be part of us for WordCamp Asia 2026? We’d like to see you! WordCamp is open to all, so whether or not you’re a developer, a marketer, a designer, a help engineer, a blogger, or simply interested in what this WordPress factor is that you just’ve been listening to a lot about, WordCamp was created for you. Take a look at the WordCamp Central site for extra details about native and regional WordCamps. 

And if you happen to’re in Asia and need to expertise the joy of WordCamp Asia subsequent yr, begin planning now: we’ll see you in 2026 in Mumbai, India!