WordCamp US 2024 was a fantastic event that brought together WordPress enthusiasts, professionals, and experts from all over the world. The three-day conference, held in Portland, Oregon, was packed with insightful presentations, networking opportunities, and a chance to explore the latest trends in WordPress, digital marketing, and more.
Day 1: The Power of WordPress
The conference kicked off with an intriguing case study by Alexandra Guffey on Disney’s transformation using Gutenberg, WordPress’ block editor. The talk highlighted how Disney managed to launch 60 websites on its new platform in just two years, an impressive feat demonstrating the power and scalability of WordPress.
James LePage’s presentation on integrating AI with WordPress was another highlight. He introduced AgentWP, an AI-powered plugin that once officially released will offer real-time troubleshooting, support, and a conversational interface for users right from the admin dashboard of WordPress. Very exciting stuff.
Day 2: Open Source, Customer Success, and Agency Growth
Day 2 began with an abstract yet thought-provoking talk by Joseph Jacks on how open source is rapidly consuming software. It was eye opening to see how the growth of the open source movement is now catching up and will eventually overtake more traditional proprietary software solutions that saw major growth in the late 1900s and early 2000s. Gary Kovar then explored the new NASA site’s features and how the WP admin functions as mission control.
Michele Frechette’s session on building a customer success team was a goldmine for agencies. She emphasized the importance of delighting customers and maintaining relationships while setting proper boundaries and investing in the proper tools and people for continued success.
One of my personal favorite sessions was with Jessi Gurr. She shared valuable insights on growing and sustaining a digital agency in uncertain times, emphasizing the importance of tracking profit margins, reviewing monthly expenses, and upselling. Jessi has been running her own digital agency for 19 years. It’s always good to hear from and connect with other agency owners who have been in the space about as long as FirstTracks. I appreciated the reassuring information she shared. It reinforced that our team is doing a lot of things right—but definitely room for improvement too.
Day 3: Brand Protection, Scaling, and Innovative Pricing Strategies
The third day saw a variety of sessions, from brand protection to scaling agencies and innovative pricing strategies. However, the final session, an in-person Q&A with Matt Mullenweg, the co-founder of WordPress, was the showstopper. He emphasized the importance of aligning partnerships with those who give back to the community and shed light on the WordPress ecosystem’s economic impact. This was a very controversial delivery, one that you can read about all over the internet. Here is one post with a nice short summary. Mullenweg also posted a follow up blog after the event that details his position on this situation with hosting company and event sponsor WP Egnine.
I have to say being there while this all went down was definitely a shock and not what I was expecting. FirstTracks Marketing has been around for 15 years and for at least 10 of them we have been almost exclusively designing, building, and supporting WordPress websites. We also use WP Engine for a lot of our clients hosting as well. I can see where Mullenweg is coming from regarding contributions back into the WordPress community, given the data he shared. He does bring up some compelling questions when it comes to evaluating providers you work with.
That said, I definitely don’t agree with how he chose to go about addressing this situation with the community. Using your public access to disparage another company or organization publicly is just not right. In my opinion, it’s not what the WordPress community is built on and what I have loved about it for all these years. We have always been supportive of one another helping to forward the growth and expansion of the solutions we all create.
If there are bigger corporate concerns like these they should be handled in the proper ways and in the proper channels, respectfully, like any good CEO or business owner would do. I have had plenty of difficult situations over the years within my own business and my own clients, but I have never trashed anyone publicly no matter how irritated or frustrated I was. It will be interesting to see how things shake out….hopefully fences can be mended, we shall see.
Networking and Social Events
Apart from all the informative sessions, WordCamp US 2024 also offered ample networking opportunities. I connected with representatives from WP Engine, Pantheon, WooCommerce, WordPress.com, Automattic, GoDaddy, WordFence, and other major players in the industry. The social events, including happy hours for WP Engine, Automattic for Agencies, and the closing WCUS Social provided a relaxed atmosphere for networking, reconnecting, and sharing ideas.
WordCamp 2024 Takeaways
WordCamp US 2024 was an enriching experience that provided valuable insights into the future of WordPress and digital marketing. My key takeaways were the importance of customer success, the power of AI integration, the potential of open-source, and the necessity of giving back to the community. As we look forward to the WordCamp 2025 (which will be in Portland OR again next year), we’ll continue to leverage these insights and the power of WordPress to deliver exceptional results for our clients. Stay tuned for more updates and insights from future WordCamps. FirstTracks hopes to be a contributing presenter next year!
