Joining my first WordPress Community Meetup: How it went and what I learned

Disclaimer: This is a backdated post.

I never bothered to join WordCamp and WordPress Community Meetups.

I always wondered about joining WordCamp WordPress Community Meetups but did not really fully commit to the idea. I just thought it was needless to travel a lot for these gatherings because I had a lot on my plate before.

Furthermore, I stopped checking WordPress Meetups and WordCamp events. For that reason, I wasn’t even aware when WordCamp Asia 2025 was held in Manila last February.

No more excuses.

However, when the local WordPress meetup was planned right around my city in Marikina, I had no more excuses. It was the first in Metro East and first in Marikina, so I just had to attend.

I checked the event, and it was actually organized by a team that included my previous colleagues at LevelUp, Jhim Olinares and John Pattaguan. My wife, who found the event on her feed, also wanted to go. We immediately signed up and RSVP’ed that we were joining.

At this point, I was already curious about what would the event be like.

Nobody’s literally going to rain on the parade.

Just a week before the event, the monsoon season really kicked in, bringing in Tropical Storms Crising and Dante, as well as Typhoon Emong, which made landfall just the day before the meetup.

This is worrying because Marikina is a flood-prone area that has experienced numerous floods before due to non-stop heavy precipitation.

However, the flood mitigation and prevention measures of the city have really ramped up recently and actually did an impressive job handling the volume of water gushing through the Marikina River.

With the weather scare out of the way, we will be going to the event no matter what happens.

Setting my expectations

On the day of the event, my wife and I donned our WordPress shirts, then booked a Grab to the meetup location. It was drizzling when we left, so we brought umbrellas for good measure. I also hit up Kuya EJ Padero if he was going, who only replied when we got there.

Along the way, I was wondering how the meetup would go. Would we fit in? How complex would be the topics? Will I even enjoy the event?

To avoid getting disappointed, I just thought to myself that whatever happens, I will take this opportunity to connect with like-minded people who work with or are interested in the WordPress ecosystem.

This would be the first for me. I’ll make sure not to waste it, and I hope I can follow through with other events.

New faces, and more importantly, familiar ones

We arrived just in time and immediately made our way up to the BlankSpace CoWorking and People Management‘s floor.

Among the first people to welcome us were Jhim and John, while the others are already engrossed in a bingo game, getting the most new names on their cards. Kuya EJ, I guess, got stuck in traffic and was still on his way.

I noticed there were a lot fewer people than those who confirmed, so I guess the rain did discourage the other attendees.

I joined the networking bingo game and got to know some wonderful people, like Dan Tabifranca and Jevi Fajardo, who were the organizers of the meetup.

In addition, developers and agency owners were likewise present: Jerome Esperanza from iBuild.ph, Nikz, Andrew Garcia and Benjamin Intal from Stackable, and more.

Photos by John Pattaguan

After some chit-chat, we wrapped up the game and settled down for the speakers.

Highlights of the meetup: The Talks

I believe the combination of the talks was well-balanced – from the basics of WordPress and Site Editor to the insights of a startup founder and a community organizer who found WordPress out of curiosity.

1. WordPress Basics: A No-Fluff Introduction

Georg Kevin Paquet, who flew all the way from Davao, began the talks with a great introduction to the WordPress Basics and how to get started.

The talk was beginner-friendly, but I still picked up something, which is to not get stuck in design mode forever and just launch what you already built. A good enough website launched in time will always be better than a perfect site that never took off.

Georg’s talk is now available on WordPress TV. Check out the full talk here: WordPress Basics: A No-Fluff Introduction – WordPress.tv.

2. Thinking inside the Block Editor

Jhim was not lined up for the day but volunteered to deliver a talk on the power and benefits of the Block Editor.

What resonated with me is the difficulty in the adoption of the Block Editor for those used to the Classic Editor. I was frustrated myself when the Block Editor first came out as Gutenberg, then eventually became the default editor for WordPress.

However, while the initial version was a bit clunky for me, the Block Editor has now evolved so much that it can be used to replace most page builders. Adopting it may be difficult, but it has made editing so much easier.

In addition, the latest addition of the Site Editor completely reduced the barrier to entry to WordPress by allowing users to virtually customize their theme without code.

Users can even build their own theme from scratch using the Create Block Theme plugin, an official plugin for creating WordPress block themes. I was surprised to learn this because I have just started the WordPress create-block package to register blocks for plugins.

Overall, building with and for the block editor is no longer an option but a must. This is what the next speaker built for with Stackable.

3. What I wish I knew before building Stackable

Stackable extends the block editor, transforming it into a page builder with its plethora of custom layouts and blocks.

Benjamin, the founder and lead developer, shared many great points, but there are three things that stuck with me.

i. Build and they will come doesn’t work.

You need to put your product out there – do marketing, publish your plugin, and get it noticed.

ii. When building a product, start with the customer experience and work backwards to the technology.

In my development journey, I used to have the opposite mindset.

This often had me trapped in optimizing the technology and applying what I think is the latest and best without considering the end user experience. The result is a terrible user experience, even with the perfect technology.

I took this time to ask a question on the issue of hopping on a trend that users may often demand developers to integrate. Aligning with the trend can help a solution take off, or it could result in wasted resources.

Based on Benjamin’s answer, what I understood is that you have to consider the return on investment compared to the effort and resources you need to put into developing a feature or a solution.

A good example was the adoption of accelerated mobile pages (AMP) into their product. While the promise of the benefits is lucrative, the technology was just too difficult to integrate and maintain. Sure enough, AMP was eventually no longer a requisite to rank on Google SERPs.

iii. Build solutions that help users generate revenue or save on costs.

The last point is a common piece of advice but often overlooked. Earlier, Ben mentioned building what he thought was “cool” but actually never sold because it did not convert to revenue or savings for the client.

This is basic human psychology. People will invest in things with a greater return on their initial commitment.

Overall, while I have not built a product of my own, Ben’s points helped me reframe how I should be packaging my WordPress development services to my clients.

Instead of focusing on the features and what they do, look for the client’s pains and then offer the solution that matters. Instead of looking for the perfect technology, consider the impact on revenue and customer experience.

4. Finding Community Through Curiosity

Jevi Fajardo gave the last talk. I initially thought that she had been with the WordPress Community for a long time, but was surprised that she joined the WordPress Community in January 2023 only.

She gave a background on the WordPress Community and how she became a part of it. First, as an attendee, then as an organizer, getting the Yoast’s CARE Fund, which helped attend and organized meetups. Just by saying YES.

I’m amazed because Jevi is not the usual avid WordPress user you would expect to take on the role of bringing the community together. Still, she found her role organizing meetups and events, simply by joining out of curiosity. Someone totally new to WordPress is bridging members together.

At this point, I realized what the meetup is for. It’s for everyone. Whether you would like to contribute to the community and keep the spirit of open-source software alive, or just someone curious about WordPress, you’ll find your place in the WordPress Community.

Jevi’s talk is also published on WordPress TV. Check out the full talk here: Finding Community Through Curiosity – WordPress.tv.

After Party and Extended Networking

The meetup would not have been complete without the afterparty and extended networking, where I got to gain a lot more insights and connect with like-minded WordPress users and developers.

I got to learn more about the new people I met at reconnect with former colleagues. Kuya EJ also finally arrived after getting stuck with the Saturday rush in Marikina.

More importantly, it was great to bond and gain insights from people from different fields, brought together by the love for WordPress.

This event was definitely a success for me. Despite the rain and my doubts about attending, I finally made it to my first WordPress Meetup. Definitely, it won’t be my last. #