In one week, my blog will turn 17 years old, and this is only my second blog post this year. I have some topic ideas in mind already, but first I want to write about what happened about a week ago. My WordCamp reports often cover the talks I have seen. But this blog post will be a little different.
Visiting Poland
Every year in June, for the last few years, the European WordPress community has met for WordCamp Europe. And we have been visiting a new city and country again: Kraków in Poland. This was my first “proper trip” to Poland, and the city was not disappointing. On Tuesday, we took a train from Berlin all the way to Kraków. In only around 7 hours, we arrived at our destination. But who are we?
My first WordCamp visit with my family
As some of you might have known, I became a dad at the end of last year. And anyone who also has children does know that many things change. Visiting a WordCamp is also not the same as before. Since my wife Ingrid has been joining me for many WordCamps since 2022 and as she volunteered again at WCEU, I had to plan my days differently.
Meeting the community
On Tuesday evening, we had a dinner near our apartment with some members of the German community. At the restaurant, they placed us in the “family area”, but it was more for older kids.
On Wednesday, we joined the annual WCEU Picnic organized by Patricia BT, Michelle Bulloch and Jason Rouet. I think there were around 30 people from many different countries joining. Everyone brought something to eat and drink we could share. I really like this pre-event.
Contributor Day
Thursday is traditionally reserved for the Contributor Day at WordCamp Europe. Since I was a co-lead of the Multisite Table, a table that was only added last year, Ingrid could not join and contribute. At first, my colleague Dennis, who was the main lead of the table, and I were unsure how many people would join, but had to use both tables assigned to us. I guided Manja through the process of working on a Trac ticket and submitting a patch throughout the day. At the end of the Contributor Day, Manja had a patch ready for review and feedback.
The evening of the Contributor Day was reserved for “The Social”. This year, we went to a venue with many arcade games, and everyone got 5 tokens to play some of them. There were also pool tables and a small (free) bowling area.
The first conference day
Since Ingrid had her first shift early in the morning, I went into the opening remarks with the bassinet stroller but had our kid out, watching the huge stage. I didn’t stay for the keynote but went to meet some people and to see some sponsors instead.
It was interesting to see how people reacted to me pushing around the bassinet stroller. I was not the only one with a small child. There were even younger ones. But having some very different conversations with people was interesting. Over the years, you have met some of the attendees many times at different WordCamps. But only this time, attending with an infant, you start talking about different topics, and people tell you that they also just became parents or already have some children a bit older. I have not known that from many of the attendees I have met multiple times before. One dad even told me that he just had a newborn 3 months ago, and even though he has much older children, he forgot many of the basic things you need to do with a baby.
After Ingrid finished her shift, we went into the talk “Accessibility in themes: easier than you think” from Jessica Lyschik for a bit, but after about 10 minutes, our child started “talking”, and we had to leave.
Another tradition at flagship WordCamps is the dinner organized by Hostinger for Contributor Day Table Leads and some other contributors. This time, we went to the Wieliczka Salt Mine near Kraków. After a tour of about an hour, we had dinner… at 135 meters deep inside the mine! What an amazing venue!
The second conference day
Ingrid had the early shift again, and we joined after the first break. I have not visited any talk before the lunch break but talked to more people and sponsors. This year, my main track was really the “hallway track”. In the afternoon, I finally manage to see (almost) a full talk.
Improving the performance of the WordPress Query classes
In this talk, Peter Wilson showed us how the Core Performance team made the WP_Query class more performant. Before the improvements, there would be 6 SQL queries on the blog listing page. The first two queries would be uncached. Since the first query is usually the most complex and long-running one, an improvement here has a large effect. He explained the steps the team had taken, how they improved it even more in a later version, and how this improvement reduced the SQL queries for “The Loop” to zero, when a persistent object cache is used. A fantastic talk with insights on how you can improve your code for better performance.
Fireside chat
Unfortunately, Matt couldn’t make it to WordCamp Europe this year, for personal reasons. It was the first WCEU he missed. At the Fireside Chat session, Matías Ventura, Mary Hubbard and Rich Tabor had a chat about differnent aspects of the WordPress project and also talked about the “WordPress in education” initiative. In the Q&A that followed, attendees could ask questions to them. Patricia asked about multilingual WordPress and when we can expect something in Core. Something many people from countries with multiple official languages need. But even I need that, since this blog is bilingual. Unfortunately, there was no good answer to that question, and Matt later answered it in a way that does sound like he sees no need for this.
Closing remarks
This is the part I’m always looking forward. The organizing team comes on stages, thanks all the teams, volunteers, speakers, sponsors, and everyone else, who helped making the WordCamp a success. WordCamp Europe 2026 was quite a big event. But to my surprise, it was still smaller than WCEU2 019 in Berlin:
But then we finally get to know where we are going next. WCEU 2027 will be the first time we go back to a country, that has hosted the event before. But see for yourself:
The After Party
And sure enough, we also had an After Party. The venue had a large open space where attendees could get some great (free) food and some drinks. We could only stay for around two hours, but the organizing team was crazy enough to have the After Party running until 4:00 in the morning. I wonder how many people have stayed this long (and also went there at 20:00 already).
Conclusion
This was my 60th WordCamp (counting the unofficial “Camps” as well), and it was the first one as a father. In three weeks, we will head to my hometown, Mannheim, to attend the next one. Who knows, at one point my child might also apply as a volunteer or even a speaker. Or maybe the interest for WordCamps will not be as great, which would disappoint me a bit. But until then, I’m looking forward to seeing how my attendance in WordCamps will change now that I travel to many of them with my new family.