There’s something poetic about WordCamp US returning to Portland in 2025. A city known for its independent spirit, creative communities, and tech-savvy ethos, Portland reflects the open-source values that define WordPress. From August 26 to 29, the Oregon Convention Center will once again serve as the gathering ground for developers, designers, strategists, and creators shaping the future of the web.
The energy this year is both grounded and forward-looking. What ideas will take shape? Which voices will rise to the surface? WordCamp is always part conference, part community festival—and Portland feels like the perfect backdrop.
Contributor Day: Build WordPress Together
Before the sessions begin, WordCamp US 2025 kicks off with Contributor Day on Tuesday, August 26, running from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm at the Oregon Convention Center. This all-day, hands-on event brings together new and experienced contributors to strengthen WordPress from the inside out.
What to Expect
Contributor Day is part hackathon, part networking event, and part crash course in open-source collaboration. Whether you’re a developer, designer, marketer, or translator, you’ll find a way to contribute. Typical activities include:
- Testing and reporting bugs
- Writing or translating documentation
- Supporting other WordPress users
- Designing and improving themes, plugins, or the editor experience
- Helping with marketing, accessibility, or community initiatives
If you’re new to contributing, don’t worry—teams and mentors are ready to guide you. The day starts with a new contributor break‑out, includes a group photo and lunch, and ends with team summaries and wrap‑up.
In‑Person or Remote Participation
You can contribute in person in Portland or join remotely via the Make WordPress Slack. A WordPress.org account is required to participate, and remote contributors can follow along in dedicated team channels.
Sign Up to Join
All are welcome, even if you aren’t attending the main conference. Sign up early to be paired with a team and get the most from the day.
A Lineup That Mirrors the WordPress Ecosystem
Each year, the speaker lineup evolves alongside the platform itself. WordCamp US 2025 reflects a wide-angle view of the WordPress universe—not just the CMS, but the people and philosophies surrounding it.
This year, expect sessions that bridge traditional development with emerging AI integrations, deep dives into design systems that scale, explorations of content personalization powered by open data, and the ever-important conversations around accessibility and inclusion.
Showcase Day (Aug 27) – Real-world innovation takes center stage.
- Highlights include Modernizing at Scale: How FSE Supports Wikimedia’s Evolving UX, Scaling WordPress: How CANCOM Manages 150 Sites with One Smart System, and Catch Bugs Faster with AI & Playwright.
Main Conference Day 1 (Aug 28) – Strategy meets implementation.
- Features Zero to Plugin in 30 Minutes – Harnessing AI Coding Assistants, Beyond the Build: The 3E Framework for Scalable WordPress Platforms, and Fixing and Optimizing Websites with AI.
Main Conference Day 2 (Aug 29) – Future-facing topics and practical workflows.
- Sessions include From Storefront to Strategy: What Happens When AI Shops for Your Customers?, Unlock Developer Superpowers with AI, and Tag Team Your Blocks: Customizing Gutenberg with WP_HTML_Tag_Processor.
Our Top Picks
If you’re looking for AI insights, enterprise-ready strategies, and innovative WordPress solutions, these are the sessions to keep on your radar:
AI-Focused Sessions
Scalable, Ethical AI: How to Own Your Content and Your AI with WordPress
Aug 27, 1:15 pm – 3:00 pm | Speaker: Jeffrey Paul
Hands-on workshop showing how to implement ethical, scalable AI in WordPress using local models and ClassifAI to enhance editorial workflows without sacrificing data ownership.
Catch Bugs Faster with AI & Playwright (No Hype, Just Results)
Aug 27, 3:15 pm – 4:00 pm | Speaker: Wendy Erdheim-Poch
Demonstrates how AI and Playwright streamline QA, from generating test scenarios to catching edge cases, while emphasizing practical tips and human oversight in the testing process.
Zero to Plugin in 30 Minutes – Harnessing AI Coding Assistants for WordPress Development
Aug 28, 1:45 pm – 2:30 pm | Speaker: Maulik Vora
Live workshop showing how AI coding assistants like Cursor and ChatGPT can generate, refactor, and document a production-ready WordPress plugin in 30 minutes while following coding, security, and accessibility best practices.
Turn Your Local WordPress Install into Your AI Coding Assistant
Aug 29, 10:30 am – 12:15 pm | Speaker: Jonathan Bossenger
Hands-on workshop showing how to connect WordPress with MCP, the Feature API, and developer tools like VS Code and GitHub Copilot to create an AI-powered local development environment for faster, smarter workflows.
From Storefront to Strategy: What Happens When AI Shops for Your Customers?
Aug 29, 1:15 pm – 2:00 pm | Speaker: Sonja Ibele
Explores the rise of AI-powered shopping agents and how WooCommerce sites must shift from visual storefronts to trusted data sources, preparing for commerce across chat, voice, and future interface-free experiences.
Enterprise-Relevant Sessions
Scaling WordPress: How CANCOM Manages 150 Sites with One Smart System
Aug 27, 3:15 pm – 4:00 pm | Speaker: Jakob Trost
Shows how CANCOM uses Full Site Editing, smart templates, and content automation to manage 150 WordPress sites efficiently, enabling no-code rollouts, consistent design, and enterprise-scale performance.
Beyond the Build: The 3E Framework for Scalable WordPress Platforms
Aug 28, 3:45 pm – 4:30 pm | Speaker: Meeky Hwang
Introduces the 3E Framework—Engineering, Editorial, and Experience—to help enterprise teams scale WordPress platforms sustainably, reduce bottlenecks, and drive long-term success.
Building Experiences: Design Systems, User Experience, and Full Site Editing
Aug 28, 1:45 pm – 2:30 pm | Speaker: Michelle Schulp Hunt
Explores how combining design systems, user research, and Full Site Editing creates modular, intuitive WordPress editing experiences that improve both content workflows and end-user outcomes.
Data Visualization the Easy Way (National Marine Sanctuaries Has Got Your Back)
Aug 28, 3:45 pm – 4:30 pm | Speaker: Jai Ranganathan
Shows how the Sanctuary Watch plugin and theme enable government-scale data visualization in WordPress with minimal resources, offering an open-source solution adaptable for any organization.
Modernizing at Scale: How FSE Supports Wikimedia’s Evolving UX
Aug 27, 10:30 am – 11:15 am | Speaker: Joeleen Kennedy
Details how the Wikimedia Foundation leverages Full Site Editing to streamline workflows, improve consistency, and manage multilingual, large-scale WordPress experiences with a focus on accessibility and long-term maintainability.
Beyond the Talks: The Human Layer
For all the structured sessions and keynotes, WordCamp US is just as much about the informal moments. Hallway conversations often outlast scheduled panels. A casual chat over coffee can spark a plugin collaboration. A shared frustration during a session Q&A can turn into a Slack group that lasts years.
Sponsors aren’t just vendors—they’re collaborators. Attendees test prototypes, give real-time feedback, and sometimes even influence product roadmaps. And the social events, from karaoke with developers to rooftop happy hours, serve as the cultural glue that keeps the community grounded in shared humanity.
Why WordCamp US Still Matters in 2025
As WordPress continues to evolve, WordCamp US remains its most visible moment of collective reflection. In 2025, the reflection includes larger questions:
- How does open-source software thrive in an AI-dominated landscape?
- What does inclusion look like in a multilingual, multisite, multiverse internet?
- How can contributors avoid burnout while pushing forward the world’s most-used CMS?
WordCamp US doesn’t answer everything, but it gives people the space to ask. And that space is what keeps it vital.
Finding Your WordCamp Buddy
There’s one more way to deepen the connections that make WordCamp special: WP Trail Buddies, an initiative by Michelle Frechette.
For New Attendees
Walking into a flagship WordCamp for the first time can feel overwhelming. WP Trail Buddies pairs you with a veteran attendee so you already have a friendly face to meet for registration, lunch, and a walk through the sponsor hall.
For Veteran WordCampers
Remember your first WordCamp? Be the reason someone else feels at home. A quick chat, a shared meal, or a hallway intro can turn a stranger into a collaborator—or even a friend.
The best part: it’s free and helps create the kind of community WordPress is known for.
Where WordCamp Ends, the Future Begins
WordCamp US 2025 arrives at a turning point for WordPress and the web itself. In Portland—a city that thrives on creative friction—the community will once again challenge assumptions, share breakthroughs, and sketch out the next chapter.
The magic of WordCamp has never been in the sessions alone. It lives in shared pauses, hallway conversations, and the sense that no matter how complex the platform becomes, it’s still built by real people with real stakes in the web’s future.
And when the talks end and the notebooks close, those connections don’t dissolve—they evolve, just like WordPress.
Looking to build enterprise-ready WordPress experiences that match this future?
Trew Knowledge creates powerful, scalable, and human-centred digital solutions. From strategy to execution, our team brings bold ideas to life using WordPress and the technologies that surround it. Let’s build something remarkable together.
