Dates, Venues, and What to Expect
From October 15 to 17, the Canadian WordPress community is gathering in Ottawa for three full days of collaboration, learning, and purposeful conversations. WordCamp Canada 2025 delivers a complete experience, starting with Contributor Day, followed by two conference days that spotlight real-world innovation and community connection.
The main event takes place at Richcraft Hall on the Carleton University campus. Located beside the Rideau River, the venue features modern architecture, open atrium spaces, accessible design, and enough room to comfortably support multiple tracks, sponsor exhibits, and informal meetups.
Contributor Day: Collaboration and Purpose
Contributor Day opens the event on October 15. This day sets the tone for everything that follows, with a focus on hands-on collaboration and welcoming new contributors.
What’s new this year is the dedicated workshop track, created specifically for first-time contributors. It provides step-by-step support, mentorship, and structured activities designed to help participants understand how and where they can make a difference.
The day also overlaps with WordPress Accessibility Day, which means accessibility teams on-site will align their efforts with global initiatives. It is a practical and timely way to make tangible contributions, especially for those who want their work to reach beyond the event itself.
The Keynotes and Why They Matter
The 2025 keynote lineup underscores the broader narrative of this year’s WordCamp: building for the open web with both vision and pragmatism.
Evan Prodromou – Long-form in a Federated Web
A Montreal-based advocate and co-author of the ActivityPub protocol, Evan brings practical insight into how publishing and networking can evolve through federation. His keynote zeroes in on the role WordPress plays in bridging microblogging, long-form content, and open platforms.
Dave Winer – Independent Publishing and Open Protocols
Dave’s history with RSS, blogging software, and early podcasting tools gives him a rare perspective on how independent tools shape content discovery and publishing freedom. Expect commentary on interoperability, reader ownership, and why control over one’s content remains a core value.
Jill Binder – Lessons from 50 Countries on Diversity in Tech
Jill’s work with the #WPDiversity initiative has had a significant impact on contributors worldwide. Her keynote translates that global experience into lessons applicable at the local level: how to support more inclusive communities and more representative speaker rosters, especially in national contexts like Canada’s.
Trew Knowledge Presents: How Edutopia Uses AI and WordPress to Deliver Hyper-Personalized Content
At WordCamp Canada 2025, we’re excited to take the stage to share how Trew Knowledge helped Edutopia transform its digital platform with a fully integrated, AI-powered recommendation engine built entirely on WordPress.
In this session, Anthony Moore and Jeffrey Zalischi will walk through how we combined WordPress, AWS, Neo4j, and OpenAI to deliver a personalized content experience tailored to the needs of educators and lifelong learners.
The solution enables content to adapt dynamically based on user behaviour, engagement patterns, and even the browsing habits of similar users. By implementing a graph database architecture using Neo4j, we mapped relationships between users and content in real-time, pushing past the limitations of traditional taxonomy-based recommendations.
In the talk, we’ll break down:
- How data flows between WordPress, Neo4j, and OpenAI
- What a real-world AI recommendation system looks like in production
- Why hyper-personalization in education requires more than just algorithms
For us, this project was about more than just building a smart feature. It was about aligning content delivery with purpose, using data responsibly, and demonstrating how enterprise-grade innovation can thrive within the WordPress ecosystem.
Catch our session during the main conference and come chat with us about what’s next for AI and personalization on the open web.
Session Highlights and Emerging Themes
The 2025 sessions reflect a balanced mix of technical, editorial, and strategic topics that matter to people working with WordPress at scale.
Site Performance and Developer Tools
Sessions dive into performance tuning with a focus on Core Web Vitals, end-to-end testing frameworks like Cypress, and CI/CD integrations. Teams managing high-traffic sites or critical publishing environments will find detailed guidance on scaling and streamlining builds without compromising accessibility or uptime.
Block Ecosystem and Interactivity API
Talks focused on the Interactivity API offer new strategies for adding frontend behaviour without reaching for full JavaScript frameworks. Advanced block development, visual customization workflows, and dynamic content rendering all show up in the developer track, aligned with where WordPress is headed.
Publishing Workflows and Site Design
Content and design teams will find sessions on managing editorial calendars, supporting multi-role access, and implementing shared design systems using block patterns and theme JSON. These topics bridge the space between developers and content strategists, helping teams align their systems with publishing goals.
Travel, Accommodation, and Planning Ahead
Ottawa’s fall setting offers both colour and calm. The leaves along the Rideau Canal shift into vibrant oranges and reds just in time for the event.
Recommended accommodations include:
- ARC The Hotel
- Best Western Ottawa
- Residence Inn by Marriott
- Cartier Place Suites
Many hotels are offering discounted rates for attendees, which are listed on the WordCamp Canada 2025 site. All are within transit distance or walking distance from the venue.
Between sessions or after the day wraps, attendees often head toward:
- ByWard Market for food and shopping
- Parliament Hill for iconic views
- The Rideau Canal for evening strolls
Weather-wise, it’s a great time for a light coat or fleece.
What This WC’EH Tells Us About WordPress Today
WordCamp Canada 2025 presents a reflection of where WordPress is heading in a global, accessible, and increasingly federated web. The structure feels intentional, the speakers speak from experience, and the sessions reflect today’s challenges, such as performance, privacy, AI, and access. These are key benchmarks for teams working with WordPress in real-world settings.
Looking Ahead with Trew Knowledge
As a proud supporter of WordCamp Canada 2025, Trew Knowledge brings these ideas into action. From multisite architecture to AI-enhanced publishing experiences, our team builds digital platforms that keep WordPress powerful, performant, and ready for what’s next.
Discover how Trew Knowledge enables enterprises to design, develop, and scale digital experiences with WordPress at their core. Learn more about our work.
