⟡ February 21 – 22
Finally attended my first ever WordPress event, WordCamp Asia 2025, held at the Philippine International Convention Center from February 20 to 22.

WordCamp is known as the premier open source web summit of Asia. If you work with WordPress in any way (whether as a developer, designer, blogger, or business owner), it’s a great chance to learn and connect.

Asis and I joined the two-day conference on February 20 and 21. We skipped Contributor Day and the afterparty, but those two full days were more than enough to get something out of it. I’m grateful the company I work for counted day one as an official business day, so I didn’t have to use my leave.

Most of the talks leaned toward plugin creation. While I love learning how things work behind the scenes, I also know creating my own plugin isn’t something I can realistically squeeze into my time right now. Still, it reminded me how flexible WordPress really is. I was looking forward to the “Building a Headless WooCommerce Store” session, but it got cancelled last minute.

We ended up spending extra time at the sponsors’ hall, and we had fun. Freebies aside, it was refreshing to see new plugins and services I’d never explored before. I’ve been stuck with my usual plugin choices, so this was a good push to look around more. One that stood out for me was UIchemy, which converts Figma mockups straight into WordPress. Wild!

There were lots of games and raffles, too. We didn’t win anything, but it definitely added to the fun and kept the energy up.

And let me talk about the food. Via Mare did such a great job feeding everyone. There were two sections (meat and vegan), and we tried both. The vegan options especially surprised me. Everything was delicious. chef’s kiss

I had no idea the Philippines has hosted WordCamps in Manila, Cebu, and Iloilo over the years, which really shows how active the local WordPress community is. In my almost 10 years as a WordPress developer, I’ve either been out of the loop or chose not to keep up, but being there reminded me how much I’ve missed and how good it feels to be part of something bigger than the usual day-to-day builds. I also just found out that Matt Mullenweg and WP Engine had a conflict about a year ago. Clearly, there’s been a lot going on behind the scenes that I haven’t been paying attention to.

Anyway, kudos to the team, volunteers, and sponsors who made WordCamp 2025 a success. You pulled off an amazing event. WordCamp 2026 is set to happen in India. While we probably won’t make it, I’m excited to see what other WordPress events pop up closer to home.

P.S. I got a discount code from the WordPress booth and purchased the Personal plan (hazygrains.com)!