WordCamp Europe 2026: WPBakery in Kraków
WordCamp Europe 2026 is just behind us, with three days in Kraków, at the ICE Kraków Congress Center and over 2,400 attendees from more than 20 countries.
Here is what that looked like from our side.
The event
WCEU 2026 ran from 4 to 6 June starting with the Contributor Day – a full day dedicated to working directly on WordPress: documentation, marketing, core, support, training, accessibility, polyglots, community and more. The conference itself followed on 5 and 6 June, with 60+ sessions across multiple tracks, 10 workshops (including a new 2.5-hour extended format introduced this year), three panels and speakers from six continents.
Kraków made a strong case as a host city – walkable, affordable, rich in culture – and by most accounts it was one of the more attendee-friendly editions WCEU has seen in recent years.
During our time there, we held a raffle, giving away a prestigious Lego Concorde set and the lucky winner turned out to be one lovely lady by the name of Olha Hryhorenko, developer at Awesome Motive.
As for the talks and workshops, one thing is certain: AI is expected and not “nice to have” any more. With AI Client being included in the WordPress 7.0 release, businesses and products need to think of a specific ways of implementing it, too. More and more people are already testing, some implementing AI adoption in its products, like Atarim, for instance, that rolled out a brand new addition to their AI powered team. Some of our team members also attended the (what we’ve learned was) amazing workshop on How to build your first AI powered plugin by Jonathan Bossenger from Automattic.
Another thing that really made us think and process was the fact how Cern is using WordPress, adopting it as their official content management system – be sure to watch the panel about it here.
And of course, Emma Young’s talk about why businesses need to care about AI search is another must-watch session for sure – lot’s of examples and takeaways!
How WPBakery showed up
We came to Kraków as a Small Business Sponsor, with seven team members attending across the three days. That was a different kind of presence compared to last year in Basel, where two of us attended as listeners. This time the intention was different: more visible, more involved, more accountable to the community we work in.
One team member was part of the organizing team. As WCEU is run entirely by volunteers, being part of that organizing structure was an honor and a real contribution – one that asks for sustained effort well before the event itself begins.
Contributor Day: Marketing table lead. On 4 June, our Ivana Ćirković served as the table lead for the Marketing team at Contributor Day, where people showed up to work on creating helpful marketing handbook, materials and templates for local event organizers to use as a standardized system. Leading a table means welcoming contributors, helping them find a task they can actually complete in a day and keeping the work moving. It is hands-on and grounding in the best way and we are, again, proud we were a part of it in that way.
Day two talk: What It (Really) Means to Be Part of the WP Credits Program. Then on 6 June, Ivana gave a 30-minute session on the WP Credits program, given that she is one of the program’s mentors. The talk approached the program from three distinct vantage points – students, universities and businesses – and made the case that WP Credits creates durable, practical value well beyond WordPress skills. WP Credits connects university students with real contribution hours inside the WordPress project and the talk examines what each party actually gains from participating: the students, the institutions and the companies like WPBakery that step in as mentors and supporters.
The session was part of WCEU’s education and community track, which also included a panel on rethinking learning in WordPress and other sessions exploring how the ecosystem is building new pathways for contributors.
Why this matters to us
WPBakery joined the WP Credits program at the end of 2025. Ivana became WPBakery’s first accepted mentor in the program. Raitis Ševelis, Head of Product, lectures at Riga Nordic University – which is one of the institutions participating in WP Credits.
We chose to be a part of this initiative because its angle is one, we believe in: the idea that companies working in WordPress have a direct interest in making it easier for new people to understand the project, contribute meaningfully and build durable skills. WordCamp Europe was the right place to say that out loud and the education track gave it the right context.
And we had one person – a young woman, came specifically to our booth to say thank you for WPBakery’s involvement in the WP Credits program. She brought two small notebooks with sticky notes as a gift. We’ll cherish this as a special moment for sure.
What we brought back
Three days of conversations with people who build client websites, maintain long-running WordPress projects, contribute to core, run agencies, teach WordPress and think carefully about where page building fits into how WordPress works today. That kind of direct input is hard to replicate any other way.
The booth gave people a place to ask questions and share frustrations. Contributor Day gave us a way to contribute something concrete. The talk gave us a position in the conversation about WordPress education. And the organizing work – quiet, behind the scenes – gave us a stake in the event itself.
If we were to sort the people who stopped by our booth into groups, it would look roughly like this. Some already knew WPBakery – past or current users who came to say hi and ask a couple of questions – some being about our upcoming 9.0 and 9.1 releases. Some had no idea what we were making (the most common opener: “What are you baking?”). Some came with partnership and co-marketing proposals and some came to sell us something. A good and healthy mix of usefully spent time throughout the whole event.
Another take and a view from this amazing event you can find on the official WordPress.org blog.
Wrapping up
While we’re summing the feelings and experiences, only half the work is done. We’re excited for what is next to come – following up with all these great people and continuing stories and partnerships we started while in Krakow. All while making plans for the next WordCamp Europe, this time in Malaga, Spain, May 27-29.
See you there?
