Hi folks! 👋
Welcome to the December 2021 edition of the monthly Meetup Organizer newsletter.
It’s hard to believe that we have already reached the end of the year. This edition is our last newsletter for the year, but December is still one of our busiest months. Keep reading to learn about the latest news and resources from the WordPress community for your local meetup groups!
Here’s what’s inside this issue:
- State of the Word 2021
- Resources on WordPress 5.9
- WordPress events
- News from the WordPress community
📣 Join us today for State of the Word 2021
The stage is almost ready!
State of the Word 2021 will be livestreamed today (December 14), between 5 and 7 pm ET / 10 pm – 12 am (December 15) UTC, from New York City.
The keynote will be followed by a live Question and Answer session with Matt. If you did not have a chance to submit a question, you can always ask during the event via the YouTube chat. You are also encouraged to join the conversation on social media using the hashtag #StateOfTheWord.
Join the fun of a Watch Party to watch State of the Word, or visit wordpress.org/news, where the livestream will be embedded.
❤️ Help spread the word about WordPress 5.9
Expected to be released on January 25th, WordPress 5.9 is a major release that marks the first version of Full Site Editing features, as well as the introduction of block themes. But that’s not all, there are also many other improvements in the form of design tools, patterns, user experience, performance, and more.
WordPress 5.9 Beta 2 is already available for testing. Your feedback on this and the upcoming Beta 3 is always appreciated.
While awaiting the final release, we would also love your support to spread the word about WordPress 5.9 among your meetup groups. There are many different ways for you to get involved: from planning a release-focused meetup to helping organize 5.9 testing sprints.
Looking for some resources on WordPress 5.9? Check out this blog post on talking points for WordPress 5.9 and share it with your community!
🌍🎪 What’s happening with WordPress events?
With more in-person WordCamps now scheduled for 2022, please remember to keep practicing caution and following these safety guidelines as you plan and attend a WordCamp or meetup. If you are an organizer, make sure to learn about the legal protections that are available for in-person events.
WordCamps on the horizon
- 🇺🇸 WordCamp Birmingham, Alabama from February 4 to 5, 2022 (in-person)
- 🇦🇹 WordCamp Vienna, Austria from April 23 to 24, 2022 (in-person)
- 🇪🇺 WordCamp Europe in Porto, Portugal from June 2 to 4, 2022 (in-person)
- Would you like to be part of a WordCamp organizing team? The Call for WordCamp US 2022 Organizers is now open.
Past WordCamps
- 🇪🇸 WordCamp Sevilla, the first in-person WordCamp after 21 months, took place last weekend (December 11-12). This was a fantastic opportunity for the Spanish WordPress community to meet again and enjoy different networking activities outdoors.
- 🇹🇼 WordCamp Taiwan and 🇧🇷 WordCamp São Paulo were also held online recently.
📚 Join the Learn WordPress initiative
Did you know you can use the Learn WordPress content for your meetup events? Organizing a social learning space based on any of the Learn WordPress workshops can be a fun way to share knowledge and learn more about different WordPress topics with others.
These are the upcoming WordPress Social Learning Meetups:
- “Create a simple block from existing blocks” on December 14, 2021
- “Intro to the Block Editor and Directory” on December 17, 2021
- Live Chat: Beginner’s Guide to Using Full Site Editing on December 17, 2021
- Live Demo: All About Colors with Full Site Editing on December 22, 2021
New workshops, lesson plans, and courses are added to Learn WordPress frequently, so keep an eye out on the platform to stay updated on the latest content.
🗞 News from the WordPress Community
- Gutenberg version 12.0 and version 12.1 are out.
- The 2021 WordPress Annual Survey will be open through the end of 2021. If you haven’t yet, we encourage you to respond to the survey so that your WordPress experience is represented in the results. The 2020 WordPress Annual Survey results are available for review as well.
- The latest edition of People of WordPress features Devin Maeztri from Indonesia.
- The #WPDiversity group posted a report on the Allyship and Diverse Speaker Workshops that took place in November 2021. Follow the #WPDiversityWorkshops tag for more announcements in the new year.
- The November 2021 edition of the Polyglots monthly newsletter was published last month.
- Mary Baum (@marybaum) has been selected as the new Core Team Rep for 2022.
- Version 18.8 of WordPress for iOS and Android is available for testing.
Check out the latest episode of the WP Briefing podcast with Executive Director Josepha Haden on “All Things Block Themes!”.
And that’s a wrap!
If you have any questions, Community Team deputies are here to help. Please email us at [email protected] or join the #community-events Slack channel. Thanks for everything you do to grow and support the WordPress community—let’s keep sharing knowledge and inspiring each other with our contributions!
See you online soon!
The following people contributed to this edition of the Meetup newsletter: @anjanavasan, @dansoschin, @eidolonnight, @harishanker, and @rmartinezduque.