Meetup Organizer Newsletter | August 2026
Oli otya, and hello. Here’s what organizers have been running around the world, plus what’s worth trying next.
WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They’re one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. US opens Sunday
WordCamp US 2026 runs August 16 through 19 in Phoenix, opening with Contributor Day on Sunday. Tell your group about it even if nobody can travel, because Contributor DayContributor Day Contributor Days are standalone days, frequently held before or after WordCamps but they can also happen at any time. They are events where people get together to work on various areas of https://make.wordpress.org/ There are many teams that people can participate in, each with a different focus. https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/ is where a lot of people make their first contribution to WordPress and no experience is required. There is a Connector Table for anyone who arrives not knowing where to start.
Three events you could run, from easiest up
A WordCamp is not the only kind of WordPress event, and it is not the one most groups should start with.
- Coffee and Code: The handbook’s description is hard to argue with: it “can be done in a coffee shop or any space where you can get coffee and they will let you use their wifi.” No speaker, no budget, no projector to fail on you. If your group has gone quiet, this is the one that restarts it. Eight more like it are in the event formats handbook.
- A translation session: The Chiba group in Japan translates English documentation into Japanese together. They have done it about once a year for four years. The next is August 23, and it needs no speaker either. An evening turns into a contribution that stays on the site.
- Walk into the college near you: Universidad del Valle de Guatemala hosted the country’s first Campus Connect on August 1. Nine teams spent half a day building sites for their own student associations, 44 students and 10 mentorsEvent Supporter Event Supporter (formerly Mentor) is someone who has already organised a WordCamp and has time to meet with their assigned mentee every 2 weeks, they talk over where they should be in their timeline, help them to identify their issues, and also identify solutions for their issues. in one room. It takes real planning, but the Community Team walks you through it.
Group of the Month: Bulamogi College Gadumire, Uganda
Their Campus Connect lost electricity partway through. No laptops, no slides, nothing to project. The team taught WordPress out loud to about a hundred students instead, finished the session, and everyone walked out with certificates. The room was the point.
Also worth knowing
Your meetupMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. group can have its own channel in Make WordPress SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/:
The Community Team is creating channels for local meetup groups, locale communities and flagship events. To get one, join #community-slack-migration and post your group name, your Meetup.com URLURL A specific web address of a website or web page on the Internet, such as a website’s URL www.wordpress.org, and the channels you want. Your existing message history can come with you, and Karen Arnold’s post covers the rest.
Eleven ready-made sessions you can run without building one
Learn WordPress just published hands-on activity kits, built for exactly the meeting you do not have time to prepare. Eleven are live, each running 60 to 90 minutes, and each is a single download holding a facilitator guide and a slide deck. The guide already has the learning objectives, the setup notes, the step-by-step activities and the debrief questions in it. Pick one and run it. The announcement has the full list.
Tip of the month for sustainable events:
Check whether your venue has somewhere people can refill a water bottle. The Sustainable Events Handbook asks for “a system for refilling water bottles that doesn’t rely on drums,” one of the few venue questions that costs nothing and cuts real waste.
Worth watching
Why the path from a classroom to a contributor matters.
By the numbers
108
Websites built by students at two colleges in Kishoreganj, Bangladesh.
9
Event formats in the handbook, and most need no speaker at all.
100
Countries with a WordPress meetup group, across 707 groups.
0
Laptops at Bulamogi’s Campus Connect after the power cut. They ran it anyway.
MeetupsMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. of the Month
Coming up
| Date | Event | Where |
|---|---|---|
| August 15 | WordCamp Eket | Eket, Nigeria |
| August 16 | Campus Connect | Dinajpur, Bangladesh |
| August 16 to 19 | WordCamp US | Phoenix, United States |
| August 16 to September 6 | Campus Connect | Kathmandu, Nepal |
| August 23 | Contribute Through Translation | Chiba, Japan |
| August 28 to 29 | WordCamp Philippines | Iloilo City, Philippines |
| August 29 | Campus Connect | Esparza, Costa Rica |
| August 29 | WordPress Day CDMX | Mexico City, Mexico |
| August 29 | Galicia WordPress Day | Outeiro de Rei, Spain |
| August 29 to 30 | WordCamp Lira | Lira, Uganda |
| September 1 to 15 | Campus Connect | Banyumas, Indonesia |
| September 5 | WP Future Conclave | Kozhikode, India |
Local meetups run in far more places than this. Everything, everywhere, is on events.wordpress.org.
Open calls for speakers:
Worth passing to your group. Someone who has never spoken before is usually one nudge away from it, and a first talk at a nearby WordCamp is how a lot of organizers started.
- WordCamp Pisa and WordCamp Jinja both close August 15.
- WordCamp Sofia and WordCamp Wrocław both close August 31.
Not a talk, but the same shape: the WP Credits developer track wants input from developers and teachers by the end of August.
Over to you
What is the smallest event you have run that still felt worth doing? Tell us what it was and who showed up, and we will run the answers next month. Reply in the comments below, in #community-events, or by email to [email protected], whichever you already use.
This newsletter is built from what you share!
Send your recaps and photos and your group goes in Meetups of the Month. Every group that shares one is included, so ask your group’s permission and send it. Group of the Month is for a story another organizer can learn from, and you can put any group forward including your own.
Did we miss your event? Possibly, and we would rather know. Each issue is built from what gets posted in #community-events and #campusconnect, so anything that did not land there is invisible to us. Send it over and it goes in the next issue.
Tell us what you want to read here too. If there is a section missing, a format you want explained, or a question you wish someone would answer, say so and we will build it into the next issue.
Need support or guidance?
The Community Team is here to help. Email [email protected] or join us in #community-events on the Making WordPress Slack.
Each issue opens with a greeting from a language spoken where one of the featured groups is based. This month it is Luganda, from Uganda. If you would like your language to open an issue, tell us.
Thanks for everything you do to grow and support the WordPress community.