My #WCEH keynote is up! I'm so excited to share it with you.
In this speech, I talk about the 10 lessons I learned as a polite Canadian working with 50 countries.
https://wordpress.tv/2025/11/18/from-canada-to-the-world-10-lessons-from-working-with-50-countries/
The sound is rough, but captions are available in the settings in the bottom right corner.
#WordCampCanada #WCCanada2025 #wceh2025 #PublicSpeaking #DiversityAndInclusion #DEI #DEIB #DiversityInTech
The videos from last month's WordCamp Canada 2025 have been posted on WordPress.tv:
Feeling teary-eyed reading this about my #keynote:
* "Jill's talk ... knocked the week out of the park, honestly.”
* “Such a vulnerable and insightful talk about working across cultures, told through stories of mistakes she had made.”
* “Phenomenal and inspirational stuff!”
Lois's reflections on the whole camp are such an insightful read:
I’m excited that more people will be able to hear the keynote soon when the recording is released! 💙
In response to Matt Mullenweg’s “WordCamp Canada Talk”
Questions in response to Matt's townhall at WCEH: What role do you see WordPress, either in core or through plugins, playing to help people reclaim their online identity and make ‘publish once, syndicate everywhere’ a mainstream reality? How can WordPress and the open web help rebuild that trust?https://jeffpaul.com/2025/11/reblog-matt-mullenweg-wordcamp-canada-talk/
Great writeup about WCEH from @peterhebert. I enjoyed reading your thoughts and takeaways from my #keynote. :)
“Jill shared stories and lessons about how she scaled a local workshop in Vancouver to 50 countries. Her talk reminded me to always check myself and my unconscious assumptions when interacting in a group setting."
https://peterhebert.com/en/article/2025/wordcamp-canada-2025-recap
WordCamp Canada 2025
This past week was the 2nd edition of WordCamp Canada (affectionately known by the hashtag #WCEH on “the socials”).
Organizing
It was my honour last year to be part of the organizing committee for WordCamp Canada. We had a great team led by Shanta Nathwani, Matthew Graham and myself.
Even with a great team, organizing an event like this is a huge amount of work. So this year I decided to step back from organizing, and instead volunteered.
The 2025 organizing committee led by James Giroux did a fantastic job putting together this year’s camp. My personal thank you to Miriam Goldman, this year’s volunteer coordinator, for making that experience a great one!
The 2025 Organizing Committee during end of camp thank yous.The Venue
This year’s WordCamp was held in Richcraft Hall at Carleton University in Ottawa. Although this was WordCamp Canada’s first time here, WordCamp Ottawa has used this venue several times for the local camp.
Not only is it a beautiful building (the patio overlooking the river is particularly stunning), but Carleton University itself uses WordPress for hundreds of sites that make up the carleton.ca web presence.
View from the patio at Richcraft Hall / Carleton University (Photo: Shawn Hooper)Contributor Day
WordCamp Canada hosted a Contributor Day. This is an event dedicated contributing back to the WordPress open source project. This could be working on the core product, documentation, accessibility, translations, or many other teams.
I chose to work on the WP-CLI command line project, adding the ability to delete all comments from a site with an --all flag on the wp comment delete command. As of the time of writing this post, the pull request for this feature is almost ready to be merged.
I’m hoping someone will put together a list of all the contributors that were worked on during WordCamp Canada.
The Content
Like most WordCamps, I don’t spend a huge amount of time in the talks themselves. I prefer to network in the “Hallway Track”, or volunteer where needed.
I was able to catch parts of several talks over the two days of the camps.
The team put together a lineup of talks across a wide range of topics.
Ryan Welcher presenting “The Block Developer Cookbook: WCEH 2025 Edition”To nobody’s surprise, AI was a hot topic of discussion this year, but the camp covered:
as well as three keynote talks, and a town hall with one of the co-founders of WordPress.
Carl Alexander presenting “Serverless WordPress Demystified: Scale, Savings & Modern Workflows”My Takeaways
The WordPress Community in Canada is still going strong. The attendees this year were mostly first timers, with a solid group of returning attendees.
Sound like Fun?
It’s likely that the next WordCamp Canada will happen somewhere else in the country. Like WordCamp US, we’d planned to have the camp in the same city two years in a row. I’m thinking… west coast?
If you’re interested in helping out, reach out on the WordCamp Canada site, or on WordPress Canada’s Slack. They’ll be looking for organizers from around the country to help put 2026 together!
Sponsorship to WordCamps is such a privilege and I'm so grateful when it happens. Thank you so much to @wordpressdotcom for sponsoring me to #WCUS and #WCEH so that I could not only deliver talks at both, but also work on my contract work with them there. #grateful
Thank you, #WordCampCanada (#WCEH #WCEH2025)!
- Thank you to the organizers. Events like this are a labour of love. One can’t understand the amount of work involved unless they have done it too. The organizers did a phenomenal job.
- Thanks especially to the folks on the team who worked with me personally in the months leading up to the #keynote and at the #conference. You are wonderful.
- Thank you to the audience for giving me your rapt attention. Someone commented afterward... (cont')
so sad that I couldn't make it to @WordCampCanada !
I would have liked to see the talks by @evan, @davew and @mediaformat !!!
I hope we will see a lot of new #ActivityPub users after the #wordcamp !!!
I love seeing @evan speak at WordCamp Canada, bringing the spirit of ActivityPub to #WordPress events and advocating for long-form content in the Fediverse!
WordCamp Canada 2025 conference talk
Leadership in open source isn’t just about code. At WordCamp Canada 2025, I shared how project and product managers can help lead WordPress releases through coordination, communication, and glue work that keeps contributors aligned and shipping on time. Here’s a look back at the talk, key lessons from the room, and why Ottawa’s vibrant WordPress community made it one to remember, eh?https://jeffpaul.com/2025/10/wordcamp-canada-2025-conference-talk/
Big thanks to #YoastDiversityFund, @SupportInclusioninTech
Winstina Hughes), & @michellefrechette for sponsoring my travel. Even though I live in Canada, getting here is expensive. I'm grateful!
So happy to be back in my hometown Ottawa for my #keynote at #WordCampCanada (#WCEH #WCEH2025).
I got to see my mom last week for the first time in a long time, and next week I’m celebrating one of my milestone birthdays with my best friend in Montreal.
Making the most of this cross-country trip!
✨ Contributor Day energy in full swing at WordCamp Canada! Great conversations, code, and community all around. #WCEH
Today is WordPress Accessibility Day 2025. It is also Contributor Day at WordCamp Canada 2025. Perfect timing!
I hope to see lots of great accessibility updates come out of Carleton University today.
https://2025.wpaccessibility.day/schedule/
Arrived in Ottawa for #WCEH2025! #WordPress Contributor Day tomorrow, then #WCEH! I'll be speaking on software supply chain security in a decentralized federated ecosystem. Looking forward to This!
Arrived in Ottawa for #WCEH2025! #WordPress Contributor Day tomorrow, then #WCEH! I'll be speaking on software supply chain security in a decentralized federated ecosystem. Looking forward to @scripting.com @ma.tt @evan.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy Jill Binder & others! canada.wordcamp.org/2025/about/s...
