WordCamp Delhi 2017: When Technology Brings People Together

by Tavleen Kaur

WordCamps are conferences that celebrate WordPress and the spirit of giving. The first-ever WordCamp was held in August 2006 in San Francisco.

Exactly 11 years later, New Delhi had its first-ever regional WordCamp.

It was a great opportunity for us at XLPlugins to meet WordPress enthusiasts, share our experiences and listen to theirs. All in the spirit of giving and learning from each other.

All in the spirit of giving and learning from each other.

If you’re reading this, may be we met you too at our stall…or did we?

Our co-founder & CEO, Daman Jeet Singh was a speaker at the WordCamp and a part of the organizer team and XLPlugins was its gold sponsor.

The other awesome sponsors that we shared the space with were Automattic (the company that owns WordPress & WooCommerce), Payoneer (payment gateway), JetPack, rtCamp, Kinsta and others.

Needless to say, the race to the event was overwhelming. We had too much on our plate but we loved every bit of it.

So let’s uncover the conference one part at a time.

The Talk- Let’s talk about trust

Daman Jeet spoke about Trust, the new currency of the internet. His talk was titled ‘Why your first-time visitors don’t trust you and what you can do about it?’

The premise of the talk was simple:

Your first-time visitors are pretty anxious. Your primary goal should be to lower their anxiety levels by getting their experience right in in the first 15 seconds of the visit.

He threw light on why people are skeptics and why it’s not even their fault. The innumerable claims being thrown at them are making them less trusting.

But there is a way around and you can win your visitors’ trust.

He introduced the ‘Four Pillars of Trust’ that you can use to inspire confidence, no matter how small your business.

Here’s the SlideShare version of the presentation he gave at the event:

Absolutely. Especially in eCommerce/donations.

The Engagement At The Event

At the booth and otherwise, the engagement was astounding!

We also had a contest where people had to give witty answers and tell us what they love most about WordPress and also their biggest takeaway from the event.

People were clinging to the stalls to fill out the forms and spill their gray matter on them.

We announced winners towards the end of the day and they were thrilled. Yup, wittiest answers won!

Pictures speak louder than words, take it away:

We worked really hard to optimize every experience. For example here are handcrafted chocolates with XLPlugins branding:

In fact the whole team of organizers, volunteers and sponsors worked damn hard to optimize every little experience so that the participants got the most out of their day at WordCamp:

Here’s our team celebrating WordCamp and evangelizing WordPress & WooCommerce 😉

The Unbridled Enthusiasm

Even though the event was running late (thanks to heavy rains in the morning), the enthusiasm of the crowd was through the stratosphere. It’s best summarized by this tweet

On the sidelines, people formed little communities to discuss, brainstorm and take ideas home. And that always is the best part of conferences like these where people come together under one roof. No Whatsapp group or Facebook messengers can replace real conversations that happen face to face.

Perhaps that’s what makes WordCamps as relevant today as they were 11 years back. Maybe even more.

Learning from each other. Patting each other’s back. More power to the bonding & connections formed at power-packed events like these.

The Unrivalled Highlight Of The Event

The highlight of the event was undoubtedly the kids’ session. These school-going kids started using WordPress at a pretty young age. They had bold tales to share about how WordPress helps them voice their opinion and get heard.

Their stories tell us that WordPress is a platform accessible to anyone and everyone. No matter your age. No matter where you are, in which part of the world and what you want to talk about.

This truly was the highlight of the whole event and hugely inspiring in every little way.

After Party Fun

After the event, we went down to have dinner with fellow sponsors, organizers, speakers and volunteers. What fun it was!

It’s A Wrap – Thank You Organizers

Overall it was a great learning experience for us and also great fun. Come to think of it:

  • WordPress powers 28% of all websites in the world.
  • It’s open-source software and free to use. The source code is freely available for anyone to study, use, modify and build upon.
  • WordPress plugin downloads crossed 1.48 billion total downloads in 2016.
  • WooCommerce is the most powerful eCommerce platform with 30.2 million downloads, it powers 28% of all e-commerce stores globally.

You can imagine the size of the ecosystem we’re talking about here. It’s essential for it to be customizable, user-friendly and easy to use. And that it is!

It has put innumerable businesses, stores, and people online and given them a digital address.

More power to each one of you who are part of this growing ecosystem and are contributing to it every single day. Yes, you matter.

Jai WordPress!

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WordPress Community August 21, 2017

Published by Tavleen Kaur

Tavleen is a conversion strategist at XLPlugins. She helps store owners identify hidden opportunities in their store to make more sales. Reach out to her to learn more about turning your WooCommerce store into a cash-generating asset.

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