The second WordCamp Skopje generated a great deal of interest from the WordPress community! It was a weekend filled with a variety of talks, community contributions, and best of all, pleasant people that make the community a better place to be in!
It’s been two weeks since one of our DevriXians, Martin Tolovski attended WCSKP. In this article, he will recap his experience at the second WordCamp Skopje in a row.
The City and the Venue
If you follow me on Twitter, you might know that two weeks ago I took part in WordCamp Skopje 2019. It was the second WCSKP that I’ve participated in as an attendee, and I can safely say that for the second year in a row, it was really amazing.
If you haven’t had the chance to be there, let me bring you up to date on what you might’ve missed.
Skopje is a wonderful city and it’s the chief location for the Macedonian WordPress Community. When I arrived the day before the event, it was kinda cold, gloomy, and lightly raining, but I wasn’t going to let that ruin my weekend.
Just like the year before, WCSKP 2019 was held in the Faculty of Computer Science and Engineering, located just a short walk from the lively Debar Maalo.
https://twitter.com/wcskp/status/1180079525402685440
The Organizers, Sponsors, and Volunteers
It was a pleasure to see how this WordCamp was organized. Without the organizers, sponsors, and volunteers, these events would not be possible, and I’d like to thank everyone for making WCSKP happen two times in a row now!
Kicking off #WCSKP Let's have a great time! pic.twitter.com/riclgKMD5T
— Milan Ivanović #WCEU (@lanche86) October 5, 2019
The Talks
My morning started out with a cup of coffee and an excellent talk by Vineet Talwar on Progressive Web Apps in WordPress. Everything on PWAs, how they transform the mobile web, the benefits of implementing them, the technologies behind them, and how to build one for WordPress.
Thank you Vineet, it is amazing that we can have a universal platform in the form of WordPress that can work as a website and a mobile app at the same time.
Shortly after, our former Devrixian Dian Tankov gave an insightful talk where he shared his tips for successful SEO and Content Strategy to enhance our WordPress websites. He talked about all the latest SEO trends – from choosing the right hosting, through performance, link building, and keyword usage.
Glad to be part of @wcskp and speak on #SEO and #Content in #WordPress. Totally enjoying the event and meeting lots of cool people from the local community. 🙂
Fala #wcskp2019! pic.twitter.com/kM2uOOoRpm
— Dian Tankov (@DianTankov) October 5, 2019
Excellent presentation Dido, and always a pleasure to see a former colleague and a friend, hope to meet again in Sofia this November.
Next up, Michael Carruthers through his “Components all the way down – Building a component library for WordPress” presented us exactly what component-driven web development is.
"A component is always just a component" @emcarru #wcskp2019 pic.twitter.com/aBZ7lsckl5
— Мartin Тolovski (@TolovskiMartin) October 5, 2019
Together, we broke conceptual and code challenges into components through open source libraries and WordPress frameworks. Thanks a bunch, Michael!
Right before lunch, we had the pleasure of learning how to code efficiently from Milana Cap.
Handling #WordPress through the terminal with @DjevaLoperka at @wcskp #wcskp2019 pic.twitter.com/vhL4y4OAU1
— Мartin Тolovski (@TolovskiMartin) October 5, 2019
In her “WordPress Through the Terminal” talk, Milana presented us how through live terminal commanding aka WP CLI we can create WordPress websites without touching the code editor or the Dashboard.
Powerful stuff, and congrats on that PS4 Milana, we all wanted it 😉
https://twitter.com/webpigment/status/1180750726122881024
Lunch Break
After several talks in the morning, it was food time! We had a real buffet of foods all from lasagna to chicken and potatoes, and of course, the inevitable shopska salad.
https://twitter.com/wcskp/status/1180439007974580224
As soon as we were done eating, one of the most challenging group photos happened.
Image source: Facebook
Kudos to the photographer who was ever-present between talks and coffee breaks, capturing our Conference and Contributor’s Day at WCSKP.
The 2nd track continued with an entertaining presentation from Aleksandar Savkovic about the E-Commerce future. He discussed what’s bad in today’s eCommerce practices, and how we can make everything better regarding online stores and the entire eCommerce industry.
Learning the rights and wrongs, and predicting the future of #eCommerce with @WPAleks #wcskp2019 pic.twitter.com/9PFSQjTSKR
— Мartin Тolovski (@TolovskiMartin) October 5, 2019
Aleks also opened our eyes to some of the bad practices that diminish people’s trust in eCommerce websites. Thanks for opening our eyes, Aleks!
Next up, one of the leading WCEU organizers and Global Translation Editor Milan Ivanovic showed us why WordPress and WooCommerce work perfectly together.
.@lanche86 explaining why @WooCommerce fits the bill when it comes to building online shops with #WordPress. @wcskp #wcskp2019 pic.twitter.com/d5L7HCLVK3
— Мartin Тolovski (@TolovskiMartin) October 5, 2019
We learned why should we start an online store with WooCommerce, its advantages, optimization options, and what we need to pay attention to when scaling our eCommerce business. Really concrete and actionable presentation, thank you, Milan!
We continued with Francesco Carlucci’s “The WordPress Security Features We Don’t See” talk. With Francesco, we looked at WordPress security from a different angle. We analyzed security issues through lateral thinking!
Judging software as we would judge a bad person with @frenxi_ at #wcskp @wcskp pic.twitter.com/50lV2u5lws
— Мartin Тolovski (@TolovskiMartin) October 5, 2019
Grazie Francesco, now we know exactly how to keep things secure on your websites.
The following speaker is a real branding genius! Through his “Storytelling – just a blah-blah or the art of communication” talk, Aleksandar Pasku gave us an entirely new perspective on content creation.
Storytelling and everything that it evokes within the consumers. @Hranoje @wcskp #wcskp pic.twitter.com/RLXTtn3Zyg
— Мartin Тolovski (@TolovskiMartin) October 5, 2019
It was a tale of how to properly tell stories, verbally and visually. The entire alchemy of good stories. Wonderful stuff Aleksandar!
Finally, as much as I enjoyed the 2nd track, it was time to wrap things up for the day with Aleksandar Predic’s talk on WordPress Themes and Plugins and what could happen if we don’t innovate our approaches.
.@APredic on #WordPress themes and plugins. #wcskp pic.twitter.com/HpoAh4kEBP
— Мartin Тolovski (@TolovskiMartin) October 5, 2019
Thank you for proving once again that a custom-built theme is far better than any lego-ready popular “premium” theme out there.
After this, I finally managed to sneak in the 1st track for the closing remarks. It was an amazing Conference day at WCSKP, and after seeing so many happy faces in the crowd, I knew everyone felt the same as I did.
Closing remarks. It was a blast! See you next year, @wcskp #wcskp2019 pic.twitter.com/JeJHnfTsnE
— Мartin Тolovski (@TolovskiMartin) October 5, 2019
The After-Party
The after-party is the place where you really get to know people and what you have in common. As in 99% of the cases, the common denominator was beer!
Lots of cool people and pleasant conversations.
Final Thoughts
There were so many talks at WCSKP, and I only wished that I could have cloned myself so I could have been present everywhere.
Again, my deepest appreciation goes to the organizers, sponsors, speakers, and volunteers for making WordCamp Skopje 2019 happen! The WordPress community is a strong one, and I am proud to be part of it!
I am definitely looking forward to the next WordCamp Skopje! See you next year!
Team DevriX
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