Rasel Siddiqe

Hailing from Bangladesh, attending WCAsia 2024 was uncertain, to say the least. I remember having conversations with many Indian and Nepali WordPressians at WordCamp KTM about how it would be difficult to attend this WCAsia with our respective passports.

Now, after experiencing this incredible event, I can say difficulty is a barrier only as long as you let it!

The WCAsia Visa

Bangladesh, like many other countries in Southeast Asia, doesn’t accommodate travel directly to Taiwan. So, if you think about it, the WCAsia organizing team were overcoming challenges well before the first tickets were announced.

They managed the e-visa for foreign nationals internally through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. A true feat in and of itself, considering governments rarely accommodate such requests from private entities such as the Open Culture Foundation. However, the Taiwanese team came through, making this magical event not only possible but a reality for many of us.

All that comes after this point was only possible because of the incredible people in Taiwan. So it only makes sense to take a bow to them before we get to the main event.

Travel to Taipei

Personally, it took me 4 flights to get to Taiwan from my workplace in Sylhet.

Sylhet > Dhaka > Kunming > Shanghai > Taipei

We were really worried about our layover at Kunming Airport. As it appeared, that would become the least of our concerns. As soon as we landed in Kunming, we found a bustling community of Bengali people hosting travelers in local hotels and offering actual Bengali food.

The hotel was great, and they even arranged our ride back to the airport in proper time. I must admit, this comfortable stay in Kunming actually set us up for a successful WordCamp.

First Impressions: Taipei

Considering I never thought I’d visit Taiwan, it’s obvious I didn’t have much expectations. Saying I was genuinely impressed is an understatement.

Taiwan has one of the best internal transportation systems I’ve ever seen. There are buses, an MRT station, and a taxi stand right from the airport terminal.

We took a taxi directly to our hotel from TPE, and the ride was beautiful. They’ve taken the concept of expressways to a whole new level. Driving down 4-lane freeways at 100+ kmph is as comfortable as it’s common. But they’ve made these huge roadways a panoramic view of the city as well.

After we got to the hotel, the experience was exceptionally well. Our hotel was a 1-minute walk from the TICC (WordCamp venue). Walking in the streets of Taipei was a calming experience. Everyone’s busy getting to where they need to be, but it’s not the typical hustle and bustle you’d expect in the busiest financial district. Strolling is easy, and the people are helpful and understanding, to say the least.

Once we got into the venue, our WordCamp Asia event officially started. The night before, we had a splendid dinner with people from WPManageNinja. Have to thank Shahjahan Jewel for finding such a great Indian restaurant for a hearty meal and sharing his wisdom of previous WordCamps.

Conference Day 1

I started the day catching up with friends I made in WordCamp Kathmandu. Ganga Kafle, Prabin Jha, and Umesh are some of the people I was looking forward to meeting. Apart from previous acquaintances, I met some incredible people like Rokas (Omnisend), Jay (Fast Spring) on the sponsor booth floor. Missed Filip from Fast Spring very much.

The smoking zone outside also became a great place for people to connect. Met Bogdan (Amelia), Michael Avert (he’s popping in this story quite a few times), George (from Georgia).

Talking to them about the current prospects of working in different countries, how AI is changing how we work, it sounded like a panel talk in terms of content. But it felt like chatting with friends over beer.

Had a great conversation with Keza Marie Enriquez (Barn2 Plugins) about their customer support team and Alessandro Tesoro (Barn2 Plugins) about his experience of selling his plugin and then working for a company.

As for talks on Day 1, I attended the talk by Alain Schlesser on Bug-free development. For me as a marketer, getting a sneak peek on how developers think about plugin development was an eye-opener.

In between talks, I met Ka Leng (GoDaddy) and Julia through Priyom. We had an incredible conversation on diversity, equity, and women’s empowerment. The conversation opened up a whole new perspective on how female empowerment is working in Singapore, Taiwan, and WordPress in general. All while having local snacks like fried tofu and chicken nuggets.

I shared some of my own observations from looking at my working mother and how the times have changed since, and how they haven’t. Hoping that sharing my mom’s story also added to the picture.

Priyom gave me a brief on what Julia talked about, and that only made me more impressed with her courage. She’s hands down one of the sweetest people I met at WCAsia. An interaction I’ll undoubtedly hold near to my heart for the foreseeable future.

Apart from this, I loved the talk by Hannah Swain Løvik “Going from Fomo to Jomo”. I have to admit this is the most innovative concept I was introduced to in this event. Hannah’s calmness and life perspective are something worth exploring for anyone trying to improve their lifestyle, especially for people that are living lives around WordPress.

Got a must-have selfie with Michele (hardest working individual in WordPress). She’s an incredible person and one of the jolliest people I’ve ever met.

The last talk on Day 1 was by Alfred Cheng-Tai Kang, on AI chatbots. It’s something that’s directly connected to my bread and butter (Fluent Support). His talk actually gave me some good points for why a business and a support product should use AI chatbots and how they could do it.

Overall experience

Food was great for an event that has to cater to people from around the world. Entry was automated, so that was no hassle at all. There was more than enough coffee and snacks for people to start chatting.

Sponsor booths were well-arranged too. I won’t try to compare this event to any other WordCamp Asia, because for one, it was unique in and of itself but also because it was my first-ever regional WordCamp.

Conference Day 2

Day 2 started while running with Jewel bhai (WPManageNinja) for his community booth duty.

Found Michael and Rokas outside, and then we went to grab burgers with Michael (we’re friends now. period) cause a brunch seemed like the best idea. Michael found a cool place where we tried burgers that we wouldn’t have conceived otherwise.

From the burger joint, we went straight to the talks. Tim Ferris’s talk was actually on my wishlist, and not having him there was a bit of a downer. But that didn’t stop us from having fun.

Me and Priyom attended Jocelyn Hendrickson’s (BlueHost) talk on Intentional design. Her personal story at the beginning of the talk really resonated with us. We’ve been trying to build a little space for both of us to work together and her words felt like our own thoughts.

From there, I ran to catch Nada ElSharkawy’s (GoDaddy) talk on arranging WordPress meetups, which gave me new appreciation for people and the hard work that goes into arranging local WordCamps and Meetups. I met Nada in Kathmandu, and being able to catch up again was fantastic.

Then I attended a talk by Perth Woratana Ngarmtrakulchol on diversifying your income with WordPress skills. As someone who is only starting off with his career (and isn’t a developer) in WordPress, the talk was eye-opening, showcasing adequate resources for making the journey possible if you really want it.

I went and spoke to him about the books he suggested, and he was more than happy that I hit him up about them. Apart from that, I had splendid conversations with people at Siteground and Jetpack. It’s awesome how much you can learn from other people by just hearing about what they love to do!

After that, I roamed around sponsor booths with Arif bhai (WPManageNinja) and Noor bhai (Lazy Coders) before going for the highlight of the day “Q/A with Matt Mullenweg”. This Q&A turned out to be the biggest highlight for me personally.

Even though Matt was on stage, and I was a normal attendee asking a basic question, it actually felt like a conversation. I got to understand how an aspect of WordPress works directly from its visionary. It was an incredible experience that I’ll remember as one of the most validating moments of my life.

Matt even found and left a comment on my core contribution ticket, which is an honor to say the very least. This also seems like a good opportunity to thank the people that applauded my question and saw value in the conversation it started. I couldn’t be any more grateful for the recognition I got from people I had barely met before.

Afterward, I met some people from Stackable as courtesy from WPManageNinja. They are amazing people and wish I had more time to catch up with them. That’s how Conference Day 2 came to an end, with a giddy head and butterflies in my stomach.

Overall accomplishments

For Fluent Support, I was able to meet people from Barn2 and other amazing plugin developers and got to know what and how customer support works for them. Onboarded a couple of freelancers for the WPManageNinja affiliate program. Last but not the least, hashed out an integration project for Fluent Forms, which will probably be available soon!

The parties

Until now, I’d only heard that after parties are as fun as WordCamps themselves. I wasn’t disappointed. The after-party by Woo gave us an awesome evening with drinks, food, music, caricature, and bringing together incredible people. Met James Hunt who had some pretty interesting take on living abroad and working as a nomad.

The WordCamp after-party was fun with a touch of mixed flavors in the arrangement. I believe it was a great achievement for the organizing team, to be able to bring a diverse group of people together and make sure they connect and enjoy. Met Robert Windische (Inpsyde) there and that was a worthwhile talk to say the least.

By 11, however, we ditched the after-party to hit some local bars. We “trusted the Michael” to find us the best place to have an incredible time. We laughed, talked shop, and jived to music until 3:30.

While most people separated as the official WordCamp event ended, me and Priyom joined the spectacular GoDaddy team. We talked and had an incredibly good time with these splendid people. I have to mention Adam, Nealey, Kira, Nakul, Maja, Dineth, Nada, Auch and of course George (from Georgia). Can’t thank you guys enough for having us along.

I’m sad we missed out on the Night Market walk with this group. Can’t wait to see you guys in the near future.

As for personal experience, our day trip to Jiufeng was simply magical. Priyom is a Miyazaki fan girl, and when I saw what Jiufeng was all about, I knew I had to take her there. I’ll let Priyom describe that because she’s the one who truly felt the vibes and enjoyed the most.

Taipei 101 was sort of where my childhood came to life. I was a bit of science nerd growing up. Taipei 101’s inaugaration was somewhat of an engineering miracle and got some serious publicity. Once again, I never really imagined I’d be able to experience it. But here I am, taking a casual selfie with the Mass Damper inside Taipei 101.

I have to mention all this to actually thank Yuli Lang. Without the effort she put into making our visit not only possible but hassle-free shows her dedication and commitment. She was responsible for all the Visas and honestly, without this WordCamp and efforts by the Open Culture Foundation, the magic of Jiufeng would remain unattainable for people like me.

No matter how many times I thank you guys, the truth is the experience we got from Taiwan is not only memorable but eye-opening. We felt welcomed and fit into the community. And that makes for a successful WordCamp in almost every possible way.

The journey back

After wrapping up our Taipei 101 visit, we got back to the airport. We had a long journey ahead of us. Priyom and I agreed this trip was something we’ll definitely remember for a long time. WordCamp’s can be more than just work events. They bring opportunities to enrich lives in the most unexpected ways. Looking forward to seeing many more events, to Manilla and beyond!