A bilingual Polish WordCamp – Gdynia 2025

Simon Kraft: Right at the Baltic Sea.

Maciek Palmowski: Right at the Baltic Sea. It's a part of the Tri-City, something we call it in Poland. There are three cities connected in one.

Simon Kraft: Okay. Another thing I have to ask before we get into more detail. Is swimming in the Baltic Sea an option in September?

Maciek Palmowski: I mean, always. If you are brave enough, I mean, why not?

Simon Kraft: That's not helpful. on a scale from one to ten how brave does one have to be to go for a swim.

Maciek Palmowski: Honestly it kind of depends no seriously because i wouldn't be surprised if the water will be warm enough so it's possible okay on the other hand i know that there are a few people in the polish community who are you know who love to swim in this icy water so someone will definitely go for a swim There's always someone.

Simon Kraft: Okay, I know you wrote a whole blog post about it on your WordCamp's website, but it's a big question. Why do you do a bilingual WordCamp? Because a fully bilingual WordCamp in Poland is kind of a first, right?

Maciek Palmowski: Yes, it is. It is. And the reason was very simple. Because right now we have three WordCamps during one year. We have always Gdena, we have Krakow, and we have Wrocław. And the truth is that at all those WordCamps, you almost see the same faces, the same speakers. We even had this game in guessing which speakers will be there. And it turns out that in most cases, those are the same. For example, me. Really, I'm not that interesting to be constantly there. That's why we decided that the only solution for this is to invite people from outside, right? Because there are so many amazing speakers. And on the other hand, in Poland, English language is not a barrier at all. So why not? There are so many amazing speakers from our neighboring country, like Germany, like Czech Republic, like the Baltic States. So, so many opportunities and the only thing they have to go is kind of get to Guinea and it's not that far away.

Simon Kraft: So the idea is to have a full track with English speakers. So there's something for me because I'm from Germany. I don't speak more than three words Polish. To have something to go to and take in while I'm there at all times. Is that right?

Maciek Palmowski: Yes, that was the plan for the beginning, because we watched this at many other conferences because sometimes they tried mixing. So the tracks were more topic-based rather than language-based. And in the result, it was quite weird because the attendees had to kind of move around instead of just sitting on the track. So, yeah, it didn't feel good. So we decided we will just go with language-based tracks. So there will be one Polish and one English. So there will be also a great opportunity for you if you decide to learn a bit of Polish. It's not that it's one of the most difficult languages out there, but... Wow. And kind of inside of those tracks, the talks will be divided into topical blocks. So, for example, first we'll have a topic about, let's say, development that will end up with a Q&A session. And we'll also try to make sure that the same topic isn't happening at both tracks at the same time. So if someone would like to learn more about development, they can first go to the Polish track, then to the English one, and they won't miss a thing.

Simon Kraft: Okay judging from it being a three-day event i i will take a guess and say that you'll have like two days of actual like scheduled talks and a third day with something like a contributor day or do you have something else in store for the third day yes.

Maciek Palmowski: But i mean we are always starting with the contributor day so during the first day there will be a lot of things happening already We'll also have around 10, 12 workshops. So this will be the one thing that will be happening. And also the thing that started in WordCamp Krakow, in Krakow it was called the WordPress Academy. And here we are calling it the WordPress for beginners. So it's kind of a side event. You don't even have to have the regular ticket for it. And it will be like a set of four or five sessions for people who are starting their adventure with WordPress. There is even an article about this initiative on makewordpress.org written by Sebastian, the organizer of Krakow. So yeah, you can kind of see what is the idea behind it. We are kind of taking the general framework of it too. The only difference is that we decided that you don't have to have the WordCamp ticket to attend this because you may not be interested in the rest of the sessions. And why kind of take over ticket that someone else could use.

Simon Kraft: Speaking of tickets, how many attendees do you expect to join for like the whole event, not just that first day?

Maciek Palmowski: So we are aiming in 300.

Simon Kraft: Okay.

Maciek Palmowski: But we are ready for more. We are ready for more, but like the 300 is the number we really want to cross. And looking at the ticket sales right now, we are already one third to hit the target. So it looks really good. And especially the tickets, if I remember, are quite cheap.

Simon Kraft: Tell me something about your venue then. Where is this whole thing going to happen?

Maciek Palmowski: Okay, so it's happening in that in the Gdynia Technological Park. In Polish, it's called the PPNT, something like this. I always miss out the abbreviation. It's a very special place because WordCamp Gdynia happened many years ago already, and it took place there. After this, for many, many years, all the WordPress events in Gdynia happened in a bit different place. But now we are back there because, yeah, it's quite a big place, and there are really a lot of conferences happening. Also there is a cool technological museum around so if you get bored of what is happening at the word camp you can play around with those technical toys and everything so it's rather fun.

Simon Kraft: That sounds really cool i'm really looking forward to that while i think all of your calls are currently still open and we'll dive into them in a second you already started announcing the first speakers you selected so there's still time until the end of this week we are recording this on august 4th 2025 until the end of this week to submit as a speaker we'll get to that in a second but you're already announcing the first speakers to get people be interested in in your event i guess so let's dive into those first speakers so.

Maciek Palmowski: So right now we already announced one of the most famous people in the WordPress community, Remkus. And Remkus will have a great talk about performance and about the fact that caching won't solve all of your problems. And obviously, he will be on the English track. While on the Polish track, Anja Widera will talk about designing WooCommerce checkouts, how to make sure that they work and they just don't look like a tax form. So yeah, I do think that while both of those topics are great, I'm really, really fascinated about the design one because, I mean, you're from Germany, I'm from Poland. Bureaucracy is a thing in our countries. The tax forms aren't great.

Simon Kraft: Bureaucracy is fun.

Maciek Palmowski: Okay, so, yeah, well, well. But yeah, like I said, this is... And I can tell that also, we already see there will be quite a lot of talks that also involves, of course, AI, because, yeah, everyone is talking about AI. There will be also a very fun workshop about using WordPress together with New Relic.

Simon Kraft: Oh, interesting. Put a link to the site where people can see first speakers as soon as they're announced on your website. Obviously like the ticket sale is also still still ongoing so whoever wants to after this interview or after like checking your site out and figuring out what's what's happening there people can still and should still grab a ticket, A bit earlier, we touched upon the different open calls that are currently ongoing. Let's check them off one by one. First of all, call for speakers. We already mentioned that. That runs until the end of this week-ish.

Maciek Palmowski: Exactly.

Simon Kraft: Link is in the show notes. Whoever wants to submit a talk and be part of this brilliant lineup of speakers for September, do it now because that won't be open forever. Do you know from the top of your head how many slots overall you have to fill?

Maciek Palmowski: Around 30-something. Because there will be also a discussion panel. But yeah, in general, it's like 30-something. And if I remember, 32-something.

Simon Kraft: Okay, so there's quite some slots and half of them should be in English, according to what we just talked about. WordCamps are one of the nicest kind of events I regularly attend. That's why I regularly attend them. Speakers attendees are a huge part of that but in the end it's all possible because we get sponsors for these events that help make these tickets and you already mentioned they are quite cheap to make these tickets affordable while for other conferences you easily pay like a couple of hundred euros just to attend that's all made possible by sponsors and i guess the call for sponsors also is still open.

Maciek Palmowski: Yes it's it's still open we always need more money like this is like the obvious who does every of every word camp organizer if someone asks if some sponsors ask okay but what do you really need from us and i'm like yeah first of all be there with us and second yeah we require money yeah sorry but that's like the obvious thing but uh thanks to this we can just have this great venue we can make sure that there will be enough food and drinks and other stuff so um so yeah the call is still open we already have uh i think we already even started announcing uh some of them because i'm uh for example wp bakery smart house elementary is also joining us but but there is still a lot of place for new sponsors and this is something interesting for some of you we also have a really cool package to sponsor the workshop room so if you want to have your workshop room named after your company or if you have just enough money and want to have your name, for example, simon craft workshop room yeah you you can do it you can do it it's it's all doable i think there are two left of those so and you can also add some adjectives so it doesn't have to be like simon craft's room it can be amazing simon craft shop or whatever do.

Simon Kraft: You know how long the call for sponsors will remain open.

Maciek Palmowski: In general it will be open until until the end because like i mentioned money we need money right but on the other hand some of the perks will stop working for example the admiral okay i.

Simon Kraft: I have to i have to stop you right there you have this very very first of all very cool design if i may say so for for the whole event and second of all this marine theme going on which i guess is inspired by the proximity to the baltic sea.

Maciek Palmowski: Yes i.

Simon Kraft: Love your sponsor package names they're delightful.

Maciek Palmowski: Honestly the most funny but mostly in the polish language is the micro sponsor one so it's the deckhand and deckhand if you literally would translate it from polish to english would be because we we call it that can be polished my tech and might key are underwear so this is quite a funny thing and it and also it works because we had one sponsor who said yeah this name is horrible we will we will purchase the more expensive one because it's better i.

Simon Kraft: Would love me a good underwear sponsor for a webcam just saying just putting it out there in case anyone is.

Maciek Palmowski: Honestly this is a fault because we had socks we had t-shirts no one no one ever had word camp underwear i don't know why i'm.

Simon Kraft: Looking forward to that outcry yeah so call for sponsors will stay open for some time but supply is limited basically for some of the perks.

Maciek Palmowski: Some perks just won't be possible for example your logo on the, on the wall yeah we need some time to prepare to prepare it so yeah.

Simon Kraft: Magic will draw them by hand and he needs some some time in advance.

Maciek Palmowski: Or we'll remove them with duct tape i've.

Simon Kraft: Seen that before as well yeah then the other call that i can think of is the call for volunteers.

Maciek Palmowski: And this is also something it's not that we are struggling but this is something we are kind of learning this is the first time we're having a bilingual WordCamp, right? So we kind of also need volunteers from other countries to help people from those other countries a bit better. If you are planning to come to Gdynia and you would like to help us, yes, the call for volunteers is still open. I would like to say it's an easy job, but let's be honest, no, it's not. But it's fun.

Simon Kraft: It's rewarding yeah it can be such a rewarding and fun thing to do let's also mention that you don't have to pay for your tickets which is a nice perk but as we said those are usually quite quite cheap so it's a nice gesture yeah.

Maciek Palmowski: For example we have even this the student ticket which costs around 25 euros so that's nothing.

Simon Kraft: That's really cool but the cool thing about being a volunteer outside of getting a free ticket is especially if if that's your first word camp being at a word camp as a volunteer gets you in touch with so so many people and it's such a great opportunity to meet new folks and maybe make some good friends if if you're up for that so that's a really nice way of thinking of it.

Maciek Palmowski: And also it's really fun because when you are let's go just an attendee you don't see everything what is happening behind the scenes and let's be honest all the magic or all the weird stuff.

Simon Kraft: That... All the messy magic.

Maciek Palmowski: Oh, yes. There are so many weird stuff happening behind what everyone else is seeing. Because if we look at every WordCamp, they always feel, yeah, they weren't really great. There probably wasn't any problem. No, there were so many problems, but everyone is masking them.

Simon Kraft: And it's all volunteers. It's like... Volunteer like actually volunteers but also all the organizers are doing that in their free time so that's something besides the sponsors who make it possible to be very appreciative of and to say thank you to to all the nice people doing it so make sure to do that when you attend your next word camp six years ago at my one of my of the work camps i organized we had to send some volunteers around the city to chase for some special food because we had one attendee with a very severe food allergy and our caterer couldn't accommodate for that. That's one of those weird things that happen behind the scenes and can seem quite seamless when you don't peek behind the curtain.

Maciek Palmowski: Yeah, because if you're an attendee, you just see, okay, there is food. Cool. It was good or it wasn't, but yeah, it just magically happened. And the magic behind is, as you mentioned, some volunteers running around the city trying to find something.

Simon Kraft: Not sure we're doing a good job like pitching people to be volunteers. You won't be the people running around town trying to fetch food for 300 plus people. That will be taken care of.

Maciek Palmowski: We will make sure that 299 people will really have all their food. Maybe just this one person. Maybe not. We'll see.

Simon Kraft: I think it's really cool. It's a really cool idea to try and be international with your volunteers as well. That's something that makes the whole event so much easier. I think that's really clever. I hope that that's a model that can be replicated by other WordCamps going forward as well.

Maciek Palmowski: Yeah, I'm also counting on this because for me, this was always one of the biggest problems with WordCamps in Europe. For a long time, if I would like to attend a WordCamp, I could either go to Poland because, yeah, I know Polish. Or I could go to UK because I know English. And that's it.

Simon Kraft: Nah.

Maciek Palmowski: For a long time, yeah. Finally, WordCamp Vienna happened that introduced the English track. I remember WordCamp Nordic entirely in English. And I think that right now Portugal is also going bilingual. And that's great. That's great. It really opens the community for so many opportunities to kind of exchange knowledge.

Simon Kraft: Well, I organized my first bilingual WordCamp nine years ago, just putting that out there. So they have been happening for quite some time, but it's getting more. I agree. And it's really nice to see, especially here in Europe, where we have like relatively short travel distances to get to another country, meet another community, meet some of the WordCamp people that we know from like WordCamp Europe in their natural habitat and see what what everyone else from their awesome communities is like so that's.

Maciek Palmowski: Let's be honest that's one of the problem of europe we have so many countries with so many languages it's complicated.

Simon Kraft: Yes it is so we mentioned the call for speakers sponsors volunteers did we miss one just.

Maciek Palmowski: Making sure no that's all that's all yeah okay.

Simon Kraft: Good yeah that's enough anyways um for everyone traveling to gdynia what is there to do besides wood camp maybe people want to stick around for another day or arrive a bit early.

Maciek Palmowski: Overall i'm a huge fan of try because first of all i'm not from gdynia i'm from uc i'm from like half poland away from it so if you go to gdynia you land in the like i mentioned earlier in the tri city so there this is gdynia gdańsk and sapot all of those cities are totally different because Gdańsk is the historical city. It's beautiful. The old town is amazing. The Vistula River, also a lot of museums, really beautiful, beautiful city. And it's like beautiful in, let's call it this classical sense of beauty. On the other hand, we have Gdynia. Gdynia is one of the youngest cities in Poland. It was built between the First and the Second World War because we needed a harbor. And that's how it was created. So it doesn't have any old buildings. And we have Sopot. Sopot is the smallest one, but it has a bit more rich people vibe. It's very unique. I think it has the most beautiful beach out of all those cities. Like I said, it's also really cool. And if you really prefer to go to some party places, Sopot is definitely a place for you. I can also say that from the coffee perspective, All of those cities are amazing, but only in Sopot you will find a coffee place called Forest, which has a statue of St. Mary inside. That's rather unique. And you can do a Zoom call with St. Mary behind you.

Simon Kraft: Okay.

Maciek Palmowski: And there is the city train that connects all of them. And if not, I mean, the city train, in my opinion, is one of the best ways to travel between those cities. It's cheap, it's fast, it works. But also, even using a taxi is quite affordable. It's really up to you. They are really terrifically connected, so it shouldn't be a problem to visit all of them during your trip to Gdyn.

Simon Kraft: Any secret tips of stuff to check out?

Maciek Palmowski: I mean, I really recommend just walking around, for example, the Gdynsk old town, because it's beautiful and you can really find some really secret places inside. So this is like one of the best places to spend your time. And if you are a Witcher fan, if you are a Witcher fan and you will go along the Vistua River, you might find a location you saw in the game. So I highly recommend doing this. it's very clear and you should spot it right away anything.

Simon Kraft: Else we should mention before we wrap this.

Maciek Palmowski: From the practical side if you've never been in poland few few tips first of all you can pay with with a card everywhere it's not a problem this will be like the best way to to do so we don't have euro we have still polish lotus so that's why using revolt or something similar is it's a very good idea and english shouldn't be a problem and also near the seaside also german is very very popular so i.

Simon Kraft: Will hide my germanisms as fast as i can.

Maciek Palmowski: In general we are quite an easy country just to go there and see stuff it's there shouldn't be any any hidden traps or whatever so yeah.

Simon Kraft: I've been to krakow a couple of weeks ago i would agree with that assessment and speaking of krakow we have to name drop word camp europe which will happen in poland next year so.

Maciek Palmowski: It will it will it's it's our pride and joy that it's finally that is finally happening so yeah next year and again it's also a funny thing because it's happening in the ice on the ice venue and i remember that this was my second word camp ever that i attended in poland because really many many years ago the previous word camp krakow also happened, at the venue and the venue is really really amazing and it took other world camps many many years to even get close to this level and the venue did a lot of magic yeah.

Simon Kraft: I checked the venue out and it looks really really good so that is super super cool i interviewed sebastian with uh who's in the organizing team for wadecamp europe on this podcast a couple weeks ago and i'll link to that episode just as a shameless self plug okay good i would say that about covers it i'm so looking forward to read about all the cool speakers that you folks will announce and i'm really looking forward to visiting the polish seaside.

Maciek Palmowski: Yes i mean like i said it's it's unique it's really unique i i really hope you will enjoy it and you also will understand this Gdynia's magic, because like I said, it's a bit of a hipster city in a way, but in a very, good way.

Simon Kraft: Lovely, lovely. I like me a good hipster city.

Maciek Palmowski: This is one of the reasons why so many people love it, because it's just different.

Simon Kraft: Thank you so much. Thank you for your time. I'll see you soon in person.

Maciek Palmowski: That's for sure.

Simon Kraft: Bye.