Europe. So many communities and yet – can we name all of them? Do we know every city or country which organizes its own WordCamp or Meetup – where we could go to meet new people that share the same values as we do? With so many countries and so many organizers, Europe is perhaps the most vivid WordPress ecosystem in the world. Different languages used to separate people but today, thanks to WordPress – we all find our ways to work together and help each other.

And that’s the real power of WordPress and its ecosystem of communities. The idea behind WordCamp Europe is to get all these communities together. To hear stories, learn new things and get to know people. Make new friends. And is there a better platform than the very own WordCamp Europe website?

In this article series about the European communities we’ll introduce you to some colourful people from all over the continent. We’ll cover Central, Baltic, Eastern, Western, Northern and Southern Europe and today we’re presenting Baltic European Communities.  

Author note: we tried to make this community article on spot covering communities across Europe. Sometimes we don’t have enough data so we ask for your help to update the article(s) like with the more information about Polish community (updated on Friday, April 15th). If you know how to improve this article (or any future article), please, get in touch with us.

The WordPress community in Poland

Poland is first on our list and we’re talking with Marcin Wolak, organizer of WordCamp Krakow, local WordPress meetups and WordCamp Poland and Katarzyna Gajewska organizer of local Meetups in Gdynia where they organize WordCamp Poland this year. Marcin is a creative, fast, experienced and very positive front-end developer in love with WordPress. Katarzyna supported startups, she’s a blogger, WordPress enthusiast who loves literature and theater and a big Star Wars fan. Officially, Polish community started at July 19th 2013.

Marcin, Katarzyna – what can you tell us about Polish community?

Marcin: It all started in Kraków with a question: What is going on with WordPress in this city? We hoped to see it on our meetings and as next and next events were passing we started to promote local businesses based on WordPress. Currently we have about 60-80 people on each meetup. There are always some familiar faces, a lot of new ones, sometimes not only from Kraków. We are always trying to cover some specific topic on each session, for winter 2016 we will focus on success case studies and social impact of WordPress projects in local business.

Katarzyna: I represent the local community in Gdynia, but this year we organize WordCamp Poland, in which all of the Polish community is involved.

What about other WordCamp or Meetups organizers in your country?

Marcin: Yes, there are over 7 local meetups communities in Poland and they are very active. At least once per quarter people meet and share their knowledge about ideas and experience with WordPress. Speakers are also very active – traveling from city to city and share same or similar speeches all over the country. And yes – organizers from different cities are communicating with each other to share ideas and opinions about speakers, topics and possibilities for organizing bigger events (like WordCamps).

Katarzyna: There are WordUps (meetups) in cities: Gdynia, Warsaw, Toruń, Wrocław, Kraków, Łódź, Katowice, Lublin. We are in touch, support each other and visit when we have a chance. Once a year we meet during WordCamp. Last year we met in Krakow, this year it’s Gdynia. We communicate mostly through Facebook group.

What type of people form your local community?

Marcin: There are people on every stage of experience: from beginners to experts. Mostly developers, but also bloggers, business owners, SEO guys, designers and testers.

Any problems?

Marcin: Meeting place – it can be hard to find a place (bar, restaurant or similar) with projector, microphone and sound system, especially when you need to fit in around 100 people 😉 Looking for befriended places is always good for start and owner of bars will be always happy to bring them new customers for an evening. Communication and promotion channels – originally we thought about holding new website for each event, adding news and photos on them, providing Facebook and Twitter channel. Many attendees told us then that it was too much and in the end they didn’t know where to look for information. So we have focused communication on Facebook and website currently holds only photographic summarize of each event. And it works as a charm 🙂

Katarzyna: I think that the key is communication and trusting each other. An working with people that we like 🙂

Are people from your community traveling to other WordCamps / Meetups?

Marcin: Yes, especially speakers. But we have some meetups nearby. Prague, Bratislava or Vienna is not far away from Kraków so we are trying to gather up and go there with community members. It’s always fun to visit other countries, and if you can also attend WordCamp during travel – it is even better. I know about few people in Poland who are preparing travel plans especially for WordCamps 🙂

Katarzyna: Yes, we support eachother. For example, I was in the team for WordCamp Poland 2015, supporting Marcin Wolak, and now he is in my team for WordCamp 2016.

Is there importance of going to community-organized events and maybe giving presentations?

Marcin: You can never expect how much you will learn more about your topic when you will prepare presentation. And how much you will gain from feedback from your audience. And by feedback I mean not only technical knowledge but also contacts, connections and even – friends!

Community information

• Fellow organizers: Katarzyna Karus-Wysocka, Krzysztof Wysocki, Barbara Rumińska, Ewa Karaszkiewicz, Wacław Jacek
• WordPress Poland
• Polish WordPress community Facebook page
• 2016 WordCamp Gdynia (will present as WordCamp Poland in 2016)
• Local Communities
  • Krakow (Facebook page and WordCamp Krakow 2015)
  • Wrocław
  • Warsaw
  • Toruń
  • Lublin
  • Silesia
  • Łódź
  • Gdynia

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WordPress in Lithuania

If we go a little bit to the north, we’ll come to Lithuania where we’re going to talk to Jonas Andrijauskas – the lead organizer of WordCamp Lithuania. Other than being WordCamp Lithuania organizer, Jonas is also a father of three and a firm believer in open source. He’s an experienced remote team leader and a senior project manager, as well as the President of Lithuanian WordPress Users Association “Kodo poetai”, and a Polyglots team contributor. We asked Jonas to tell us more about the Lithuanian community.

Our community strives to have at least 2 meetups a year which is attended by 70-80 people on average. Last year we had our very first WordCamp which had about 120 people. Lithuanian WordPress community is relatively young, but very proactive. We are open to everyone who uses WordPress, therefore on our meetups and WordCamps we cover wide range of topics, like programming, marketing, legal aspects, more effective use of WordPress, and many more.

Lithuanian community has started in 2014. and because the country is relatively small, it hosts only one Meetup / WordCamp.

The community is very diverse – developers, managers, business owners, bloggers, administrators, marketers and lectors. People often travel to other WordCamps like WordCamp Europe 2014 and 2015 or WordCamp London 2015. They will go to WordCamp Europe 2016, as well as will they be volunteering in Vienna.

One last word to our readers?

If there are not enough enthusiasts in your city – join other cities in your country.

Community information

• Fellow organizers: Justina Baškytė, Darius Sveikauskas, Tomas Petrašiūnas, Dominykas Gelucevičius
• WordPress Lithuania
• Lithuanian WordPress community Facebook page
• WordCamp Lithuania official page

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The Estonian WordPress community

And a little bit more to the north, across the Gulf of Finland there is Estonia. Estonia is one of the leading countries when it comes to software-enabled government. Estonians are open to foreigners so the main language for Estonian Meetup is English. We are talking with Kaarel Veike, the host of WordPress Estonia Metup. (And also creator of our incredible WordCamp Europe videos).

Kaarel is a family guy and he even works in parenting niche. All his websites are on WordPress and he’s into making videos. He even made some videos for WordCamp Europe. Estonian community has started in 2013.

Kaarel, why did you choose English as your main meetup language?

I think we have done right to have decided to go with using English as the main language as this makes our group more interested and open to the rest of the World. Not many foreigners speak Estonian ;-). Keep your meetups international if possible, especially if you are from a small country!

We have our meetups in English and people visit us from all over the world. There are about 15-20 people attending when we come together to talk WP and have fun. But in the group, we have about 100 and it’s growing. We have guys from Germany, France, Turkey, India, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Sweden, Russia and so on. Estonians are about a third of the entire community. So we are quite international.

What type of professionals form your local community?

We have people from all different areas. We are not only about coding. I am usually sharing marketing and general business advice. Sometimes even share the experience from other fields. We have people who are interested in doing better online.

Any problems while doing this Meetups?

I think we have done right to have decided to go with using English as the main language as this makes our group more interested and open to the rest of the World. Not many foreigners speak Estonian ;-). Keep your meetups international if possible, especially if you are from a small country!

Final word for our readers?

I believe we have helped a lot of people to choose the right path and save money on starting their business or adventure.

Community information

• WordPress Estonia
• WordPress Estonia Meetup

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Be a part of this series!

While we started to work on article series about European WordPress communities, we sent email to all the organizers from various countries and cities. If you still haven’t answered please answer to the survey. If you didn’t receive an email from us but would like to be part of this article series – get in touch with us from our contact page.