{"id":8496,"date":"2016-06-21T11:29:51","date_gmt":"2016-06-21T10:29:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/2016.europe.wordcamp.org\/?p=8496"},"modified":"2016-06-21T23:15:28","modified_gmt":"2016-06-21T22:15:28","slug":"meet-the-european-wordpress-communities-portugal-spain-italy-greece","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/europe.wordcamp.org\/2016\/meet-the-european-wordpress-communities-portugal-spain-italy-greece\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the European WordPress Communities \u2013 Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Portugal,Being days away from the biggest WordCamp Europe ever, it\u2019s now time to tell a final story about the European communities. We\u2019ve travelled across Europe bringing you stories about both diverse and inspirational WordPress communities.<\/p>\n

Our journey started with communities from Poland, Lithuania, and Estonia<\/a>. Then we talked with the communities from Turkey, Bulgaria, Ukraine and Russia<\/a> and shortly after that we presented the communities from Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, and Hungary<\/a>. A month ago we published article featuring communities from Austria, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Germany and Switzerland<\/a> and 10 days later, we talked with communities from United Kingdom, Netherlands, Belgium, and France<\/a>. Just last week we published the penultimate article about communities from Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Greenland<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The time has come to tell the final story \u2013 let\u2019s meet communities from Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Portugal<\/h2>\n

Portugal is, like Spain, Italy or Greece, one of the most visited countries in the world. Home to people like Ferdinand Magellan and Vasco da Gama, for centuries it has been a nation of explorers. Two major cities, Lisbon and Porto, are both\u00a0popular\u00a0tourist destinations and lovely places to visit and enjoy.<\/p>\n

When we\u2019re talking about the Portuguese community the first person that comes to mind is Z\u00e9 Fontainhas<\/strong>. Z\u00e9 is one of those people who had a huge impact not only on his local community but on the global community as well. He organized WordCamp Lisbon in 2011 and 2012 and was one of the founders of WordCamp Europe, which then evolved to become one of the (currently) two most important WordCamps in the world. We can only agree that he had a huge impact on building the Portuguese community to what it is today \u2013 a rock-solid community that is being lead by some extraordinary people.<\/p>\n

\"From

From left to right: Jos\u00e9 Freitas, Pedro Fonseca, Marco Pereirinha, Nuno Morgadinho and Ana Aires<\/p><\/div>\n

Jos\u00e9 Freitas<\/strong> has been working as a journalist for more than 20 years and has been a WordPress user since 2008. He is also on the Portuguese translation team. Like Jos\u00e9, Pedro Fonseca<\/strong> also has more than 20 years of experience working in the health industry and building websites as a hobby. He discovered WordPress in 2006, which gradually changed his life. He is now involved in organizing WordCamps and meetups.<\/p>\n

Nuno Morgadinho and Ana Aires<\/strong> are husband and wife, and WordPressers who’ve been working on WordPress projects for years. They co-founded a development and consultancy shop, WidgiLabs, and created WP Conference Theme. Marco Pereirinha<\/strong> is a WordPress developer with 8 years of experience working on a wide range of projects, from small business to large governmental websites. He\u2019s been working for the Norwegian company Knowit Experience for the last 3 years.<\/p>\n

Nuno and Ana: The community is the big thing. Our involvement started around 6 years ago when together with Z\u00e9 Fontainhas we wanted to bring the community together and started organizing meetups in Lisbon. After a while, the community took off and with a small team we\u2019ve put together a two great WordCamp Lisbon in 2011 and 2012.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On the Contributor day at the second WordCamp Lisbon, Marco Pereirinha asked the organizers to bring the WordCamp to his city, Porto. But he didn\u2019t expect the answer he got \u2013 to do that you have to have your own local community.<\/p>\n

Marco: In return, I got the provocation to start locally that community. And so I did, later that year I cranked a meetup. In earlier 2013 we had another one and the latest was really important to this group. Great people took a step in front and help to bring to daylight WordCamp Porto 2013.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Although before the first WordCamp Porto they didn\u2019t organize regular meetups, this changed afterward.<\/p>\n

Pedro: When we organized the first WordCamp in Porto, a decision was taken: we had to organize regular local meetups. I had the opportunity to organize the first one and found a nice Motard bar that would let us gather there. Our meetups have about 20+ attendees, and we welcome everybody. We usually receive people from outside Porto \u2013 sometimes we receive people from cities more than 100 km away. We also have been promoting that other cities create their own meetup, and give them all our support (as the case of Aveiro Meetup).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To date, they’ve organized 24 consecutive uninterrupted meetups in Porto, which is a magnificent achievement.<\/p>\n

Jos\u00e9: It’s on the last Thursday of the each month. Usually, we have a talk about a subject with Q&A and maybe some debate. We end the meetup with some food for those who want to join. As you may know, Portuguese people love food.
\nThe last WordCamp that happened in Portugal was WordCamp Porto in May. It was the largest WordCamp in Portugal so far, with around 300 attendees. Other than Porto, there are meetups in Lisbon, Aveiro, and Braga, although not on the regular basis.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Jos\u00e9: The biggest problem is to convince people to leave their routine comfort and attend the meetups. Sometimes we have a hard time explaining that we need to give back some of the things we get from WordPress. Because WordPress cannot be taken for granted forever. People need to do something to help the software growth.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And WordPress is growing in Portugal as it is growing globally. Nowadays, people see a lot more potential in WordPress so they are stepping up and starting to volunteer, speak or organize meetups.<\/p>\n

Pedro: We try to create a welcoming and inclusive environment for everybody. As the meetups are so enjoyable, it’s not a problem to deal with the need for consistency and regularity.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It all starts with the right people. For Portugal, one of these people who is the foundation of the community is Z\u00e9, mentioned previously.<\/p>\n

Nuno and Ana: Having Z\u00e9 Fontainhas in the community also helped immensely because he brought the sense of how such a community can work together and make things happen even when people are distributed across the country and working remotely with no face contact for months. In more recent years I would say that our WordCamp team has become quite an event-organizing lean machine that could compete even with event professionals.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Probably the biggest success story was this year\u2019s WordCamp in Porto. Apart from the talks, there were 2 very successful workshops for beginners, which have been attended by around 70 people (Create a website; Create an Online store). Demand for both workshops and the WordCamp was very high.<\/p>\n

Jos\u00e9: It’s was great to see that people were interested in the camp several weeks before the conference. Usually, people buy tickets in the two last weeks. In this case, we had a massive ticket sale in the first month. We sold out and had to change rooms in the venue to get more space and sell more tickets.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

WordPress is a hot topic in Portugal and a story how a meetup organized within 2 days reached 35 attendees is also a nice one.<\/p>\n

Nuno and Ana: As we work from Coworklisboa we get the chance to meet new people almost every month. One morning though someone at the space mentioned that we had a new coworker visiting and that he also worked with WordPress. Imagine my excitement when I found out it was Cory Miller, iThemes founder and long-time blogger! After talking for a while with him I realized this was the ideal opportunity to organize a local meetup and in 2-3 days we\u2019ve put together an event with 30-35 people that culminated in a fantastic dinner that was a blast for everyone.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

People from Portuguese community travel more and more to WordCamps outside Portugal. Although this is not that usual for the majority of the community, we can say that there are some regular volunteers and speakers on WordCamps across Europe.<\/p>\n

\"WordPress <\/a>
WordPress Meetup Porto <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"WordPress <\/a>
WordPress Meetup Porto <\/div> <\/div>
\"WordPress <\/a>
WordPress Meetup Porto <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"WordCamp <\/a>
WordCamp Porto 2016 <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"WordCamp <\/a>
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\"WordCamp <\/a>
WordCamp Porto 2016 <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"WordCamp <\/a>
WordCamp Porto 2016 <\/div> <\/div>
\"WordCamp <\/a>
WordCamp Porto 2016 <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"WordCamp <\/a>
WordCamp Porto 2016 <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"WordCamp <\/a>
WordCamp Porto 2016 <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"WordCamp <\/a>
WordCamp Porto 2016 <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

Get in touch with the WordPress community in Portugal<\/h3>\n