Francisco Torres
@frantorres
Spain
Francisco has been a WordPress user since version 2.7 (2009), after finishing his studies in computer engineering and media, he founded GIGA4, a company focused on helping small and medium organisations with their WordPress technical needs.
His first point of contact with the community was in WordPress Sevilla 2012 and since then he has been involved in different areas, specially community itself, organising and helping in Meetups and WordCamps.
He currently devotes as much time as possible to the plugin review team, where he focuses on reviewing plugins, training new members and automating and optimising as many processes as possible.
Francisco loves to travel exploring cities and public transportation, practices cycling and swimming, is a fan of Kylie Minogue and sometimes makes videos for social networks.
Get to know Francisco 🎙️
Can you start by painting a picture of what a typical day looks like for you? What fuels your passion for the work you do, and how does it tie into your involvement with WCEU?
Currently my days are an eight-story sandwich in which I’m constantly shifting context between my two biggest commitments and passions at the moment: My involvement with the WordPress.org Foundation on the Plugins Review Team and my work at my company.
I really don’t know how I stay focused on all this work and put in long days, but I do know that the time flies when I’m developing or reviewing code, and it makes me feel great to know that I’ve been able to help someone else.
WCEU is a social event that brings together people who also feel this passion and I would like to share some time with them.
What sparked your interest in becoming a speaker at WCEU? Was there a particular moment or experience that motivated you to share your insights with this community?
I am currently involved in a team that has recently gone through significant changes, and I feel the need to share this experience with the community and provide insight to help make things as efficient as possible. Anything we can bring to plugin developers to improve their plugins is good for them, it’s good for the team because it will make our reviews easier, and finally it will be good for the community because the plugin ecosystem will improve as a whole.
For those awaiting your talk, could you give us a preview of what we can expect to learn from your talk? Any sneak peeks?
I think the most important thing anyone can take away from this talk is information that will help them go through the process of publishing a plugin to the plugin directory.
About sneak peeks, I have been collecting statistics and have found interesting data, such as that the number of plugins in the repository has been growing year after year, and that we receive between 6 and 8 thousand new requests to host new plugins every year.
Is it your first time at a WCEU or WordPress event? Any standout memories or lessons learned that you’d like to share?
This is not my first time at WCEU, but it is my first time as a speaker. From WCEU 2013 I remember Bram Duvigneau, who is blind, talking about accessibility and showing how he uses his computer. From WCEU 2015 I remember enjoying the swimming pool after the talks and from WCEU 2018 I remember the great concert at the after party.
Every time I go back to the WCEU, I love to see all the people I know from before, meet those I know from the internet, and also meet new people.
Looking beyond the scheduled sessions, what do you hope attendees will take away from their overall experience at WCEU? How can they leverage the event to enhance their professional development or personal growth?
Talk to other people, be open, be receptive, don’t hesitate to ask. We are here for the same reason, we are passionate about WordPress and the community, we share and pass on that spirit. Also, have fun, enjoy, have a great time.
