Have you ever wondered what about 40% of all websites have in common? In October 2026 W3Techs puts it at exactly 40.0% of all websites and 58.5% of sites whose content management system it can identify (W3Techs). The answer is simple: WordPress. WordCamp Polska 2023 was the place to experience this ecosystem live, firsthand. The three-day conference took place in Gliwice from 12 to 14 May 2023. The event’s official name was WordCamp Gliwice 2023, with the hashtags #WCPL and #WCGLIWICE (gliwice.wordcamp.org). It brought together everyone from beginners to advanced developers who work with WordPress and want to expand their knowledge and network.
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What is WordCamp and why Gliwice
WordCamp is an international conference organized by the WordPress community. It’s a place where specialists from various fields, developers, designers, bloggers, entrepreneurs, marketers and others, meet to share their knowledge, experiences and ideas. Each conference is shaped by the local community that organizes it. Whether you’re a developer looking for new challenges or an entrepreneur who wants to learn how to use WordPress more effectively in your business, WordCamp Polska 2023 had something for you.
The organizers counted the event as the eleventh WordCamp in Poland and the first ever in Gliwice. Before it, after the pandemic break, the Polish community had met at WordCamp Warszawa 2022 (organizers’ announcement). WordCamp in Poland moves to a different host city every year, so each edition draws a different local crowd.
What happened on the three days of WordCamp Polska 2023
WordCamp Polska 2023 started with Contributor Day on May 12. This is a special day during which everyone can contribute to WordPress development. Whether you’re a developer, designer, copywriter, or simply a WordPress enthusiast, everyone has something to offer. The next two days (May 13-14) were the heart of the conference, with presentations, workshops, and mastermind sessions.
Networking and community at WordCamp
One of the most important aspects of WordCamp is the community. Participants have the opportunity to network, exchange ideas and experiences, and build valuable relationships. This informal WordPress community meeting brings together people from all over Poland and beyond. The event was not small: the organizers pledged one tree for every ticket and reported 400 saplings (gliwice.wordcamp.org).
Gliwice as the WordCamp Polska 2023 host city
The organizers presented Gliwice as a city founded in the 13th century that grew into a centre of science thanks to the Silesian University of Technology and, after special economic zones were created, attracted large technology companies. The city’s slogan is “The future is here”, and it is sometimes called the “Silesian Silicon Valley” (gliwice.wordcamp.org). Hence the conference theme: Technology. Business. Future.
Where WordCamp Gliwice 2023 was held: CEK and getting there
Talks and workshops took place at the Education and Congress Centre of the Silesian University of Technology (CEK), Stanisława Konarskiego 18 B, 44-100 Gliwice. According to the venue page, CEK sits next to the A1 and A4 motorway exits and the DTŚ city expressway, and the walk from the railway station takes about 16 minutes. There is free parking at CEK and around the university. The nearest airport is Katowice-Pyrzowice, with the M14 bus to the Gliwice interchange centre (gliwice.wordcamp.org). On Saturday every talk ran in auditorium A on the first floor; on Sunday talks ran in two auditoriums, B and D, also on the first floor (agenda).
Why attend WordCamp
WordCamp Polska 2023 wasn’t just a conference: it was three days of knowledge, inspiration and networking. It’s a place where you can learn more about WordPress, meet other enthusiasts, and join a global community that develops this ecosystem.
WordCamp Polska 2023 agenda
Times in the tables are local time (CEST), copied from the official agenda on gliwice.wordcamp.org. Talk titles are English renderings of the Polish titles in the agenda.
Friday 12 May: Contributor Day
Registration opened at 9:30, and at 10:00 came the welcome, team division and the start of work at the tables, with a short introductory workshop for first-time contributors. Contributing ran from 10:30 to 12:30, followed by lunch and a second working block in the afternoon. The day ended with a summary and discussion of results around 16:00 (gliwice.wordcamp.org). In the evening, from 18:00, the Before Party took place at the Dobry Zbeer pub, Zygmunta Starego 11a (gliwice.wordcamp.org).
Taking part in Contributor Day required a full conference ticket and a separate registration stating which skills you wanted to contribute. The organizers listed concrete tasks: solving reported problems, creating content, adding photos to the open media library, fixing bugs and filling in missing translations. Preparation came down to three steps: an account on WordPress.org, a profile photo through Gravatar, and joining the WordPress community Slack, where you sign in with an address in the form [email protected].
Saturday 13 May: Business track
We met at CEK. Registration opened at 9:00 and the official part started at 10:00. Throughout the day, presentations focused on business and product development, with an emphasis on using WordPress in different business contexts. Tomasz Karwatka and Krzysztof Dyszczyk gave the keynotes.
| Time | Speaker | Talk |
|---|---|---|
| 10:10 | Tomasz Karwatka | What I learned on the way from a service company to a product company |
| 10:40 | Krzysztof Dyszczyk | Where we are, where we are going: life in the age of AI |
| 11:40 | Ola Gościniak | The product ladder: how to plan and promote your digital products |
| 12:00 | Łukasz Wilczak | WordPress with WooCommerce as the heart of a business |
| 12:20 | Aleksander Misky | The subscription model in business: what it is and how to implement it in WordPress |
| 12:40 | Izabela Karkocha | Finish well, not fast: one happy client brings two new ones |
| 14:00 | Adrian Kałamajski | Building a profitable business in 28 days by selling your own courses and ebooks on WordPress |
| 14:20 | Michał Kaźmierczak | Two years with OKRs: who needs them? |
| 14:40 | Tomasz Kołkiewicz | Business by barter: growing demand for your services when clients cut costs |
| 15:00 | Dariusz Pichalski | From a supermarket checkout to the largest WordPress channel in Poland: my business strategy in 5 steps |
| 15:50 | Krzysiek Dróżdż | This cannot be easily undone |
| 16:10 | Dominik Kawula | Positive business: running a WordPress company so clients keep coming back |
| 16:30 | Marta Domasz | Cheaper to develop than to hire |
| 16:40 | Q&A session and close of the day |
From 11:00 the Wordcare Support Desk ran in the chill zone on the ground floor, with two specialists helping attendees with their WordPress problems, and sponsor booths stood next to the conference hall (gliwice.wordcamp.org). After the presentations, from 20:00, the official Middle Party took place at Mardi Gras club, Studzienna 8.
Sunday 14 May: Technology and Future & Business tracks
We met again at CEK. Talks ran in parallel in two auditoriums, B and D, covering the future and business as well as technology. The day opened with the panel “AI: use it or start worrying about your job?” with Kasia Aleszczyk, Krzysztof Radzikowski, Marta Domasz and Maciej Kuchnik (panel announcement).
Technology track:
| Time | Speaker | Talk |
|---|---|---|
| 10:10 | Magdalena Paciorek | Gutenberg components in action: practical examples of extending the WordPress editor |
| 10:30 | Maciek Palmowski | Headless: does it really make sense? |
| 10:50 | Adam Kanigowski | Astro and WordPress as a headless CMS: case study |
| 11:40 | Jakub Jóźwiak | Searching a huge database in under a second: implementing Algolia in WordPress |
| 12:00 | Maciej Kuchnik | Difficult data migrations between WordPress sites |
| 12:20 | Aneta Rutkowska | More plugins, WordPress (won’t) cope: low TTFB is not only about the fastest servers |
| 12:40 | Kamil Porembiński | How to send email from WordPress without landing in spam |
| 14:00 | Bartosz Nowak | Juniper: an open source boilerplate |
| 14:20 | Piotr Niewiadomski | WordPress Sandbox |
| 14:40 | Sebastian Kurzynowski | Code quality and return on investment |
Future & Business track:
| Time | Speaker | Talk |
|---|---|---|
| 10:10 | Kasia Aleszczyk, Krzysztof Radzikowski, Marta Domasz, Maciej Kuchnik | Panel: AI, use it or start worrying about your job? |
| 10:50 | Albert Nogala | Is WordPress dying? |
| 11:40 | Michał Strześniewski | Is the WordPress era ending? An analysis of no/low-code tools |
| 12:00 | Adam Zieliński | WordPress without a server: meet WordPress Playground and a new application paradigm |
| 12:20 | Oskar Sajdak | Sky is not the limit: WordPress in the cloud is just the beginning |
| 12:40 | Przemysław Hernik | How to estimate without going mad |
| 14:00 | Mariusz Jałyński | How combining WordPress with AI affects SEO |
| 14:20 | Dominik Charasim | Let’s chat GPT |
| 14:40 | Mateusz Gbiorczyk | WebP vs AVIF: how image optimization affects page speed |
At 15:00 both auditoriums held Q&A sessions, and the conference closed at 15:20.
Workshops in rooms F and J
Parallel to the main agenda, workshops ran on Saturday and Sunday. Each lasted 80 minutes (the server workshop 50 minutes), and groups were planned for 30 people; once the registered attendees were in, the organizers let in unregistered people up to the room limit (gliwice.wordcamp.org).
| Day and time | Room | Host | Workshop |
|---|---|---|---|
| Saturday 11:40 | F | Bartek Jaskulski | Don’t create objects, inject them: a dependency injection container in WordPress plugins |
| Saturday 11:40 | J | no name in the agenda | Take care of your security |
| Saturday 14:00 | F | Sebastian Kurzynowski | TDD with React: how? |
| Saturday 14:00 | J | Marcin Krzemiński | Advanced wp-cli techniques |
| Saturday 15:50 | F | Krystian Wójcik | PageSpeed in theory and practice |
| Saturday 15:50 | J | Maciek Palmowski | Integrating WordPress and Astro for headless WordPress |
| Sunday 10:00 | J | Łukasz Wroński | Move your first template from Figma to the Full Site Editor in Gutenberg |
| Sunday 11:40 | J | Piotr Pantkowski | How to choose a server for WordPress |
The hosts published requirements in advance. The wp-cli workshop needed a local environment with wp-cli (Local was recommended for beginners), a local WordPress install, a hosting account with SSH access and, on Windows, a working rsync command through WSL or Git Bash. The Astro workshop needed Node, a local server running WordPress and Astro installed per its tutorial. Moving a template from Figma needed a local WordPress with the Twenty Twenty-Three theme, a code editor and Figma. The security workshop needed any browser plus Firefox for one task (participant guidelines).
Business mastermind
Gliwice added a business mastermind to the programme: a session where attendees split into groups, take one person’s concrete business problem and brainstorm a solution. The organizers explained that business conversations were already happening in the corridors and at the Middle Party, so they gave them an official slot (gliwice.wordcamp.org). Kasia Aleszczyk and Damian Ślimak led two Sunday sessions, at 11:40 and 14:00. Registration was required.
How questions for speakers worked: Q&A sessions
As at WordCamp Łódź 2019, questions for speakers were collected through an online form reached by a QR code on the badge. Selected questions were discussed in a Q&A session that closed each day. The exception was the keynote speakers, Tomasz Karwatka and Krzysztof Dyszczyk, who took questions right after their talks. Questions that did not fit could be answered later by the speakers, for example on their blogs (gliwice.wordcamp.org).
What stood out at WordCamp Poland 2023 in Gliwice
WordCamp Polska 2023 was a conference where I always feel at home. Gliwice has a unique atmosphere, and the conference organizers ensured that everyone felt comfortable there. The presentations were at the highest level. The workshops by Marcin Krzemiński on wp-cli and Maciek Palmowski on Astro were particularly valuable.
The conference was very well organized. The venue was spacious, food selection was great, and the Before and Middle Party were truly unforgettable. Sponsors came through, and their support was visible at every step.
The Polish version of this recap made the list of post-WordCamp write-ups the organizers collected in their thank-you post, next to posts by Kasia Aleszczyk, Maciek Palmowski and more than a dozen LinkedIn posts (gliwice.wordcamp.org). In the same post the organizers thanked their partners: CEK as the venue, Restauracja Pod Wiązem for catering, KP Sport for streaming and recordings, the Dobry Zbeer pub and Mardi Gras club.
Who organized WordCamp Gliwice 2023
The organizing team split into teams: speakers (Maciek Swoboda, Sebastian Pisula, Wiesia Indeka), sponsors (Aleksander Misky, Dominik Charasim, Aleksander Bauknecht), Contributor Day (Tomek Lach, Krzysztof Radzikowski, Daniel Świderski), marketing and communication (Kasia Aleszczyk, Marta Kobiela, Monika Witoń), design (Agata Nitner, Tomasz Guz) and volunteers (Marta Domasz, Damian Zieliński, Joanna Ragin, Marta Pawłowska, Mateusz Okła). The organizers page also introduces Monika Swoboda, Tomek Lach, Maciek Swoboda, Wiesia Indeka and Kasia Aleszczyk (gliwice.wordcamp.org).
Two things set this edition apart beyond the programme. The first was “a piece of forest”: every ticket meant one tree, and the saplings went to the buffer zone of a national park next to the Table Mountains, through the Czas na las foundation project (gliwice.wordcamp.org). The second was students from the Gliwice ZSET school: students from the photography technical school photographed the first day and joined the photography group at Contributor Day, and a graphic by Oliwia Idzi from the advertising technical school decorated the chill zone on Saturday and Sunday (gliwice.wordcamp.org).
What came after Gliwice: WordCamp Wrocław 2024
The 2023 recap ended with “See you next year in Wrocław”. WordCamp Wrocław 2024 took place on 22-24 November 2024 at the BASECAMP hotel (wroclaw.wordcamp.org).
Where can you watch WordCamp Gliwice 2023 recordings
The talk recordings are on WordPress.tv, on the event page: WordCamp Gliwice 2023 on WordPress.tv. It holds 31 recordings. The workshops (rooms F and J) and the Sunday AI panel are not among them, so for the workshops only the hosts’ published materials and requirements remain. A few recordings to start with if you work on WordPress technically (all in Polish):
- Adam Zieliński: WordPress without a server, meet WordPress Playground
- Maciek Palmowski: Headless, does it really make sense?
- Aneta Rutkowska: low TTFB is not only about the fastest servers
- Kamil Porembiński: sending email from WordPress without landing in spam
- Maciej Kuchnik: difficult data migrations between WordPress sites
- Mateusz Gbiorczyk: WebP vs AVIF
From the business side there are, among others, the keynotes by Tomasz Karwatka and Krzysztof Dyszczyk. A longer write-up of selected talks, with code examples, is in a separate WordCamp Poland 2023 Gliwice report.
How do you get more value from a WordCamp like Gliwice
The three-day format asks for a few choices before you arrive. Contributor Day on 12 May was open to developers, designers, translators, photographers and people with no experience, and it began with team division, so decide in advance which team you want to join. The talk days ran tracks alongside workshops, which means choosing between a talk and a hands-on session in the same slot.
In Gliwice the workshops were the part worth planning around, because they were not recorded. Marcin Krzemiński on wp-cli and Maciek Palmowski on Astro gave practical material you can apply the week after, while the talks are easier to catch later on WordPress.tv. The Before Party and Middle Party are where most of the networking happens, so leave energy for the evenings.
