WordCamp Kerala 2023 – My First WordCamp in India

Hey guys! Guess what? I’m back with one more event blog. 

Well, 2022 was a very eventful year for me with travel and networking. With the way 2023 is progressing, I’m guessing this year is going to be super thrilling and enlightening as well!

In the past year, I attended various popular networking conferences around the globe. AW Barcelona, AW Bangkok, IAS Delhi, and ad:tech Delhi were among the popular events. 

Last month’s WordCamp Asia (Bangkok) turned out to be an extremely memorable and insightful experience for me. Therefore, when WordCamp Kerala was announced, I couldn’t help myself from visiting. Especially when it was happening in my country!

In this blog post, I’m going to talk about my experience at WordCamp Kerala. We will begin by discussing what WordCamp is, and then move forward to my personal experiences, the pros and cons of WordCamp Kerala, and who should attend this event in the future. 

So, are you excited to experience this fun and exciting event along with me? Let’s dive right in! 

What is WordCamp?

WordCamp is a global gathering of the WordPress community, including WordPress enthusiasts, bloggers, developers, designers, and experts. This event is organized by volunteers from the WordPress community worldwide. 

WordCamp Kerala Homepage

The primary aim of this meet-up is to bring people together and promote networking and collaboration. The first WordCamp was organized by Mat Mullenweg (CEO of Automattic) in San Francisco back in 2006.

Since then, WordCamps have been organized regularly in over 1100 cities and 375+ countries. 

This conference, which typically lasts between one to three days, offers various opportunities for learning and networking. These comprise speaker sessions, workshops, games, panel discussions, networking events, after-parties, and much more.

WordCamp Kerala Banner

WordCamp was held regionally for the first time in Kerala and the response was absolutely astounding! The event was graced by 20+ influential speakers and more than 400+ participants.

The sponsors for this WordCamp were Jetpack, Hostinger, GoDaddy, Bluehost, MilesWeb, etc. 

Now, let’s talk about my experience at WordCamp Kerala. If you’re a video person, you can watch my video experience below. Hope you enjoy watching! 🙂

My Experience at WordCamp Kerala

Collecting the Event Pass

IMA House Kochi

The WordCamp Kerala event was organized in Kochi on the 25th and 26th of March 2023. It was held in the IMA House, which is a beautiful and luxurious hotel with a grand conference hall. 

WordCamp Kerala Event Pass

On entering the event hall, you could find booths to collect your event pass. The event pass was designed in a minimalistic way, with a beautiful green theme and elegant designs. The graceful elephant logo actually made the design pop out!

Visiting the Networking Booths

The networking area was buzzing with crazy energy! It comprised booths of WordPress-related brands you could visit and interact with. 

Networking booths - WordCamp Kerala

Some of the popular booths were Hostinger, Yoast, Jetpack, Bluehost, WPRemote, etc. However, with the food stalls being in the same area, the entire space looked slightly congested.

Attending the Stage Tracks

There were two different tracks for the stage sessions. Track 1 was on the 4th floor and Track 2 was on the 1st floor. Both tracks hosted sessions around topics like WordPress development, marketing, security, data privacy, productivity, web hosting, business, and more.

Speaker Sessions - WordCamp Kerala

I found the stage organization to be quite impressive! However, I barely attended any of the stage sessions this time! I spent most of my time forming connections and talking to brands and participants at WordCamp.

Enjoying the Delicious Food

The best part about WordCamp was that it offered snacks and food for free! 

WordCamp Kerala - free tea and snacks

You could sip on some really energizing herbal teas and delicious snacks during the event. I absolutely loved the herbal teas. They were real and flavorful!

WordCamp Kerala - Food Arrangements

The food arrangements were also commendable! They had lots of options for both vegetarian and non-vegetarian foods. The food was delicious and appetizing. 

Interviewing Professionals 

This time, my focus was on interacting with people. I conducted a lot of short and engaging interviews with professionals from the WordPress industry. 

These include WordPress plugin developers, theme developers, web hosting company owners, agency owners, etc. Let’s take a quick look at the professionals I interviewed. 

Mr. Akshat Choudhary

First off, I met Mr. Akshat Choudhary, the founder, and CEO of popular WordPress plugins – BlogVault and WPRemote. He has been working in this business for over 10 years! 

Meeting Akshat Choudhary at WordCamp Kerala

On being asked about the best advice he received in his journey, he revealed it was being patient! I also inquired about his opinions on ChatGPT, to which he exclaimed that “ChatGPT will change the world beyond anything we’ll recognize in 10 years.

Mr. Rajesh Chauhan

Next, I interacted with Mr. Rajesh Chauhan, the founder of YouStable Hosting, based in Lucknow. He has been in the hosting business since 2015. 

Meeting Rajesh Chauhan at WordCamp Kerala

When I inquired about the best advice he has received, he answered it was about always listening to your customers and taking their feedback into consideration. 

On being asked about the worst advice he had received, he stated it was, “Don’t trust your team members.” Not trusting your team is like not trusting yourself. You gave them an opportunity for a reason, and not trusting them would be really unfair. 

Mr. Tarun Sharma

Next up, I struck up a conversation with Mr. Tarun Sharma, the founder of Chetaru, an Indore-based web development, and digital marketing agency. He has been working in the digital domain since 2010. 

Meeting Tarun Sharma at WordCamp Kerala

On being asked about the worst advice he received in his career, he stated it was when someone told him to reduce the cost of their services. 

Mr. Naveen Jain

Finally, I interviewed Mr. Naveen Jain, the founder of a WordPress theme company – Jthemes Studio. He has been working for the last 15 years and has been in the WordPress themes business for the last 8 years. 

Meeting Naveen Jain at WordCamp Kerala

On being asked about the best advice he received in his career, he stated that, along with being updated with the latest trends, one should also network with people and form good connections. 

Next, I inquired about the worst advice he had ever received. He revealed it was when someone told him to avoid exploring and expanding in a different business when his themes business was running smoothly!  

Collecting Free Swags 

Every conference offers some freebies and collectibles to the participants as a token of remembrance. At WordCamp, you can collect free swags like bags, diaries, etc. Look at these super cool free swags I received at WordCamp! 

Free Swags

Apart from this, you can also visit the booths of various brands and collect freebies like t-shirts and other collectibles. For instance, Hostinger was offering branded t-shirts on their booth along with free hosting for 1 year!

Pen drive giveaway a WordCamp Kerala

GoDaddy also did a giveaway where a WordCamp attendee won an iPad! I also took part in the giveaway and won a pen drive.  

Pros of WordCamp Kerala

Super Affordable

The price for attending a WordCamp event keeps on varying as per the city. However, it is not expensive compared to the Affiliate World Conferences. 

The pricing keeps on increasing as the event date comes closer. On opting in for the early-bird pricing, you can get the passes at pocket-friendly prices!

You won’t believe that the passes for WordCamp Kerala were priced at merely ₹500. This was inclusive of free snacks, lunch, and free swags as well! 

The Affiliate World Barcelona was quite expensive than this one. If you’ve not checked out my experience at that event, you can watch this video!

Network with Professionals and Experts

Attending WordCamp events can help you interact with people possessing the same professional background. This could be an amazing opportunity to improve your communication skills and form lasting connections. 

Networking at WordCamp Kerala

Learning Experience

Overall, WordCamp could provide a valuable learning experience for newbies in the WordPress community.

Conversing with professionals in the industry and attending speaker sessions could give you insights into the struggles they faced and how they overcame them. 

Along with that, you could also learn the new strategies and tricks the world is implementing. You could use the same with your business to achieve successful results. 

Visiting booths at WordCamp Kerala

Crack Exclusive Deals

There are dozens of booths put up by popular brands. These include WordPress plugin brands, hosting companies, themes, etc. You can walk up to their booths and strike up conversations.

Who knows, you might end up getting insane discounts or cracking up exclusive deals with them!

Enjoy Freebies and Snacks

Enjoying free snacks at WordCamp Kerala

Interactive meetups like WordCamp offer free snacks, food, and collectibles. Occasionally, they might also organize giveaways of their products and services that you can take part in.  

Cons of WordCamp Kerala

Arrangement Can be Improved

I personally did not appreciate the arrangement of the event much. For instance, the networking area was on a different floor. 

Cluttered arrangement - WordCamp Kerala

Whereas, the lunch area was merged with the networking booths, which was a little awkward. A separate space could’ve been allotted for food. 

Apart from that, Track 1, Track 2, and workshops were all on different floors. This made the event look unsystematic and cluttered. Overall, I think the arrangement could’ve been better. 

Should You Attend WordCamp?

Yes, if you are related to WordPress, you should not miss the WordCamp event. It was my second time attending WordCamp, and I was thrilled with the energy and the vibe of the event. 

Not only did I form impactful connections with digital professionals, but I also learned significant lessons from them.

Forming connections at WordCamp Kerala

Taking part in such events helps you widen your perspective and discover what’s happening in the world around you. Overall, anyone whose work revolves around WordPress should attend this event.

If you are a WordPress blogger, theme or plugin developer, designer, or manager, there’s something valuable for everyone here!

Conclusion

In conclusion, my experience at WordCamp Kerala turned out to be amazing! I got to network with experts and professionals from the digital industry and form lasting connections.

Kripesh Adwani - WordCamp Kerala

Along with that, I also learned a lot of valuable lessons from their experiences. Overall, it was a momentous event and I would certainly like to attend the next one.

Anyway, have you attended any networking or affiliate events? Which one have you been to and how was your experience? Share your thoughts in the comments box below. 

I’ll be back with more such fun stuff soon. Till then, keep learning and stay safe. This is Kripesh signing off. Cheers! 🙂

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Kripesh Adwani

Kripesh Adwani is a digital tool expert who buys, tests, and reviews SAAS tools for small businesses. Based on 10+ years of experience in tech he provides insightful reviews. His content is widely consumed, serving millions of users each month. Kripesh has also been featured in more than 50 publications, including The Economic Times, The Free Press Journal & Cloudways.

1 thought on “WordCamp Kerala 2023 – My First WordCamp in India”

  1. Hey Hi Kripesh,

    This is awesome, glad to know about your experiences from WordCamp Kerala 2023.

    I missed this event but am planning to attend the next one and meet you.

    One point that you could add to the above article is you could give links to the websites where we could check the list of the future WordCamps so that more people can join for the next one.

    I am sure some beginners don’t know about these events, So it will help them.

    Reply

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