A flagship set sail, and we were on board! The very first WordCamp Asia finally made its debut from February 17-19th, 2023, after having to postpone at the last minute in 2020 due to the Covid outbreak. And we’re all the happier that the long-anticipated WordCamp finally opened its doors in Bangkok, Thailand’s bustling and buzzing city.
Welcome to Bangkok
WordPress contributors, enthusiasts, and sponsors from all over Asia and many other parts of the world came together to learn, listen, and make WordPress even better. As always, the WordPress community was an open-minded, knowledgeable, and curious crowd, and we’re delighted and proud to be a part of it.
Thailand was chosen to host the first WordCamp Asia because it lies in the heart of Asia. It’s a well-traveled-to country and easily accessible from everywhere. As the capital city, Bangkok is famous for its attractive landmarks, good food, and open and friendly people.
WordCamp Asia was hosted in the TRUE ICON Hall in the ICONSIAM, an iconic (get the hint?) and truly impressive shopping and event mall nestled into the riverfront of the Chao Phraya River.
Sharing is Caring: WebPros Specialists @ Contributor Day
WordCamp Asia kicked things off on Friday 17th, with the Contributor Day. After all, WordPress is an open-source project; contributors from around the world contribute to the software powering more than 43% of the web today.
Twenty-one diverse teams worked on areas ranging from core and community to design and polyglots.
Our very own Andrey, Kelli, and Adam were working on updating the database for WordPress documentation. They shared their skills and experience at the Hosting Table and were eager to learn, listen, and discuss the future of WordPress.
Adding to the Buzz: WebPros Booth Talks
Of course, Contributor Day is always an excellent opportunity to share skills and experiences to shape the future of WordPress. However, this year we did not leave it at that. Collaborating with our partner Exabytes, we hosted two talks per day at the WebPros booth.
Kelvin Low, Asst. Manager of Marketing, Exabytes Singapore put together his top list of ”Essential WordPress Plugins for WordPress Websites” and shone a spotlight on how “How Exabytes Hosting minimizes your website TTFB.”
Our Product Owner, Adam Wien, shared the “New WordPress experience presented by WebPros.” He was pleased to present WP Squared (product name subject to change), WebPro’s upcoming, all-in-one WordPress panel.
The product will provide an outstanding user experience with the best possible performance and security right out of the box. Included features are:
- CDN integrations
- White labeling
- Malware scanning and patching
- WordPress Monitoring
- Web-Application Firewall (WAF)
Track Record: “Think Like a Hacker” - Matthias Held
There were lots of great talks happening at the three tracks at WordCamp Asia, and it was hard to choose. One of our favorites was “Think Like a Hacker” by cybersecurity specialist Matthias Held.
Did you ever get hacked on WordCamp before? Well, one of WordCamp Asia’s attendees did — on purpose and with their consent.
During his session, Matthias Held attempted to discover and exploit the volunteered site’s weaknesses so attendees could learn how hackers work. Among other things, he checked for outdated plugins, contact forms with file uploads, and cross-site scripting.
Did he succeed? Let’s just say that he discovered vulnerabilities a dedicated hacker would be very happy to find.
Matthias Held even encourages website owners to try to hack themselves; to better understand their websites and security mechanisms and how others could access what website owners want to be secured — and prevent the Dark Side from stealing their cookies.
Good thing your friendly WP Toolkit is there to help. With the WP Toolkit Site Vulnerability Scan, website owners can easily detect and fix weak spots, and everyone has a much harder job breaching their site.
A Digital Presence for Everyone
Many topics at WordCamp Asia revolved around making WordPress more accessible for small business owners and entrepreneurs who are not developers looking to set up websites and sell their products and services online with no hassle.
Well, we are here to assist! After all, we help manage servers, websites, billing, and online marketing. We take the hassle out of server deployment and configuration, ensure performance and security (try to hack yourself now!), and drive demand to websites.
More WordCamps on the WebPros Horizon
Can one ever get enough of WordCamps? We for sure can’t! That’s why we’re already giddy with excitement for WordCamp Europe in sunny Athens, Greece, in June. Then, in August, we’ll be shaking hands and talking all things WordPress at WordCamp US in the breezy city of National Harbor, Maryland.
We’re looking forward to meeting our partners, forging new alliances, participating in the WordPress buzz, and meeting people just as enthusiastic about WordPress as we are! So, hopefully, we’ll see you there, and if you can’t make it, be sure to follow us on social media for daily WordCamp insights.
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