WordPress Europe: From Gutenberg to Gutenberg
More than 2,000 visitors from 76 countries participated in the biggest European WordPress conference – WordCamp Europe. The conference was held in Belgrade, Serbia on June 14-16 2018. One of the participants was Covideo’s Web Designer Goran Gluhak . It’s an annual event that aims to create and strengthen connections between the growing local European WordPress communities.
WordPress and video options
We all know that the digital world is changing at a rapid pace, and this is why WordPress is now focusing more on video options. Using videos in WordPress installation is possible from many different sources. Of course, each of them has its advantages and disadvantages. The video is becoming more popular not only because of its engaging characteristics. Additionally, Google and other search engines, together with social media, prefer the video over any other content type.
WordPress co-founder: Matt Mullenweg
Keynote speaker at this WordPress event was Matt Mullenweg, co-founder of WordPress and founder of Auttomatic. Mullenweg said that more than 30% of active websites around the world are on WordPress. Also, he invited people to support ‘Public Money, Public Code’ campaign, a movement that advocated that software becomes an open source.
Gutenberg brings new possibilities for WordPress users
One of the most interesting topics of this event was the roadmap for further development of a new version of WordPress with Gutenberg.
Mullenweg said that more than 14,000 websites are using this new platform at the moment. Gutenberg brings new visual possibilities for content editing, a systematically better solution for inserting, editing and publishing rich-media content. He said that the biggest improvement is definitely the building blocks. Now, it will be easier to set up and edit a photograph, gallery, contact form, etc. Mullenweg also commented that the official launch of 5.0 version would be in August 2018.
He also highlighted the benefits of copying the content from popular applications such as Google Docs, Microsoft Word, Office 365, Evernote, Markdown, and so.
Page Optimization with WordPress
Page optimization was also one of the hot topics, too. Utilizing caching mechanisms in a WordPress product is a balancing act. What remote calls are cacheable, what queries are slow and only occasionally needed, and how will it all impact the end user? These are just a few questions the users are trying to answer. Conference participants also had a chance to learn about the website speed. Having a fast website is still mandatory. Even though WordPress is a tool that allows simple publishing, developments of its projects are different and complicated.
Brand Building
Brand building is not an option anymore; it’s a necessity. If you are a startup, a freelancer or a sole proprietor of a professional service business, you have to be aware that building a brand goes far beyond having a logo. In fact, a logo is not a brand by any means – and it’s a practice rooted in data and science. Nela Dunato, a respectable brand designer, talked about human-centered branding, a type of branding for small businesses that focuses on you as the main person in it. She believes that small businesses have an advantage over big companies because clients don’t connect with companies, they form relationships with people.
WordCamp Conclusion
Dunato’s conclusion is not only applicable to brand building, but WordPress users can think of it in every step in their processes: “Being on brand is easy, what you have to do is stay true to yourself!” The next WordCamp Europe will be held in Berlin in 2019.
Covideo provides video email software that helps businesses and individuals communicate more effectively, build relationships faster and reinforce their brands with easy-to-make personalized videos.
