# Why I Might Skip WordCamp Europe Next Year > [!question] Lingering Questions > - Does WCEU need explicit sub-ecosystem representation targets (e-commerce/WooCommerce), or is broad "big tent" drift the actual root issue? > - "Forced to mingle" reads as positive here — does the shared-meal design over-index on extroverted networking at the expense of introverted attendees? > [!link] Cross Reference > - [[3. Resources/Permanent Notes/Curated Mastery Conferences Serve Practitioners That Volume Conferences Cannot]] — same phenomenon (small events beat flagship megaconferences for specialists), different mechanism (paid speakers vs. shared-meal social design) — connect, don't duplicate > - [[3. Resources/MOCs/Events/WordCamp Europe 2026 MOC]] > [!quote] Vocabulary > - none notable — the source uses plain practitioner language throughout ## Metadata - Source: [[3. Resources/Readwise/Articles/Why I Might Skip WordCamp Europe Next Year]] - Author: Jessica Risch, founder of Woosa (WooCommerce agency) - URL: https://www.jessicarisch.com/blog/why-i-might-skip-wordcamp-europe-next-year/ ## Author's thesis Risch compares two 2026 events she attended — Checkout Summit (first edition, Palermo, as speaker) and WordCamp Europe (as attendee) — and concludes the small, deliberately-designed event delivered more learning and connection than the flagship megaconference, which under-serves WooCommerce/e-commerce despite WooCommerce's sponsorship presence. ## Key arguments (≤3) 1. **The connection layer is designed, not incidental.** Checkout Summit's organizer structured every meal (breakfast, lunch, dinner, parties) so attendees were "basically forced to talk to each other" — a transferable, deliberate lever any event organizer can pull. 2. **WCEU has a content gap, not just a scale problem.** Practitioners want case studies and business-of-the-ecosystem talks; WCEU's programming skews toward feature updates instead. 3. **A flagship that under-serves a major sub-ecosystem pushes specialists elsewhere.** Despite WooCommerce sponsoring WCEU, e-commerce gets little stage time — enough to redirect a WooCommerce-focused agency owner toward regional/niche events instead. ## Claim atoms ### Shared-meal social architecture is what makes small events connect > [!quote] ID:rw_jr_001 > Everyone sat together in a casual way and was basically forced to talk to each other at some point. Checkout Summit's organization (breakfast/lunch/dinner/parties) "made the biggest difference." The connection layer is designed, not incidental — a transferable lever for any event. ### Conferences need case studies, not just feature updates > [!quote] ID:rw_jr_002 > Nobody talks about actual case studies. Nobody talks about building or running a business in the WordPress ecosystem. WCEU's content gap from a practitioner's view — the business-of-the-ecosystem track is the missing value for agency owners. ### Passive distracted attendance signals a room-energy failure > [!quote] ID:rw_jr_003 > People sit in a room with a laptop on their lap, working and somewhat listening to the person on stage. Scrolling through their phones. Low engagement framed as a programmable problem (stage energy and/or audience norms), not an inevitability. ### A flagship that under-serves a major sub-ecosystem pushes specialists away > [!quote] ID:rw_jr_004 > WordCamp does not talk much about WooCommerce. It does not talk about e-commerce that much. Despite WooCommerce sponsoring, e-commerce is a side note — enough to redirect a WooCommerce agency toward a regional camp instead. ## Permanent candidates - **Curation and social design beat scale for specialist value** (general phenomenon) — already substantially captured by [[3. Resources/Permanent Notes/Curated Mastery Conferences Serve Practitioners That Volume Conferences Cannot]]. Do not duplicate the general claim. - **Shared-meal structure as the specific connection mechanism** — distinct from the paid-speaker mechanism the existing note covers. Promoted this run: [[3. Resources/Permanent Notes/Shared Meals Are a Deliberate Event-Design Lever for Connection]]. ## Processing checklist - [x] Checked existing Permanents — found [[3. Resources/Permanent Notes/Curated Mastery Conferences Serve Practitioners That Volume Conferences Cannot]] already covers the general "small beats flagship" claim from a different source and mechanism - [x] Promoted only the distinct shared-meal mechanism as new - [x] Connect into [[3. Resources/MOCs/Events/WordCamp Europe 2026 MOC]] ## Links - [[3. Resources/MOCs/Events/WordCamp Europe 2026 MOC]] — direct WCEU programming critique