PressConf EU WordPress Needs to Stop Playing Defense

PressConf EU: WordPress Needs to Stop Playing Defense ![rw-book-cover](https://d34adp677peecb.cloudfront.net/static/images/article1.be68295a7e40.png) 🔗 **Source:** [PressConf EU: WordPress Needs to Stop Playing Defense](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXftcQarNDg) > [!note]+ Document Notes > tags: [wordpress-business, pressconf, wordpress-events, community-leadership, european-wordpress-community] > author: Matt Medeiros & Raquel Manriquez > source: WP Minute Podcasts (YouTube) > reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXftcQarNDg > date created: 2026-09-23 10:09 > > > [!info] Generated analysis — not the author's words. Sections below are machine-written > > from the captured source. Only text inside `> [!quote]` blocks is verbatim from the author. > > Do not quote or attribute any other line to the named author. > > # 🏷️ Title: PressConf EU: WordPress Needs to Stop Playing Defense >  ## 🧭 Table of contents - [📝 Summary](#-summary) - [📖 Main content](#-main-content) - [🗒️ Notes](#️-notes) - [📚 References](#-references) - [🗣️ Paraphrase](#️-paraphrase) - [📰 Newsletter](#-newsletter) - [✅ Action items](#-action-items) - [🧪 Hypotheses](#-hypotheses) - [📊 Methodology](#-methodology) - [❓ Questions](#-questions) - [🔮 Future research](#-future-research) - [💡 Implications](#-implications) - [🧠 Learning styles assessment](#-learning-styles-assessment) - [📊 Accessibility assessment](#-accessibility-assessment) - [🌍 DEIB assessment](#-deib-assessment) - [✅ Logical validity](#-logical-validity) - [🛡️ DARVO analysis](#️-darvo-analysis) - [🎯 Conclusion](#-conclusion) - [🔄 Refactor appendix](#-refactor-appendix--pressconf-eu-wordpress-needs-to-stop-playing-defense) ## 📝 Summary - **What happened.** WP Minute Podcasts published a 14:53 episode of The WP Minute+ on 2026-09-23. Host Matt Medeiros interviews Raquel, the PressConf organizer, about the first European edition: PressConf EU, Barcelona, October 27 to 30, tickets at pressconf.events/tickets. The video description gives only her first name; her full name is Raquel Manriquez per PressConf's site. The auto-transcript renders her name as "Rochelle" at 00:00:00 and "Ericka" twice at 00:03:36 and 00:05:03, and renders the event as "Press Conf," "PressCamp" and "PressCom" in different paragraphs. Quotes below preserve those spellings. - **The claim.** Raquel's argument has two parts. First, the European WordPress business community has no room where people speak openly about money, so an unrecorded, closed-door conference fills a gap the US event never had to fill (00:01:25). Second, the wave of new WordPress-adjacent events broadening their scope to "all things to all people" is a fear response, and the right move is to commit to WordPress deliberately, accept the risk, and stop "pulling that victim card" (00:04:19). - **Why it matters.** The episode is a primary-source statement of the "commit, don't hedge" position inside the WordPress business community during a period the host describes as producing a damaging headline "every 6 months" (00:02:53). It also documents concrete facts about the event: dates, city, format changes (facilitated closing sessions), a partly announced speaker list, and team changes. - **Key stakeholders.** PressConf and its team (Raquel, Carol, Anna, a new Barcelona-local member the transcript renders as "Jaume," and Adam, who is not attending); announced speakers (Remkus, returning; three others whose names the captions likely garble); European WordPress agency and product owners; competing event organizers Raquel alludes to without naming; The WP Minute as publisher and, implicitly, media partner. - **Risks and tradeoffs.** Everything about "what Europeans want" rests on Raquel's conversations, not a survey. The event has a "short runway" (00:00:41) with speakers unannounced five weeks out. The "unrecorded talks" design buys candor at the cost of reach and archival record. The "make a choice" framing can slide into treating any diversification away from WordPress as cowardice. - **Bottom line.** A short, candid promotional interview whose durable content is one design argument (unrecorded rooms produce honest money talk) and one leadership stance (deliberate commitment beats reactive hedging). Treat the speaker names and the "Europeans don't feel safe talking about money" claim as unverified until checked against pressconf.events. ## 📖 Main content **The event facts.** PressConf EU runs October 27 to 30 in Barcelona (00:00:41). Day one is a kickoff cocktail party with non-alcoholic options; days two and three are conference days; day four is a "fun day" (00:12:58). The venue is unnamed in the transcript but described as having a rooftop pool, a terrace, a spa and hot tubs (00:07:57), chosen so that attendees are only separated during sessions and otherwise share space, the same "can't escape each other" principle Raquel credits to the Tempe Mission Palms venue for the US event (00:07:57, 00:08:38; the captions render it "Temple Mission Palms"). Talks are unrecorded and closed-door, as in the US (00:00:41, 00:02:08). The site at pressconf.events now shows the US and European editions side by side, and tickets are at pressconf.events/tickets. **The "modesty around money" thesis.** Raquel says the biggest difference she has noticed is demand: Europeans have told her they lack a space where business and money can be discussed without restraint. She's careful with the word "safe": "Not that it's unsafe, it's just that you can't be as liberal in the conversation around it" (00:01:25). Her design response is to lean harder on what already distinguishes PressConf, the unrecorded room (00:02:08). This is a mechanism argument: recording changes what people say; removing it changes the conversation. It's plausible and untested in this source. No count of conversations, no survey, no named respondent. **The "stop playing defense" thesis.** Matt sets it up by naming the environment: WordPress headlines "haven't been the best," "every 6 months there's something else," competitors are improving, and sentiment is negative (00:02:53). His conclusion is that there's no time to "tiptoe." Raquel picks that up and escalates. She describes herself as arriving with "a chip on my shoulder" and contrasts that with her prior "friendly neighborhood" persona (00:03:36). Then the core passage: new events are proliferating, they're broadening to "all things to all people," that broadening is because "we're scared," fear is justified, but the answer is to choose anyway and stop "pulling that victim card" (00:04:19). She frames a wrong choice as still preferable to no choice, because "we made a choice and we decided and we moved." At 00:05:03 she stakes personal identity on it: "I'm putting my entire life on this. Not PressCamp EU, but PressCamp. And and WordPress." **Matt's leadership frame.** Matt reframes Raquel's stance as a general requirement: WordPress "needs leaders," leadership "doesn't mean it has to come from the top," and every plugin, theme, agency, SaaS or AI idea now needs conviction rather than the "fun little cute approach" of asking the community to please try your thing (00:05:45, 00:06:30). He credits Raquel with having carried PressNomics forward into PressConf when there was doubt, including his own (00:05:45). **Speakers and format.** Raquel wanted Europeans on stage and admits "I don't think we hit it," so the lineup will be Europeans plus Americans now living in Europe (00:09:21; the transcript cuts off the end of that sentence). Announced: Remkus, returning because his US talk was a favorite; a speaker the captions render as "Daphne Monroe," described as Gen Z and met at CloudFest and a London WordPress meetup (the transcript says "American living in the US," which contradicts the Europe-resident criterion and is probably a mis-capture of "UK" or "EU"); "Mark Weisbrod," a business-side speaker whose stance Raquel summarizes as choose WordPress, then fix the business side; and a first-time speaker the captions render as "Ivana Churkovik," referred by Remkus, speaking on AI and WordPress (00:10:04, 00:10:48). More speakers have signed contracts but aren't announced. The last two sessions of each day will be facilitated rather than presented (00:10:48), which is the one new format element. **Team.** Adam is not attending; he's returned to teaching and is focusing on the US event. Carol has more capacity now that both her children have finished high school. Anna has done marketing for about a year and will be met in person for the first time. A Barcelona-local team member, "Jaume," has just signed on and isn't yet on the site (00:12:14). Verify all four names against pressconf.events; the auto-captions have a demonstrated error rate on proper nouns in this video. **Contested or unverifiable here.** The demand claim (Europeans want this) is anecdotal. The characterization of other events as fear-driven is Raquel's reading, not theirs, and no event is named. Matt's "all-time high" conviction requirement (00:02:53) and "in order for WordPress to survive" (00:06:30) are rhetorical stakes, not measurements. Nothing in the episode gives attendance targets, ticket price, or prior-year numbers. ## 🗒️ Notes #### ⏱️ [00:00:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXftcQarNDg&t=0) Welcome to PressConf EU - Naming: Raquel says "Press Conf EU" and admits she keeps saying "WordCamp EU" by mistake. Matt asks whether "Europe" would reduce confusion with WordCamp Europe. - The transcript renders Raquel's name as "Rochelle" in the opening line; the description confirms "Raquel." - Matt flags a short recording window and a short runway to the event. #### ⏱️ [00:00:41](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXftcQarNDg&t=41) PressConf EU is coming to Barcelona - Call to action and dates, stated once here and repeated at 00:12:58. > [!quote] [00:00:41] > pressconf.events/tickets or just .events. Uh, you'll see everything. This site is fully updated. You can now see the US version versus the European version. And it's October 27th through 30th in Barcelona. - Matt describes the US format: closed-door, unrecorded, "all the good stuff happens in the room on the stage." #### ⏱️ [00:01:25](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXftcQarNDg&t=85) Why Europe needs a PressConf - Same format as the US, with small iterations each time. The biggest difference Raquel names is demand from the European community for a space they say they don't have. > [!quote] [00:01:25] > That there's this kind of inherent modesty around money and when we're all in the business of WordPress trying to make money with our agencies and products and they feel like they haven't had the the most safest space to speak. - She qualifies "safe": "Not that it's unsafe, it's just that you can't be as liberal in the conversation around it." #### ⏱️ [00:02:18](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXftcQarNDg&t=138) The pressure on WordPress businesses - Design consequence of the modesty claim, stated at 00:02:08: > [!quote] [00:02:08] > So even more so that safe space of unrecorded talks is is going to apply because of that. - Matt (00:02:08 to 00:02:53): conviction to run a WordPress business "has to be at its all-time high right now"; headlines haven't been good; "every 6 months there's something else"; competitors improving; sentiment casting doubt on "this beloved piece of software." > [!quote] [00:02:53] > And I don't think there's time for people to you know tiptoe around trying to run their business. - He credits PressConf with putting people on stage "to be vulnerable but also to tell it how it is." #### ⏱️ [00:03:36](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXftcQarNDg&t=216) "I'm kind of over it" - Raquel's register shifts. She names the shift herself: the "friendly neighborhood" persona versus arriving with "a chip on my shoulder." The captions render her name as "Ericka" here. > [!quote] [00:03:36] > Like I don't know if you and I should be together sometimes cuz I think we might cause some implosion but I'm I'm kind of over it. - The short runway is explained as conviction, not planning: "Something inside of me knew." - 00:04:19, the core passage. Events are multiplying; they're becoming "all things to all people"; that's fear. > [!quote] [00:04:19] > Like, we're we're not going to just focus on WordPress because we're scared. And don't get me wrong, and I hope I'm ruffling some feathers right now. We have reason to be scared. > [!quote] [00:04:19] > And also, I'm just done with the whole pulling that victim card out of our back pockets. Like, let's let's make a choice and let's decide. > [!quote] [00:04:19] > And even if it doesn't turn out the way we want it to, we made a choice and we decided and we moved. - 00:05:03: she wants attendees to leave "knowing that they've made a choice." She admits she's "a little bit" desperate for that outcome because of the competing events, and stakes her identity on PressConf and WordPress, not the EU edition specifically. > [!quote] [00:05:03] > I'm putting my entire life on this. Not PressCamp EU, but PressCamp. And and WordPress. #### ⏱️ [00:05:43](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXftcQarNDg&t=343) WordPress needs leaders - Matt's thesis, 00:05:03 into 00:05:45: "WordPress needs leaders." > [!quote] [00:05:45] > And it doesn't mean it has to come from the top. It means that we all have to be leaders in our in our own capacity. - He recalls the PressNomics-to-PressConf transition, his own initial doubt, and telling Raquel "you're the one to do it." - 00:06:30: the requirement applies to every product and service, and the era of asking nicely is over. > [!quote] [00:06:30] > There's no time for the fun little cute approach to this. Hey community, wouldn't you love Please try my thing. It that doesn't exist anymore. > [!quote] [00:06:30] > that we must be better these days in order for WordPress to survive. #### ⏱️ [00:07:43](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXftcQarNDg&t=463) Creating the PressConf community - Matt (00:07:13) asks whether Europe will have the "campfire" gathering effect of the Tempe venue; the captions render Tempe as "Temple." - Raquel (00:07:57): the venue was chosen for it. Separation happens only for sessions. > [!quote] [00:07:57] > But yeah, no, the place is, you know, it's got like a rooftop pool and terrace, and it's even bonus, this one's got a spa, so you can get a massage, and there's lots of hot tubs and things like that. - 00:08:38: she personally finds "all the good in" any venue but hears repeatedly that attendees love what "Temple Mission Palms" provides; wherever PressConf US lands in future, self-contained is the goal. #### ⏱️ [00:09:06](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXftcQarNDg&t=546) Who's speaking at PressConf EU? - Matt asks for the "cast of characters." Raquel calls speaker selection "kind of rough" because attendees want Europeans on stage. - 00:09:21: admitted shortfall and the resulting rule. > [!quote] [00:09:21] > However, I don't think we hit it. So we're going to it's going to pretty much be Europeans up the Europeans up there. Or Americans that now live in the So, that's where we're we're going to land. - Remkus returns despite Raquel's stated preference against repeat speakers, because his talk was a favorite of the first edition. Matt jokes he's never heard of him. #### ⏱️ [00:09:58](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXftcQarNDg&t=598) Meet the European speakers - "Daphne Monroe" (caption spelling): met on stage at CloudFest and at a London WordPress meetup; Gen Z; "charisma." The transcript says "American living in the US," which conflicts with the criterion just stated; likely a mis-capture. - "Mark Weisbrod" (caption spelling): business-side. Raquel paraphrases his stance. > [!quote] [00:10:04] > We are choosing WordPress, so now let's fix this business side of WordPress, because you can have success, but you got to make some tweaks to your business. - "Ivana Churkovik" (caption spelling; Raquel herself says "if I'm saying that right"): referred by Remkus, first-time PressConf speaker, topic AI and WordPress (00:10:48). - More speakers are under signed contract and unannounced. #### ⏱️ [00:11:22](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXftcQarNDg&t=682) What's new about the EU event? - 00:10:48: the last two sessions of the day shift from speakers to facilitators; still being designed. > [!quote] [00:10:48] > But that will have more for more so facilitators over speakers. So, we're still figuring that out. - 00:11:31: Matt jokes about replacing the US "snack shack," repeats the ticket URL twice. #### ⏱️ [00:12:01](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXftcQarNDg&t=721) The PressConf EU team heads to Barcelona - Adam isn't coming; he's back in a teaching role and focusing on the US edition (00:11:31). - 00:12:14: Carol has more capacity (both children graduated high school); Anna has done marketing for about a year and hasn't met the team in person; a Barcelona-local member, "Jaume," signed on and isn't yet on the site. > [!quote] [00:12:14] > We've got a local team member local to Barcelona joining us named Jaume. I haven't even announced him yet. I haven't even put him on the site yet. #### ⏱️ [00:12:49](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXftcQarNDg&t=769) October 27 to 30 in Barcelona - Matt repeats the dates and URL three times in 20 seconds; the episode's promotional core sits here and at 00:00:41. #### ⏱️ [00:13:12](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXftcQarNDg&t=792) The kickoff, conference, and fun day - Structure confirmed (00:12:58): kickoff cocktail party (with non-alcoholic drinks), two conference days, fun day. > [!quote] [00:12:58] > The first day is is the kickoff. Remember it's the kickoff like yeah, like cocktail party like don't have to drink cocktails guys. There will be NA also. And then the two conference days and then the fun day, wonder day. - 00:13:42: Matt's travel-aversion bit (a viral video of a man crawling to a cliff edge); Raquel notes most Europeans will arrive on cheap Ryanair flights. #### ⏱️ [00:14:16](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXftcQarNDg&t=856) Why PressConf EU matters - 00:14:25: Raquel points out Matt has never attended a fun day. Matt closes by thanking her "for being a leader in our community," tying the ending back to the leadership frame at 00:05:45. ## 📚 References The transcript itself contains no links; the following come from the video description or are primary sources for named entities. - [PressConf EU: WordPress Needs to Stop Playing Defense (WP Minute Podcasts)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXftcQarNDg): the source video, 14:53, uploaded 2026-09-23. The description carries a 14-chapter list used for the Notes headings above. - [PressConf](https://pressconf.events) and [tickets](https://pressconf.events/tickets): the only URL spoken in the episode (00:00:41, 00:11:31, 00:12:58). The speaker and team pages there are the place to verify names the captions garble. - [The WP Minute](https://thewpminute.com): Matt Medeiros's publication; The WP Minute+ is its long-form interview show. - PressNomics: the predecessor event Matt names at 00:05:45 as the lineage PressConf carried forward. No URL in the transcript. - Tempe Mission Palms: the US venue, named at 00:08:38 (captions: "Temple Mission Palms"), whose self-contained layout Raquel says the Barcelona venue was chosen to reproduce. - CloudFest: the hosting-industry conference where Raquel says she shared a stage with one of the announced speakers (00:10:04). - WordCamp Europe and WordCamp US: named only at 00:00:00 as the events Raquel keeps confusing with PressConf in speech. ## 🗣️ Paraphrase Raquel's case for a European PressConf is about what people will say when nothing is recorded. She's heard from Europeans that the culture around money is modest, that agency and product owners don't have a room where they can talk numbers and risk without hedging, and that the US event's closed-door format is the thing they want imported. So the format stays: unrecorded talks, a venue where everyone shares the pool and the terrace, and a speaker list that's mostly Europeans or Americans who've moved there. The new element is that the last sessions of each day become facilitated conversations instead of presentations. The second half of the conversation is a stance, not a plan. Matt describes an industry absorbing a new blow every six months and says nobody has time to run a WordPress business timidly. Raquel goes further: the new events popping up everywhere are widening their scope out of fear, fear is warranted, and the answer is to commit anyway and stop acting like victims. She'd rather make a wrong choice than keep reacting, because a choice moves you and a reaction doesn't. Matt turns that into a general demand: WordPress needs leaders at every scale, from a small plugin to a big agency, and the era of asking the community to please try your thing is over. The episode closes with logistics (October 27 to 30, Barcelona, kickoff party, two conference days, fun day) and a team that's changing shape, with a new Barcelona local aboard and one US organizer staying home. ## 📰 Newsletter **PressConf goes to Barcelona, and its organizer isn't asking nicely.** In a 15-minute WP Minute+ episode, Matt Medeiros talks with Raquel about the first European PressConf, October 27 to 30 in Barcelona. The format you know from Tempe travels intact: closed doors, unrecorded talks, a venue with a rooftop pool and a spa chosen so nobody can escape the conversation. What's new is the reason. Raquel says Europeans have told her they have no room where WordPress money talk happens without restraint, so the unrecorded rule matters more there than it did in the US. The other new thing: the last two sessions of each day will be facilitated discussions instead of talks. The quotable part is the stance. Raquel says she's "kind of over it," that events broadening to "all things to all people" are doing it out of fear, and that the community should stop "pulling that victim card" and make a choice, even a wrong one. Matt frames the same idea as a leadership requirement for every plugin, theme, agency and SaaS in the ecosystem: the "please try my thing" era is finished. Agree or not, it's the clearest statement of the commit-don't-hedge position you'll hear this month, and it's coming from someone who says she has put her "entire life" on PressConf and WordPress. Speakers announced so far: Remkus (returning), plus three names the auto-captions mangle, so check pressconf.events before you repeat them. More are under contract. For DevRel and community folks, the interesting experiment is the facilitated closing block; if it produces the candid business conversation Raquel is betting on, it's a format worth borrowing for meetups that have gone quiet. Links: [the episode](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXftcQarNDg), [tickets](https://pressconf.events/tickets). ## ✅ Action items #### DevRel - Developer advocacy: attend or send one person, and treat the unrecorded room as a listening post. Bring back three specific business blockers European agencies name, written as problems, not quotes, since the room's rule is no recording. - Education: pilot one "facilitated, not presented" closing block at the next developer meetup or office hours and measure question count against a normal talk. Raquel's format change at 00:10:48 is the test case. - Developer experience: none directly. Nearest relevance: business owners in the room will name platform pain; log it as DX input. - Developer marketing: the "please try my thing" line at 00:06:30 is a critique of soft community marketing. Audit current launch copy for asks with no stated benefit or evidence. - Community management: the "victim card" framing (00:04:19) will land badly with some members. Have a moderation stance ready if the episode is shared in community channels. - Internal/external/cross-project: propose a media or content partnership with PressConf EU that respects the no-recording rule, such as post-event written interviews with consenting speakers. #### OSPO - Policy and governance: none directly. Nearest relevance: an unrecorded-room norm is a governance choice; document when your own community programs use it and why. - License compliance: no action from this source. - Security management: no action from this source. - Software inventory: no action from this source. - Developer support: none directly; the source is about business confidence, not tooling. - Community engagement: consider PressConf EU sponsorship as an upstream-adjacent investment in the European WordPress business layer; ask for the attendee composition before committing. - Strategic alignment: the episode names a sentiment problem ("every 6 months there's something else," 00:02:53). Add ecosystem-confidence indicators to the community KPI set so the claim can be measured rather than repeated. #### Community - Maintainers: no direct action. Nearest relevance: the "make a choice" argument applies to roadmap decisions that have stalled awaiting consensus. - Contributors: no direct action from this source. - Sponsors: if sponsoring, ask PressConf for a written summary of the facilitated sessions' themes (not transcripts) as the deliverable, so the no-recording rule and sponsor reporting coexist. - Ecosystem: Raquel says events are multiplying (00:04:19). Maintain a shared calendar of WordPress-adjacent business events in Europe so organizers can avoid collisions instead of competing blind. #### WordPress - Core: no action. This source is about the business layer around WordPress, not the software. - Core Performance: no action from this source. - Core AI: one announced talk is on AI and WordPress (00:10:48). Ask the speaker for a written recap after the event; the room is unrecorded. - **Core Program Team:** no action from this source. - Mobile: no action from this source. - Playground: no action from this source. - Community: the demand claim at 00:01:25 (Europeans lack a space for candid business talk) is a direct signal about a gap WordCamps don't fill. Survey European meetup organizers on whether a business track or unrecorded session is wanted. - Training: no action from this source. - Marketing: the sentiment claims at 00:02:53 are the environment Marketing is working in. Track whether headline cadence matches the "every 6 months" description. - Support: no action from this source. - Design: no action from this source. - Documentation: no action from this source. - Photos: no action from this source. - TV: PressConf is unrecorded by design, so nothing to index. Note the contrast: the ecosystem now has a deliberately unarchived tier of events. - Polyglots: no action. Nearest relevance: the event is in Barcelona; check whether materials are English-only. - Accessibility: no action from this source. - Meta: no action from this source. - CLI: no action from this source. - Hosting: CloudFest is named as where Raquel met a speaker (00:10:04). Hosts already attend both; nearest relevance is cross-event coordination. - Tide: no action from this source. - Openverse: no action from this source. - Themes: no action from this source. - Plugins: Matt's "your plugin... there's no time for the fun little cute approach" (00:06:30) is aimed at plugin businesses. Nearest relevance: directory listing quality as a signal of business seriousness. #### The WPOCC - Programs: The WP Open Community Collective could fund one European organizer's attendance and require a written debrief on the facilitated-session format. Cheap, and it tests whether the format transfers. - Projects: no action from this source. - Funding experiments: if The WPOCC ever runs a "business confidence" grant, the episode's demand claim (00:01:25) is the hypothesis to fund a survey against before funding events. ### FAIR - Technical independence: no action from this source. - Policies and covenants: none directly. Nearest relevance: Raquel's "make a choice, even a wrong one" stance (00:04:19) is the governance posture FAIR asks of operators; the episode is a citable community voice for it. - Productized governance artifacts: no action from this source. ## 🧪 Hypotheses 1. Sessions run without recording produce more disclosures of specific financial figures (revenue, margin, pricing) than recorded sessions on the same topics, by at least 2x per session. 2. European WordPress business owners report lower comfort discussing money at community events than US counterparts, measured on a 5-point scale, with a gap of at least 1 point. 3. PressConf EU's facilitated closing block produces more attendee speaking turns than a comparable-length talk block, by a factor of 3 or more. 4. WordPress-adjacent events launched in 2025 to 2026 in Europe describe themselves with broader-than-WordPress scope in a majority of cases, consistent with Raquel's "all things to all people" claim at 00:04:19. 5. Organizations that state a deliberate WordPress commitment publicly (Mark's "we are choosing WordPress," 00:10:04) show higher 12-month retention of WordPress as primary platform than organizations that don't, controlling for size. 6. A first-edition event announced with fewer than 8 weeks of runway and an incomplete speaker list at 5 weeks sells fewer than 60% of its first-year target, regardless of brand strength. ## 📊 Methodology - **H1.** Coding study. Obtain organizer permission to have a note-taker (not a recorder) tally disclosure events in unrecorded sessions using a fixed codebook (revenue figure, margin, price point, failed launch). Compare with the same codebook applied to recorded WordCamp business-track talks of equal length. Report disclosures per hour with 95% intervals. - **H2.** Survey. 200 respondents each from European and US WordPress business owners recruited through meetup organizers, with a 5-point comfort scale on discussing revenue, pricing and failures in public settings. Pre-register the 1-point gap threshold. - **H3.** Observation at PressConf EU with organizer consent. Count distinct speakers and speaking turns per 10 minutes in the facilitated block versus a talk block. No content is captured, only counts, which respects the no-recording rule. - **H4.** Content analysis of event websites. Enumerate European WordPress-adjacent events announced from 2025-01 to 2026-09; code each tagline and about page for scope (WordPress-only, WordPress-plus, platform-agnostic). Two coders, report agreement. - **H5.** Longitudinal panel of 100 agencies with public platform statements; check primary platform at 12 months via site technology detection and self-report. Control for headcount. - **H6.** Comparative study of first-edition conference launches with public runway and ticket data. Ask PressConf for anonymized sales-curve data post-event; compare with the published runway. - **Controls throughout.** Separate the format effect (unrecorded) from the selection effect (people who attend PressConf are already candid). A within-person comparison, the same speaker recorded and unrecorded, is the cleanest design. ## ❓ Questions - How many Europeans told Raquel they lack a space for candid money talk, and were any of them attendees of prior European business events that already try this? - Which events is she calling "all things to all people," and did any of them describe their scope broadening as fear-driven, or is that her inference? - What does "unrecorded" cover in practice: no video, no audio, no live-tweeting, no press? Is there a stated Chatham House rule? - What is the facilitated closing block's design: topics chosen by attendees, by organizers, or emergent? Who trains the facilitators? - Is "American living in the US" (00:10:04) a caption error for UK or EU, and if not, how does that square with the Europeans-or-Europe-resident rule at 00:09:21? - What are the ticket price, capacity and current sales five weeks out, given the admitted short runway? - Will there be any written output from the event (a themes summary, a speaker's own post) that lets the ecosystem learn from a room it can't watch? - Matt says conviction must be at an "all-time high" and that "we must be better... in order for WordPress to survive." What evidence would change his mind that survival is at stake? ## 🔮 Future research - **Recording as a variable in community candor.** There's community folklore that unrecorded rooms are more honest, and almost no measured evidence for the WordPress ecosystem specifically. H1 above is a tractable first study. - **Event proliferation mapping.** Nobody maintains a dataset of WordPress-adjacent business events by region, scope and launch date. Raquel's claim that they're multiplying is checkable and currently unchecked. - **The cost of the archival gap.** PressConf's design means its best content never enters WordPress.tv or any index. Studying what a community loses when its most candid tier is deliberately unarchived is unexplored. - **Regional norms around money.** The "modesty around money" claim generalizes across 40-plus countries. A country-level breakdown would show whether it's a European pattern or a few markets. - **Commitment framing and outcomes.** "Make a choice, even a wrong one" is a testable management claim. H5 sketches the observational version; a survey of agencies that pivoted away from WordPress versus those that recommitted would add the counterfactual. ## 💡 Implications - **Practice.** For DevRel and community programs, the transferable design element is the facilitated block replacing end-of-day talks. It costs nothing to pilot at a meetup and Raquel's claim is that it's where the business conversation actually happens. - **Policy.** An event that promises no recording needs a written rule attendees can read. The episode never states one. Any program borrowing the format should publish the boundary (no audio, no video, no attributed quotes) before the first session. - **Security.** No direct implication. Indirectly, candid money talk in a closed room is also where undisclosed vendor relationships surface; unrecorded doesn't mean unaccountable, and organizers should say how conflicts get handled. - **Education.** Matt's "leaders at every capacity" frame (00:05:45) and Raquel's "make a choice" frame (00:04:19) are leadership content, not WordPress content. Training programs for meetup and WordCamp organizers could use the episode as a discussion prompt on when to commit a community to a direction without consensus. - **Funding models.** PressConf is a paid, closed, unrecorded event in an ecosystem whose flagship events are free-to-cheap and fully recorded. If Barcelona sells, it's evidence that European WordPress businesses will pay for candor, which changes what sponsors and collectives like The WPOCC might fund. - **Community health.** The "victim card" line will polarize. It names a real pattern (reactive, grievance-first discourse) with a phrase that dismisses the grievances. Community managers should expect the clip to circulate and have a stance ready. ## 🧠 Learning styles assessment - **Reading level estimate.** Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level on the transcript body: approximately grade 6 to 7. Flesch Reading Ease near 80. Conversational speech with short clauses and repeated fragments; the only domain terms are proper nouns (PressNomics, CloudFest, WordCamp EU), so comprehension is gated by ecosystem familiarity rather than vocabulary. #### 👀 Visual learners - Present: two talking heads on a video call. No slides, no on-screen text beyond whatever the platform overlays, no venue imagery. - Improve: a single title card with dates, city and URL would carry the episode's promotional core for anyone who skims. A four-day schedule graphic (kickoff, two conference days, fun day) would replace the spoken repetition at 00:12:58. #### 🔊 Aural learners - Present: this is the native format. Two voices, clear turn-taking, no music bed interfering with speech. - Improve: crosstalk and self-interruption ("we're we're," "is is") are frequent; the auto-captions capture them, which makes the transcript harder to read than the audio is to hear. A cleaned transcript in the description would serve both audiences. #### 🗣️ Verbal learners - Present: strong quotable lines at 00:04:19 ("victim card," "make a choice") and 00:06:30 ("fun little cute approach"). Raquel self-labels her tonal shift, which helps listeners track register. - Improve: PressNomics, CloudFest and "snack shack" go unexplained for newcomers. One clause each would cover it. #### 🧩 Kinesthetic learners - Present: one concrete action, buying a ticket, repeated five times. - Improve: nothing else to do. A "bring one number you've never said out loud" prompt for attendees would turn the modesty-around-money thesis into a task. #### 🧠 Logical learners - Present: the modesty-to-unrecorded-talks chain at 00:01:25 to 00:02:08 is a clean mechanism argument. The speaker-selection passage at 00:09:21 states a goal, admits a miss, and states the fallback rule. - Improve: the "events are broadening because they're scared" claim (00:04:19) has no named instance. One example would let a logical listener evaluate it. #### 🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Social learners - Present: the whole pitch is social: a venue you can't escape, a communal fun day, facilitated sessions. - Improve: no pre-event community channel is named. A place for ticket holders to meet before Barcelona would extend the effect the venue is chosen for. #### 🧘‍♀️ Solitary learners - Present: short enough to absorb in one sitting; the stance is stated plainly enough to reflect on alone. - Improve: a reflection prompt drawn from 00:04:19 ("what choice have you been deferring, and what would deciding it wrong cost you?") would make the episode usable as a journaling exercise. #### 🌿 Naturalistic learners - Present: nothing explicit. Raquel's Ryanair remark at 00:13:42 is the only travel reference. - Improve: an international conference has a travel footprint; a line on rail access to Barcelona or a carbon note would land with this group and matches the European audience's expectations. ## 📊 Accessibility assessment #### Screen reader semantics - Present: YouTube supplies page landmarks and player controls. The description carries a structured chapter list with timestamps, which is the best-formed metadata in the package. - Improve: no information is conveyed visually only, so 1.1.1 (Non-text Content) has little to fail. Adding the ticket URL as a clickable link in the description (it's spoken, but the description text as captured contains no URL) helps 2.4.4 (Link Purpose). #### Keyboard navigation - Present: the player is keyboard operable by platform default with visible focus; chapters are navigable from the progress bar. - Improve: nothing in the content adds barriers. 2.1.1 and 2.4.7 pass via the platform. #### Contrast and readability - Present: unverifiable from a transcript. A video-call layout with default framing is the likely presentation. - Improve: if any lower-third names or the URL are burned in, check them against 1.4.3 (Contrast Minimum) at mobile size. #### Text resizing and reflow - Present: the player scales and captions resize independently. - Improve: any burned-in text fails 1.4.4 (Resize Text) and 1.4.10 (Reflow). Keeping names and URL in the description instead avoids the problem entirely. #### Media and captions - Present: auto-generated captions exist in the platform's full language list; no human-uploaded caption track is present (the metadata shows an empty subtitles set). - Improve: the auto-captions get the guest's name wrong three times (Rochelle, Ericka, Ericka), the event name wrong in three ways (Press Conf, PressCamp, PressCom), the venue wrong (Temple for Tempe), and probably three of four speaker names. That is a 1.2.2 (Captions, Prerecorded) failure in substance for a 14:53 file that would take under an hour to correct. 1.2.5 (Audio Description) has nothing to describe; the content is fully spoken. #### Forms and interactions - Present: none in the video. The only interaction is the spoken URL. - Improve: not applicable in-video. The ticket page it points to inherits 3.3.2 (Labels or Instructions) and 2.5.8 (Target Size) obligations. #### Standards reference - Primary gap against WCAG 2.2 AA: **1.2.2** (captions present but inaccurate on every proper noun that matters). Secondary: **2.4.4** (spoken URL not linked in captured description text), **1.4.4 / 1.4.10** if any text is burned in. The chapter list in the description is a genuine positive for 2.4.10 (Section Headings) at the AAA level and worth keeping as house practice. ## 🌍 DEIB assessment #### Cultural breadth - Present: the episode is explicitly about a regional cultural difference (attitudes to money) and treats it as a design input rather than a deficiency. Barcelona as host and a Barcelona-local team member are named. - Improve: "Europeans" is treated as one culture across the episode. Naming which countries the feedback came from would respect the range inside the label. Nothing is said about language of sessions or non-English speakers. #### Inclusive language - Present: "guys" at 00:12:58 as a generic address; otherwise second-person and first-person plural. The non-alcoholic option for the kickoff is stated unprompted, which is inclusive practice for attendees who don't drink. - Improve: "victim card" (00:04:19) is loaded language that frames grievance as manipulation; "maybe I'm a little crazy" (00:03:36) is casual mental-health framing. Both are low severity and both are swappable for concrete descriptions of the behavior being criticized. #### Neurodiversity support - Present: the description's 14 chapters chunk a 15-minute conversation into segments averaging 64 seconds, which is unusually fine-grained and helps navigation. The dates and URL are repeated, which aids retention. - Improve: heavy crosstalk and mid-sentence restarts make the captions hard to follow for readers who rely on them. The unstated "unrecorded" rule at the event itself is an accessibility question: attendees who process better from recordings or transcripts get nothing; organizers should say what accommodations exist. #### Representation - Present: a woman organizer leading an international event and being explicitly credited as a leader; a Gen Z speaker singled out; a first-time speaker on the bill; team members described by their life circumstances (a parent with new capacity, a teacher) rather than only titles. - Improve: Raquel admits the "Europeans on stage" goal was missed (00:09:21). Only four speakers are named and the balance isn't described. The captions garble three of the four names, which is its own representation failure: the platform's default output misidentifies the people the episode exists to promote. #### Psychological safety - Present: the episode's whole thesis is that a specific kind of room (unrecorded, closed) produces safety to speak. Raquel is precise that Europe isn't "unsafe," just constrained. Matt credits vulnerability on stage at 00:02:53. - Improve: "I hope I'm ruffling some feathers" and "I'm kind of over it" signal that the episode is choosing confrontation. That's a legitimate choice, but "victim card" tells some listeners their concerns are performances. Naming the behavior (reacting to each headline instead of setting direction) without the label would keep the critique and lose the dismissal. ## ✅ Logical validity #### Strong reasoning - **Causal mechanism, 00:01:25 to 00:02:08.** Cultural modesty about money reduces candor at recorded events; removing the recording removes a cause of the constraint; therefore lean harder on the unrecorded format in Europe. Each link is stated and the design response follows from the diagnosis. Clarify by stating the recording rule in writing so the mechanism is testable. - **Goal, miss, fallback, 00:09:21.** "We wanted Europeans; I don't think we hit it; so the rule becomes Europeans or Americans resident in Europe." Admitting the shortfall before stating the compromise is a concession against interest that raises credibility for the rest of the speaker discussion. - **Steelman before argument, 00:04:19.** "We have reason to be scared. We do have reason. But make a choice." Granting the opposing premise before rejecting the conclusion is the strongest rhetorical move in the episode and separates the argument from mere bravado. - **Design from stated goal, 00:07:57.** The venue criterion (separation only during sessions) is derived from an explicit goal (communal experience) and a named precedent (Tempe). That's a reproducible selection rule other organizers can apply. - **Self-aware register shift, 00:03:36.** Raquel names her own change in tone and the persona she's leaving. Flagging your own rhetoric lets the listener discount it appropriately. #### Fallacies - **Anecdotal generalization, 00:01:25.** "From what I've been communicated to by Europeans is that they don't feel like they have it." An unstated number of conversations becomes a claim about "the European community." *Fix:* give the count and the countries, or frame it as a hypothesis the event will test. - **False dilemma, 00:04:19.** "We're not going to just focus on WordPress because we're scared." Events either stay WordPress-only or broaden out of fear. A third option, broadening because the audience's stack has broadened, isn't considered. *Fix:* name one event and one piece of evidence that its scope change was fear-driven rather than market-driven. - **Loaded language, 00:04:19.** "Pulling that victim card out of our back pockets" characterizes the opposing behavior as manipulation before arguing against it. *Fix:* describe the behavior (reacting to each headline, deferring decisions) and drop the label. - **Unfalsifiable reassurance, 00:05:03.** "You can have confidence that it's going to work out for the best, no matter what." A claim compatible with every outcome supports nothing. *Fix:* state what "working out" would look like for an attendee at 12 months, so the promise can fail. - **Unsupported superlative, 00:02:53.** "The conviction to run a WordPress business has to be at its all-time high right now." No comparison point is given for any prior period. *Fix:* name the specific pressures (which competitors, which headlines) and let the listener judge the level. - **Appeal to survival, 00:06:30.** "We must be better these days in order for WordPress to survive." Survival is invoked as the stake without evidence WordPress is at risk of not surviving. *Fix:* replace with the measurable stake (market share trend, agency churn), or scope the claim to "for WordPress businesses to stay viable." - **Appeal to authority, mild, 00:10:48.** "If Remkus refers somebody to me, then, you know, I'm going to take it pretty serious." Honest and low-stakes; a referral is a legitimate heuristic for a speaker slot. Noted for completeness, not as a defect. - **Caption-induced ambiguity, throughout.** Not the speakers' fault: three names for the guest, three for the event, and probable errors in three speaker names make the transcript unusable as a source for proper nouns. *Fix:* human-corrected captions. #### Tone of voice - Two registers. Matt is the host-advocate: promotional (five ticket calls to action), admiring ("shining example," "you're the one to do it"), and self-deprecating about travel (00:13:42). Raquel is deliberately confrontational and says so: "chip on my shoulder," "I hope I'm ruffling some feathers," "I'm kind of over it," then softens into logistics and warmth about her team from 00:12:14 onward. Contractions and repetition throughout, as in unscripted speech. The pattern to know when reading this source: the argument lives in a 90-second stretch from 00:04:19 to 00:05:45, bracketed on both sides by promotion and logistics. Quote from the middle; cite the edges for facts. ## 🛡️ DARVO analysis Largely not applicable. DARVO (Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender) describes a response to an accusation, and no one accuses either speaker of anything in this episode. What is present is a speaker going on the offensive against an unnamed group, which is adjacent to the Attack prong and worth recording. **Deny:** nothing is denied. Raquel volunteers the shortfalls (short runway, 00:00:41 and 00:03:36; missed the Europeans-on-stage goal, 00:09:21; speakers unannounced, 00:10:48) rather than minimizing them. **Attack:** at 00:04:19 she characterizes other events as "all things to all people" driven by fear and the community as "pulling that victim card." No event or person is named, so this is a critique of a pattern rather than an attack on an accuser's credibility, but the "victim card" phrase does the work of discrediting grievances without engaging them. **Reverse victim/offender:** no move of this kind appears. Raquel positions herself as the one taking a risk ("I've put my flag down," "I'm putting my entire life on this," 00:05:03), which is a claim of exposure, not of victimhood, and she doesn't cast anyone as her offender. Emotional cues: escalation at 00:03:36 to 00:05:03, self-labeled as a persona shift, then de-escalation into team and venue talk. Related fallacies: loaded language and false dilemma at 00:04:19, treated above. ## 🎯 Conclusion Two things in this episode survive scrutiny. The first is a design argument: recording changes what business owners will say about money, so an event that wants candor removes the recording, and in a region where money talk is culturally constrained that rule matters more, not less (00:01:25 to 00:02:08). PressConf EU's one format change, facilitated closing sessions instead of talks (00:10:48), is the same bet extended. Whether it works is measurable by anyone in the room with a tally sheet and the organizer's permission. The second is a stance: commit to a direction and accept being wrong rather than react to each headline (00:04:19). Raquel steelmans the fear before rejecting the response to it, which makes the argument better than its "victim card" packaging. Matt's generalization, that leadership at every scale is now a requirement and the "please try my thing" era is over (00:05:45, 00:06:30), is the version most useful to anyone running a WordPress product, agency or community program. What doesn't survive: the demand claim is anecdotal, the characterization of other events is unnamed and unevidenced, and the survival framing is rhetoric. The auto-captions misname the guest three times and probably three of four speakers. **Next steps for readers:** verify every proper noun against pressconf.events before repeating it. If you run any developer or community gathering, pilot one facilitated closing block and count speaking turns against a talk of the same length. And take the 00:04:19 question personally: name one decision you've been deferring because the environment feels hostile, and decide what deciding it wrong would actually cost. ## 🔄 Refactor Appendix — PressConf EU: WordPress Needs to Stop Playing Defense > Density: 2–5 Literature atoms (H3 pad), 0–3 Permanent candidates (H4 pad). > Emitted: 4 Literature, 2 Permanent. Resonance filter applied — the venue amenities, > team roster and travel banter were dropped as logistics, not claims. > > Konik claim-header rules: present tense, declarative, ≤10 words, searchable, unique. > > Atomicity: one declarative sentence per atom. "and"/"also" → split. > > Tag pool: #bmf · #addendum · #xref · #articleseed · #storystem · #share · #aphorisms ### 📚 Literature Split Pad #### [H1] Money modesty constrains European WordPress business talk > [!quote] [00:01:25] > That there's this kind of inherent modesty around money and when we're all in the business of WordPress trying to make money **Context & use**: - 00:01:25, answering Matt's question about what differs in Europe. The diagnosis that motivates the whole EU edition. - Anecdotal (conversations, no count). Keep as the hypothesis PressConf EU tests, not as a finding. The design consequence follows at 00:02:08: unrecorded talks matter more here. **Tags**: #xref #articleseed  #### [H2] Broadening event scope out of fear is a choice > [!quote] [00:04:19] > Like, we're we're not going to just focus on WordPress because we're scared. **Context & use**: - 00:04:19, Raquel's characterization of the wave of new WordPress-adjacent events. Immediately preceded by "I hope I'm ruffling some feathers" and followed by the concession "We have reason to be scared." - Record the false dilemma alongside it: broadening because the audience's stack broadened is a third option the episode doesn't consider. The atom is useful as a stance to argue with, not a fact. **Tags**: #xref #share  #### [H3] A wrong decision still beats indefinite reaction > [!quote] [00:04:19] > And even if it doesn't turn out the way we want it to, we made a choice and we decided and we moved. **Context & use**: - 00:04:19, the resolution of the "victim card" passage. Movement is the value, not correctness. - This is the reusable management claim in the episode. It pairs with the steelman that precedes it; quote them together or the atom reads as bravado. **Tags**: #xref #aphorisms  #### [H4] Soft community asks no longer launch WordPress products > [!quote] [00:06:30] > There's no time for the fun little cute approach to this. Hey community, wouldn't you love Please try my thing. It that doesn't exist anymore. **Context & use**: - 00:06:30, Matt extending the leadership frame to every plugin, theme, agency, SaaS and AI idea in the ecosystem. - Direct critique of the default WordPress launch register. Useful as a lens on release announcements and directory listings: what's the stated benefit, what's the evidence, what's the ask. **Tags**: #xref #articleseed  ### 🧠 Atomic Split Pad #### [P1] Unrecorded rooms trade reach for candor **Claim** (one sentence, Courtney's voice): A community that records everything gets performances where it wanted disclosures, so the price of honest business talk is a room that produces no archive. **Evidence pointer**: [[#H1]] · [[#H2]] **Scope & conditions**: Holds where the topic carries social risk (money, failure, pricing) and the audience is small enough to enforce the norm. Breaks when the community needs the content to travel (onboarding, documentation, precedent) or when "unrecorded" isn't written down and attendees can't rely on it. The archival cost is real: PressConf's best sessions never reach WordPress.tv. **Links**: - [[Community program design]] — because extends - [[WordPress.tv and event archiving]] — because contrasts on whether reach or candor is the goal - [[Facilitated sessions at developer meetups]] — because applies-in closing-block format experiments  #### [P2] Deciding generates evidence and reacting generates none **Claim** (one sentence, Courtney's voice): A deliberate direction that turns out wrong still teaches you something the next decision can use, while a sequence of reactions to headlines leaves no record of what you believed or why. **Evidence pointer**: [[#H3]] · [[#H4]] **Scope & conditions**: Applies to organizations and programs facing repeated external shocks with no end date, the situation Matt describes at 00:02:53. Does not license ignoring evidence: the claim is about committing to a tested direction, not about persisting after the test fails. Counterexample: in a fast-changing market, a deliberately reversible small bet beats a large commitment; "decide" doesn't mean "bet everything," even though Raquel frames her own version that way at 00:05:03. **Links**: - [[Decision records]] — because extends - [[Weekly learning retro commitments]] — because applies-in choosing few, explicit changes over reactive tweaks - [[Steelman before you argue]] — because evidence-for the rhetorical structure that makes the stance credible at 00:04:19  ### ✏️ Fleeting Queue - [F1] Verify speaker names against pressconf.events; captions render "Daphne Monroe," "Mark Weisbrod," "Ivana Churkovik," and the guest herself as "Rochelle" and "Ericka": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXftcQarNDg #fleeting #inbox - [F2] Check whether "American living in the US" at 00:10:04 is a caption error for UK or EU; it contradicts the Europe-resident rule at 00:09:21 #fleeting #inbox - [F3] Open question: does PressConf publish a written no-recording rule (audio, video, attributed quotes, press)? None is stated in the episode #fleeting #inbox - [F4] Article seed: "The unarchived tier": what a community loses and gains when its most candid events are deliberately unrecorded, using PressConf and WordPress.tv as the two poles #fleeting #inbox #articleseed - [F5] Article seed: the "please try my thing" launch register (00:06:30) as a lens on WordPress plugin release announcements; audit ten recent ones for stated benefit and evidence #fleeting #inbox #articleseed - [F6] Build a list of European WordPress-adjacent business events launched 2025 to 2026 with scope coded, to test the "all things to all people" claim at 00:04:19 #fleeting #inbox ### → Things 3 (max 2 actions) - [ ] Verify the four PressConf EU speaker names and the team roster on pressconf.events before citing this episode anywhere: research, 10 min #things - [ ] Draft a one-page pilot plan for a facilitated closing block at the next developer meetup, with speaking-turn counts as the metric: DevRel program design #things  📄 **Full text:** [[Full Document Contents/Articles/PressConf EU WordPress Needs to Stop Playing Defense.md|PressConf EU: WordPress Needs to Stop Playing Defense by WP Minute Podcasts]] ## Highlights - [00:01:25] all of it. >> Yes, that part is the same. I make small iterations every single time, but we Well, I think the part that I'm recognizing is the biggest difference is how much the European community wants this sort of space. And from what I've been communicated to by Europeans is that they don't feel like they have it. That there's this kind of inherent modesty around money and when we're all in the business of WordPress trying to make money with our agencies and products and they feel like they haven't had the the most safest space to speak. Not that it's unsafe, it's just that you can't be as liberal in the conversation around it. So that is the biggest thing that I've been aware of with doing this. So how that might tweak what we do is very much in the conversations that the [00:02:08] team is having with our speakers and everything that we're going to touch on. So even more so that safe space of unrecorded talks is is going to apply because of that. >> Yeah, I mean I think the you know the confidence that people need to have in WordPress business these days the conviction to run a WordPress business has to be at its all-time high right now. >> Yeah. >> For many for many obvious reasons, right? Headlines in WordPress of course haven't been the best. I is of course through the lens that we've been talking about for years now but it's just like every 6 months there's something else that's coming that's impacting our industry. Competitors getting better and then it it it doesn't help that there's a lot of sentiment around WordPress ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01m37a4rjz4p837wgz93drxc9e)) - Note: [H1] Money modesty constrains European WordPress business talk - Tags: atom/literature/h1 - [00:04:19] inside of me knew. And I've been telling everybody all the events are going to be coming. The the just event after event after event. And now, every time I turn my head, I'm seeing some event popping up, some event popping up. And all those events, I'm just going to say are all things to all people. Like, we're we're not going to just focus on WordPress because we're scared. And don't get me wrong, and I hope I'm ruffling some feathers right now. We have reason to be scared. We do have reason. But make a choice, and that's what I'm doing. I'm making a choice. And also, I'm just done with the whole pulling that victim card out of our back pockets. Like, let's let's make a choice and let's decide. And even if it doesn't turn out the way we want it to, we made a choice and we decided and we moved. And that's what I'm doing and that's that's what I want to see happen at PressCamp EU. I want [00:05:03] people to walk away knowing that they've made a choice. And that even if the choice doesn't work out the way we want it to, you can have confidence that it's going to work out for the best, no matter what. And am I desperate to make that happen at at PressCamp EU? I think I am a little bit because now all these events are popping up all over the place. And I'm saying I've put my flag down. This is here. This event matters to me deeply. I'm putting my entire life on this. Not PressCamp EU, but PressCamp. And and WordPress. And and if there's any sort sort of like, "What's Ericka talking about right now?" Well, there is and it's going to come out in this event and people need to be there to see it. >> WordPress needs leaders. It needs ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01m37a4tytmmr9dd6hfjz25mbm)) - Note: [H2] Broadening event scope out of fear is a choice - Tags: atom/literature/h2 - [00:05:45] leadership. And it doesn't mean it has to come from the top. It means that we all have to be leaders in our in our own capacity. And I think when you started the idea of bringing PressNomics into PressConf, of course, like many things, myself included, there's that initial doubt, like can I do this? Should I do this? You know, I I said to you that you're the you're the one to do it, right? Raquel is the one to do it. And you've led that you've led PressConf Well, you've led the community for obviously many years at this point, but PressConf you you you led that. You you took that flag and you charged forward with with that conviction that I mentioned earlier with a cause and with purpose and you rallied people around it. This is the thing that WordPress [00:06:30] cannot lack moving forward. Your plugin, your theme, your service business, your new WordPress SaaS idea, your new WordPress AI idea. It's There's no time for the fun little cute approach to this. Hey community, wouldn't you love Please try my thing. It that doesn't exist anymore. And in the you go to an event like PressConf to see that and to experience it, to touch, hear, and feel that that we must be better these days in order for WordPress to survive. And I think you're a shining example of that as that leadership that we all need and to encourage others to become leaders in ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01m37a4x9v8te2ttp71rdw46w8)) - Note: [H4] Soft community asks no longer launch WordPress products - Tags: atom/literature/h3