June 8, 2026 — The WordPress Performance team was established in 2021 with the goal of improving the performance of WordPress Core. As a fundamental part of rendering each and every page of a WordPress site, the `WP_Query` class has received a lot of attention. In this talk, Peter will discuss how the performance of `WP_Query` and the WordPress Query component have been improved with increased caching, and how that can be taken full advantage of when building WordPress sites at scale.

June 8, 2026 — Learn the five steps to design secure headless WordPress architectures. This talk focuses on API-first security, attack surface reduction, and practical decisions when exposing WordPress APIs to mobile apps and PWAs.

June 8, 2026 — NIS2 puts an incident on a clock. If a client is affected, an early warning is due within 24 hours, a full notification within 72 hours, and a final report within 30 days. Most small WordPress agencies and freelancers are not in scope themselves, but their clients are, and the supply chain rules pull us in anyway. This 10-minute lightning talk walks through that reporting workflow from a small agency’s point of view: what counts as an incident, what to have ready before anything breaks, and the five steps from detection to the 30-day report. It also shows where AI can help.

June 8, 2026 — Discover how attackers weaponize WordPress native search endpoint for devastating DDoS attacks, while learning practical defense strategies from a cybersecurity perspective. This talk reveals a hidden vulnerability in standard WordPress installations and provides easy solutions.

June 8, 2026 — WordPress is currently preparing several changes around learning and contributor onboarding. In this conversation, Mary Hubbard (Executive Director of WordPress), Benjamin Zekavica (Core Team Rep), Rade Jekic (Training Team Rep), Natalia Basiura, and Klaus Harris discuss the programs currently in progress. This includes new contributor pathways, simpler onboarding steps, and the first university partnerships to connect WordPress with academic learning. The session looks at how new contributors can get started more easily, how people who stepped away can find a way back, and which skills will be important for working with WordPress in the coming years. It also gives a look into the internal work aimed at making learning and contribution more structured and accessible across the project.

June 8, 2026 — Can universities own their AI future? Discover how Karlstad University uses WordPress Multisite to create customized, pedagogically aligned AI tutors. By combining the power of WordPress with Open Educational Resources (OERs), this project avoids vendor lock-in and ensures institutional control over data and model behavior. Learn how the same open-source tools we use for blogging can serve as the “knowledge substrate” for the next generation of trustworthy, ethical AI assistants in higher education.

June 8, 2026 — The WP Credits program is often described as a way for students to “learn WordPress while contributing to the community.” And, while this is all true – it’s not the whole story. In this talk, Ivana (a long-time marketer and WordPress professional, accepted mentor and someone deeply involved in this industry), will share her looks at WP Credits from three perspectives: students, universities and businesses supporting the program. Is it only about WordPress or is there another, bigger picture and all-parties gain from participating in this and projects alike? Why you as a business should join? How does this initiative work and what comes as the benefit for all parties involved? These are some of the questions Ivana will answer, pinpointing it to the factual, practical value WP Credits creates beyond WordPress skills. You’ll leave with a clear understanding of how the program works in practice, what students actually gain, what universities get and why businesses should see WP Credits as a long-term investment.

June 8, 2026 — How do we educate students for an AI-disrupted IT market without endlessly chasing the next tool? This talk presents a practical model: combine durable soft skills with strong technical foundations, teach through real problems, and use open source – especially WordPress – as a “living lab” where students build, ship, and contribute through structured programs like Campus Connect, WordPress Credits, and Student Clubs.

June 8, 2026 — For decades, open source advocates and Internet purists have rallied behind a righteous call: “we must fight to preserve the open web.” That rallying cry is all wrong. The web itself remains as open as the day Tim Berners-Lee created it – built on patent-free standards, decentralized architecture, and universal access. Yet today, billions of users have been conditioned into believing the opposite is true, unknowingly abandoning and surrendering openness in favor of convenience in the form of walled gardens, proprietary apps, and centralized services. In reality, we’re not losing the open web – we’re losing the battle against closed alternatives trying to replace it. Open source projects like WordPress have long championed the technologies built on open web standards that have powered the web from the very beginning. The project and surrounding ecosystem exemplifies what the web is meant to be: open by default. Let’s explore how WordPress continues to embrace the true spirit of the Internet and identify the real enemy: the closed web that seeks to replace the web’s open foundation.

June 8, 2026 — AI platforms generated 1.13 billion referral visits by mid-2025, yet most WordPress sites aren’t ready. This practical session covers the complete AI optimization stack: strategic robots.txt configuration, structured data for AI comprehension, content patterns that earn citations, and measuring AI visibility. Leave with an actionable checklist to make your WordPress site AI-ready today.