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.

April 21, 2026 — Too often, open source contributors spend time on tasks that machines could handle faster, more consistently, and without the risk of burnout. In a primarily volunteer-driven project like WordPress, time and resources are limited. Every manual task carries a high opportunity cost, distracting contributors from work that would be more impactful long-term. But saving time is not the only benefit of automation. When implemented thoughtfully, it can reinforce and preserve institutional knowledge making collaboration more sustainable. It can empower you to take advantage of AI, reduce friction, prevent mistakes, and even lower the barrier of entry for new contributors. This talk will highlight real-world examples of automation within the WordPress project, including what has worked well and what could have gone further. It will introduce a framework for evaluating when and where automation is worthwhile, and offer practical guidance for building tools that are lightweight, maintainable, and contributor-friendly.

April 21, 2026 — Learn how a WordPress release comes together through the journeys of past release leaders. From planning to execution, this panel offers practical insights into the process. Understand the challenges, collaboration, and impact behind every release.

November 10, 2025 — Open Source projects aren’t just about code. They’re about the people driving them behind the scenes. As AI tools become smarter and more capable, we face new challenges.

How do we integrate these tools tactfully without losing what makes WordPress special? How do we utilize AI without eliminating low-friction paths for new contributors? How do we remain deliberate as we’re able to solve problems and implement faster?

In this talk, we’ll explore the thoughtful, sometimes uncomfortable ways AI is reshaping how we collaborate, make decisions, and maintain trust in an Open Source project like WordPress. Let’s talk not just about what we can automate with AI, but what we should.

June 10, 2025 — Every day countless WordPress sites are compromised or hacked. This simple fact has led site owners around the world to ask one question: why is WordPress so insecure? The reality is the exact opposite. With a security team composed of many experts and security researchers constantly working to patch all discovered vulnerabilities, a fresh WordPress site in isolation is incredibly secure. Security is a journey, a process, a practice, and a mindset. The security of a website begins with an authentic copy of the WordPress software and ends wherever you and your team lead it. This session will teach you how to think with a security first mindset, how to write secure code, and how to protect your site against the number one threat: humans.

June 7, 2025 — Every line of code added, removed, modified, or intentionally left unchanged in WordPress impacts millions of websites and hundreds of millions of users worldwide. But who decides what changes make it into Core, and how are those decisions made?

This talk takes you behind the scenes of WordPress Core development, shedding light on the decision-making frameworks, philosophies, and trade-offs that shape the platform. We’ll explore what factors determine whether a feature gets merged, a bug gets fixed, or a change is too risky—all while balancing backward compatibility, security, stability, and long-term maintainability.

Whether you’re an aspiring Core contributor, a plugin or theme developer, or a business owner curious about how WordPress evolves, this session will give you a deeper understanding of the thought process behind decisions that impact an entire ecosystem from a 6+ year Core committer with over 12 years experience contributing to WordPress.

Presentation Slides »

October 11, 2024 — Last September, a small but nasty bug was added to the WordPress Core code base and remained undetected until 6.4 was released in November.

Once the severity was clear, Core contributors worked around the clock to determine the appropriate fix, getting a new release out to the world in less than 8 hours from start to finish. Let’s examine what happened during this moment in the project’s history before zooming out in a case study of release management. Lessons the project learned will be shared in a way that you can relate to, allowing you to use them in your own work.

This is a joint talk by Aaron Jorbin and Jonathan Desrosiers, two contributors with over a combined 26 years in contribution experience. They have each led multiple minor and major WordPress releases, are both core committers and members of the WordPress Security team.

April 9, 2024 — Ensuring contributors feel appreciated is essential to the success of any open source project. In its 20+ year history, there have been over 5,400 unique contributors listed on the Credits pages for each version released. But even as one of the largest current FOSS projects powering 43%+ of the Internet, this number is inaccurate and low.

Have you ever considered what a contribution actually is? Where does it come from? Who is contributing and how? How are contributions tracked? What does recognition mean to contributors? And why is the number above lower than it should be?

Come learn about the types of recognition the WordPress project currently has, where the blindspots are, what the challenges are at scale, and what’s being done to overcome these obstacles in order to ensure every contributor feels appropriately recognized to create a more stable supporting community.

October 13, 2023 — As of 2023, WordPress is the most popular content management system in the world that also powers a global economy estimated to be worth billions of dollars. However, no corporation owns WordPress – it is open source and maintained by a global community, and it needs steady contributions to grow and thrive. Many WordPress companies support the project through the Five for the Future program by sponsoring up to 5% of their employees’ time to contribute to the software. Pledging contributions to WordPress will not only ensure the project’s long-term sustainability but will also offer tangible benefits and growth opportunities for individuals and companies.

This session will be in a panel discussion format that will bring together four seasoned WordPress contributors to share about their contribution journeys. We will discuss Five for the Future and explore various available growth opportunities as part of the program. The discussion will also explore how companies can set up their own internal contribution teams and how they can contribute efficiently and grow alongside the project. Together, we will explore how individual contributors of all experience levels can start their contribution journey through WordPress and use it to build a successful career. The discussion will delve deep into contributor sponsorship opportunities as well.

September 10, 2023 — In late 2020, WordPress Core started a multi-phase migration to move its automated testing to GitHub Actions. This talk will revisit this process to share what was learned along the way while gaining an understanding of the CI/CD concepts in GitHub Actions and how they can be used in your own projects.