Reflecting on WordCamp Montclair 2025 and What’s Next

Every year, WordCamp Montclair reminds me why this local community matters, and this year was no exception. I woke up this morning to a flurry of LinkedIn tags, posts thanking everyone who helped make this event possible. It really warms your heart to know people enjoyed something you put so much of yourself into.

Navigating the fallout from WordCamp US 2024 and what it meant to the broader WordPress community made this year extra challenging. Many organizers (including myself) were already feeling the signs of burnout. There were more than a few times when we wanted to throw up our hands and walk away.

I’m glad we didn’t. It was exhausting leading up to the event (as it always is), but once you’re there, something shifts. At least for me. I feel calm but sharp, catching up with people I haven’t seen in ages, connecting with familiar faces, and watching everything we built come to life. By then, the camp is what it is. You’ve done the work, and all you can do is let it unfold.

I only made it to three presentations, but I heard that all the talks were fantastic. I’m looking forward to watching the sessions on WordPress.tv once they’re uploaded.

So what’s next?

There’s talk of WordCamp NYC returning in 2026, and many of us on the Montclair team will likely take a year off from running our camp to support theirs. In the meantime, we’ll continue growing the WordPress Montclair Meetup and offer space for learning, connecting, and supporting one another.

I’m also excited about the new Campus Connect initiative from the WordPress community team, which plans to use GatherPress to help create workshops and events for hands-on WordPress training from experienced WordPress professionals and experts to college students.

I’d love to bring it to Montclair State University. GatherPress has long been one of my main focuses, and I’m really interested in how these two efforts might support and strengthen each other. If Campus Connect takes off, I think it could offer the same kind of purpose and fulfillment that WordCamp Montclair has given me over the years.

Thank you to everyone who attended, organized, sponsored, volunteered, presented, and supported WordCamp Montclair. It takes a lot of people to make something like this happen, and I’m so grateful for each of you.