[00:00:20] Nathan Wrigley: Hello there and welcome once again, after a pretty long time, to the WP Builds podcast. You've reached episode number 484, entitled Behind the scenes of PressConf, the business focused WordPress event coming to Europe. It was published on Thursday the 8th of October, 2026.
My name's Nathan Wrigley, and before we get to our panellists of three, count them, three guests, a few bits of housekeeping.
The first thing to do, I suppose, is to explain the fact that WP Builds hasn't been around for about a month.
I started the podcast in 2016, and since then, I've barely missed a beat. I've taken a couple of weeks off occasionally for Christmas and summer holidays, but on the whole, I've managed to get episodes scheduled so that even those breaks didn't get noticed. So I've racked up well over 900 episodes.
So what's different? Well, a lot. During the last few years, a friend of mine, Dan Maby, who's in the WordPress community in the UK, we have been building a SaaS app in the podcasting space. It's called show.fm. The URL is the name of the product show.fm. And it's a tool to help podcasters, like myself, make podcasting easy.
If you are in the business of building websites, you will surely know that there's many, many myriad different ways that you can increase productivity, shave off bits of time here and there, and basically use less time to do the same thing.
Well, in podcasting, it's no different. There's thousands of ways that you can waste time, and so show.fm is a tool to help you make your podcast without wasting time. We have launched. It's out there, and so from now on, I'm gonna be split halfway really in a way between show.fm and podcasting in the WordPress space.
We would dearly love you to check it out. Please do go to show.fm. Have a little bit of a poke around whether you've got a podcast or not. It would be really, really nice to get your ideas, get your thoughts. Maybe you could set up a free account.
But we're also running a never to be repeated Founder's offer, and that founder's offer is for a hundred early users who will be able to make use of a really high tier in the platform for just $11 a month, which is significantly lower than it's going to be in the future.
Really, what we want is some dedicated users to give us feedback, give us ideas on how we can take the platform forward in the days, weeks, and months to come. And the way you're gonna find out about that is show.fm/founders.
Okay, there we go. That's all about showffm. Let's move back into our normal service.
So what have we got for you today? Well, today I am chatting with three people. I am chatting with Raquel. I'm chatting with Jaume and with Carol. And we're talking today about PressConf. PressConf is in its third iteration. It's a WordPress event, but it's not like a WordCamp because it's much more focused upon business.
It's wrong twice in the past, before in the United States, and now for the first time, it's coming to Europe, specifically Barcelona at the end of October. So it's really coming up very, very soon. So we talk to those three about what the event is like, how it's special, how it might feel a little bit like a holiday, and very clearly how it's very laser focused on business, and not fearing about the subject of money.
So that's what we've got for you today. I hope that you enjoy it.
I am joined on the podcast. I've got three guests. I never have three guests, like never, I never have three guests, but today I do. I've got three guests. I've got Raquel Manriquez, I've got Alma, and I've got Carol. and we're gonna talk today about Press Conf, which is happening extremely soon, like really soon. basically at the end of this episode, the intention is that you've closed the podcast down and you've gone and booked yourself a flight and got
[00:04:33] Raquel: Do it.
[00:04:33] Nathan Wrigley: ticket. Yeah. Yeah. that's what we want. but let's go round the houses and introduce everybody. Let's start with you, Raquel. Just let us know a little bit about you, if that's all right.
[00:04:44] Raquel: Yeah, I am Raquel and I've been in WordPress since 2010. started a WOO agency. Then I went and worked for Elegant Themes for six years, and then I started my business, which burst press comp. And now press comp is near and dear to my heart. And brings us to October, 2026.
[00:05:08] Nathan Wrigley: Great. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. We're gonna dig deep into the European version of the event in a moment, but let's go over to, to Xma. Hello. Nice to meet
[00:05:17] Jaume Freixa: Hello. Nice to meet you.
[00:05:18] Nathan Wrigley: intro into you as well?
[00:05:20] Jaume Freixa: Yes, of course. I'm Jamma Jamia, the founder of Matic, which is my own startup. I don't know when I started being involved in WordPress, but I did at some point,
[00:05:31] Nathan Wrigley: Yeah.
[00:05:32] Jaume Freixa: working for different parties in this, in this ecosystem. Well, I worked mostly in the hosting and the domain industry, and a lot of our products or solutions were related to, to host to, to, to host WordPress.
So yeah, I'll, I'll leave it to that. But yeah, involved in the communities is a long time, not exactly no web,
[00:05:50] Nathan Wrigley: No. Okay.
[00:05:51] Jaume Freixa: yeah.
[00:05:51] Nathan Wrigley: lovely. Anyway, thank you and very nice to meet you. And finally on our panel today, we've got Carol, nice to meet you Carol. same thing.
[00:05:58] Carol Stambaugh: Oh,
[00:05:58] Nathan Wrigley: us about yourself.
[00:06:00] Carol Stambaugh: my name is Carol Stambaugh. I have been doing WordPress since 2010 as well, so we're 16 years in. I run an agency called Radiate You, and we do mainly ongoing support, care and growth plans for websites. And I've been a big part of the community in Arizona since 2011 and have been on every Word camp, organising team and lead the local meetup. So WordPress has been a very big part of my life for quite a while now.
[00:06:30] Nathan Wrigley: Very nice. So there we go. We've got a, probably a combined, I don't know, 30 or 40 years of WordPress experience, which is quite a bit actually when you think about it. That's lovely. So the intention of today is to ra raise awareness about an event an in-person event, which is happening really soon.
Raquel is the, I suppose the pro, the person that came up with this whole thing. I think it's based upon a previous version of events if
[00:06:57] Raquel: Yeah.
[00:06:58] Nathan Wrigley: serves. I think when we were in Taiwan you were talking about mis maybe resurrecting an old event and it, that's what became press conf.
[00:07:05] Raquel: S.
[00:07:05] Nathan Wrigley: us a little bit about that and where it is and the dates, and then we'll dig into what makes it special.
[00:07:11] Raquel: Yeah, actually, yeah. Nathan, you were there with me. I tell the story all the time. It was like a catalystic moment for me. 'cause we were hiking a mountain in Taiwan and a whole group of us. And I've just, for up to that point I've been hearing from the community that we really need a place for the business owners of WordPress.
And we used to, in that event was Pressonomics. And I know Josh and Sally Rebel, who were the founders of Page Lee and the ones who birthed Pressonomics. and Robert Windish on that mountain, had mentioned that Cloud Fest was the new Pressonomics. Alma, I don't even know if you knew that story, but I was so mad.
I was so mad. I'm like, no, it's not.
[00:07:53] Nathan Wrigley: No, and I'm gonna
[00:07:55] Raquel: yes. and I literally went home and just got started getting the ball moving, contacted Josh and Sally got their blessing, and GoDaddy owned all the assets for Paisley. So we couldn't get the name, but we just knew we'd still be able to like, produce the event in a way that everybody knew.
It was the resurrection of Pressonomics, which is press comp now. And our, we've been in the, states for the past two iterations. so our last one was just last April in, Phoenix. And then incidentally work camp US was also Phoenix this year. That was total coincidence.
[00:08:34] Nathan Wrigley: a big
[00:08:35] Raquel: Yeah.
[00:08:36] Nathan Wrigley: Yeah.
[00:08:36] Raquel: Yeah. But I've been thinking for a while that it needs to come to Europe.
And if it was gonna expand outside of the us the very fir next stop would be Europe. and I thought it would be 2028, but the beginning of this year, a lot was just becoming apparent that, data essentially that I really needed to bring it to Europe now this year. So it's been like a lot of work, a lot of like heart depth, tears and blood, sweat and all those things, but it's happening.
So you mentioned dates. So it's this, it's in three weeks. It's October 27th through 30th Barcelona. H 10 Marina, the hotel. And yeah, we are moving and grooving and it's happening.
[00:09:28] Nathan Wrigley: Okay, so just tell us a little bit about what makes it different from a Word camp, because I imagine many people listening to this have been to Word camps. They've, they've maybe become ac accustomed to the way that works and the, the, the usual thing that a Word camp would be. You talked about the fact that this is very much focused towards business, but just, a picture with how a, an attendee of WordCamp would find this.
what are the key differences that you'd like to highlight?
[00:09:59] Raquel: Oh man, there are a few, but I will say it is smaller, and more intimate, comparing it to a Word Camp flagship event like Europe, us. that is done on purpose. It's very strategic also. Essentially everybody is in one hotel together, and so there's no escaping each other, but, and the format is, one track the sessions are like TED Talks. And so in that way it's very different than a Word camp. it is a business conference, but it's not a conference on how to business. It's a conference on how to better yourself so then you can do better at your business. essentially. And that's a vague way to put it, but that is, so you want to go to these sessions are different.
These sessions reveal things that would not normally be revealed at a Word camp or at any conference for that matter. And they go deep and ruffle feathers, but it's done on purpose because we want people to feel inspired and challenged actually.
[00:11:10] Nathan Wrigley: So when you said it was a, like a business type event immediately and incorrectly, it turns out my head went to, okay. Is it like a, a thing where you go and you experience a, a multitude of sales pitches and then you immediately obviously put that to bed that's not the point. You're not showing up so that 15 or 20 companies can get on stage and sell you their products and services.
This is more about learning to mature and invest in your own business and improve whatever it is that you are doing in the WordPress space. Now, I have framed that without a question, but hopefully you'll be able to just take it and run with it.
[00:11:46] Raquel: Yeah, no, and that's, I think, for anybody who went to PRESSONOMICS in the past, they understood, so it was like, there's that alum aspect of it, but for anybody who didn't, then it's very natural to think that way. it's been a little bit of hard trying to manage the marketing behind it because we don't record, we don't record anything, at least session wise.
And it's not because we're trying to be like, oh, exclusivity. It's because we want the speakers to feel liberty and freedom to say what they wanna say and not feel like anything will be used against them or taken outta context. So we, it's that safe space. But so when we're not recording, and yet it's also has the feeling you gotta be in the room where it happens, then it, then I could see how people can confuse exactly what it is because it is a business conference. But there are some things that I take from the WordPress, ecosystem that I still wholeheartedly believe in. Like a sponsor can't buy a speaker slot. There's just no way with our talks being necessary and heavy that there's so much weight that if a sponsor, a speaker comes up and they're just doing a sales pitch, then we just basically wasted everybody's time. not that people can't do their own sales, to shoulder, face to face throughout the event, and as that would naturally happen with networking, but from the stage, no, we can't have that. So it is a business conference because everybody is, in the business of WordPress or even other CMSs or other web, platforms at this point. But it's not, grab your, pet pencil and paper and start writing down, like step by step instructions. It's grab your pencil and paper and start doodling and start getting inspired because you might get uncomfortable in a good way.
[00:13:38] Carol Stambaugh: So one of the things, one of the things that we like to talk about this press conference is that when you go to a Word camp, you see a lot of the people who are WordPress veterans who, they don't go to sessions, they attend what we call the hallway track. And the hallway track is where they're meeting of people.
They are maybe making deals, they're making connections, they're forming partnerships and collaborations, and, just don't go to the sessions. Well, this event is the hallway track. we basically take the hallway track and all the good conversations that happen in those hallways and put 'em into a conference. And so it's very different in that way. and again, like Raquel said, that's one reason why it's not recorded.
[00:14:28] Nathan Wrigley: One of the, one of the things that I noticed when the first version of Press Conf, came out was, soon after it had finished the amount of people that went onto social media. And it was almost a bit ridiculous actually. It was, it is glowing, gushing praise for how much they'd enjoyed the event.
and got a bit of FOMO at that point, thinking, oh, I, I didn't go. the point was that I felt like there was a bunch of, and this is gonna sound a bit ridiculous and apologies for the words which are about to come out of my mouth. It felt like the movers and the shakers in the WordPress space, so those people who are the decision makers, let's put it that, that way they'd all gathered in this one room.
they'd felt this sort of sense of maybe something like that. Like there, there was no, constraints in what they could say or, how they could promote their business, which there might be other, organi, events that are run by the WordPress Foundation and things like that. And I just got a sense that it was, yeah, it was really, popular. And, I was wondering how easy is that gonna be to repeat? So you've now done another version of the US and you're now embarking on the, the European one, The European one we'll know in a few weeks time, how did it go the second time around?
And I'm just going to send that one out to Raquel and then we'll bring Yama in and the others as well.
[00:15:58] Raquel: the second one, your point earlier or question earlier, how easy is it not? It was not at all easy. in fact, I was a little bothered at the end of the first one because of the gushing praise. I was like, oh, no. Like, how do I top this? yeah. the feedback again, and the gushing praise happened again after the second one, and I was like, we did it, it really, it, a lot of it is based on a why, every sort of event has its own, theme that happens organically. that first year we had just, it's the, was the beginning of the scorched earth, journey we've all been on, and so that I think had this, it already came with some high emotions.
The people who came to press comp year one,
[00:16:53] Nathan Wrigley: that news cycle, didn't you? Really? and I
[00:16:55] Raquel: And
[00:16:56] Nathan Wrigley: to, yeah,
[00:16:57] Raquel: it was a total coincidence. But yeah, it was a total coincidence. we announced press comp Monday of Word camp US that year, 2025, four. So we announced it for 2025 and then that Friday is when everything went nuts. And so we were getting a lot of yes, press comp. anti automatic.
and that wasn't the case at all. were really doing our best to like, not allow that brand to take any shape. 'cause that wasn't the case. But I think that had to do with a lot of why the emotions were high in a good way. so then, yeah, this second year really, or second version really blew our minds again.
And I was like, we did it again. And, but going into Europe now, it's, a totally new egg. So like it's, there's a lot. I think already what I'm seeing from Europeans that I've spoken to, which of course to say Europeans is a very diverse sort of, demographic, right? It's like to say you're from the us, so many different ethnicities and cultures within the US and the same thing with Europe. But what I'm, seeing overall is that there is not as much of a business freedom in, at least as what, the,
[00:18:08] Nathan Wrigley: Okay.
[00:18:09] Raquel: the, feedback I've been getting from, the, I guess I've heard the phrase continental Europeans, so not the islands like UK and,
[00:18:20] Nathan Wrigley: Yeah.
[00:18:20] Raquel: but
[00:18:20] Nathan Wrigley: p politely ignore the whole Brexit thing yeah.
[00:18:25] Raquel: But from like the, like those areas, especially like the, Eastern or middle parts of Europe, that they don't feel at liberty to talk about money as much as a and so I would say UK is that way too.
[00:18:39] Nathan Wrigley: No that's
[00:18:40] Raquel: Yes.
[00:18:40] Nathan Wrigley: true I remember the first time I went to the us I I that is my lasting memory of the first visit to the US was wow they're so willing to talk about money and
[00:18:53] Raquel: Yes.
[00:18:53] Nathan Wrigley: they earn and what it is that they're gonna do to get money and all of those kind of things And I remember thinking God that's actually quite freeing it
[00:19:00] Raquel: Yes.
[00:19:01] Nathan Wrigley: negative thing that I thought it would be but transplant that event into Europe And I think we do have a bit of baggage around conversations around money and things like that And I think we need to be wound up a little bit and being in proximity to Americans loosens our jaws a little bit if you know
[00:19:18] Raquel: Yeah.
[00:19:19] Nathan Wrigley: with
[00:19:19] Raquel: Yeah.
[00:19:20] Nathan Wrigley: Okay
[00:19:21] Raquel: So that's what I'm hoping to bring is that like safe space, that, that phrase kind of bugs me. 'cause that, I don't mean it to have those connotations, but yes. but we want that. We want, and that's been the feedback I've gotten, the people who are automatically excited for press comp or the ones who are saying, oh my gosh, yes, we want that.
We love how that, the freedom to talk about money that Americans bring. that's also why I brought it. Not why, but like very much why I like, was so glad when JAMA reached out to me. 'cause I'm like, okay, we need some European perspective, Spain perspective and also that local, help for the team.
[00:20:01] Nathan Wrigley: Right
[00:20:02] Raquel: so it's a experiment.
[00:20:05] Nathan Wrigley: yeah that seems like a perfect segue let's drop Jamma into the conversation and ask what how have you become involved have you do you go back with Raquel for years and years or are you now part of what is becoming a a bigger brand the press con brand or what have you going on with you JAMA How are you involved and what's your role this time around
[00:20:26] Jaume Freixa: Well, it kind of happened naturally. I would say Raquel, I don't know. But, we met actually only, early this year with Raquel and, and it was actually in Barcelona. So that was, like maybe a little bit of a confidence at that point only. And yeah, well basically, she explained me the first time that we met about, about press comp, even if I knew already about it.
But it was good to hear from the founder. What was it about? And the first question that came out was also related to my own business. I'm building, by the way, a platform for helping upsell and cross-sell, in the channel of web holsters. And that includes, for example, WordPress services, WordPress solutions.
So, so that I started to ask, is this type of conversation? Is, is the type of conversation also about like how the go-to market is done, like how vendors, in the ecosystem of WordPress are interacting with their end users of, of web hosts. And then, you know, that that was, I, I remember like one of the first conversations and then, you know, I think how many events we met this year, Raquel, maybe, maybe three or four.
And then another confidence was that I was, I was participating as, as a startup in, in, in, at Cloud Fest and in the competition. And Raquel was introducing me as one of the startups when, when my, when I needed to do my pitch and, and you know, I don't know, one thing got to another and then she told me, guess who's coming to Barcelona?
And oh no, guess, what's happening with Press conf, I think. And then, then, yeah, she shared about happening in Barcelona. I was like, well, we can find a way to, to to, yeah, to collaborate. I can help you. I'm, I'm local here, so I, I, I can also recommend you some places where we should do some of the social part and yeah.
You know, like it was just a pleasure to be involved and I already met with the team online, with some of them, in, in, in the last weeks. And, and everything seems to be very smooth and, and communications are also very, very pleasant. So yeah, it's just a, it's just good to, to be part of it now.
[00:22:27] Nathan Wrigley: it's nice that you've got a growing team here Raquel that's really amazing A bit of serendipity there by the sounds of it as well you're doing your bit at cloud first You were on the stage you were presenting I can't remember whether you were a comper for an event Raquel or whether you gave
[00:22:43] Raquel: For
[00:22:44] Nathan Wrigley: but you met
[00:22:45] Raquel: Cloud Fest.
[00:22:46] Nathan Wrigley: anyway
[00:22:48] Raquel: Yeah. I was in mc for three days at Cloud Fest. The big one in Germany. Yeah. And yeah, and I got to introduce jama, so that was fun. Yeah.
[00:22:56] Nathan Wrigley: that is nice Nice way to meet And Carol what's your how do you slot in you mentioned that you're in Arizona so I'm guessing you're more or less next door to Raquel most of the year What's going are you making your way over to Press Con or are you merely part of the organisation team
[00:23:14] Carol Stambaugh: I will be there side by side with Raquel, and that's kind of our story. That's how we roll. We have been just doing things together for WordPress really since 2016.
[00:23:27] Nathan Wrigley: Oh okay
[00:23:28] Carol Stambaugh: and we've worked on word camp organising teams together. We've gone to Word Camp us together. We've travelled together. We've just, we, we, we kind of are partners in crime, if you will, regarding everything, WordPress. And so yeah, it was just a natural, it was a natural thing whenever we did our last Word camp. it was, it was post COVID. There were a lot of struggles happening. And, and as a lot of, we've seen in the US Word camps have really, taken a backseat, local word, camps. The cost. The cost. There's just a lot of barriers.
And that last word camp was really tough. And Raquel said Carol, she actually talked to a co, a group of us and said, think I wanna do something different. I wanna bring back PressNomics. Of course, at that time, it didn't have a name yet. It was just the next version of PressNomics. And so I was there whenever she began this talk, and we, yeah, it just, the idea kind of evolved.
She built a group of us who had worked together before on the word camps. We, we actually have a really good, tight group of people. It's evolved. I mean, as we've gone through, we've had some members come, we've had some leave, but the original core group, she started with press conference was our Word Camp Core group, because we were a pretty, we were a pretty high functioning organising team, and everyone knew each other well.
We knew how each other worked, and it was just a very seamless, easy process because we were so familiar with each other. And so it just kind of, it was a really smooth bridge over to what we're doing now. And I just happened to be one of the people that is still going, you know, three versions into press comp.
And I'm still here, and I'm super excited about this one. I, I do the speakers. That's one of the things that I, I've been doing speakers for Word camps. In fact, I did speakers for Word Camp us. So I was the lead for the programming team. And that's, I love that, that just, that excites me. It's something that I enjoy doing so, so much. And so when Raquel said, well, Carol, of course you can do speakers if you want. I'm like, I'm there because I just enjoy that interaction. I enjoy working with these really high quality taught people and crafting their message and helping create this experience. one of the things that's very different. About how we do Word Camp or about how we do, press comp versus Word Camp. And Raquel is one of the ones that really kind of brought this in. And I think that was a little bit the way that PressNomics was done too. We choose the person, not the presentation. so what we look for is we look for the vibe,
[00:26:29] Nathan Wrigley: Yeah
[00:26:29] Carol Stambaugh: look for the person, we look for what they can bring, to their talk.
And then we say, Hey, we like you, we want you. you were to talk, what kinds of things might you say? so then the talk comes from this conversation. so different than Word Camp us and Word Camps, we, it's like we are crafting an experience. our speaker selection is so intentional and that the way that those speaker sessions are built are so intentional that it truly is crafting this whole conference experience based around what we're going for. we've done it again this year at press comp. And I don't wanna give too many, surprises away, but we're gonna, we're gonna, we're going deep in, of course, how can we not talk about ai? But we're not talking about AI the way everyone else is. We're talking about AI from a very different angle. Like we are coming at it from underneath, beside behind. We are really approaching it from different ways, and we have a really fun ending that I am not going to, But you should,
you
you, really need to be there to experience how we're gonna wrap this up.
[00:27:57] Nathan Wrigley: oh stop I'm gonna get all these tweets at the end of this one again aren't I I'm gonna feel real regret for not going What's really one of the threads that came out of that Carol was that if you are as organisers if you are doing more of a top down model whereas word camps feel like sort of bottom up you people show up anybody can speak I think more the title than the person is significant Those kind of things I guess that does get does allow you to curate something as you described very intentional because you are deciding okay you can speak That kind of fits into mapping of the whole event Yeah That's really interesting And forgive me for saying this and I hope this isn't too off the mark does it feel a bit like a holiday destination as well And what I mean by that is do you find that a lot of people for this one in particular because Barcelona to me in my head when I think about that I think about I'm going on holiday I wanna see Barcelona I wanna immerse myself in the city the Gaudi and all of that Is that part of the reason that you chose this is the intention that people come do the event and wrap a holiday round it as well And maybe I'm throwing that one to Jamma anybody
[00:29:16] Carol Stambaugh: I, I, I will take this a little bit in that press comp, we want it to be a working holiday. And one of the things, and Raquel can probably speak to this a lot more, the Wonder Day. Wonder Day is the day that happens after our events. And this is something that we, kept from PressNomics. 'cause PressNomics started this as well. So there would be two intense days of really, you know, heady sessions where people are, are thinking and they're all in their head. And then the last day is fun. We just plan something fun. And so in, yeah, in Phoenix, the past two years we've had two people. There are some, there, there's some golfers who love golfing.
I'm not a golfer, I don't understand it, but some people love it. And so the golfers would go out and they would go golfing.
[00:30:09] Nathan Wrigley: I
[00:30:10] Carol Stambaugh: then there was,
[00:30:10] Nathan Wrigley: Okay Yeah
[00:30:12] Carol Stambaugh: yeah. And then there was another group we would go and do, indoor race cards.
[00:30:17] Nathan Wrigley: Oh
[00:30:18] Carol Stambaugh: And it was, and they had axe throwing, they had video games and it was truly fun day. And so I guess what I would say is press conference is in, in any way, in anywhere we want it to be a sort of a working holiday. And then of course, Barcelona just takes that up a notch because I mean, gosh, we're Barcelona, right?
[00:30:44] Nathan Wrigley: But
[00:30:44] Jaume Freixa: Yeah.
[00:30:44] Nathan Wrigley: that the whole thing is in this one building which is a hotel it adds that flavour to it Everybody's in the same place for the same length of time Jma I'm sorry I interrupted Carry
[00:30:55] Jaume Freixa: No, no, no. I was just about to, continue with, with the fact that of, of the decision of doing it to Barcelona, I think it was the right choice, of course. What am I gonna say when I'm from here? but yeah, actually, in terms of events, Barcelona is a very busy city. It's very prepared for events, super big ones.
Like we have the Mobile World Congress, which I don't know if you know, terms of technologies like the biggest happening here, but also in all other areas. Actually, I think one week later of press conference we have the smart city expert, which is also another big event related to tech. So we are CT ready for hosting a lot of events and especially tech events.
And of course the fun is there. And, and, and yeah, we are also, I, I'm also looking forward to, to support the team on what things could be, fitting for this experience for, for the, for the, for the attendees. yeah, what am I gonna say? This is just, I think was a very good choice and we're gonna have a lot of fun.
Yeah.
[00:31:53] Nathan Wrigley: I've never been to Barcelona but it's like on my hit list of places that I definitely want to go What am
[00:31:59] Jaume Freixa: You
You, might be probably one of the only, one of the, only, one of the only English, not, not that I've never been in Barcelona probably, but Yeah. We'll, we'll, yeah. We'll have the chance. You'll have the chance.
[00:32:11] Nathan Wrigley: I know
[00:32:12] Carol Stambaugh: Nathan, you're gonna get off of this call. You're, you're gonna be the one that gets off this call and you're gonna immediately book your flight and go.
[00:32:19] Nathan Wrigley: that's the curious thing about it. obviously we're a bit late in the day you limit you. you described that there are limited tickets and that, you know, rather than like a big word camp where there may be, I dunno, a thousand, 2000 people or something like that. The space that you've got here is, what capacity of 150.
200 hundred. What is it Ra.
[00:32:39] Raquel: actually max 150.
[00:32:42] Nathan Wrigley: Okay.
Right,
[00:32:43] Raquel: but, we are actually going for a sub 100, just like up to 100 event. because we knew this was the first year coming to Europe and also it was a bit of a short runway, but also in my experience with events, short runways don't stop people from buying tickets, nor sponsors from sponsoring.
yeah, so,
[00:33:02] Nathan Wrigley: right.
[00:33:04] Raquel: we were, we did decide to go strategically smaller just to make sure, budget, everything could be taken care of, but it's not gonna change the event itself.
[00:33:12] Nathan Wrigley: okay, do you find that the people, so what I tend to find when I go to a, a word camp is that, people, meander in during the course of the morning. They go and do their own thing in the afternoon, it's like this ebb and flow thing. Did you find that the previous iterations, the, the people that attend are not bound by, design, but they coalesce and they stick together and, a group if you like.
[00:33:38] Raquel: yeah, That is what happens. That because the other place too, it's very similar to your point earlier, we definitely choose locations based on destination, and we want the destination to be that draw that also brings people there. and it is a business event. So we're targeting business owners who definitely want to go to places where it feels like it is a bit of a retreat for them. So with that, the locations really make it to that. where you get up, you go down and you just see each other. So then you're just hanging out with each other and there's not thousands of other people to take your attention away. Or you're not walking, from all these different hotels in the downtown area to try to get to yours.
So then everyone is together and you naturally are just carrying on conversation like the whole time. And we got that feedback a lot is, that's what people do like about it, is that even if you weren't trying, you're still with each other. So then you get to actually have continuous conversations and not be interrupted nonstop necessarily.
[00:34:39] Nathan Wrigley: think it's, really hard to put your finger on why that stuff is important. But you know that thing where you enter a conference for the first time and you've, you feel that sense of, oh dear, who do I know who are these people? And it inevitably goes away as time goes on, the middle of the first morning, you've figured out, okay, I've had a few conversations here and a few conversations there.
And, but then you drift away and you don't see that person again. But this feels like it's different.
[00:35:06] Raquel: Yeah.
[00:35:07] Nathan Wrigley: into the same people over and over again. And then also if you're doing this, what did you call it, the wonder day or whatever it was
[00:35:14] Raquel: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:35:16] Nathan Wrigley: we'll add some level of, I don't know, solidarity or whatever it is, so that when the
[00:35:21] Raquel: Yeah.
[00:35:21] Nathan Wrigley: is done and you go home, you're thinking about the things that happened and who you want to communicate with.
Those names will drop out of your head so much more readily
[00:35:31] Raquel: Yeah.
[00:35:31] Nathan Wrigley: and the slack conversations will be
[00:35:33] Raquel: Yeah, exactly.
[00:35:34] Nathan Wrigley: actually know each other, if you know
[00:35:36] Raquel: Yeah. There's psychology behind it there. when you're like, Carol was saying, it's like heady conversation and you're just like feeling it and it's good. But then I call it the let your hair down date, which is a very, like obviously you have to have some hair to let down, but they,
[00:35:52] Nathan Wrigley: yeah,
[00:35:52] Raquel: but you're,
[00:35:53] Nathan Wrigley: I'm not getting.
[00:35:54] Raquel: yes, 'cause it's you're, when you're going through that heavy, like thought process and there's that, the psychology is when you're like, by something fun, lot of times s go off and now you're actually still with each other.
[00:36:11] Nathan Wrigley: okay.
[00:36:12] Raquel: with the same attendees and you're like oh my gosh I got this idea So now you could like spitball it off of each other and then you come back and it's a super chill day that's not heavy scheduled or anything And then everybody comes back and then like mid afternoon and we're all just like what are we gonna do now and even a lot of times you're just similar to work camps Like you're just chilling around like a like a courtyard or something like that But you're feeling very full you're feeling very inspired and I still come back to that's one of the biggest differences I love work camps I love them and I have so much fun and I love my people and I love new people learning about open source but the amount of challenge and inspiration that people get from press Conf is such is I think is the biggest difference because it's I and that's the goal The goal is that people come away like a little agitated and because then that's where we make change And it's not that like negative agitation it's like positive agitation It's that stuff that is like gonna make you go home and implement the changes that you need to do for your business for your life for any anything
[00:37:18] Nathan Wrigley: Are you treating this as a bit of a litmus test, Raquel, for possible future events? Like obviously there's a pattern emerged in the us you've done run it twice. I'm guessing there are plans afoot for a third event, whether or not that's in Arizona, I don't know. But are you testing the ground here a little bit?
Is the intention that if those, this goes off, not necessarily without a hitch, and enough people attend that you will do a European thing and if that's the case, will it always be Barcelona or do you cover your ears jamma, or intend to do it and do a bit more like the word camp thing where you peripatetic and go around Europe a.
[00:37:57] Raquel: Yeah as of now yeah one to answer the first part yes I plan on continuing at this point I would like to have press comp us Press Comp Europe every year going forward But yes this is a bit of a like test to make sure that we create enough buzz that now more people wanna come next year I think that this is a little bit of a flip So year one for press comp in the US had that like energy from the scorched earth that made people just think I'm gonna go and show automatic who's boss And that is just what happened That's just we didn't control any of that and we did our best to be like this is a neutral space We love everybody this time around coming into Europe there's a lot of what is this There's a lot of people which I took granted that they didn't necessarily know what press conf even press nos And so I think this year is gonna be a learning year now to answer the rest my plan is to move it still to not stick keep it in one city Yeah And on that note us
[00:39:09] Jaume Freixa: I'm, happy tra. I love no, one of the things I have to say, I love travelling. I, I live in Barcelona, so I'm happy to move somewhere else. The next edition excited about it anyway.
[00:39:20] Raquel: Phoenix. the fact that Press Conf was in Phoenix wasn't just 'cause I lived there, it was actually because that is where it always was held. with, Pa Pagely and Josh and Sally Struble, 'cause they're also from the Valley, which is what we call this area. And so in order to make sure that people knew this was Prost Stomachs resurrected, I strategically chose to keep it here for that reason that everyone knew, oh, this is Prost stomachs. But I, never had a thought that we would stay every year in Phoenix. So more than likely next year it's gonna move. But who knows?
[00:39:54] Nathan Wrigley: Who
[00:39:54] Raquel: Who knows?
[00:39:55] Nathan Wrigley: wait
[00:39:55] Raquel: Yeah.
[00:39:56] Nathan Wrigley: So
[00:39:56] Raquel: Yeah.
[00:39:57] Nathan Wrigley: available still. I presume that you'll have to, oh, I should probably say that. I dunno what it's like in the rest of Europe, but certainly in the part of Europe where I live in the United Kingdom, air flights airfares to, I don't know why Barcelona, there's a couple of destinations where it's like crazy cheap.
[00:40:17] Raquel: Yeah.
[00:40:18] Nathan Wrigley: significantly more expensive than it is to Barcelona. I think I was looking the other day and it was about, it was about 70. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, it was about 70 pounds or something when I last looked. which is, I'm going halfway across the continent, it's pretty cheap.
so from that point of view, it might be affordable from where you are
[00:40:41] Raquel: Yeah.
[00:40:42] Nathan Wrigley: have you still got availability? Are you encouraging people or is this more of an advert for next year? Basically what I'm saying is, do you still want people to be attending the one that we're talking about?
[00:40:55] Raquel: No, honestly, it's such, I look at it as my gift to the WordPress community now expanding past even WordPress and so brings me so much joy that people will come and be blown away by how different this is. that, that is actually one of my favourite things about Europe is that in general, a lot of it is a lot more economical to get around, travel, things like that, to the US gosh, it is significantly different. but there's, if anybody's curious or if anybody needs any help, like you could DM me, we've got ways to help with cost. There's, I know there's a few promo codes floating around, I've been hearing about,
[00:41:42] Nathan Wrigley: Oh,
[00:41:43] Raquel: yes. and agencies like press comp is four agencies that is the princess of press comp. And yet product companies, I love them to death. they very much are a big part of, press comp and it's for a product as well, but they have no problem, like jumping on board. So my agencies, I'm like, guys, this is for you as well, so come partake. And so if you're an agency owner and you are curious about how to make it easier, reach out.
'cause we definitely wanna see more agencies there. of course, all the other businesses of our world.
[00:42:17] Nathan Wrigley: So just before we knock it on the head, as we say in the uk, I'll read into the record the URL. So it is Press conf event. So P-R-E-S-S-C-O-N-F events. It's saying at the moment that there are four days, four days, nine speakers, 25 sessions, and there's a big get tickets button on there as well. So you can view the speakers, get the tickets and what have you.
And the dates once more, right at the end of October, it's the 27th through 30th. You can be home in time for Halloween, with your children. So don't worry about that. with that being said, I guess I'll bid everybody at your, thank you so much for putting this event on. Very important to keep these things going.
I know that in the WordPress space, events are drying up. So take your chance while you can with Press Conf because it's there for you and, it's important to have these conversations. So Raquel, Jamma and Carol, thank you so much for chatting to me today from, the bottom of my heart.
I hope that the event is a rip roaring success and that you get lots of people attending and having a fabulous time. And I will not be jealously doom scrolling Twitter, I promise.
much.
[00:43:33] Carol Stambaugh: Thanks for having us.
[00:43:35] Jaume Freixa: Love to see you there.
[00:43:36] Raquel: Yes.
[00:43:37] Jaume Freixa: See you soon.
[00:43:38] Nathan Wrigley: Do you Yeah. I'll stop.
[00:43:39] Raquel: Cut.
