I still remember the moments when I got selected to volunteer for WordCamp Asia 2020 and the morning when I learned that WordCamp Asia 2020 got cancelled. After three long years of fighting with covid, sickness of loved ones, dealing with lots of changes, I am so fortunate that I have visited Bangkok this year with team Yoast as I volunteered for WordCamp Asia 2023! WordCamp Asia was a huge event and writing about everything will be too much to fit into. So in this away from home post, I am only writing about few amazing experiences I’ve had during WordCamp Asia 2023.

Hello Chao Phraya

We reached Bangkok on February 12th as I wanted to roam around and see the venue before the event kicks off. As I wake up and open the drapes in the morning, the view of Chao Phraya amazed me. Although there is no similarity between the two, I remembered Buri Ganga!

I felt so lucky and privileged to be alive and have this amazing time ahead of me!

Yoast Pride Party

Yoast threw a superb pride party on February 16th, 2023. It was such a vibrant event to support pride and inclusivity! There I met awesome team from Bluehost! Plus, seeing my colleagues in pride costume and applying glitter with Chaya was really fun!

Do you know the feeling when you meet the people whom you have only seen behind a screen? I had the opportunity to meet a lot of people whom I have never met in person. I met Michelle and just after few minutes, I saw Milan! I was so much in the moment [read: I am not good at taking selfies] that I missed taking photos with many of them.

Undoubtedly, I would love to join the party again and again. It really set the mood for an amazing WordCamp! Thanks to team Yoast for arranging!

Contributor’s day

WordCamp Asia 2023 kicks off with contributor’s day. As registered, I joined the testing table and there I met Piotrek Boniu, Sandy and Siddhant Wadhwani with whom I tested a WordPress bug. Also thanks to our table lead A H M Nazmul Hasan Monshi from Bangladesh!

It was a positive start for me because I was able to successfully test this Core issue within the time and make a comment. Also thanks to our table lead A H M Nazmul Hasan Monshi and Brian Alexander for awarding us the Test Contributor badge!

Welcome Dinner

In the evening, it was the official welcome dinner. Here I had good chat with some new people, took photos, had amazing time and ate lots of fried fish.

The Main Event

With no experience, I applied for the volunteer position on the year 2019. Still, I was selected as volunteer before it got cancelled. By now, I strongly believe sometimes things take a new route to show us the best view. I was pre-approved as a volunteer . Thanks to the team who decided to give me a shot.

As a volunteer, my job was time keeper. This role comes with a previlege to take a front row seat and show the time cards to the speakers as they complete their presentations. I felt so good about the choice I made. Since I was posted in trac 1, I have been time keeper to new speakers like Sabirah and very experienced speakers like Petya, Karim, Angela. This role helped me to learn how to communicate with the speakers of different experience level. Thanks to Yuli Yang, Ivan K, Dreb B, Regan, the hall leads of trac 1 Dominyka Miksenaite and my fellow Yoast colleague Rumejan Barbarona for being so supportive and friendly. You are awesome!

As I was new, I wanted to take the speakers feedback and learned how to do it better. Therefore, I realized it is better to be on duty for multiple days for the same role. This way you get to apply the feedback, if any. You gain experience, you can later guide new people for this role!

I would recommend this to all who is interested in how volunteering looks like – just try being a time keeper. It’s a great way to be involved in flagship WordCamps. Being a time keeper teaches you how to communicate with speaker without actually talking, how to manage your time so you can help manage others time and how to hand over the responsibility when you are done with your work. In a nutshell, time keeper keeps the wheel running to make sure all the talks are completed in time within the trac.

Amazing WordCamp Asia 2023

WordCamp Asia 2023 was able to attract people from all over the world. As a result, the community had a great networking opportunity. The discussion topics and questions showed a great deal of variety including security issues. Partnerships progressed on one side and job opportunities were opened on the other. WordPress community is thinking about the next generation and started official #kidscamp channel in slack during the AMA session! Companies brought colorful and useful swags for everyone.

As I joined the Yoast booth after my volunteering shift, I was able to meet some great people and was able to answer their questions effectively. Encouraged them to participate our raffle draw to win expensive gifts. Moreover, it’s always nice to see our collagues in person.

As the day 2 approaches to the end and people started applauding when Naoko was on stage for the closing remarks. Everyone was excited and happy to end the event in such a high note! That’s how WordCamps should be!

After Party

The WordCamp Asia after party was a blast. Since “sharing the culture” was the theme of the party, it seemed like a perfect opportunity to pick a Jamdani saree to wear.

Taking photos!

One of many valuable takeaway of WordCamp Asia was meeting people whom I never met before WordCamp Asia. I had the opportunity to know and become friends with some amazing people and taking photos with them!

Clockwise: I am with Mayo during After party, with Automattician Hari Shankar in Yoast booth, with Olga after meeting her online on 2020, with AV crew member Emma from Hostinger, Automattician Thelma Mutete visited our booth and we captured a moment with her.

That’s not all and I could not mention everyone I met. As I said earlier, writing everything about WordCamp Asia 2023 is quite out of the scope for one post!

Thanks to Team Yoast for supporting me in all possible way to join this magnificent event.