In November 2022 Topher went to WordCamp Italy in Milan. While there he had several conversations with attendees and sponsors.

Topher: Hey folks, welcome to Hallway Chats. I’m your host Topher. This week is going to be a little bit different from usual. This last November, I had the opportunity to go to WordCamp Italy in Milan, or WordCamp Italia in Milano, depending on how your mama says it. 

While I was there, I got to have some actual in-person hallway chats with a number of people. And this week is going to be an aggregation of five of them. So you’re going to get to meet five really cool people that I have the opportunity to interview, and I hope you find them just as great as I did.

[00:00:40] 

Hey, everybody, this is Topher. I’m at WordCamp Italia in Milano, and I’m here with-

James: James Baldacchino.

Topher: James, why are you here? 

James: That’s good question. I’m here because I met two of the organizers in WordCamp US who told me it was coming up, and I said, why not? They also asked me whether I’ve been interested in applying to for a talk. My first reaction was, would I do? So I applied, they liked it, and here I am. 

Topher: That’s great. So you were at WordCamp US in San Diego? 

James: Yeah. That was fun. 

Topher: Did we meet and I forgot? 

James: Yes. 

Topher: I’m sorry. 

James: You met a lot of people.

Topher: I did. All right. Cool. So how did you get into WordPress? 

James: I joined Ellipsis 18 months ago. As simple as that. I’ve been using WordPress personally, of course, like most other people for a long, long time but I never realized there was such a huge community and such huge industry behind it. I have found WordPress incredibly useful. For example, when I was in a marketing job, which had zero budget, and I pulled together a lot of great websites for very low price. I loved it. But I never knew it was a beautiful shock to find out-

Topher: That’s a great word—beautiful shock. 

James: Yeah. 

Topher: When did you first realize the community was like that? Was it at WordCamp Us or did you find the community online? 

James: To be honest, the first year of working with WordPress, there was no WordCamp because it was all online because of the pandemic. WordCamps just cemented. But before, what made me realize what a tight-knit community this is was the fact that such a lot of information is shared so freely. 

Topher: Ah, yes. 

James: And there’s a lot of it as well. I’m coming from industries where if you have information, you don’t publish it, because you don’t want your competitors to know.

Topher: Right. Right. Proprietary.

James: So it was shocking and it was wonderful. I said, okay, then there must be more to this than what I realize.

Topher: And then you went to WordCamp?

James: And then I went to WordCamp Europe, which was massive. 

Topher: Oh, Porto? 

James: Yes. 

Topher: Did we meet there and I forgot?

James: No. 

Topher: Okay. 

James: It was huge. 

Topher: I was there. 

James: That was really good as well. That was my first one. 

Topher: Okay.

James: It was lovely. 

Topher: Wow. So this is your third then? 

James: My third then. Yeah, from zero to hero. But nothing compared to heros.

Topher: You know, it’s funny people who work for SiteGround go to a lot of WordCamps. But because of the pandemic, there was this big gap. And I would talk to people from agencies and hosting companies and say, “Oh, yes, I’ve been in WordPress for two years now.” Oh, what WordCamps have you been to? None.

James: Of course.

Topher: You know, Oh, no. That’s so sad. 

James: No, I think it makes a massive difference. 

Topher: It does. A friend of mine has a WordCamp talk called “And Then I Went to WordCamp”.

James: It makes sense.

Topher: It does. It makes perfect sense.

James: I can completely relate to that as well.

Topher: So what do you do at Ellipsis?

James: I’m the head of strategy. So my job is helping clients with marketing strategy. That means clients who work with WordPress, that means either agencies or hosts or people who sell the plugins or themes. The core of my role is helping them figure out what marketing strategy they should deploy, what makes sense for them in order to deliver growth and the right type of growth, not growth for growth.

Topher: Right. Yes. 

James: It’s a wonderful role, which I’m really enjoying. Honestly, I’ve been working in marketing 14 years and the learning curve within WordPress has mean like no other.

Topher: Meaning good or bad?

James: Good. 

Topher: Very good.

James: Extremely good. 

Topher: Good. 

James: Every single day I learned something new and I love it. 

Topher: Good.

James: I love being told new things and finding out new things and helping clients test new theories and find new ways of delivering growth. And yes, fantastic. I love it.

Topher: That’s great. I’m happy to hear it. Where are you from?

James: I’m from Malta, which is pretty close. It’s made it even easier to come.

Topher: Born and raised?

James: Yeah, born and raised.

Topher: That’s cool. All right. I’ve been in Milan now for three days and I have not yet met anyone from here. 

James: Me too actually. Maybe the hotel check-in guy. Maybe.

Topher: Maybe. I don’t know. All right. Well, thank you very much for talking with me. 

James: Thank you for your time. Thanks for the invitation. 

Topher: All right. 

[00:05:53]

Hey, folks, this is Topher. I’m here at WordCamp Italia in Milano, and I’m here with—

Luisa: Luisa.

Topher: Luisa. And what do you do with WordPress? 

Luisa: Ooh, with WordPress I work of course, and I work with a community also. The thing that I do most is translations. I am into the Polyglots team. I am one of the… I think we are seven GTs for Italian and we are always translating something and we are hoping to do good and useful job. 

Topher: For your work, are you a developer, a designer, communicator? 

Luisa: Ah, something in the middle of all those things. 

Topher: That makes sense. That is not uncommon. Lots of people do that.

Luisa: And also I am a teacher. 

Topher: Also a teacher?

Luisa: Yeah. But not only web-related things. I teach kids all the things with robotics and coding sometimes.

Topher: That is very cool. That is very cool.

Luisa: I like it. 

Topher: Where are you from? 

Luisa: Brescia, which is a little city near here, about an hour from Milan. 

Topher: Okay. So have you been staying here in a hotel or do you just drive back and forth? 

Luisa: No, no, I have a home, thanks to my friend that lent me this house. 

Topher: Nice. Is this your first WordCamp? 

Luisa: No, no, no, no. I have been to several WordCamps in the last five years, I think. Six maybe.

Topher: Which ones? 

Luisa: All the ones in Italy: Milan, Turin, Verona, Rome, and also WordCamp Europe in Berlin. 

Topher: I was there. 

Luisa: Ooh.

Topher: Yeah. 

Luisa: We didn’t met.

Topher: You didn’t see me?

Luisa: I did not know about you at that time. 

Topher: I have met many people that were also there and I did not see them. 

Luisa: We were many. I remember the main room with the conversation with Marta and we were three thousand and a half or something. Very, very big. I’ve never been in something so big. 

Topher: It was very impressive. And the dance. The after dance. 

Luisa: It was an amazing event. 

Topher: Yeah, it really was. I had another question and I need to remember it. I don’t remember it. What are you doing here? Are you the organizer, a volunteer or…? 

Luisa: I’m an organizer and I was in charge of the contributor day. 

Topher: Ah. Okay. That’s why I saw you so much.

Luisa: That’s why I called you at first. 

Topher: So how did you feel contributor day went? Were you happy with it? 

Luisa: Oh, we’ve been so happy. 

Topher: Good. 

Luisa: So many people and a real good job for all the teams.

Topher: I was very impressed. I’ve been doing a lot of WordCamps and contributor days and I’ve noticed that about 10% of WordCamp shows up to contributor day. And I feel like that fits for this one. We have 500 or 600 attendees here?

Luisa: Yesterday we-

Topher: Not yesterday. Today. 

Luisa: Today, three hundred and a half. 

Topher: Oh, three and a half. Okay. 

Luisa: I don’t know if they all show.

Topher: How many did we have yesterday for contributor day?

Luisa: A hundred.

Topher: Okay, so that’s better than average. That’s a third. That’s really good. So well done. 

Luisa: Thank you. The place was big and so we could do this. It’s difficult this time to have space to let all the people work safely and in a good way. 

Topher: All right. Well, thank you very much for talking with me today. 

Luisa: Thank you, Topher, for coming here. 

Topher: Oh, you’re very welcome. It was my pleasure. 

Luisa: Thank you again. 

[00:10:19] 

Topher: Hey everybody, this is Topher. I am at WordCamp Italia in Milano, and I am here with-

Caroline: Caroline Crossland. I am head of inbound marketing at Atarim. 

Topher: All right, cool. What brings you to WordCamp? 

Caroline: I joined Atarim only three weeks ago. So this is all very new to me. I’m new to the industry. So technology is one of my passions, but this is my first time working within the industry, within the WordPress community. So I am here to learn as much as I can and soak up information from guys like yourself-

Topher: Ah, thank you. 

Caroline: …who know everything in this community. And it has been a very welcoming community-

Topher: Good. I was gonna ask what you think. 

Caroline: …and one that’s really helpful. It’s been notably a diverse group of people. It’s a very inclusive atmosphere. I have been welcomed with open arms and made lots of interesting new contacts. And yeah, it’s been really good because I’ve had a lot of questions. I’ve probably been quite annoying. 

Topher: Well, not to me. I don’t speak for the rest of the team. Cool. So how did you get connected with Atarim? Were you WordPress before or just random job?

Caroline: Just a random job or many random jobs. No, I was marketing director at a business until just over a year ago. And due to COVID, I was made redundant and I actually decided to take a year off to spend with my little boys, which was absolutely lovely. 

And when it came time to look for another job, I decided that I really wanted to work in an industry connected to one of my passions, and my passions are technology and travel. I began the job hunt and actually Atarim was the first job that I saw that was interesting and I applied. 

I had two fantastically entertaining interviews, where we… the second one was with one of the co-founders of the business. We had a really interesting conversation. We got on really well. I was really excited by what Atarim… who they are, what the product does, and where they want to take the product. So yeah, that’s how it all came about. 

I have no experience working in the technology industry but I do freelance build the occasional website for family, friends, friends of friends, and so on. And WordPress is my tool of choice. 

Topher: Excellent. 

Caroline: So I know the product to a certain extent, but I haven’t been part of the community until now. 

Topher: All right. Where are you from? 

Caroline: I am from Sheffield in England. 

Topher: And here you are in Italy. So you’re getting your travel wish? 

Caroline: Absolutely, definitely. All my previous roles have involved a lot of travel mostly to the US. So I’m known for talking about traveling from the UK to the US. I help people with that online. This is actually my first time in Europe since COVID. 

Topher: Wow. I don’t know if you’re aware, but there are a lot of WordCamps. 

Caroline: I am becoming aware, yes. 

Topher: And they are all over the place. And you’re going to have to travel to all of them.

Caroline: I am indeed. We are sponsoring WordCamp Asia in Bangkok in February.

Topher: Oh, nice. 

Caroline: So all being well I should be there. So this is kind of my learning WordCamp. This is the WordCamp where I’m asking all the questions and trying to meet all the people, which will hopefully put me in good stead for the next one. 

Topher: Yep. All right. Wow, thank you very much for talking with me. 

Caroline: No problem. Thank you very much. 

Topher: I will see you later. 

Caroline: Goodbye.

[00:14:22] 

Topher: Hi everybody. This is Topher. I am at WordCamp Italia in Milano, and I’m here with… What is your name? 

Paolo: My name is Paolo Scala. 

Topher: Paolo Scala. 

Paolo: Yeah.

Topher: And why are you here? 

Paolo: I am here because I work for Yoast, and we have a booth here at WordCamp Italia. 

Topher: Excellent. Where do you live? 

Paolo: I live actually 30 minutes from here. I came by car.

Topher: You said 30 meters?

Paolo: No, 30 minutes.

Topher: Minutes. Oh, okay.

Paolo: Thirty minutes by car. It’s something like 15, 16 kilometers. 

Topher: Okay. My hotel is literally 200 meters from here.

Paolo: Wow. 

Topher: So I thought, well, maybe.

Paolo: No, no, no, this is a very, very central area of Milan. So you have to be very, very rich to live here.

Topher: So you work for Yoast, so you’re in WordPress. How long have you been doing WordPress things? 

Paolo: Not that much at all because I started this year. I used the WordPress a couple of years ago but just to configure a site, a website. I didn’t develop anything at all for WordPress. So I just started about this year.

Topher: What made you join Yoast, if you weren’t a WordPressor before?

Paolo: I was actually considering a career change, because I come from the public research field. And my partner too. And so we were scouting some websites. She’s a linguist and she looked… I don’t know why but she saw this Yoast job offer and she said to me, “Ah, look, there is this company which is hiring developers.” Because I am a developer. 

Topher: Ah, okay.

Paolo: Yeah. So I didn’t know Yoast at all. I looked at their website, and I was very impressed by all the positive vibes that all these videos gave to me. So I thought, Why not try? So I sent the CV, I interviewed, and here I am. 

Topher: That’s great. Is this your first WordCamp?

Paolo: Yes. 

Topher: What do you think? 

Paolo: It’s very nice. One thing that really struck me is the people are very, very nice. It’s very good atmosphere. Very nice vibes. I really like it. 

Topher: WordCamps have a reputation for being very pleasant places to be with very nice people. That’s why I go.

Paolo: Yes, yes, I can reassure that it’s exactly like this. 

Topher: That’s cool. So you’re a developer but you’re standing at a booth at a WordCamp. Do you also do marketing things? Like why are you here? 

Paolo: I’m here because today I’m a speaker.

Topher: Oh, excellent. What are you speaking on? 

Paolo: I’m speaking about schema.org. 

Topher: Oh, I saw that one. That’s dear to my heart. I love that company. Will you also give it in English?

Paolo: Oh, yeah. I mean, it’s a very interesting topic. So I hope to-

Topher: I can read it online. All right. Well, that’s very cool. Thank you for talking with me today. 

Paolo: No problem. Thanks to you. 

[00:17:59] 

Topher: Hi everybody, this is Topher. I’m at WordCamp Italia in Milano, and I’m here today with-

Samah: Samah Nasr.

Topher: All right. And you’re with Yoast?

Samah: Definitely. I’m with Yoast since almost more than four years. 

Topher: That’s a long time. 

Samah: And it’s passed so quickly. I feel like two weeks ago I joined them. 

Topher: Excellent. Where do you live? 

Samah: I live in the Netherlands in a lovely city called Arnhem. So I love the city and it’s petite city, but I’m there since almost five years.

Topher: Is that where Yoast is based? 

Samah: No, Yoast is based in the city called Wijchen. It’s like 30 minutes with a train from my city.

Topher: Okay. So you can go to the office if you need to?

Samah: Yeah, definitely. But everyone love working from home.

Topher: Yeah. Yeah. So what do you do there? 

Samah: I work at community team. We’re mainly working with sponsoring events, especially WordCamps meetups, and also I’m working with Yoast Care Fund and Yoast Diversity Fund. 

Topher: Okay. Very cool. My wife, Cate, won the Yoast Care Fund around six months ago, a year ago. Something like that. So is your time with Yoast the whole of your time with WordPress, or did you do WordPress before? 

Samah: Honestly, I studied IT when I was young, but I’m coming from Middle East and it was very difficult for a woman to work in IT. I studied the C++, PHP, and those ones but I never really worked in WordPress or even think about it. When I joined Yoast, I started falling in love with WordPress and this awesome community. Then it’s grown more and more. And then I started working with WordPress after joining Yoast.

Topher: Sure. So you’re in community with Yoast. Did you do community things before? 

Samah: Never at all. I used to work with the Red Cross. I shifted my career completely-

Topher: A different community.

Samah: A different community. I changed my career because I want to move to the Netherlands, have a little bit calmer life, and more… just to start a family.

Topher: Okay. This is your first WordCamp? 

Samah: Definitely not. But this is my first WordCamp in Italy and I’m really happy to meet all of the Italian community. I know them in Slack or a lot of online events.

Topher: Sure. 

Samah: But it was nice to see they have legs, they’re not only faces.

Topher: What other camps have you been to? 

Samah: I’ve been to WordCamp Berlin. Sorry, WordCamp Europe in Berlin. I went to WordCamp Netherlands. I went to… Yeah, I think that’s it. And WordCamp Nijmegen a couple of times. 

Topher: Where is that? 

Samah: It was 2019 before COVID time.

Topher: Where is that? 

Samah: In Netherlands. 

Topher: Oh, okay. My Dutch doesn’t help me understand that word. 

Samah: You should see me the first time trying to pronounce. I called it Nai-me-gen.

Topher: Oh, yes. So what do you like about WordCamps? 

Samah: I love that all the people come together in their own free time to build or to communicate about open source. And just the atmosphere, the love between them, the way they contribute, you feel welcome. It doesn’t matter who you are, where are you from, what languages you speak. You feel welcome. Like I’m here, I don’t speak Italian and it was-

Topher: Me neither. 

Samah: And people are so friendly. Even the one who doesn’t speak English, they are trying. They’re waving or they give you the sign. But that’s really amazing. You feel welcome. You feel like home in different place. 

Topher: Yes. Yes. I have often thought that WordCamps feels like home. No matter which one it is- 

Samah: Yeah, definitely. 

Topher: …they all do. All right. Well, thank you very much for talking with me today. 

Samah: Thank you. It was lovely talking to you, too. 

Topher: All right. 

Well, there you have it, folks, five conversations from WordCamp Italy. I had a wonderful time and the people were invariably nice, kind, thoughtful. It was a great trip. So let’s wind this up. 

This has been an episode of Hallway Chats, a part of the HeroPress network. I was your host Topher DeRosia. I’d like to thank Sophia DeRosia for the music and Nexcess for hosting our network. If you liked the episode, please subscribe and mention us on social media.