Alex Juárez, Head of Buyer Success at GreenGeeks, attended WordCamp US 2026 and under he’s sharing his expertise from this 12 months’s occasion. From Contributor Day to conversations with clients, companies, and members of the WordPress neighborhood, Alex shares among the highlights and insights he took away from Phoenix.
This 12 months, WordCamp US introduced me to Phoenix for my fourth WordCamp, and each time I attend considered one of these occasions the identical feeling turns into stronger: you aren’t simply attending a convention. You might be turning into a part of a neighborhood.
The primary 12 months, virtually everyone seems to be a stranger. The subsequent 12 months, you begin recognizing acquainted faces. Then individuals start greeting you by title, and a few of these trade contacts grow to be buddies.
After all, WordCamp gives nice talks, new merchandise to find, loads of cubicles to discover, and a few excellent swag. However what makes it completely different for me is the standard of the networking. I’ve attended dozens of conferences throughout completely different industries, and only a few have this similar openness. Folks genuinely need to share what they know, speak about their challenges, collaborate, and have enjoyable collectively.
Extra Than a Convention
WordCamp US 2026 occurred in Phoenix from August 16 to 19, bringing collectively WordPress customers, builders, contributors, companies, internet hosting firms, product groups, and different members of the ecosystem for 4 days of studying, constructing, and connecting. This system included Contributor Day, Showcase Day, and two convention days.
For me, the most important worth is entry to completely different views. In the identical occasion, you may sit with an company proprietor managing dozens of consumer web sites, communicate with a buyer who makes use of your service day by day, speak with individuals main different firms within the trade, after which work facet by facet with a few of those self same individuals on a WordPress neighborhood challenge.
That mixture offers you a a lot clearer image of the place the market is shifting, what clients count on, and the place firms like GreenGeeks have to maintain evolving.
Contributor Day: Rivals within the Market, Companions within the Neighborhood
Contributor Day was one of many moments that bolstered that feeling of being a part of one thing greater.
This 12 months, the format modified. As an alternative of organizing the day solely round contributor groups, initiatives have been organized round particular objectives individuals needed to finish earlier than the day was over. That new goal-based format made it simpler to hitch an concept based mostly in your pursuits and abilities and, by the top of the day, truly see tangible progress.
I joined an education-focused challenge. Final 12 months, I had the chance to study extra about initiatives similar to WordPress Credit and WordPress Campus Join, which join college students, academic establishments, mentors, and the broader open-source neighborhood so younger individuals can develop sensible abilities in a world surroundings.
That mission resonates with me. I imagine schooling is without doubt one of the pillars that may genuinely enhance individuals’s lives. WordPress Credit is an efficient instance of that concept in observe, giving higher-education college students hands-on expertise whereas contributing on to WordPress.
At our desk, we labored on enhancing the visibility and value of the Polyglots contributor coaching program on Be taught WordPress. Our job felt slightly like a consultancy challenge: overview the present course, comply with the rules from the challenge lead, analyze the expertise, and doc suggestions that future contributor groups may proceed creating.
The Polyglots contributor coaching course helps individuals discover ways to contribute to WordPress translations, together with translation high quality, locale glossaries, type guides, collaboration, and suggestions.
What I loved most was the group itself. I used to be working alongside individuals from Automattic, Hostinger, and different organizations that, commercially, can simply be seen as opponents. But at Contributor Day that was not the dynamic in any respect. We have been trade companions engaged on the identical downside and making an attempt to go away one thing helpful for the neighborhood.
That’s one thing WordPress does very nicely: you may compete available in the market and nonetheless collaborate to make the ecosystem stronger.
Listening to GreenGeeks Prospects Face to Face
One other spotlight was speaking immediately with GreenGeeks clients.
Some individuals merely stopped by the sales space to inform us they have been clients, say hey, and ask us to maintain up the great work. These moments might look small, however they imply lots. Others took extra time to take a seat with us and speak about what they worth, what they fear about, and what they hope to see subsequent.
Our environmental initiatives proceed to matter. For a lot of clients, sustainability connects immediately with their very own values or the values of the purchasers they serve. Simply as necessary, although, was what they stated about our help staff.
One buyer described it in a means that stayed with me: no firm could be excellent on a regular basis, however GreenGeeks exhibits up once they want us. That’s the type of relationship we need to construct.
Additionally they raised an necessary concern round AI. Some needed to know whether or not the longer term meant changing individuals with AI-only help. That gave us a possibility to elucidate the philosophy we’re working towards at GreenGeeks: human-first, assisted by AI.
For us, AI ought to assist individuals carry out higher, cut back repetitive work, present higher service, and spend extra time on higher-value duties. It shouldn’t make it tougher for a buyer to succeed in a human when context, judgment, or actual help is required.
There may be additionally an environmental facet to that dialog. AI requires important computing energy, which implies better power demand. I don’t assume the reply is to keep away from AI or decelerate innovation, however to be deliberate about how we use it and the place it creates actual worth.
That’s notably related for us at GreenGeeks. Our environmental dedication has at all times been a part of how we take into consideration the affect of expertise, and AI makes that dialog much more necessary. As computing demand will increase, so does the duty to maintain on the lookout for extra environment friendly and accountable methods to help that innovation.
That perspective helped flip among the concern into curiosity about how GreenGeeks can proceed innovating with out shedding the human and environmental values that introduced many purchasers to us within the first place.
It additionally bolstered one thing broader for me: the problem is now not merely whether or not firms ought to use AI, however how nicely they implement it. AI can create huge velocity, however friction seems when the system lacks context, produces an inaccurate reply, or can not deal with one thing exterior the anticipated path. That’s the place the human layer nonetheless issues.
What Companies Actually Need From a Internet hosting Associate
A few of my most helpful conversations in Phoenix have been with company house owners.
The discussions usually began with expertise: integrations with their present stack, account safety, isolation between clients, protocols, automation, and higher methods to handle a number of consumer environments.
These wants matter. However because the conversations went deeper, one thing turned much more necessary than the function checklist: they need a long-term accomplice they’ll depend on.
Company house owners perceive that challenges will occur. An internet site will fail, a configuration will have to be reviewed, or a migration might grow to be sophisticated. Their expectation shouldn’t be that nothing will ever go fallacious. What they are not looking for is to get caught.
They don’t need to waste time receiving generic solutions, repeating the identical context to a number of individuals, or making an attempt to determine who can truly assist them. They need sturdy help and, when doable, a relationship with somebody who understands their enterprise.
That was an necessary reminder: expertise issues, however belief is a part of the product too.
It’s also the place I believe being an impartial firm offers GreenGeeks a possibility. We will keep near our clients, pay attention immediately, and construct relationships that really feel private whereas persevering with to spend money on the expertise and infrastructure they should develop.
From an Concept to One thing Actual in a Single Immediate
One other main theme was how rapidly expertise is altering the workflows now we have been used to for years.
At this time, the gap between having an concept and turning it into one thing tangible can typically be a single immediate. Duties that when required a number of instruments, a number of individuals, or days of labor can now occur in minutes. That adjustments buyer expectations.
Folks count on quicker solutions, simpler integrations, extra automation, extra clever merchandise, and fewer steps between what they need to obtain and the end result. This impacts each trade, together with internet hosting.
For GreenGeeks, that reinforces the route of turning into a broader platform the place clients can depend on our infrastructure for his or her digital initiatives, whether or not they’re constructing a web site, managing consumer websites, or creating one thing new. The problem is aligning individuals, processes, and expertise rapidly sufficient to remain related with out shedding the issues clients already belief.
Prospects Do Not Dwell on a Ladder
One concept from Phoenix captured this particularly nicely for me. In her session “AI Search: Why Your Complete Firm Ought to Care,” Emma Younger emphasised that clients shouldn’t be considered shifting by way of a easy ladder. They dwell throughout a map of digital touchpoints, and corporations want to grasp and meet them there.
That made plenty of sense. Corporations usually describe the shopper journey as a clear sequence: consciousness, consideration, buy, onboarding, renewal. Actual clients don’t behave like that.
They transfer between search, AI instruments, social media, blogs, communities, help conversations, video, messaging platforms, product dashboards, critiques, and proposals from different individuals.
The problem is not only being current in all places. It’s understanding the place your clients are, what they want in every place, and ensuring the corporate communicates with one clear and constant voice.
Why WordCamp Nonetheless Feels Totally different
When individuals ask why they need to attend a WordCamp, I at all times point out the talks, the educational alternatives, the sponsor corridor, and the possibility to see what completely different firms are bringing to the market.
However for me, that isn’t the primary purpose. The actual worth is the neighborhood.
It’s assembly people who find themselves keen to share what they know, having sincere conversations with company house owners and clients in regards to the issues they’re truly going through, and dealing with individuals from different firms on Contributor Day. It’s seeing acquainted faces from earlier years and realizing that these connections have grow to be actual relationships.
Each WordCamp reinforces that feeling of being a part of one thing greater. And there’s an power you convey again to the corporate afterwards. You come wanting to check new concepts, enhance issues, construct higher merchandise, create higher experiences, and put into observe what you realized from these conversations.
Phoenix left me enthusiastic about the place WordPress goes and assured in regards to the route GreenGeeks is taking. Know-how will proceed to vary rapidly, and buyer expectations will change with it. Our job is to maintain listening, maintain evolving, and maintain combining innovation with the human relationships and values that made individuals belief us within the first place.
That steadiness – higher expertise, nearer relationships, and a neighborhood keen to construct collectively – is what makes the longer term really feel thrilling.
Till the subsequent WordCamp.
