Latest / WP Builds / 484 – Behind the scenes of PressConf: the business-focused WordPress event coming to Europe

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484 – Behind the scenes of PressConf: the business-focused WordPress event coming to Europe · WP Builds

• 0:01
  Nathan Wrigley: Welcome to the WP Builds Podcast. Bringing you the latest news, interviews and fun for the WordPress community. Now, welcome your host, 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.
• 0:41
  Nathan Wrigley: 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.
• 1:14
  Nathan Wrigley: So what's different? Well, a lot. During the last few years, a friend of mine, Dan Maybe, 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're 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.
• 1:54
  Nathan Wrigley: 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 podcasts without wasting time. We have launched. It's out there. And so, from now on, I'm going to 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.
• 2:21
  Nathan Wrigley: 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 founders offer. And that founders offer is for 100 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.
• 2:48
  Nathan Wrigley: 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 going to find out about that is show.fm forward slash founders. Okay, there we go. That's all about Show.fm. 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.
• 3:22
  Nathan Wrigley: 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 run 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 talked 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.
• 4:00
  Nathan Wrigley: 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 Jaume, and I've got Carol. And we're going to talk today about PressConf, which is happening extremely soon, like really soon. You know, 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 yourself a PressConf ticket.
• 4:34
  Nathan Wrigley: Yeah, yeah. That's what we want. But let's go around the house and introduce everybody. Let's start with you, Raquel. Just let us know a little bit about you, if that's all right.
• 4:44
  Raquel: Raquel Manriquez Yeah, I am Raquel, and I've been in WordPress since 2010. I started a Woo agency. Then I went and worked for Elegant Themes for six years. And then I started my business, which first PressConf, and now PressConf is near and dear to my heart. Raquel Manriquez That brings us to October 2026.
• 5:08
  Nathan Wrigley: Great. Okay. Thank you. Yeah, we're going to dig deep into the European version of the event in a moment. But let's go over to Jaume. Hello. Nice to meet you. Do you want to just give us a little intro into you as well?
• 5:20
  Jaume Freixa: Yes, of course. I'm Jaume, Jaume Frischa, the founder of Jaumatic, which is my own startup. I don't know when I started being involved in WordPress, but I did at some point. Yeah. Working for different parties in this ecosystem. Well, I work mostly in the hosting and domain industry, and a lot of our products or solutions were related to host WordPress. So, yeah, I will leave it to that. But, yeah, involved in the community since a long time, not exactly know when.
• 5:50
  Nathan Wrigley: No. Okay. Well, that's 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. Tell us about yourself.
• 6:00
  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 U 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 WordCamp organizing team and lead the local meetup. So WordPress has been a very big part of my life for quite a while now.
• 6:30
  Nathan Wrigley: Very nice. So there we go. We've got 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 raise awareness about an event, an in-person event, which is happening really, really soon. Raquel is the, I suppose, the person that kind of came up with this whole thing. I think it's based upon a previous version of events, if memory serves.
• 6:58
  Nathan Wrigley: I think when we were in Taiwan, you were talking about maybe resurrecting an old event and that's what became PressCon. Just tell us a little bit about that and where it is and the dates and then we'll dig into what makes it special.
• 7:10
  Raquel: Wow. Yeah. Actually, yeah, Nathan, you were there with me. I tell the story all the time. It was like a catalystic moment for me, because we were hiking a mountain in Taiwan, 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, and that event was Pressnomics. And I know Josh and Sally Strubble, who were the founders of Pagely and the ones who birthed Pressnomics. And Robert Windish on that mountain had mentioned that Cloudfest was the new Pressnomics. Jauma, 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.
• 7:53
  Raquel: No, and I'm going to prove it. Yes. And I, and I literally went home and just got started getting the ball, move in, contacted Josh and Sally, got their blessing. And GoDaddy owned all the assets for Pagely, so we couldn't get the name. But we just knew we'd still be able to, like… Produced the event in a way that everybody knew it was the resurrection of Pressnomics, which is PressConf now. And we've been in the States for the past two iterations. So our last one was just last April in Phoenix. And then, incidentally, WordCamp US was also in Phoenix this year. That was a total coincidence.
• 8:34
  Raquel: It's been a big WordPress event. Yeah. But I've been thinking for a while that it needs to come to Europe. And if it was going to expand outside of the US, the very 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.
• 9:01
  Raquel: So, it's been, like, a lot of work. A lot of, like, heart. Depths, tears, and blood, sweat, and all those things, but it's happening. So, you mentioned dates, so it's in three weeks. It's October 27th through 30th in Barcelona at H10 Marina, the hotel, and yeah, we are moving and grooving, and it's happening.
• 9:27
  Nathan Wrigley: Okay, so just tell us a little bit about what makes it different from a WordCamp, because I imagine many people listening to this have been to WordCamps. They've kind of maybe become accustomed to the way that that works and the usual thing that a WordCamp would be. You talked about the fact that this is very much focused towards business, but just, I suppose, paint a picture with how an attendee of WordCamp would find this. What are the key differences that you'd like to highlight?
• 9:58
  Raquel: Oh man, there are a few. But I will say, it is smaller and more intimate than comparing it to a WordCamp flagship event like Europe, US. And 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.
• 10:23
  Raquel: And the format is one track. And the sessions are like TED Talks. And so, in that way, it's very different than a WordCamp. 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 kind of a vague way to put it, but that is – so, you want to go to these sessions. These sessions are different. These sessions reveal things that would not normally be revealed at a WordCamp or at any conference, for that matter.
• 10:59
  Raquel: And they go deep and they ruffle feathers, but it's done on purpose because we want people to feel inspired and challenged, actually.
• 11:10
  Nathan Wrigley: So when you said it was like a business-type event, immediately and incorrectly, it turns out, my head went to, okay, is it like a thing where you go and you experience 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're doing in the WordPress space now.
• 11:41
  Nathan Wrigley: I have framed that without a question, but hopefully you'll be able to just take it and run with it.
• 11:46
  Raquel: Yeah, no, and that's, I think, well, for anybody who went to Pressnomics in the past, they understood. So it's like there's that alum aspect of it. But for anybody who didn't, then it's very natural to think that way. And 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 want to say and not feel like anything will be used against them or taken out of context. So it's sort of that safe space.
• 12:22
  Nathan Wrigley: So when we're not recording, and yet it also kind of has the feeling you've got to be in the room where it happens, then I could see how people could confuse exactly what it is because it is a business conference.
• 12:33
  Raquel: 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 so necessary and heavy, that there's so much weight that if a speaker comes up and they're just doing a sales pitch, then we just basically wasted everybody's time. So not that... Not that people can't do their own sales, you know, shoulder-to-shoulder, face-to-face throughout the event, as that would naturally happen with networking, but from the stage, no, we can't have that.
• 13:08
  Raquel: So it is a business conference because everybody is, you know, in the business of WordPress or even other CMSs or other web platforms at this point. But it's not, like, grab your, you know, 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.
• 13:37
  Carol Stambaugh: So one of the things that we like to talk about this PressConf is that when you go to a WordCamp, 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 the people, they are maybe making deals, they're making connections, they're forming partnerships and collaborations, and they just don't go to the sessions.
• 14:04
  Carol Stambaugh: Well… This event is the hallway track. So, we basically take the hallway track and all the good conversations that happen in those hallways and put them 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.
• 14:28
  Nathan Wrigley: One of the things that I noticed when the first version of PressConf 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. There was this glowing, gushing praise for how much they'd enjoyed the event. And I sort of got a bit of FOMO at that point, thinking, oh, I didn't go.
• 14:54
  Nathan Wrigley: But the point was, I felt like there was a bunch of – and this is going to 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 way, they'd all sort of gathered in this one room. They'd felt this sort of sense of…
• 15:15
  Nathan Wrigley: Cool.
• 15:18
  Nathan Wrigley: There was no constraints in what they could say or how they could promote their business, which there might be at other events that are run by the WordPress Foundation and things like that. And I just got a sense that it was really, really popular. And I was wondering, how easy is that going to be to repeat? So you've now done another version of the U.S. and you're now embarking on the European one. I suppose the European one will know in a few weeks' time.
• 15:48
  Nathan Wrigley: 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 Jaume in and the others as well.
• 15:57
  Raquel: I mean, the second one, well, to 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. Right. I was like, oh, no. Yeah, repeat that. How do I top this? Yeah, yeah. But, I mean, the feedback again and the gushing praise happened again after the second one.
• 16:22
  Raquel: And I was like… We did it! You know, it really – a lot of it is based on a why. Like, every sort of event has its own theme that happens sort of organically. You know, that first year, we had just – it was the beginning of the scorched earth, you know, journey we've all been on. And so that, I think, had this, like – it already came with some high emotions, the people who came to PressConf year one.
• 16:51
  Raquel: Oh, you dovetailed into that news cycle, didn't you, really well? And I think people wanted to – yeah, sorry. It was a total coincidence. But yeah, it was a total coincidence. We announced PressConf Monday of WordCamp US that year, 2024. So we announced it for 2025. And then that Friday, everything went nuts. And so we were getting a lot of, like, yes, PressConf, it's anti-automatic.
• 17:17
  Raquel: Yeah. And that wasn't the case at all. You know, we were really doing our best to, like, you know, not allow that brand to take any shape because 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, the second year really – or second version really blew our minds again. And I was like, okay, we did it again. But going into Europe now, it's a totally new egg.
• 17:43
  Raquel: 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, you know, demographic, right? It's kind of like to say you're from the U.S., you know what I mean? There's just so many different ethnicities and cultures within the U.S. 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 the feedback I've been getting from, like, I guess I've heard the phrase continental Europeans, so not the islands, like UK.
• 18:20
  Raquel: Yeah, politely ignore the whole Brexit thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But from, like, those areas, especially, like, the, like, eastern or middle parts of Europe, that they don't feel at liberty to talk about money as much. Oh! So I would say UK is kind of that way, too. That's so true. No, that's so true. I remember the first time I went to the US.
• 18:44
  Nathan Wrigley: That is my lasting memory of the first visit to the US was, wow, they're so willing to talk about money. And how much they earn and what it is that they're going to do to get money and all of those kind of things. And I remember thinking, God, that's actually quite freeing. You know, it wasn't the sort of 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 sort of wound up a little bit. And being in proximity to Americans loosens our jaws a little bit, if you know what I mean, with those kind of things.
• 19:20
  Nathan Wrigley: Okay. So that's what I'm hoping to bring is that, like, safe space – that phrase kind of bugs me because I don't mean it to have those connotations.
• 19:30
  Raquel: But we want that. We want – and that's been the feedback I've gotten. The people who are automatically excited for PressConf are 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.
• 19:44
  Raquel: And that's also kind of why I brought it – not kind of way, but, like, very much why I, like, was so glad when JAMA reached out to me. Because I'm like, okay, we need some European perspective, Spain perspective, and also, like, that local, you know, logistical help for the team. Right, right. So it – well, it's an experiment.
• 20:05
  Nathan Wrigley: Yeah, well, that seems like a perfect segue. Let's drop Jaume into the conversation and ask, how have you become involved? Do you go back with Raquel for years and years and years, or are you now part of what is becoming a bigger brand, the PressConf brand, or what have you? What's going on with you, Jaume? How are you involved, and what's your role this time around?
• 20:25
  Jaume Freixa: Well, it kind of happened naturally, I would say, Raquel, I don't know, but we met actually early this year with Raquel, and it was actually in Barcelona, so that was like maybe a little bit of a coincidence at that point only, and yeah, well, basically, she explained me the first time that we met about PressConf, 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, because I'm building, by the way, a platform for helping upsell and cross-sell in the channel of web hosters, and that includes, for example, WordPress services, WordPress solutions, so that I started to ask, is this type of conversation?
• 21:09
  Jaume Freixa: It's 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 own users of web hosts, and then, you know, that was, I remember, like, one of the first conversations, and then, you know, I think how many events we met this year, Raquel, maybe three or four. And then another coincidence was that I was participating as a startup at CloudFest in the competition, and Raquel was introducing me as one of the startups when I needed to do my pitch, 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 PressConf, I think, and then, yeah, she shared about happening in Barcelona.
• 21:55
  Jaume Freixa: And I was like, well, we can find a way to, yeah, to collaborate. I can help you. I'm local here, so 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 the last weeks, and everything seems to be very smooth, and communications are also very pleasant. So, yeah, it's just good to be part of it now.
• 22:27
  Nathan Wrigley: Yeah, it's nice that you've got a growing team here, Raquel. That's really kind of amazing. A bit of serendipity there by the sounds of it as well. You know, you're doing your bit at Cloudfest. You were on the stage, right? You were presenting – I can't remember whether you were a compere for an event, Raquel, or whether you gave your own presentation, but you met Jauma in that way anyway.
• 22:47
  Raquel: Yeah, I was an MC for three days at Cloudfest, the big one in Germany. And I got to introduce Jauma, so that was fun.
• 22:56
  Nathan Wrigley: Well, 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 kind of more or less next door to Raquel most of the year. What's going on? Are you making your way over to PressConf, or are you merely part of the organization team?
• 23:13
  Carol Stambaugh: I will be there side -by -side with Raquel, and that's kind of our story. That's how we roll.
• 23:20
  Carol Stambaugh: We have been just doing things together for WordPress really since 2016, and we've worked on WordCamp organizing teams together, we've gone to WordCamp US together, we've traveled together, 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.
• 23:49
  Carol Stambaugh: Whenever we did our last WordCamp, it was, it was post -COVID, there were a lot of struggles happening and, and as a lot of We've seen in the U.S. WordCamps have really taken a backseat, local WordCamps, the cost, the cost. There's just a lot of barriers. And that last WordCamp was really tough. And Raquel said, Carol, she actually talked to a group of us and said, I think I want to do something different. I want to bring back Pressnomics.
• 24:22
  Carol Stambaugh: 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 WordCamps. 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 PressConf was our WordCamp core group.
• 25:00
  Carol Stambaugh: We were a pretty high-functioning organizing 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 happen to be one of the people that is still going, you know, three versions into PressConf, and I'm still here.
• 25:27
  Carol Stambaugh: And I'm super excited about this one. I do the speakers. That's one of the things that I – I've been doing speakers for WordCamps. In fact, I did speakers for WordCamp US. 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 top people and crafting their message and helping create this experience.
• 26:06
  Carol Stambaugh: One of the things that's very different –
• 26:08
  Carol Stambaugh: About how we do WordCamp – or about how we do PressConf versus WordCamp. And Raquel is one of the ones that really kind of brought this in. And I think it was a little bit the way that PressNomics was done, too. We choose the person, not the presentation. And so what we look for is we look for the vibe. We look for the person. We look for what they can bring to their talk.
• 26:35
  Carol Stambaugh: And then we say, hey, we like you. We want you. If you were to talk, what kinds of things might you say? And so then the talk comes from this conversation. And so different than WordCamp U.S. and WordCamps, 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.
• 27:14
  Carol Stambaugh: And we've done it again this year at PressConf, and I don't want to give too many surprises away, but 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. We're coming at it from underneath, beside, behind. We're really approaching it from different ways.
• 27:43
  Carol Stambaugh: And we have a really fun ending that I am not going to spoil, but you really need to be there to experience how we're going to wrap this up.
• 27:58
  Nathan Wrigley: Oh, stop. I'm going to get all these tweets at the end of this one again, aren't I? I'm going to feel real regret for not going. One of the threads that came out of that, Carol, was that if you're, as organizers, if you're sort of doing more of a top-down model, whereas…
• 28:14
  Nathan Wrigley: WordCamps feel like sort of bottom-up. People show up. Anybody can speak. I think more the title than the person is significant, those kind of things. I guess that does allow you to curate something, as you described, very intentional, because you're deciding, okay, you can speak, you can speak. That kind of fits into the mapping of the whole event. Yeah, that's really interesting.
• 28:37
  Nathan Wrigley: And forgive me for saying this, and I hope this isn't kind of 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 want to see Barcelona. I want to immerse myself in the city, the Gaudi, and all of that. Is that part of the reason that you chose this?
• 29:06
  Nathan Wrigley: Like, is the intention that people come, do the event, and sort of wrap a holiday around it as well? And maybe I'm throwing that one to Jaume at all.
• 29:14
  Carol Stambaugh: I will take this a little bit in that PressConf, 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, because Pressnomics started this as well.
• 29:40
  Carol Stambaugh: So there would be two intense days of really, you know, heady sessions where people are thinking and they're all in their head, and then the last day is fun. We just plan something fun. Oh, that's great. Yeah. In Phoenix, the past two years, we've had two people – 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.
• 30:09
  Carol Stambaugh: I saw that. And then there was another group, we would go and do indoor race carts.
• 30:17
  Nathan Wrigley: Oh, this is great.
• 30:19
  Carol Stambaugh: And they had axe-throwing, they had video games, and it was a truly fun day. And so, I guess what I would say is, PressConf is, 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? But also the fact that the whole thing is in this one building, which is a hotel, you know, it adds that flavour to it.
• 30:50
  Jaume Freixa: Everybody's in the same place for the same length of time. Jaume, I'm sorry, I interrupted. Carry on. No, no, I was just about to continue with the fact that, of the decision of doing it to Barcelona, I think it was the right choice, of course, what am I going to say when I'm from here?
• 31:07
  Jaume Freixa: 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, in terms of technology, it's like the biggest happening here, but also in all other areas. Actually, I think… One week later of PressConf, we have the Smart City Expo, which is also another big event related to tech. So, we are a city ready for hosting a lot of events and especially tech events. And, of course, the fun is there. I'm also looking forward to support the team on what things could be fitting for this experience for the attendees.
• 31:48
  Jaume Freixa: And, yeah, what am I going to say? This is just – I think it was a very good choice and we're going to have a lot of fun.
• 31:53
  Nathan Wrigley: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've never been to Barcelona, but it's like on my hit list of places that I definitely want to go. What am I doing? I'm going
• 32:00
  Jaume Freixa: You might be probably one of the only English that I've never been in Barcelona, probably, but yeah. Oh, darn it.
• 32:09
  Carol Stambaugh: Yeah, we'll have the chance. Nathan, you're going to get off of this call. You're going to be the one that gets off this call and you're going to immediately book your flight and go.
• 32:19
  Nathan Wrigley: So that's the curious thing about it. So obviously we're a bit late in the day. You describe that there are sort of limited tickets and that, you know, rather than like a big word camp where there may be, I don't know, 1,000, 2,000 people or something like that, the space that you've got here is what? Capacity of 150, 200, 100? What is it, Raquel?
• 32:38
  Raquel: Actually, like max 150. But we're actually going for a sub 100, like just like up to 100 event. So because we knew this is the first year coming to Europe and also it was a bit of a short runway, but also in my experience with events.
• 32:57
  Raquel: Short runways don't stop people from buying tickets, nor sponsors from sponsoring, but we did decide to go strategically smaller, just to make sure, you know, budget, everything could be taken care of, but it's not going to change the event itself.
• 33:12
  Nathan Wrigley: Okay, do you find that the people – so what I tend to find when I go to a WordCamp is that, you know, people kind of meander in during the course of the morning, they go and do their own thing in the afternoon, you know, it's like this ebb and flow thing. Did you find at the previous iterations that the people that attend are kind of, well, not bound by design, but they sort of coalesce and they stick together and, you know, kind of act as a group, if you like?
• 33:38
  Raquel: Yeah. Yeah, that is what happens, because the other place too, it's very similar. To your point earlier, we definitely choose locations based on destination, you know, and we want the destination to sort of be that draw that also brings people there. And it is –
• 33:54
  Raquel: 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, you know, 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.
• 34:23
  Raquel: 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, like, actually have continuous conversations and not be interrupted nonstop, necessarily.
• 34:38
  Nathan Wrigley: I think it's, I 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 feel that sense of, oh, dear, who do I know? Who are these people? And it inevitably goes. It goes away as time goes on. By the middle of the first morning, you've kind of figured out, okay, I've had a few conversations here and a few conversations there. But then you sort of drift away and you don't see that person again. But this feels like it's different. You're going to be bumping into the same people over and over again.
• 35:09
  Nathan Wrigley: And then also, if you're doing this, what did you call it, the wonder day or whatever it was, that also will add some level of, I don't know, solidarity or whatever it is, so that when the event is done and you go home, you're sort of 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 and the emails and the Slack conversations will be able to take place because you actually know each other, if you know what I mean.
• 35:36
  Raquel: Yeah. There's psychology behind it. They're, you know, when you're, you're like Carol was saying, it's like heady conversation and you're just like feeling it and it's good. It's good. But then I call it the let your hair down day, which is a very, you know, like, obviously you have to have some hair to let down. But they… Yeah.
• 35:52
  Nathan Wrigley: Maybe that's why I'm not going.
• 35:54
  Raquel: Yes.
• 35:55
  Raquel: So, cause it's your, when you're going through that heavy, heavy, like, thought process…
• 36:01
  Raquel: And there's that psychology is when you're like distracted by something fun. A lot of times bulbs go off and now you're actually still with each other. So you're still with the same attendees and you're like, oh my gosh, I got this idea. So now you could like, you know, spitball it off of each other. And then you come back and it's a super chill day that's, you know, not heavy scheduled or anything. And then everybody comes back in the like mid-afternoon and we're all just like, what are we gonna do now?
• 36:28
  Raquel: And even a lot of times you're just kind of similar to WordCamps, like you're just chilling around like a, you know, like a courtyard or something like that. But you're feeling very full. You're feeling very inspired, you know, and I still come back to that's one of the biggest differences.
• 36:43
  Raquel: I love WordCamps. 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 PressConf is such – I think is the biggest difference, you know, because it's – 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, you know. And it's not that like negative agitation. It's like positive agitation. It's that stuff that is like going to make you go home and implement the changes that you need to do for your business, for your life, for anything.
• 37:17
  Nathan Wrigley: Are you treating this as a bit of a litmus test, Raquel, for possible future events? Obviously, there's a pattern emerged in the US. You've done 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 sort of testing the ground here a little bit? Is the intention that if this goes off – well, not necessarily without a hitch, but, you know, suitably and enough people attend – that you will do a European thing?
• 37:42
  Nathan Wrigley: And if that's the case, will it always be Barcelona or do you – Cover your ears, Jaume. Or do you intend to do it and do a bit more like the WordCamp thing, where you're sort of peripatetic and go around Europe a bit? Yeah, as of now, I – yeah, well, one, to answer the first part, yes, I plan on continuing. At this point, I would like to have, you know, PressConf US, PressConf Europe every year going forward.
• 38:11
  Raquel: But yes, this is a bit of a, like, test, you know, to make sure that we create enough buzz that now more people want to come next year. You know, I think that this is a little bit of a flip. So year one for PressConf in the US had that, like, energy from the scorched earth that made people just think, I'm going to go and show automatically, you know, who's boss. And that is just what happened. That's just kind of – we didn't control any of that, and we did our best to, like, be like, this is a neutral space. We love everybody.
• 38:42
  Raquel: This time around, coming into Europe, there's a lot of, like – wait, what is this? There's a lot of people, which I took for granted, that they didn't necessarily know what PressConf – even Pressnomics was. And so I think this year is going to be a learning year. Now, to answer the rest, My plan is to move it still, to not keep it in one city, yeah, and on that, no, U.S., I have to say, I love traveling in Barcelona, so I'm happy to move somewhere else in the next edition, excited about it anyway.
• 39:19
  Raquel: Well, in Phoenix, the fact that PressConf was in Phoenix wasn't just because I lived there. It was actually because that is where it always was held, with Pagely and Josh and Sally Strubble, because they are also from the Valley, which is what we call this area. And so, in order to make sure that people knew this was PressNomics Resurrected, I strategically chose to keep it here for that reason, that everyone knew, oh, this is PressNomics, but I never had a thought that we would stay every year in Phoenix. So, more than likely, next year, it's going to move, but who knows?
• 39:54
  Nathan Wrigley: Who knows? Let's wait and see. So, tickets are available still. I presume that you'll have to – oh, I should probably say that I don't know what it's like in the rest of Europe, but certainly in the part of Europe where I live, in the United Kingdom, airflights, airfares to – I don't know why – Barcelona. There's a couple of destinations where it's, like, crazy cheap. You know, some places it's significantly more expensive than it is to Barcelona.
• 40:21
  Nathan Wrigley: I think I was looking – I was looking the other day and it was about – it was about 70 pounds or something when I last looked, which is, you know, considering I'm going halfway across the continent, it's pretty cheap. So, from that point of view, it might be affordable from where you're coming. Yeah.
• 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?
• 40:53
  Raquel: Yes. I mean, honestly, I would look at it as my gift to the WordPress community and now expanding past even WordPress. And so it brings me so much joy that people will come and be blown away by how different this is.
• 41:12
  Raquel: That is actually one of my favorite things about Europe is that, in general, a lot of it is a lot more economical to get around travel, things like that, you know, compared to the U.S. Gosh, it is significantly different.
• 41:27
  Raquel: But, you know, if anybody is curious or if anybody needs any help, like, you could DM me. We've got ways to, like, you know, help with cost. I know there's a few promo codes floating around I've been hearing about. So, yes. And agencies. Like, PressConf is for agencies. That is the princess of PressConf. And yet product companies, I love them to death. They very much are a big part of PressConf and it's for a product as well, but they have no problem jumping on board. So the 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 because we definitely want to see more agencies there. And of course, all the other businesses of our world.
• 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 pressconf.events. So P-R-E-S-S-C-O-N-F.events. It's saying at the moment that there are 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.
• 42:42
  Nathan Wrigley: 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. So with that being said, I guess I'll bid everybody adieu. 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 kind of, you know, drying up. So take your chance while you can with PressConf because it's there for you. And it's important to have these conversations. So Raquel, Jaume and Carol, thank you so much for chatting to me today.
• 43:19
  Nathan Wrigley: 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. Thank you very much.
• 43:33
  Raquel: Thanks for having us. Thank you.
• 43:38
  Raquel: Yeah, I'll stop.
• 43:39
  Raquel: Cut.