WordCamp Kathmandu 2026 ran on September 18 and 19 at Alice Receptions in Gairidhara. Contributor Day came first, then the conference day. I went to both. I left with few replies on Trac ticket, a plan to apply to the WordPress education program, and a list of people I want to keep talking to.
this is my experience (photo blog loading…1,2,3!)
Getting there
I reached Dhaka on September 16 from Sylhet and flew to Kathmandu on the 17th. My family came with me. I have always loved Nepal, and I had visited once before, in 2024, with my colleagues and loved every bit of it. This time we stayed in Thamel.
On the morning of the 18th, my family was still asleep. I had breakfast at the hotel and called an Uber bike. The driver misunderstood the route and took me to the wrong place. I fixed it on the map and reached Alice Receptions at 8:30 am. Thank god the road was free of traffic.
Contributor Day at the Core table
This was my first official Contributor Day. I had worked on Trac tickets before, but only on my own. This time I sat at the Core table and tried to do it the proper way.
Bikash Pun Magar, from the website team, was the volunteer helping at our table, and he walked me through the process.
I spent the first part of the day researching how I could help on the tickets. What I had to offer was a marketer’s view. I shared my thoughts on four or five tickets, looking at what would improve the result for the person using WordPress.
One example is ticket 65975. The proposed helper text for the Site Icon said “square aspect ratio (1:1).” That is accurate, but I thought it could trip up people who are not thinking in aspect ratios when they upload an icon. In comment 5 I suggested a plainer version: use a square image (equal width and height) at least 512 × 512 pixels.
People understand equal width and height without knowing what an aspect ratio is. “Use a square image” tells them what to do. And a simpler source string is easier for translators, which matters because this text is shared across two files and gets translated into dozens of languages. I also backed a follow-up Gutenberg issue, since the Site Editor words the same field differently.
The person who wrote the original wording replied. They agreed their first suggestion might be too technical for most WordPress users.
I liked seeing that. It felt good that my opinion mattered and that I could share what I know in a way that helped. I still get nervous when I contribute. But working on tickets alongside other contributors, I felt confident. I plan to join more Contributor Days and learn from the people around me.
The table itself felt different from working alone. People called out to each other. Laptops were open on the same ticket. Someone walked another contributor through a patch on their screen. By my rough count, there were more than a hundred contributors in the room. Between tickets, I asked people what they do and where they work, and those short talks made the hours go quickly.
I sat with the developers of Codewing Solutions, a company run by Nabin Jaiswal. They showed me an integration they built with one of the tools I work with, and told me about a second one in progress. I talked with Nabin about it. He said that when it is done, we will do a collaboration to promote it. He also messaged me on LinkedIn offering help with anything I need. Nepali people are kind, and that is a big reason I like going back.
I love you guys!
Later in the day, I moved to the Education table. I had followed Pooja Derashri‘s work from the start, through Make WordPress updates and her social media. It is my firt time meeting her.
I was interested in the education program, so we talked about how I can start contributing.
Events are popping up in Bangladesh and people are already working on them. She told me to apply through the WordPress education page, and said a lead will contact me. I plan to apply. I also told her we are interested in running a session at a school in Sylhet and seeing how that could work.
The sessions that stuck
On the conference day, I sat in on three sessions: Pooja’s, MD Saif Hassan’s and Shriram Lamichhane’s.
Pooja’s session on WordPress education programs gave me the full picture. I had not known how the education program and the Campus Connect and credits program run in practice. I also did not know the credit program certificate comes from the WordPress Foundation. If I remember it right, it carries Matt Mullenweg’s signature, which makes it more credible. The Q&A was useful. People asked how to sell the program to universities and how to show why the credit program matters. Pooja’s answer on selling it was that a university can add another credit program to what it offers without investing in building the workshop or the support materials.
I first met Saif bhai at WordCamp Sylhet in 2023. His talk, “AI as a Bicycle for the Mind,” had a full room, and people liked it. I did too. He came at AI from an angle I had not heard before. He went through history and said that at every big change, people claimed something was dead, and life found its way. His Jurassic Park framing of that stayed with me. His take on creativity was that creative people will thrive in the AI era. He also said we should use AI for augmentation, not automation. Augmentation means AI helps one person do more. Automation means replacing that person. We need to focus on this in our organisations and companies.
Shriram Lamichhane’s talk took me back to my early days. I also started by building websites in a cyber cafe, in 2005 and 2006. I built sites on Yahoo GeoCities and hobby blogs on Blogger, wrote posts, and tried to rank them. In the session, he said his platform gets more than a million visitors a month. What he built at his age impressed me a lot. I wish I could show his talk to many young people in my country.
There were other amazing sessions too during the conference day. I wish I could join all of these too, but much of my time goes into talking and networking with people.
Between the sessions
I met a few Bangladeshi friends there. Foysol Imran was with his family. Nazmul Hasan Robin was there with his family too, and he led the Accessibility table on Contributor Day. I saw Saif bhai again. There was an Automattic booth; another Foysol bhai greeted me at the Automattic booth. It was great to talk with Pooja about the education program in person.
I also met two Nepali students who came to the WordCamp through the Campus Connect program. For about an hour, they kept asking me questions on many topics. Both are worried about where they will stand in the future job market because of AI. I tried to give them a little motivation. One is already getting hands-on with building plugins using AI. The other is a bit more confused because they are younger. I liked seeing their interest. There were a lot of young kids at this WordCamp. The Bangladesh WordPress community needs to look at this and find ways to bring young teenagers in Bangladesh into WordPress.
I spent time with Sunita Rai from SiteSaga.com, one of the media partners. I met her at WordCamp Sylhet in 2023, so this was our second meeting. She told me about their project and how they are investing more in video. I told her to do even more of it, because Google’s AI Overviews are cutting organic traffic by 70% now. Investing in personality is the answer. People follow people.
I also met Umesh Ghimire, an old Nepali friend from my 2024 trip with my colleagues.
I met the lead organiser, Regan Khadgi, for the first time. He and his team were fabulous. Mina Tamang from the communication team did a great job, and I told her the event felt like a flagship event. Eurika KC from the content creation team hosted Contributor Day very well. Pratik Lal Shrestha was another great person to meet. I met many more people I cannot name here, and I am glad I met them in Kathmandu.
The lunch on both days was great. I can still taste it. All the food was halal, and Regan checked that with me himself. Small things like that made the event better. They thought about everyone. I might join the next WordCamp Nepal or Kathmandu just for the food! Hahaha!
I stayed until the closing ceremony. The mood in the room was on another level. I skipped the after-party because my family was waiting for me at the hotel. I bet the food was great there too!
What I’m taking back
- Apply to the WordPress education program through Make WordPress, as Pooja suggested, and wait for the lead to reach out.
- Explore a session at a school in Sylhet, which I raised with Pooja. I already talked about this with some of my teammates.
- Join more Contributor Days, and keep sharing a marketer’s view on Trac tickets.
If you are in the WordPress world in Bangladesh or anywhere, join your local WordCamp and talk to people there. It helps the open source community, and it helps you grow. Then try to get to an international WordCamp. It changed how I think. It will changed you too. You see the bigger picture, you get curious about more things, and that helps your skills and your career.
WordCamp Malaysia was my first international WordCamp, that experience was i thought the best. WordCamp Kathmandu is my 2nd international WordCamp, and it became the most amazing WordCamp i experienced so far! I am sure going to the next WordCamp in Nepal!
See you in another WordCamp! Peace!
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