Apart from WordPress, food is something that connects the hearts of all rtCampers. Therefore, the excitement for the first ever WordCamp, in Kolkata, went up substantially since we were really looking forward to exploring the mouth-watering roshogullas, mishti doi, and puchkas in the City of Joy – Kolkata!

Our CEO, Rahul Bansal and I, attended the event to share our continued love and support for the community.

The Sponsors’ Dinner 🍽️ 🍗

The sponsors dinner was held on 2nd March 2019 at Holiday Inn, which was also our base during the trip. The event kicked off with some lip smacking snacks followed by a short introduction of all the organizers – a wonderful team of humble and friendly folks. Following this, everyone in the audience introduced themselves. It was a pleasant surprise to see a lot of folks from Bangladesh! The rest of the evening was spent networking and relishing the authentic Bengali cuisine.

WordCamp Kolkata 🗣️

The day of the WordCamp, 3rd March 2019, started pretty early for us, for three reasons. First, we had to set up our sponsor desk, secondly, Rahul was the first speaker at the event and also, we definitely didn’t want to miss out on the awesome breakfast at the venue! Talking about the venue, it was one of the best WordCamp venues that we have come across, in India.

The attendees seemed pretty excited about Rahul’s talk- ‘Hiring the Right Way in the WordPress Ecosystem’. This was evident by the fact that Rahul had to share his presentation right after the talk.

The lunch session, as expected offered a great opportunity to all attendees for networking and knowing more about the ecosystem. The post-lunch itinerary included the much-awaited panel discussion on ‘The Future of WordPress in 2019 & Beyond’

It was a great experience to meet hundreds of WordPress enthusiasts, throughout the day. I always love being a part of conversations at the sponsor’s desk as they offer a lot to learn – be it about Gutenberg, WooCommerce, WordPress.com VIP experience or the young generation eager to be a part of the ecosystem.

We couldn’t attend every talk at the event, but one particular session caught our eye and attention. Shail Bala Tripathy (@Shail012Bala) conducted the last session of the event, where she spoke about ‘Building Communities around WordPress’. In spite of it being the last event, her talk was so energetic and engaging that it recharged the energy levels of the crowd.

https://twitter.com/afsana_multani/status/1102421955796361217

The Afterparty! 🎉

We headed out to attend the afterparty at the Holiday Inn. While the drinks were unlimited, the time in hand was limited because of our return flight scheduled for the same night. The food, again, was mesmerizing and so was the JOSH among all the attendees. After a long day at the event, everybody’s excitement at the after party spoke highly about how successful the first-ever WordCamp Kolkata was.

Takeaways 😊

Having started my WordPress journey from Kolkata, this WordCamp was special for me but the return journey was quite tough since I know that once I reach Pune, the nostalgia of all the delicious Kolkata delicacies will make me miss this place! On a more serious note, many congratulations to the organizers for leaving no stone unturned when it came to making the event a success. We were overwhelmed by the hospitality and warmth that we experienced during the course of our entire trip. We are already looking forward to meeting WappuDa again, in the City of Joy.

Link: Join the rtFamily