WordUp Gdynia #22 – Full report from the seaside WordPress community meetup
Date: 5 April 2025
Venue: Gdynia City Museum (foyer + auditorium)
Participants: ~100 people The 22nd edition of WordUp Gdynia is behind us! The spring meetup at the Gdynia City Museum brought together both seasoned developers and those just starting their WordPress journey. As always, there was no shortage of inspiring conversations, practical talks, and a fantastic atmosphere encouraging the exchange of experience. This event proved that the WordPress community in the Tri-City is vibrant and eager to share knowledge! Every presentation was packed with practical advice and inspiration – from security, through SEO, to legal issues and UX. Participants could ask questions, share their thoughts, and immediately implement new ideas into their projects.
Warm-up & networking
The weekend kicked off already on Friday evening (4 April, 19:00) with a relaxed before party at PifPaf pub on 10 Lutego Street.
Main programme – 9 talks and a discussion panel
The conference opened right at 12:00. Although Karolina Czapla and Filip Sroka couldn’t appear due to health reasons, we quickly filled the gap with a short lightning networking session. Here’s the full schedule with the essence of each talk:
| Time | Speaker | Title & Key Takeaways |
|---|---|---|
| 12:30 | Magdalena Paciorek | WordPress Playground – live demo of building a theme and sharing it in the browser without hosting. |
| 13:00 | Maciej Palmowski | The biggest bug bounty in WP history: 1570 reports, 1000 plugins offline, 61% XSS vulnerabilities. |
| 13:30 | Max Matłoka | Real hacker attacks and lessons learned from personal breaches (“it won’t happen to me” 🤭). |
| 14:00 | Rafał Chrzan | REST API + digital file sales: how to disable “list users”, implement URL signatures, and token-based downloads. |
| 15:00 – 15:30 • catering break fish & chips | ||
| 15:30 | Piotr Mońka | Accessibility errors (contrast, focus trap, aria-label) and the “F key”: Focus-Form-Feedback-Fallback-Flair. |
| 16:00 | Tomasz “Dziudek” Dziuda | UX pitfalls killing conversion: overlay hell, PDFs instead of HTML, forced signup. |
| 16:30 | Paweł Gontarek | “Is SEO always worth it?” – when SEO doesn’t pay off and it’s better to invest in PPC or newsletters. |
| 17:00 | Aleksandra Grygiel | Top 5 hosting issues: iNodes, cron spam, false-positive AV, timeouts, DNS mixup + Smarthost Pulse panel. |
| 17:30 | Tomasz Skupny | IT law in practice: client OSINT, escrow clauses, SLA template, and the “disappearing client” checklist. |
“Open mic” panel
Moderated by Kasia Tadaszak and Mariusz Szatkowski. The audience discussed:
- The future of WordPress with AI assistants in Gutenberg (42% enthusiasts, 29% sceptics).
- The importance of soft skills for developers – negotiation & assertiveness when dealing with clients.
- GPL licenses vs SaaS model – a heated debate continued later at PifPaf.
After party 🍻
After closing the venue, we moved back to PifPaf. Conversations lasted until late – from REST API bugs to favourite FSE themes.
Thanks to our sponsors
- White Label Coders – title partner, venue funding, and welcome bags.
- Smarthost.pl – coffee zone and voucher book.
- Kinsta – “Longest Uptime” contest, gadgets.
- cyber_Folks – chill zone & lemonade.
- PAQ-studio – e-commerce SEO helpdesk at the booth.
- relacje.video / relacje.ai – full video recordings (playlist below!).
Materials – Recordings & gallery
▶️ Full playlist of recordings on YouTube (WordPress Gdynia)
What’s next?
- 📍 WordCamp Kraków – end of June 2025 – see you under Wawel!
- 📍 WordCamp Gdynia 2025 – last weekend of September 2025 – we’re back at the Baltic Sea with a two-day, multi-track edition.
Thank you to all participants, speakers, and partners for the energy, knowledge, and fantastic atmosphere. See you at the next WordPress Community events! 🌊💙 WordUp Gdynia is not just about talks, but above all about people and the energy they bring! From the very entrance, you could feel the positive vibe, and conversations happened not only in the corridors but also during the after party at PifPaf on 10 Lutego Street. That’s where the best ideas were born, and new friendships and collaborations started.
“Gdynia, with its charming seaside location, provides an amazing atmosphere and energy. Such a setting fosters creative thinking and is a perfect backdrop for such an inspiring event as WordUp.” – one of the participants
Why was it worth attending WordUp Gdynia #22?
- A fresh dose of knowledge from top industry experts
- Motivation to implement innovation in your projects
- The chance to meet people who share your passion
- Access to talk recordings – revisit them anytime
If you haven’t been to a WordUp yet – be sure to join us next time! It’s the best way to stay up to date with WordPress and meet a truly inspiring community.
