What to expect at your first WordCamp US 2026

I’ve never been to WordCamp US 2026.

This year, I’m trying to decide whether it finally belongs on the calendar.

The reason is pretty practical. WD Strategies manages close to 20 sites through Pressable, including client work and our own media properties. About half use WooCommerce. The rest are publication and content sites.

That mix means changes to WordPress can affect checkout flows, publishing workflows, and the way client sites connect to other business systems. For businesses using WordPress alongside a CRM, HubSpot can help connect website activity with lead management, marketing automation, and sales workflows.

Affiliate disclosure: WD Strategies is being compensated by Automattic for promoting WordCamp US 2026. The ticket link in this article is not a monetized affiliate link. Readers can use code AF26 for $20 off a general admission ticket.

How WordCamp US 2026 is organized

WordCamp US 2026 is built around the WordPress open-source community.

Core contributors, plugin developers, hosting engineers, freelancers, and agency teams all take part. The sessions cover technical work and the business side of WordPress, with several tracks running at once.

You can spend one day digging into WooCommerce performance and use the next to learn how other agencies run WordPress projects.

Contributor Day comes first

Contributor Day took me a minute to understand. It happens on Sunday, August 16, before the main conference begins.

People spend the day working on WordPress core, documentation, plugins, themes, and community projects.

That may be the part I’m most curious about. I’m unlikely to contribute code, but there are other ways to help. It also looks like a calmer setting for meeting the people who maintain the software our client sites depend on.

The $100 ticket surprised me

A general admission ticket costs $100 for 4 days. Sessions, workshops, meals, and the closing social are included.

Many marketing and SaaS events charge several times that amount before travel and lodging enter the budget. The lower ticket price makes WordCamp US 2026 easier to consider for freelancers and small agency teams.

For an agency our size, the trip still needs a clear purpose. But the ticket itself is a reasonable expense.

WordPress.com, WooCommerce, Jetpack, and Pressable are sponsors of WCUS 2026. That gives attendees a chance to meet people behind products they may already use and ask questions that are hard to settle through email.

Who attends

The attendee mix was the hardest part to picture, so I spent time reading recaps and community posts from earlier events.

Freelance developers attend alongside agency owners, plugin authors, hosting engineers, and in-house WordPress teams.

For a mid-sized agency like ours, that mix is useful. A hallway conversation could put us in front of someone who has dealt with the same hosting issue or WooCommerce problem we are working through.

What I want to learn

I’d want to leave with a clearer view of where WooCommerce and WordPress hosting are heading over the next year.

Since we already manage a portfolio of client and media sites through Pressable, I’m also interested in how tools such as Pressable MCP could change the way agencies handle routine hosting work. We have looked more closely at what it could mean for managing WordPress client sites at scale, but WordCamp would offer a chance to hear how other agencies are approaching the same operational questions.

I’d also want direct conversations with the people building the tools we use and a better sense of what other agencies our size are dealing with.

The useful question for me is simple: which decisions are we making without enough context?

How I would prepare for the trip

I would start with the problems already on our desk. Which plugin questions keep coming back? Which hosting choices are we still weighing? Which WooCommerce updates deserve more testing before they reach a client site?

Those updates are not only technical decisions. Changes to performance, mobile responsiveness, navigation, or checkout design can also affect the broader user experience and conversion performance of an ecommerce site.

Then I would choose a small number of sessions and leave room for conversations between them. Trying to fill every hour would probably miss the part of WordCamp US 2026 that seems hardest to get from home.

I would also bring one clear goal for Contributor Day. Finishing a small documentation task or helping with a community project would be a better first step than arriving with a vague plan to “help WordPress.”

New for 2026: Phoenix and a schedule built around the weekend

WordCamp US 2026 runs August 16 to 19 at the Phoenix Convention Center. Contributor Day is Sunday, followed by the main conference from Monday through Wednesday.

The Sunday-to-Wednesday schedule leaves the previous Saturday open. That gives out-of-state attendees more time to travel or spend part of the weekend in Phoenix before Contributor Day starts.

Making room for the trip

After looking into the event, I think the biggest obstacle is simply making room for it. Conferences get pushed down the list when client work fills the calendar.

Code AF26 takes $20 off a general admission ticket, bringing the price to $80 for 4 days. Tickets are available at https://us.wordcamp.org/2026/tickets/.

I’m hoping this is the year I finally attend. Then I can write the next article from experience.

Joey DiGangi III is Chief Operating Officer & Co-Founder of WD Strategies, where he's spent 10 years as an entrepreneur and consultant helping clients solve complex digital challenges. As project manager and WooCommerce expert, he's been closely involved in managing WordPress and WooCommerce projects across the agency's portfolio, including WD Strategies' own in-house media properties.