---
title: "What made WordCamp Asia 2023 feel like home? WPwatercooler 446"
date: 2023-02-24
author: "Courtney Robertson"
featured_image: "https://courtneyr.dev/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/wpwatercooler-446-wordcamp-asia-2023-featured-1.jpg"
categories:
  - name: "WordPress"
    url: "/category/wptips.md"
  - name: "Speaking"
    url: "/category/speaking.md"
---

# What made WordCamp Asia 2023 feel like home? WPwatercooler 446

What makes a flagship WordCamp feel like home for people who can rarely travel to one? [Nyasha Green](https://nyashagreen.com/)friendcolleague and I had just returned from WordCamp Asia 2023 in Bangkok, and WPwatercooler episode 446 asked us to recap it. By then I was on the show so often that I joked I averaged one episode in three.

## 🎙️ Episode details

- **Show:** WPwatercooler, episode 446, “WordCamp Asia Brings the Heat”
- **Hosts:** [Jason Tucker](https://profiles.wordpress.org/jasontucker/)colleague, [Sé Reed](https://profiles.wordpress.org/sereedmedia/)colleague and [Jason Cosper](https://profiles.wordpress.org/boogah/)acquaintance
- **Guests:** Nyasha Green and me, Courtney Robertson
- **Date:** February 24, 2023
- **Topics:** meeting friends who can’t get visas, WordCamp Asia 2023 by the numbers, and contributor day
- **Show notes:** [WPwatercooler episode 446, with recap links and a transcript](https://www.wpwatercooler.com/wpwatercooler/ep446-wordcamp-asia-brings-the-heat/)

## 🌏 Meeting friends who can’t get visas

First, going felt like an honor. Since the pandemic, I’d contributed on Make teams alongside people who became close friends. However, many of them face visa barriers that keep them from WordCamp Europe or WordCamp US. Some of our friends in India, for example, can’t easily get a US visa. WordCamp Asia 2023 in Bangkok let us finally meet in person.

I caught up with [Naoko Takano](https://profiles.wordpress.org/nao/)colleaguemet and John, a contributor at Human Made, whom I’d sat beside at the WordCamp US 2015 after party. Above all, I felt the pride the local organizers had in hosting. Naoko closed the event by saying, in effect, we did it.

## 📊 WordCamp Asia 2023 by the numbers

Finally, organizers shared that 1,299 people attended in person. As I remembered it from the stage, the one missing for an even 1,300 was Matt Mullenweg, who joined by Zoom at the last minute. My Post Status roundup and Nyasha’s recap had the full stats.

## 🧑‍💻 Contributor day, online and in the room

Learn WordPress ran an online workshop during the event, the same meetup plus Zoom format that appears in many WordPress dashboards. Meanwhile, in person, I went back and forth between two contributor rooms on opposite sides of the building, getting both teams’ newcomers set up with accounts before lunch.

Later, the after party had its own highlight: attendees led traditional dances from their home countries, and the group dancing beat any WordCamp after party I’d seen.

## 🧪 What can you take from WordCamp Asia 2023?

- **Organizers:** regional flagship events reach contributors whom visa rules keep away from other continents.
- **First time contributors:** account setup is a real task at contributor day. Ask for help with it.

Also, more conversations like this one live in [my podcast and speaking archive](https://courtneyr.dev/category/speaking/).

## 🗓️ Archival note

WPwatercooler’s episode page is dated February 24, 2023. Then I added this post on November 9, 2026, from the show notes and the publisher’s automated transcript, which garbles some names and numbers. I used only figures I could read clearly and left out personal health asides. However, I reviewed the transcript, not the recording.





[](https://courtneyr.dev/2023/02/24/wpwatercooler-446-wordcamp-asia-2023/)Courtney RobertsonWhat made WordCamp Asia 2023 feel like home? WPwatercooler 446