Representation dropped by 2% compared to WordCamp Asia 2024, suggesting that efforts to attract more local attendees didn’t quite work out as planned, despite being highlighted in last year’s Call for Speakers.

The goal was to reach 60% of local representation.

When we started organizing WordCamp Asia, one of our fundamental principles was to focus on gender and regional diversity. For WordCamp Asia 2025, we are targeting the following to ensure proper inclusion and diversity.

1. About 60% of local (Asian) speakers
2. 40% non-male speakers

You can help us achieve this by sharing our “Call for Speakers” with your local community via meetup groups, WordCamps, social media, other tech events, WhatsApp groups, etc.

The good news is that the number of regional companies represented by speakers has increased by 8%.

I covered last year’s representation in my “Should WordCamp Asia Select More Asian Speakers?” post but haven’t updated the numbers and charts, as I eventually learned from the organizers that  WordCamp Asia includes Oceania.

Let’s look at this year’s numbers:

38% of speakers are from the APAC region

Here’s the breakdown:

• APAC – 38% (18, down by 1 compared to 2024)
• EMEA – 32% (15, same as in 2024)
• Americas – 30% (14, same as in 2024)

Looking closer look, Australia has the largest representation with 5 speakers, followed by the Philippines and India with 4 each. If we exclude Oceania, only 27% of speakers are from Asia.

28% of speakers work for APAC businesses

• 46% are from the Americas (22, down by 7 compared to 2024)
• 28% from APAC (13, up by 2 compared to 2024)
• 26% from EMEA (12, up by 3 compared to 2024)

Once again, Australia leads with the most businesses represented (5). XWP and The Code Company each have two speakers.

30% of speakers work for Automattic

This is up from 19% last year (9 speakers), which I believe is too high. Not even Salesforce had such a high percentage of speakers at their own Dreamforce 2024 event. Of the 14 Automatticians speaking, only 3 are based in APAC.

Close to half of the speakers work for a WordCamp sponsor

Here’s the split:

• Speakers from sponsor companies – 47% (up by 5% from last year)
• Speakers not from sponsor companies – 53% (up by 5% from last year)

If you want a better chance to speak, consider working for a WordPress company that regularly sponsors WordCamps.

No local representation in the Campfire panel

The last session added to the schedule is “Is AI a Magic Button? Intelligently Incorporating AI Technologies into Your Work.”

The panel features respected members of the community, promising an engaging discussion. However, it’s disappointing that the organizers didn’t include someone from the region, especially given its leadership in AI innovation.

Why is WordCamp missing its local representation targets?

Last week I emailed the organizers about this but haven’t received a response yet. I will ask again in Manila.

I spoke to a number of people in various communities, and a common theme was that it’s cultural issue: Asian don’t like to speak in front of crowds, particularly large ones.

I found this article on LinkedIn that supports this idea, but I’m not qualified, not I know enough about the topic, to have an opinion about it.

Also, there a plenty of WordCamps taking place in the region. Just this year there were four in India! People love to organize and attend them. Surely many speakers would be willing to ‘upgrade’ and give a talk to a flagship event?

It could be intentional. Last year, Taco Verdonschot, who was Head of Relations at Yoast at the time, mentioned the following in an episode of the WP Builds:

While WordCamp Europe is trying to showcase the best Europe has to offer, Asia was aiming to bring talks from the rest of the world, so that people from Asia who typically have a harder time travelling to Europe or the US can also get access to the same content.

I don’t agree with this approach, if that’s the case:

• You don’t see many Asian speakers at other regional WordCamps – US and Europe.
• Live streams work just fine

The WordCamp speaker selection process is well documented and makes sense. Including a page explaining why Building A Diverse Speaker Roster matters.

APAC needs a LOUDER voice!

Not just at WordCamps, but at other events and in the media. There is so much going on in the region that needs to be acknowledged and celebrated! This is why local representation matters.

Which is why I’ve organized our first event: WP BizDev Roundtable APAC – February 2025. Online and small scale – max 10 people discuss this and other growth topics.

See you in Manila?

I’ll be attending and need to pack my bags soon as there are only 6 days left before contributor day. It’s going to be awesome.

Feel free to get in touch if you want to have a chat over coffee.