So WordCamp Sylhet 2026 is happening on October 2 and 3. Same place too, the Central Auditorium at Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, where it all started. Before we get into schedules and speaker lists, we wanted to do something simple. Sit down and remember what actually stuck with us.
Not the swags. Not the tote bags or the earbuds or the raffle prizes. Those are fun for a day, and then people forget them by the next WordCamp. What stuck is different. It’s the sessions we still quote in Slack threads. It’s the person we met at a booth who we still message today. That’s the stuff we want to bring back for 2026.
2023: The First One
Let’s say you were in that auditorium on May 19, 2023, at 8:00 am. You had a cup of tea in your hand, watching the opening remarks. You didn’t know yet that this would become one of the biggest WordPress gatherings in Bangladesh. Nobody did. It just felt like a room full of people who loved the same thing.
The sessions that morning set the tone. Masiur Rahman Siddiki opened with “The Art of WordPress Plugin Development: Common Mistakes to Avoid.” Right after him, Atikur Rahman Tonmoy talked about localization in product marketing. Two very different topics, development and marketing, one after the other on the same stage. That’s the beauty of WordCamp. Every topic gets a seat at the table.
Here’s the thing about Sabirah Islam’s talk, “How Neuroscience Can Make You a Better Writer.” Many people walked in expecting simple writing tips. What they got instead was a look at how the brain pays attention, and why some content grabs you while other content just slides off. People were still talking about that one at lunch.
And then there was the panel everyone still brings up. “The Prospects of AI in Design,” with Ishtiaq Khan Parag, Md Shamsuddin, Syed Tahmim Islam, Shekh Al Raihan, and Mizanur Rahman on stage together. This was 2023. Back then, AI in design was not a topic everyone talked about every day like now. It was still new. So the panel felt like a real, open debate, not a settled fact. Looking back now, a lot of what they said turned out to be true.
The Contribution Day closed things out on May 20, hosted at AuthLab’s office. Translating, writing documentation, fixing bugs. All the quiet work that keeps WordPress running for a huge part of the web. Not flashy. But this is the work that holds the whole community together.
2024: Bigger Room, Same Warmth
WordCamp Sylhet 2024 came back on May 10 and 11, same venue. This time, the Contributor Day came first. Attendees picked their teams, Core, Design, Polyglots, and got to work before the main conference day even started.
The Main Hall sessions in 2024 covered new ground. Khan Rafin Ahmed’s talk, “AI-Powered Support: Turning AI into Your Secret Weapon for Customer Happiness,” came at a time when support teams everywhere were trying to figure out what AI meant for their jobs. Not as something that replaces people. As a tool that clears out the repeat questions, so humans can focus on the hard conversations. That point mattered a lot to a room full of support engineers.
Then there was the panel on the Gig Economy, with Enayet Karim Chowdhury, Noor Khan, Jahangir Alam, and a few others. They talked about what freelance work actually looks like in this part of the world. And there was a panel on Diversity, Equity, Inclusivity & Belonging, where Ahmed Kabir Chaion, Sabirah Islam, Anzuman Ara Chowdhury, and others talked about what it takes to make the WordPress community in Bangladesh feel truly welcoming. Not just diverse on paper.
So two years, two events, and a pattern starts to show up. The sessions people remember are not always the ones with the biggest titles. They are the ones where someone on stage said something true about the work everyone in the room does every day.
The Booths We Still Think About
Now here’s where it gets personal. Sponsors did not just show up with banners and free items. They showed up and had real conversations. And the two years look pretty different once you look closer.
WC Sylhet 2023
ShapedPlugin came in as a platinum sponsor. Their team flew in a day early, on May 18, for the welcome dinner party. A local buffet, old friends catching up, new friends made over food. That’s how the whole event started, even before the first session began.
Their booth gave out the usual mix, notebooks, t-shirts, water bottles, even AirPods and iPads in the giveaway pool. But here’s the thing. What they wrote about later was not the gift list. It was the trip they took after the event ended, to Malnicherra Tea Estate, Ratargul swamp forest, and Bholaganj. The gifts got used up fast. The trip stayed in the blog post for good.
Pluggable ran their booth as a gold sponsor, with quiz contests and prizes. But the moment that really stuck came in the comments section of their own recap post. Sabirah Islam, a speaker at the event, stopped by their booth but could not join the games. She left a comment anyway, saying it was fun to visit and that the team’s t-shirt line caught her eye. Nazmul Ahsan, Pluggable’s founder, replied right there in public, told her not to worry, said they would find a way next time. That’s the whole thing right there. Two people from the same small community, talking to each other out in the open.
Code Rex sponsored gold too, gave out key rings, kept it simple. Nothing big. Just a WordPress development company from Bangladesh, showing up for the community.
WC Sylhet 2024
Academy LMS took the Super Admin slot in 2024, the top sponsor level. Their booth became one of the busiest spots at the whole event. So busy, in fact, that they ran out of gifts before the day ended.
Here’s how it went. Instead of quietly running out and hoping nobody would notice, the team wrote a public message. They said sorry, and they promised every future attendee would get a gift next time. That’s not an easy thing to admit in public. Most sponsors would just let the day end and move on without a word.
They also ran a prize draw, an MSI monitor, an Amazfit smartwatch, Edifier earbuds. And their CEO, Tushar Imran, spent time talking with attendees directly on the floor. Small moments. But they add up to the same pattern we saw in 2023.
And then there’s AuthLab and Technext. Both platinum sponsors, and both based right here in Sylhet. That’s not a small detail. People from both companies were not just paying for a sponsorship. They were on the ground, organizing, and working alongside everyone else. That’s what it looks like when a hometown company shows up for its own community.
So across both years, the booths that stuck were not the ones with the biggest gift pile. They were the ones where someone said something honest, out in public, and meant it. A comment answered. A shortage admitted. A trip remembered longer than a t-shirt. And a local company that simply showed up and did the work.
Why We’re Skipping the Swags Talk This Time
Let’s be honest with ourselves for a second. Every WordCamp recap ends up listing the sponsors, the gifts, the booth numbers. That’s fine. It has its place. But it’s not why any of us keep coming back.
We keep coming back because of the sessions that changed how we think about our work. We keep coming back because of the person we sat next to at lunch, who’s now a colleague, a client, or just a friend we still text. That way, when we think about WordCamp Sylhet, we’re not thinking about a t-shirt sitting in a drawer somewhere. We’re thinking about people.
Just be honest.
That’s really the whole point of this flashback.
WordCamp Sylhet 2026 Theme: Back to Basics
This year’s theme is “back to basics.” After going through 2023 and 2024 again, it makes even more sense why. Take away the noise, take away the trend chasing, and what’s left is what was always the real point. People in a room, learning from each other, building something open and shared.
So on October 2 and 3, we’re heading back to the same Central Auditorium at SUST. Same energy. Same community. A few new faces, a lot of familiar ones, and hopefully a few sessions that we’ll still be quoting two years from now.
See you there, WordPress people.
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