One of the most notable events I have attended in the past six years was the Abuja WordPress community meetup organized to celebrate the 20th anniversary of WordPress. While I have attended other events such as KwaraBuild 2022, the Atlassian Local Tech Meetup 2022, and another Abuja WordPress meetup in 2024, the WordPress 20th anniversary meetup stood out because of the turnout, energy, and sense of community around it.

It was also the first community event I actively contributed to its planning. A group of us, most of whom were complete strangers at the time, came together around the meetup, created a WhatsApp group, and continued supporting one another in our WordPress and tech careers long after the event ended. The community became a place where people shared opportunities, solved technical problems together, and stayed connected professionally.

Interestingly, the 2024 Abuja WordPress meetup was also planned through that same group, even though it was much smaller and less elaborate than the 20th anniversary event. Still, it showed how a simple community meetup grew into an actual support network for people working in tech and the WordPress ecosystem in Abuja.