Milan lives and breathes WordPress: he’s the WordPress.org global translation editor, WordPress Serbia lead and one of WordCamp Europe organizers. One of the lecturers of the WordPress Academy in Serbia, giving talks and free WordPress Workshops. WordCamp volunteer, speaker, and organizer. Milan is the member of the Theme Review and Community Get Involved Teams. In spare time he holds WordPress lectures and collects WordCamp T-shirts.
We think very few people don’t know who Milan Ivanović is, what’s he doing and why he’ll be in Zagreb in September. Can you reveal us something interesting we don’t know about your professional life path yet?
I am literally not hiding anything, and when I give talks, there is virtually nothing that I am hiding and whoever listened at least one of my talks know how I started and how passionate I am about what I do.
WordCamp Europe is happening in Belgrade next year, yes, and that’s something I’ve been working on from September 2015, and I can’t tell you, how excited I am and how much I can’t wait to see you all in Belgrade and to share our story at WordCamp Zagreb.
The organizing team is taking an August off to catch a breath and starting September; we are at warp speed.
WordCamp Europe is going to Belgrade next year, are you excited about that? Is it demanding and tiring to be a WordCamp Europe organizer?
To organize a WordCamp is a quite demanding, but it’s highly satisfying above everything! I love this Community and to organize the WordCamp I still consider a great privilege, and the funny thing is that after every WordCamp we ask ourselves why are we doing this, and yet, the next day we start planning another WordCamp.
What a community needs to be able to organize WordCamp Europe in their city?
Now when I look at the Community in Serbia, I can see an enormous progress on the number of quality people involved. People love WordPress, and the open source has proven one of the better ideas of our age.
It takes a bit of preparation, strong local team, and a Venue to fit us all. People resist thinking about bringing the WordCamp Europe to their cities, as every year we grow, but we, as a conference, are growing too. Organizing team grew from “a handful of people” back in 2013 to around 50 on the last edition of WordCamp Europe in Paris. If you’d love to bring WordCamp Europe, you should definitely apply, and we will guide you through the process – let us help you.
When was your first contact with WordPress and what encouraged you to become a WordPress enthusiast?
My first contact with WordPress was back in late 2007 when I had a request from a client to add a blog section to her HTML static website. When I saw that I could accomplish all of that with a single, yet easy to maintain solution, I set with WordPress and never went back.
Did you get your ticket?
If you haven’t already, get your ticket for WordCamp Zagreb today. Tickets are priced at 20€ (around 150 HRK) which will give you entrance to the conference, (first) access to workshops on Friday and to Contributor day on Sunday. You will also get the drinks, lunch, incredible t-shirt and other cool swag from our sponsors.