On 19th and 20th September 2026, the WordPress community gathered at Civil Service College Uganda, a venue close to River Nile, for the fifth edition of WordCamp Jinja. The event brought together more than 300 diverse participants across 2 days and 3 parallel tracks of sessions full of learning, collaboration and connection. In a city known for its flowing waters, creativity and ideas flowed too, as participants shared their experiences, explored new possibilities with WordPress and built relationships that would carry beyond the weekend.
Our theme, “Embrace Creative Currents on the Nile: Where Inclusivity Fuels Creativity,” reflected the mix of people and ideas in the room. Students sat alongside developers, designers, writers, educators, entrepreneurs and experienced WordPress contributors. Across three parallel tracks, everyone could find a way to learn, share or build.
Students and Creatives at the heart of WordCamp Jinja
Nearly half of this year’s participants were students. Their presence was felt throughout the event, from the speaker sessions to the labs and hackathon tables. We had students from primary schools, secondary schools and universities joining us for this year’s WordCamp.
Some came to explore WordPress for the first time. Others arrived with projects, questions and skills they wanted to develop. Sharing the same spaces with people already working in technology and creative fields gave them an opportunity to learn directly from practitioners and see where their own interests might lead.
One student in attendance found a creative way to remember his experience. Fascinated by the WordPress ecosystem, its generosity and inclusivity, he drew all the sponsor logos by hand so he could remember them after the event. His drawings became a personal record of the community he had encountered at WordCamp Jinja, a small but memorable expression of the curiosity WordCamp Jinja inspired.
Bringing young people into the community has been a continuing part of WordCamp Jinja’s work. Last year’s edition at Jinja Senior Secondary School brought the event closer to students; this year, their participation remained central even at a different venue. We hope the relationships formed over these two days continue at Jinja WordPress Meetups and in the projects students choose to pursue next.
Event highlights
Diverse Speaker Sessions
Our speakers brought different backgrounds and experiences to the stage. Sessions opened up conversations about WordPress and the wider web, including how people use technology to create, teach, solve problems and build livelihoods.
The value of these talks was in the experiences behind them. Speakers shared what they had learned through their own work, answered questions and gave attendees ideas to take back to their studies, organisations and businesses. Thank you to everyone who prepared a session and made the journey to Jinja to share it with us.
Charity Website Hackathon and Contributor Sessions
The Charity Website Hackathon returned as one of WordCamp Jinja’s most practical activities. Participants and facilitators worked together on WordPress projects for organisations seeking to establish or improve their online presence. The teams had to think about real needs: what information a visitor should find, how to organise it and how the organisation could keep its site useful after the event.
For newer participants, this was a chance to learn by working through a real project with support close at hand. For experienced developers and designers, it was a chance to mentor others and put their skills to work for the wider community. The work begun at the hackathon can continue beyond the conference as teams and organisations develop their websites further.
Contributor activities connected that local work to the wider WordPress project. Attendees explored the idea that contributing to open source goes beyond writing code: people can help through photography, translation, testing, documentation, training and community work. There were a lot of new contributors who were taken through the contribution journey by table leads. We hope that for those that took their first steps, WordCamp Jinja will be the beginning of a longer contribution journey.
Hands-on Labs
The Hands-on Labs offered a different pace from the speaker sessions. Instead of only listening, participants could practically follow a facilitator on state of the art computers, try something themselves and ask for help when they needed it.
That kind of guided practice matters, especially for people who are new to a tool or trying to turn an idea into something they can build. Thank you to the facilitators who prepared the activities and worked directly with participants, and to the volunteers who helped make the sessions run.
Memorable moments, connections and networking
Some of the weekend’s most useful moments happened away from the front of a room. Over lunch, in the corridors and between activities, attendees met people from other communities, exchanged ideas and caught up with friends they had met at earlier WordPress events.
For a student attending for the first time, a conversation with a developer or designer can make a possible career feel closer. For returning community members, it was a chance to meet new collaborators and hear perspectives they might otherwise miss. Those connections are part of what keeps WordCamp Jinja going after the closing session.
Celebrating at the Source of the Nile
The celebration continued at Source of the Nile for our after-party, where attendees, volunteers, speakers, facilitators, sponsors and organisers were welcomed to the Source of the Nile. Unbeknownst to them, there was a surprise awaiting: an after party aboard a double-decker boat. The boat ride took them on a tour of Lake Victoria and finally landed at the actual source of the Nile itself, where they learned about its history before taking time for photos together.
The Nile has been part of WordCamp Jinja’s identity across previous editions. This year, gathering there brought our theme back into focus: people with different skills and experiences had come together, learned from one another and added something to the community.
The people who made it possible
WordCamp Jinja is built by volunteers. Long before the doors opened, the organising team was working on the venue, programme, speakers, communications, sponsorships, registration and practical activities. During the event, volunteers welcomed attendees, supported speakers, guided participants and helped the different spaces run smoothly.
To our attendees, thank you for showing up ready to learn and share. To our speakers and facilitators, thank you for the time and care you put into your sessions. To the hackathon teams and contributors, thank you for building and giving back. And to every organiser and volunteer, thank you for the work people saw and the work they did not.
We are also grateful to our sponsors Jetpack, Hostinger, WordPress.com, Woo, Hosting.com, SEOPress and Infinity Computers and to our community partners for supporting an accessible gathering for people at different stages of their WordPress journey. Their support helped bring this fifth edition to life.
Relive the weekend and keep in touch
You can explore photographs from the event in our WordCamp Jinja 2026 photo album:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/Fd61HxxyNT8xK4Ni7
WordCamp may be over, but the learning continues. The Jinja WordPress Meetup will keep bringing people together to share skills, contribute to WordPress and build on the projects and relationships started here.
Thank you for embracing the creative currents with us. See you at the next WordPress Jinja event!
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