WordPress is software with limitless potential and a mission to make publishing accessible to the whole world. Boston is a city with prolific, world-renowned universities, vibrant tech communities, and an incredible spirit. One of the reasons why I help organize this meetup is because I have seen first-hand the opportunities it creates for attendees when these groups come together.
While I look forward to our meetups each and every month, our speaker lineup for April has me even more excited than usual. If you’ve been meaning to attend a WordPress Boston meetup event and just haven’t gotten around to it, this is the month you should finally make it happen.
Event Details
Date: April 27, 2026
Time: 6:30PM-9:00PM
Location:
Microsoft New England Research and Development (NERD) Center
1 Memorial Drive
Cambridge, MA 02142
You must RSVP to attend.
More details and the RSVP form can be found on the meetup.com event page.
A Local Pioneer
I checked my email one day last September to find a new post from Ethan Marcotte’s journal. He wrote about how he was looking for his next endeavor having just finished a project with the City of Boston where he helped the Digital Services team define a new design system. I realized I had forgotten that he was based in Boston.
Anyone and everyone is welcome to speak at our meetups so long as the topic is useful in some way to those who use or build with WordPress (submit a talk proposal if you think that’s you)! While we occasionally have speakers from out of town when logistics line up right, it’s very important to me that the meetup is a platform for celebrating and showcasing the amazing talents from the greater Boston area. The organizing team regularly performs outreach to individuals who we feel can offer valuable insight to the attendees of our meetup. I’m someone who tends to aim high. The worst case scenario: you don’t receive an answer or they politely decline.
I reached out through his website’s contact form and I’m glad I did! After a bit of coordination and planning, we landed on April’s meetup for him to give his talk The design systems between us.
In the early days, design systems promised us more consistent interfaces, more collaborative teams, and improved velocity. While they’ve delivered on some of those fronts, they’ve introduced new challenges too. Let’s talk through what’s working well—and what could be working better—as we take a closer look at the systems between us and our work.
In case you’re unfamiliar with Ethan, here’s a bit more about him.
Ethan Marcotte is a designer, speaker, and author. He’s perhaps best known for creating responsive web design, which helped the industry discover a new way of designing for the ever-changing Web. Ethan is also the author of two popular books on the topic, Responsive Web Design and Responsive Design: Patterns and Principles.
Over the last two decades, Ethan’s clientele has included New York Magazine, Adobe, The Boston Globe, and more; he also cofounded Editorially, a platform for collaborative writing and editing. Additionally, Ethan has been a featured speaker at conferences across the globe, including Adobe MAX, SXSW Interactive, and Webstock.
Ethan’s most recent book is You Deserve a Tech Union.
WordPress 7.0 and Beyond
While featuring local talent is important to the organizing team, another factor that we’re always trying to balance in our programming is bringing in leaders from outside of the Bay State. Again aiming high, I reached out to Mary Hubbard about having her speak at our meetup. As the Executive Director of the WordPress Project, there’s few people in a better position to present about where WordPress is going and the impact it will have on creators and local businesses.
After some back and forth, April also ended up as the best month to fit our meetup into her busy schedule. Meetups are a critical part of the overall WordPress equation and one of the reasons why it has grown to the Open Source giant it is today. We’re grateful for her willingness to attend our meetup to engage with our community by talking about what the 7.0 release mans for the project, and how community events like our meetup can play a role in the next 20 years of WordPress.
7.0 marks a pivotal new milestone in WordPress with the introduction of real-time collaboration and the WP AI Client, which adds the foundational APIs to help drive the project into an AI future. What was actually included in the release? Where is the project headed in the next 12 months? And why are WordPress meetups, WP Campus Connect, and the WP Credits programs critical to the project’s short and long-term future?
Mary Hubbard is the Executive Director of WordPress, the open-source software platform maintained and supported by thousands of independent contributors worldwide.
With 20 years of industry experience, Mary specializes in product development, program management, and organizational efficiency. Prior to joining WordPress, she held senior leadership roles at global tech companies including TikTok, eBay, Walmart, Assurant, and TruRating.
A published author featured on platforms like Entrepreneur.com, Mary writes extensively about leadership, transparency, and team empowerment. She is deeply committed to open source, advocating for its sustainability and integrity for future generations of creators.
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