WordCamp US 2026 Conference Day 1 Is Underway in Phoenix
The WordPress community has gathered at the Phoenix Convention Center for the first of two main conference days at WordCamp US 2026 — and the energy is electric. With over 1,500 attendees from around the globe, today’s sessions are packed with insights on AI, block development, security, and the future of WordPress development.
The timing couldn’t be more significant: WordPress 7.1 drops tomorrow, August 19, making this year’s WordCamp US a landmark event for the entire ecosystem.
🎤 Day 1 Keynote: AI Innovation Lessons from Disney & Meta
The day kicked off with a keynote from Loyal Pyczynski, titled “Dreaming with AI: Innovation Lessons from the Front Lines of Disney & Meta.” Drawing on his experience at two of the world’s most iconic tech-forward companies, Pyczynski explored how AI is reshaping creative workflows and what WordPress developers can learn from enterprise-scale AI adoption.
📋 Key Sessions Happening Today
Today’s schedule spans four tracks — AI, Honing Your Skills, Technical WordPress, and Beginning WP101 — with standout sessions including:
- “Everything is Fine and Nothing is Good: Design Systems in the Age of AI” — Michelle Hunt explores how AI is disrupting (and improving) design system workflows.
- “Migrating to Blocks (With Artisanal Care, at Industrial Scale)” — K Adam White tackles the real-world challenges of large-scale block migrations, a hot topic ahead of WP 7.1’s always-iframed editor.
- “Staying Relevant as a WordPress Developer in 2026” — Daniel Paz addresses the question on every developer’s mind: how do you stay competitive in an AI-driven landscape?
- “Abilities API for Humans” — Nik McLaughlin dives into one of WordPress 7.1’s headline developer features, the new Abilities API for AI integration.
- “0 Days Since The Last Supply Chain Attack: Protecting the WordPress Project in an AI World” — Jonathan Desrosiers delivers a critical security session on protecting the WordPress ecosystem from AI-assisted supply chain attacks.
- “Surviving the Plugin Stack” — Matt Dorman offers a practical playbook for auditing and simplifying complex WordPress sites.
🚀 WordPress 7.1 Launches Tomorrow — Here’s What’s Coming
The conference is buzzing with anticipation for WordPress 7.1, which officially releases on August 19, 2026 — the final day of WordCamp US. Here are the headline features developers need to know:
- Responsive Styling Controls: Set different styles per screen size directly in the editor — no CSS required.
- Interactive State Styling: Native hover, focus, and active state controls built into the block editor.
- Always-Iframed Editor: The post editor now always loads in a sealed iframe for block themes — blocks on API v2 or lower need updating to v3.
- Two New Core Blocks: The Playlist block (audio player with waveform visualization) and the Tabs block (clickable content panels) ship as stable Core blocks.
- Enhanced Notes: @mention email notifications, shareable revision links, suggestion mode, and emoji reactions for better team collaboration.
- New Identity Screen: Site title, tagline, logo, and favicon now live in one dedicated Appearance > Editor > Identity panel.
- Built-in Image Editor: Crop, rotate, and flip images directly in the block editor with a new dedicated modal.
- Icons API: Developers can now register custom SVG icon collections natively via
wp_register_icon_collection(). - HEIC & AVIF Media Support: Modern image formats now supported natively.
Notably, real-time co-editing and the React 19 upgrade did not make the final 7.1 release — the latter is available as an experimental option only.
📅 What’s Coming Tomorrow (Day 2 + WP 7.1 Launch)
Wednesday, August 19 brings the closing day of WordCamp US 2026, featuring a Fireside Chat keynote with Matt Mullenweg and sessions on agentic WordPress development, AI legal compliance, and vibe coding. The day closes with the WordCamp US Social party.
And of course — WordPress 7.1 officially launches on the same day, making it one of the most anticipated closing days in WordCamp US history.
Hashtags: #WordCampUS #WCUS2026 #WordPress #WordPress71 #WordPressDevelopment #WebDevelopment #WPCommunity
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