WordCamp US 2026 is in full swing in Phoenix, Arizona, and today — Monday, August 17 — is Showcase Day, dedicated to real-world WordPress projects, live demos, and ideas developers can take home and adapt for their own work.
What’s Happening Today: Showcase Day
Showcase Day is one of the most hands-on days of WordCamp US. Rather than traditional talks, it’s structured around live demonstrations of WordPress in production — how teams build features, manage publishing workflows, and run demanding sites at scale. Key sessions today include:
- WP 101: Build a Real Website, Today (1:30–3:15 pm MST) — A live, end-to-end site build for attendees of all skill levels.
- Office Hours: Take Your Site Live (3:30–4:15 pm MST) — Hands-on help getting your project across the finish line.
- Networking (5:15–6:00 pm MST) — Connect with the global WordPress community.
What’s Coming: Conference Days (August 18–19)
The main conference kicks off tomorrow with four dedicated tracks:
- AI — Sessions on integrating AI into WordPress workflows, including the new Abilities API and AI client introduced in WordPress 7.0.
- Technical WordPress — Deep dives for developers, including block migration at scale, security best practices, and the always-iframed editor in WordPress 7.1.
- Honing Your Skills — Practical sessions for developers and designers looking to level up.
- Beginner WordPress — Accessible content for those just getting started.
Highlighted sessions include:
- Migrating to Blocks (With Artisanal Care, at Industrial Scale)
- The Attacker That Never Logged In: The Blind Spot in WordPress Security
- Everything is Fine & Nothing is Good: Design Systems in the Age of AI
- The Site Is the Source of Truth: Block Themes, AI, & Agency Workflows
The Big Moment: WordPress 7.1 Launches on Closing Day
The headline event of the week arrives on Wednesday, August 19 — the final day of WordCamp US — when WordPress 7.1 officially launches. Here’s a quick recap of what’s shipping:
- Responsive Styling & Interactive States — Hover, focus, and active states become native editor controls, eliminating a huge amount of custom CSS.
- New Blocks: Playlist & Tabs — Both stabilized in Gutenberg 23.6 and shipping in core.
- Always-Iframed Editor — The post editor is now always iframed. Blocks on Block API v2 or lower need updating to v3.
- Media Overhaul — HEIC and AVIF support, a new crop/rotate modal, and uploads that retry on connection drops.
- Icons API — New APIs for registering icons and icon collections in Core, ready for plugins to extend.
- Shareable Revisions — Share links to specific revisions for faster team collaboration.
- @Mention Email Notifications — Get notified when mentioned in a Note.
- REST API Batch Requests — Multiple REST API requests can now be bundled into a single HTTP request, drastically reducing latency in JavaScript-based front-ends.
Note for developers: Real-time collaboration is not in 7.1 — it continues development for a future release. React 19 in Core has also been deferred again.
Key Takeaways for Developers
- Test your plugins and themes against the always-iframed editor before August 19.
- Update any blocks still on Block API v2 to v3 to avoid breakage.
- The REST API batch requests feature is a major win for JavaScript-heavy frontends — plan to take advantage of it.
- The new Icons API opens up a clean, standardized way to manage icons across plugins.
Hashtags: #WordCampUS #WordPress71 #WordPressNews #WebDevelopment #WPDev #WordCampUS2026 #WordPress
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