Picture this: A single day where the brightest minds in WordPress development converge to crack the code on AI-driven workflows, headless architectures, and performance magic. That’s DE{CODE} 2025, WP Engine’s flagship virtual event. Taking place on April 15, 2025, it’s your ticket to mastering the tools and strategies redefining the web. Whether you’re deploying headless sites at scale, wrestling with the Block Editor, or turning accessibility into a revenue stream, this year’s conference is engineered to supercharge your craft.
Register for DE{CODE} 2025 and pick one of three sessions geared to your time zone:
- Americas: 10:00 AM CDT
- APAC: 10:00 AM AEST
- EMEA: 10:00 AM GMT
Pick your time zone, grab your coffee, and join thousands of developers and agencies redefining what’s possible with WordPress.
Keynote Highlights
This year’s keynote addresses will feature forward-thinking insights from AI experts, digital innovators, and WP Engine leaders.
WP Engine’s CEO Heather Brunner will kick things off with a reflective look at the strength of the WordPress community and the exciting opportunities that lie ahead for everyone in it. Brunner will also close out the day with final remarks focused on how we can all work together to build a bright future for WordPress and its community.
Llama Lounge Founder and AI thought leader Jeremiah Owyang will discuss the rise of AI-driven search and how brands can evolve their content strategies for an AI-first future.
AI ethics expert and Humane Intelligence CEO Dr. Rumman Chowdhury will share insights on building AI that prioritizes fairness, transparency, and inclusivity.
Discover WP Engine’s latest AI-powered tools, including new solutions for intelligent search, personalized content recommendations, and performance optimization.
For Developers: Code Smarter, Build Faster
DE{CODE} 2025 isn’t just another webinar marathon. It’s a launchpad for developers ready to harness AI without the buzzword bloat. There are two entire tracks of dev and agency-focused sessions, but the developer content really starts to heat up with the keynotes, including WP Engine’s Product Showcase, with CTO Ramadass Prabhakar and Senior Product Manager Luke Patterson demoing WP Engine’s newest AI tools—think intelligent search, hosted Vector databases, and performance optimizations that could shave hours off your workflow.
Looking specifically at the developer track, WP Engine’s Luke Patterson is joined by Justin Castilla of Elastic Search and Trew Knowledge’s Anthony Moore and Jeffrey Zalischi to turn the spotlight on real-world AI use cases with “Vetting AI in ’25: What’s Hype? What’s Help?” They’ll dissect projects where AI-driven search tripled user engagement and share frameworks to avoid “solution in search of a problem” traps. Leave with a checklist: When to automate, when to innovate, and when to ignore the AI noise entirely.
Next up on the developer track, WP Engine’s Iain Poulson and Rob Stinson bring us “From Chaos to Control with ACF.” The Block Editor is highly flexible, but that flexibility can backfire fast—clients adding rainbow text, breaking layouts, or hiding CTAs. Poulson and Stinson will show how to save your sanity with ACF mastery. They’ll demo how to lock down design integrity, create foolproof templated modules, and turn the editor into a client-friendly powerhouse.
Rounding out the purely developer-focused sessions, Big Bite Creative’s Jason Agnew and WP Engine’s Jason Konen and Kellen Mace tackle “Building the Digital Newsroom of the Future”. Developers play a key role in tailoring the world’s largest media sites for high-volume publishing, and this session will lift the veil on how they build custom workflows for publishers pushing 500+ articles daily, including enhancing efficiency, seamless scaling, and creating a publishing experience built for the demands of digital media.
For Agencies: Transform Challenges Into Opportunities
Agencies face a perfect storm in 2025: Clients want faster sites, AI-driven solutions, and bulletproof accessibility—all while competing with in-house teams and tightening budgets. DE{CODE} 2025 hands you the playbook to not just survive, but thrive.
Nicholas Petroski, founder of Promethean Research, and Charles Oh of WP Engine kick off the agency track with “Agency Trends 2025”, showing how top firms are winning talent, clients, and margins in this shifting landscape. Petroski brings hard data from his firm’s 2025 State of Digital Services report, revealing where the industry is headed, what high-performing agencies are doing differently, and how firms can adapt to stay competitive. Next, Americaneagle.com’s Ellis LaMay, WP Engine’s MJ Zorick, Illustrate Digital’s Scott Jones, and Wpromote’s Scott Stamile team up for “Leveraging Headless WordPress on Ambitious Agency Projects.” They break downwhen to pitch headless, hybrid, or traditional builds—plus how to rein in clients who want “all the buzzwords” without the infrastructure to match.
“The Case for Selling Accessibility as a Service” rounds out the agency track. Hosted by Brian Gardner of WP Engine and Chris Hinds of Equalize Digital, the session explores how improving website accessibility benefits users and overall profitability. The session will include actionable information on how to assess sites, prioritize changes likely to have the most impact, and package accessibility as a valuable service for clients.
For Marketers: Stay Sharp, Stay Relevant
The third track at DE{CODE} 2025 is dedicated to marketers, with sessions like “Tech-first Marketing: Tools, Teams & Tactics,” “Marketing Money Pits: Where Brands Waste Time and Budget,” and “SEO and AI: Did AI Just Eat My Search Traffic?”
Ready to Level Up?
DE{CODE] 2025 isn’t about passive listening—it’s about arming yourself with what’s next. Last year drew 4,000+ attendees from 86 countries, and 2025 raises the stakes with keynotes from AI luminaries like Dr. Rumman Chowdhury and Jeremiah Owyang.
Plus, all sessions land in your inbox post-event. No FOMO, just pure flexibility.
Register now and carve out April 15 for a day of actionable insights, demos, and community spark. Check the full agenda to bookmark your favorite sessions and make sure to catch the closing keynote “A Community in Bloom”, where Heather Brunner wraps the day with a call to action: “The best work is still ahead—let’s build it together.”
See you in the future.