Piermario Orecchioni receives the Yoast Care fund for his contribution to the WordPress community

Meet Piermario Orecchioni, a valued member of the WordPress Community Team! Stefano Cassone nominated Piermario for the Yoast Care fund based on his commitment and valuable contributions to the community. Let’s learn more about this passionate WordPress enthusiast.

Nominator Stefano Cassone: “Piermario is a great contributor to the WordPress community, both Italian and international. He is one of the GTEs of the Italian WordCamp team, as well as a WordCamp organizer. Last year, he was the organizer of WordCamp Torino, and this year, he is the leader of the Content team for WordCamp Europe 2024, which he has dedicated a lot of time. I believe he is one of the most cheerful people in the community and a true friend who offers to help as soon as needed, facts that make him one of the most listened-to contributors.”

Let’s get to know Piermario Orecchioni

That’s quite an introduction, Stefano! We would love to get to know Piermario even better. That’s why we asked him some questions about his work and his passion for WordPress:

Hi, Piermario! What do you do?

I’m a web designer living in Italy, on the island of Sardinia. In the WordPress Community, I’m part of the Italian Polyglots Team as a GTE and translation editor with the permissions (and responsibility) to validate strings on all projects with an Italian version, from WordPress core to themes and plugins. In addition to that, I’m also a WordCamp organizer. I’ve been part of WordCamp Italy in 2021 and 2022 and WordCamp Torino in 2023 as part of the Speakers Team. I’ve also been part of the Content Team at WordCamp Europe 2023 in Athens and the Team Lead for the Content Team at WordCamp Europe 2024 in Torino. I do some other things here and there in the Community, but these are my main ones.

Why did you start contributing? Could you share your first contribution with us?

I started contributing back in 2017 after being a bit of a lurker in the Italian WordPress Slack for quite some time. At first, I began translating strings for several plugins I was using for my customers’ websites without even reading the Polyglots handbook. I did not know I was supposed to ask for revisions and approval of the translated strings. I started participating in weekly meetings on the #polyglots channel. At that time, I realized there was a group of people actively working on translations, a handbook, style guidelines, and a glossary… it took me a while to get there, but I’m thrilled I did.

Who is your WordPress hero?

My WordPress hero is everyone who keeps showing up and finds the time, motivation, and resources to contribute to the Community in any form. Many contributors, including me, are not sponsored but still spend much time and resources participating in different teams and initiatives. Every contribution is precious and should not be taken for granted. I’m grateful to all those who are helping right now and those who helped in the past and helped shape the WordPress Community as we know it.

Who is your WordPress mentor?

Two of the most important people I met while contributing to WordPress are Laura Sacco and the late Paolo “Wolly” Valenti. They are pivotal members of the Italian Community. Dealing with translations at first can be challenging and come with a million doubts. Wolly taught me to contribute without fear of making mistakes, embracing possible errors and imperfections as stepping stones. We can make mistakes if we are willing to learn and do better next time. Laura, who rebooted the Italian Polyglots team years ago. I’m now lucky to call a dear friend. She repeatedly showed what it means to lead by setting a good example, listening to every voice, and being resolute without ever lacking kindness and grace. She’s a treasure for the whole WordPress community.

What contribution or moment are you most proud of?

One of the contributions I’m most proud of is the work with the Content Team at WordCamp Europe 2024 in Torino. We challenged ourselves to innovate how a Content Team works and try new directions. Starting from a welcoming Call for Speakers that received almost 500 applications. We created one of the most diverse event schedules ever, achieving gender parity among speakers. The way our event program was obtained has been very positive. We hope this will inspire future WordCamps to follow in our footsteps.

Where may people find you? Online, WordCamps, other meetups?

People can find me on piermario.com or happierweb.com, on social media on what’s left of Twitter (still Twitter to me), and on Mastodon and Bluesky as @piermario. Someday, I’ll even update LinkedIn.

Thank you for this interview, Piermario, and all your contributions to the WordPress community! Do you know someone like Piermario Orecchioni who deserves to be in the spotlight? Go to our Yoast Care page and nominate them right away.