Tag: events

WordPress’ Community team has proposed a draft for the 2024 Global Community Sponsorship Program, with fees increased to cover the costs of the rapidly expanding number of in-person events.

The program supports the volunteer-organized local events so that they can provide free or low-cost access for attendees. It helps companies streamline their sponsorship contributions across multiple events with less administrative overhead than it would be to sponsor individual WordCamps. The program does not include flagship events such as WordCamps Europe, Asia, and US.

Fees have gone up since 2023 for all three sponsorship packages: Gold, Silver, and Bronze, which offer varying degrees of visibility at in-person WordPress events.

The 2021 and 2022 programs did not include funding for WordCamps, due to the unpredictability of hosting in-person events when the pandemic made conditions unfavorable in many places across the world. At that time many WordCamp and meetup organizers opted to continue with virtual events.

In 2023, WordPress events are ramping back up again. Automattic-sponsored community contributor Isotta Peira said the number of in-person events has increased by 60% compared to 2022, and they expect Next Gen events will keep the program growing into 2024. So far 15 pilot events have been confirmed for the new Next Gen format, with 11 of them happening in 2023.

“As a result of the Meetup Reactivation project that started in July 2022 and ended in June 2023, 270 dormant Meetups started hosting events again,” Peira said. “Today, we have 729 WordPress Chapter Meetups in 107 countries and over 500,000 members globally. In the first 7 months of 2023, the WordPress Community has held 27 WordCamps, and another 29 are scheduled before year-end.”

The proposal highlighted a few stats demonstrating the strong resurgence of community events:

• 36 local WordCamps held in 2023 to date, with 25 more scheduled before year end
• 173% increase in WordCamps since last year: 60 WordCamps anticipated to be held in 2023, compared to 22 in 2022
• 729 meetup groups across 107 countries
• 507,796 meetup group members, program-wide
• 2,998 meetup events scheduled in 2023 to date, and over 340 more scheduled through the end of the year

The uptick in events is the direct result of the Community team’s efforts in 2023 to reactivate dormant meetup groups, bring back in-person WordCamps, and evolve the WordCamp program to make room for new event types.

Companies that are interested to support WordPress’ burgeoning events program can get on board for 2024 by emailing support@wordcamp.org before November 30, 2023.

WordPress’ Community team is evolving the WordCamp format to promote adoption, training, and networking for professionals, leaving the flagship events to focus more on connection and inspiration. This change opens the door for more creative concepts around the events’ new mission:

WordPress events spark innovation and adoption by way of accessible training and networking for users, builders, designers, and extenders. We celebrate community by accelerating 21st-century skills, professional opportunities, and partnerships for WordPressers of today and tomorrow.

A group of eight pilot events were confirmed in June, and two recent “NextGen” WordPress events have already happened, including a community-building workshop in Japan, and WordCamp Bengaluru, a one-day event featuring the local culture and a walking tour of the city.

The Community team has compiled a list of more than three dozen concepts to inspire NextGen event organizers. The list spans a wide range of ideas, such as college campus based groups, sponsor networking days, show and tell night, job fairs, events for agencies, WordPress retreats, and many more.

Anyone who is interested to host one of these new event types is invited to fill out a form that the Community team has created to capture ideas for future events – either before the end of 2023, or during the first half of 2024. Organizers will be asked to identify a category for their proposed event from among the following:

• WP expertise level (beginners, intermediate, advanced)
• Focused activity (training, recruiting, networking, contributing, conferencing, etc)
• Job status (students, fresh graduates, job seekers, freelancers, business owners, etc)
• Identity-based (women, castes, BIPOC, Latinx, LGBTQI+, tribes, age, etc)
• Content topic focused (designers, block development, SEO, etc)

Although the form is presented as a survey, it’s more of an interest form, which is why it collects the respondent’s contact information. Respondents who indicate they are willing to have a discussion about their ideas may be contacted by the Community team.

This year’s WordCamp US includes a Community Summit, an invitation-only contributor-focused event that will take place prior to the main conference on August 22-23, 2023, in National Harbor, Washington, DC. It will be the first summit in six years, since the last one was held in Paris, France in 2017.

Historically, the summit has offered contributors the rare opportunity to hold in-person discussions on important topics across teams. In order to ensure the gathering is diverse and inclusive, previous community summit organizers have included a travel assistance program to remove the financial barriers of attending.

The 2023 Community Summit travel fund is providing $48,000 in travel assistance, thanks to a group of sponsors that includes Automattic, A2 Hosting, Elementor, and Weglot. The funding will support 38 attendees with roundtrip transportation ($31K for 24 people) and hotel stays ($16,500 for 66 hotel nights for 22 people).

Attendees have been reminded about the non-attribution guideline which enables the event to offer a safe and inclusive environment for collaboration where comments are not attributed to specific individuals. Discussions, photographs, recaps, and summaries can be shared as long as they abide by the non-attribution guideline.

The schedule has been published, featuring 26 discussion topics. Contributors will have dedicated sessions to discuss the criteria for delaying the upgrade of foundational tech, understanding contributor leadership roles, refining Five for the Future for a robust WordPress community, accessibility in the WordPress project, open source participation in global legislation, backwards compatibility in Gutenberg, among other interesting topics that lend themselves to cross-team collaboration.

WordCamp Asia 2024 is happening in Taipei, Taiwan, next year from March 7-9, at the Taipei International Convention Center (TICC). With the dates locked in and venue secured, organizers have now opened the call for speakers. The event will feature three days of talks, workshops, and networking events, and organizers expect more than 2,000 attendees.

Talks will be given in English and there will be four different formats for sessions:

• Long Talks: 40 minutes total (30 minutes for talk + 10 minutes for Q&A)
• Lightning Talks: 10 minutes total (10 minutes for talk only. No Q&A)
• Panel Discussions: Approximately 60 minutes with Q&A
• Workshops: 90 minutes up to half a day

WordCamp Asia’s organizers suggested nearly two dozen acceptable topics across a wide range of disciplines, including accessibility, SEO, marketing, Web3, AI, security, case studies, and more. They are especially “interested in hearing about diverse topics and inspirational stories. Topics such as trends, new approaches, and upcoming changes in related software and WordPress itself will be encouraged.”

The call for speakers includes those who are hoping to host or join a panel discussion or host a workshop. Speakers do not have to be experienced at public speaking to be selected for WordCamp Asia. Those who do not have videos of previous talks can record a 5-10 minute video talking about their topic and link to it in the speaker form.

WordCamp Asia has launched an Underrepresented Speaker Support Initiative alongside this call for speakers with the goal of removing financial barriers for speakers. The program calls on companies to invest in creating a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive tech community by sponsoring underrepresented speakers, helping them practice their talks, and promoting the cause.

The event’s organizers are also calling for sponsors, media partners, and volunteers. Prospective speakers are limited to two presentation submissions and can also indicate if they would be willing to be selected as a backup speaker. Applications will close on September 30, 2023. Speakers will be notified about the outcome of the selection process in November, followed by speaker announcements in December.

WordCamp US 2023 is happening next month in National Harbor, Maryland. The Contributor Day will kick off the event on Thursday, August 24, preceding the conference days. It is open to any attendee, including those who have never contributed before and seasoned contributors alike. There are many technical and non-technical ways to contribute to WordPress.

Those who are not able to attend WordCamp US are also welcome to join the event virtually via the the #contributor-day Slack channel. New contributors attending in person will begin at 8:30 AM EST and returning contributors will join at 9:30. A guide will be present in the Slack channel at 10 AM EST to help virtual contributors.

Recommendations for preparing for Contributor Day are on the event page, along with a list and description of all the Make WordPress teams that contributors can elect to join.

The sign up form is now open for everyone who plans to attend the event in person. It includes the opportunity to give feedback on anticipated accessibility needs and meal preferences for the lunch provided during the event. Contributors will also be asked to select their preferred contributor team(s) during sign up so organizers can be prepared with team leads available.

The State of Digital Publishing, a startup market research publisher focused on digital media, is hosting an online event called WordPress Publishers Performance Summit (WPPS) on July 27, starting at 2PM EST. The organization’s mission is to help publishers develop sustainable business models through education, guides, online courses, and other resources. They have partnered with Multidots, a WordPress development agency and WordPress.com VIP Gold Partner, who is sponsoring the event.

WPPS will feature 10 panelists speaking on best practices for managing and optimizing the performance of WordPress publishing sites. Panelists have been selected from high performance teams at The Boston Globe, Forbes, Multidots, WordPress.com VIP, Parse.ly, and other publishers.

The schedule includes four 40-minute sessions over the span of four hours:

• How to do less: evaluate your website’s performance and metrics
• Reasons why your Core Web Vitals are not passing
• Successfully securing and scaling WordPress
• Improving publishing workflow – the threats and opportunities ahead

These sessions will be aimed at editorial and content strategists, SEO specialists, ad tech and integration professionals, and others working in the publishing industry.

WPPS is free and attendees can register on the event’s website. Unlike many other virtual events, the organizers do not plan to record the sessions so those who are interested will need to watch them live. Participants will have the opportunity to ask questions and have them answered by the panel. Those who are unable to attend live can sign up on the website to receive an ebook with the panelists’ recommended WordPress best practices that were shared at the event.

WordCamp Dhaka (Bangladesh) 2023 has been cancelled by The WordPress Community Team due to concerns of corporate influence on the community decision-making process. The camp was scheduled for August 5, and organizers had already secured a venue and progressed on moving the camp forward.

The Community Team published a statement on the event’s website, which cited the interference of corporate interests:

The WordPress Community Team’s primary goal is to support and nurture the WordPress community by enabling organizers to create amazing events that celebrate WordPress, its community, and globally shared values. The Community team cannot support the event if a WordCamp is not aligned with these values.

WordPress events benefit the WordPress community as a whole, not specific businesses or individuals. The Community Team expects that WordCamps decisions should be guided by the community’s collective wisdom and not influenced by any one company’s interests. When companies attempt to exert influence on the planning process, the Community Team must step in to mediate. In this instance, we have decided to cancel WordCamp Dhaka 2023.

The Community Team urged the Dhaka community to focus on collaborative organization, companies uplifting the community, and greater diversity in participation.

In an equally vague incident report on WordPress.org, which doesn’t even identify the WordCamp that was cancelled, Community Team contributor Sam Suresh called it “an unfortunate but necessary decision.” He summarized the team’s reasons for the decision:

The decision to cancel the event was not a result of inadequate planning or insufficient effort on the part of the organizing team. Instead, there were observable actions from local community members to influence decisions that would benefit specific individuals or companies. When this influence did not immediately lead to their desired results, the individuals aimed to undermine the organizing process and event success. While the Community Team took steps to mediate, the inappropriate behavior and actions we saw necessitated the cancelation. This is a rare and extreme decision and underscores the severity of the situation.

Suresh said the issues applied to the local meetup group as well, and that all co-organizers and event organizers were removed from their roles and required to repeat their orientation to gain access again. A community deputy and a mentor were also removed from their roles in the project and the companies involved in the infractions were banned from sponsoring WordPress events for a year.

“In times of challenges like these, it is important to remember that anyone can organize WordPress events regardless of who they work for and that WordPress community events are for the benefit of everyone, not any one business or individual,” Suresh said. “As a community, we will not tolerate harassment or influencing unacceptable behaviors.”

Shortly after publishing, several community members commented with objections to the level of secrecy around the issues at hand and the people and companies involved. The Community Team’s nebulous posts on the matter seem to have further scandalized the situation, instead of offering clarity and transparency.

“This post definitely abides by the ongoing policy of not letting the community know who is being censured by the Community Services team, even in cases of egregious action,” WordPress marketing and meta contributor Sé Reed commented.

“I’ve seen multiple cases of people filing harassment reports and various Code of Conduct violations, and that person/people have had various consequences, including being removed from organizing teams. However, those people then cite various reasons for leaving the team, often outright lying. But because of the secrecy around these cases, no one says otherwise and those people can and often do continue to operate in the community without any repercussions beyond secretly losing their ‘official’ role(s).”

Reed highlighted the damaging effects of the secrecy surrounding these incidents, most notably that explaining the situation often falls to those who filed the report, as the Community Team abdicates any further responsibility after validating the report.

“This action is damaging to the community as a whole, as we do not have a full picture of who we are working with and we continue to unknowingly support and empower people who have not honored their community commitments,” Reed said.

Not all participants in the discussion were in favor of The Community Team identifying the individuals involved, but in this situation they demand to know the companies that were banned from sponsoring WordPress events.

“I’m on the fence about knowing peoples’ names here, but I think people definitely need to know the companies involved; actively trying to sabotage a WordPress WordCamp is a serious breach of trust for the community,” WebDevStudios Director of Engineering Mitch Cantor said. “Especially when they may turn around and then make money from that said community they tried to sabotage.”

Dealing with these types of sensitive situations is not an enviable task, but the community, for whom these decisions are designed to serve, is calling for a greater level of transparency regarding those who act in ways that are not aligned with WordPress’ globally shared values.

“One way or the other, protecting folks who have violated the Community Code of Conduct is a policy that very clearly needs to be revisited,” Reed said.

WordCamp Asia has announced its dates for 2024. The flagship event is now officially scheduled for March 7-9, in Taipei, Taiwan. Organizers have secured the Taipei International Convention Center (TICC) venue to host the event, which is located in the business district not far from Taipei 101, formerly known as the Taipei World Financial Center, a skyscraper that is the city’s most visible landmark. TICC has a capacity of more than 3,000 people.

“The local community is massive and I’ve been told that WordCamp Taiwan (this October) alone would boast of at least 500 attendees,” organizer John Ang said after visiting Taipei with his team to sign the venue. “While we were on the same trip, we were lucky to be able to celebrate  the 20th Anniversary of WordPress with the Taiwanese community.

“There’s also active work bringing in government support and other open source communities across the region (e.g. Hong Kong) to WordCamp Asia next year.” 

WordCamp Asia attendees can expect 3-5 tracks of sessions featuring diverse presentations across a range of topics for beginners and seasoned WordPress professionals alike. The venue also offers ample common areas for networking.

More details on the event and calls for speakers and sponsors should be coming soon. Those who are hopeful to attend can subscribe to updates on the event’s website or follow @WordCampAsia on Twitter.

WordCamp Europe 2023 in Athens attracted more than 2,500 attendees from 94 countries, made possible by 112 organizers and 250 volunteers. The event is now looking forward to 2024, which will be hosted by the Italian WordPress community in Torino, Italy, June 13-15. This modern city is located at the foot of the Alps in northwestern Italy and has more than 2,000 years of history to explore.

WCEU 2024 is calling for organizers who will serve on one of a dozen teams that have been operating for the past few years, including attendee services, budget, design, sales and sponsors, communications, and more.

Those selected to organize will begin planning WCEU in September 2023 and will work with a distributed team on a weekly basis until June 2024.

During the 2023 event’s speaker announcements, the WCEU organizing team was criticized for the second year in a row regarding its commitment to diversity. The previous year organizers were called out for the lack of diversity on the organizing team and this year the complaint was a lack of diversity in the speaker selection.

WCEU 2023 organizers published a transparent account of the various selection processes used for organizers, speakers, media partners, and others involved in the event. The article states that organizers are shortlisted based on their skills, with an effort “to keep gender parity high whilst also selecting people from all available European WordPress communities.” It also states that applicants’ experience and enthusiasm are chief among selection factors but organizers also reach out to encourage underrepresented groups to apply:

During the selection process we don’t have anything that resembles a “positive discrimination” policy, whereby we choose people based on their race, color, background, gender, sexual identity, or any other attribute; we solely chose people based on their stated experience and enthusiasm to be part of the team…

Acknowledging that diversity within the Organizing team is important, we reach out to community groups and members before and during the application process, encouraging people to apply where we have historically seen underrepresentation.

The article concludes with a statement of willingness to modify this selection process if the organization is not able to achieve a diverse lineup:

WordCamp Europe is an iterative event; each year learns from the last and 2024 will be no different. We cannot take for granted that achieving diversity one year guarantees it the next. As a flagship WordCamp event we may need to positively discriminate to achieve gender parity, or fair representation of communities. 

The call for 2024 organizers does not identify any changes that have been made to the selection process. Prospective organizers will need to fill out the application form highlighting their skills, experience, and desired role.