Hari Shanker R 3:21 pm on March 17, 2022
Tags: discussion ( 10 ), Regional WordCamps ( 4 )

Discussion: Revisiting In-person Regional WordCamps

Update on May 23, 2022:
The Community Team has now published the latest guidelines regional in-person events based on the discussions in this post: https://make.wordpress.org/community/2022/05/23/regional-in-person-wordcamps-going-forward/

I am also excited to report that following this post, we now have three applications for regional WordCamps in our queue, with one event already in pre-planning!

The Community Team is seeing a renewed interest in in-person regional WordCamps in the light of a slow but steady return of in-person WordCamps. This post aims to take another look at our existing guidelines for regional WordCamps and to explore whether the process for organizing an in-person WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. could be improved or simplified.

Context

Traditionally, WordCamps have been local, city-based events that had active local meetupMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. groups, with the exception of flagship camps such as WordCamp US and WordCamp Europe. In pre-pandemic times, several local communities expressed interest in organizing regional events, which helped our team prepare guidelines for regional WordCamps. Established communities with experienced organizers could organize a regional camp by submitting a formal proposal, which would be reviewed by deputiesProgram Supporter Community Program Supporters (formerly Deputies) are a team of people worldwide who review WordCamp and Meetup applications, interview lead organizers, and keep things moving at WordCamp Central. Find more about program supporters in our Program Supporter Handbook. before proceeding further. WordCamp Nordic (which was held successfully in 2019) and WordCamp Asia are two camps that were born out of these guidelines. Our team also discussed the possibility of organizing micro-regional WordCamps where multiple cities could come together to organize a single camp. As a result of these conversations, our enthusiastic Dutch community organizers paved way for the return of WordCamp Netherlands in 2020, which was later canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Online Regional In-Person Events

In 2020, the Community team relaxed the pathway to regional online WordCamps, allowing communities to organize regional events without a lot of hassle. This resulted in a bunch of online regional WordCamps in Centroamerica, Greece, Finland, India, Italy, Japan, Spain, and Taiwan, among others. These events were quite successful in bringing together local communities even despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Approaching In-Person Regional Events in 2022

WordCamp Netherlands (which was originally approved in 2019) is back on the schedule for 2022 as an in-person event. Some local communities have also approached WordCamp CentralWordCamp Central Website for all WordCamp activities globally. https://central.wordcamp.org includes a list of upcoming and past camp with links to each., expressing their interest in organizing regional events. At this time, our organizers are still encouraged to plan smaller city-based WordCamps over larger regional events (especially in the light of COVID restrictions that are still in place in many regions). However, I strongly feel that the Community Team should revisit the existing guidelines for regional events due to a renewed interest in the same. I would like to listen to your feedback on how, as a community, we can proceed with in-person regional events, going forward.

What guidelines should a community meet to organize a regional event?
How can the team better define micro-regional WordCamps, and can we do anything to simplify their process? For example, would a relatively smaller region – such as a state or a group of cities in countries like the USA or Canada, OR a country in Europe such as the Netherlands or Italy – qualify as a micro-regional WordCamp? Additionally, should we even have micro-regional WordCamps – can we just define regional camps using a uniform language and uniform guidelines?
Is there anything that should be changed or simplified about the application process for regional WordCamps? (For example, are proposals still required for a regional guidelines, or can these guidelines still be enforced in orientations?)
Are there any learnings from online regional events in 2020 and 2021 that can be applied to in-person regional events going forward?

Please share your thoughts in the comments by April 4, 2022 (Monday). Based on your feedback, our team will explore the possibility of revamping guidelines for regional WordCamps and will share the next steps shortly.

The following folks contributed to this post: @angelasjin @devinmaeztri @peiraisotta @juliarosia and @nao

#regional-wordcamps #discussion

Mark Howells-Mead 3:39 pm on March 17, 2022

Switzerland is such a small country that having separate WordCamps for Geneva, Lausanne, Bern and Zurich seems to be unnecessarily complicated. By re-establishing WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. Switzerland – which takes place in a different city each time and which was organised as a regional event until 2015 – we can better ensure that the visibility of the event and repetitive work can be more efficiently organised.
Dennis Ploetner 5:08 pm on March 17, 2022

Thanks a lot for this post. I believe that regional WordCamps are a great solution to restart with in-person events. But the future goal should be that we return – if possible – to local WordCamps. It could make sense to go ahead with regional events in some smaller communities like in Switzerland for example…
Marcel Bootsman 2:13 pm on March 18, 2022

We’ve had quite a few discussions about regional WordCamps in The Netherlands. Let me just say I’m happy WCNL is back on the agenda, and I hope regional/local (city based) WordCamps are evaluated according to the country geographical size, and the feedback of the people organizing them.
Miroslav Glavić 6:36 am on March 19, 2022

I MEAN THE FOLLOWING COMMENTS WITH ALL DUE RESPECT. IF YOU GET HURT, I TRULY APOLOGIZE.

I am against regional camps for the most part. I found it hypocritical that we were told non-stop to do WC (City) yet WCUSWCUS WordCamp US. The US flagship WordCamp event. was organized by the people there.

A community group should apply every year to run that year. Look at WCTO, they got tired/exhausted and didn’t do WC2019. Other members of the community could of done it.

Canada and US is too big to do regional WCs. Slovenia is not. From Trieste, Italy to Lenti Hungary…via Ljubljana (capital, centre of country) and Maribor (eastern part of the country) it’s 3 1/3 hours. Around 300-ish KM distance. It wouldn’t make sence to do WCLjubljana, WCMaribor, WCBled, WCPtuj and so forth.

With all due respect to WordCamp CentralWordCamp Central Website for all WordCamp activities globally. https://central.wordcamp.org includes a list of upcoming and past camp with links to each. people. Where are you sitting at? You can look at a map of let’s say Switzerland, Google/Youtube Switzerland and you won’t know the Community more than the locals.

Switzerland, Slovenia, Netherlands are all possible for regional WCs.

What does it matter if you call it WCLjubljana or WCSlovenia. Everything in Slovenia revolves around Ljubljana. Everything in Croatia revolves around Zagreb and so forth.

However, I am truly against continental WCs, Like Europe and Asia….it gets too expensive to attend EU/ASIA WordCamps.

Imagine having to travel from Urumqi (China), New Delhi (India), Baghdad (Iraq) to attend WCAsia in let’s say Beijing (China). Even from Urumqi.

Let the local community handle what they call it. Let different groups apply EVERY YEAR.
Juan Hernando 7:40 am on March 19, 2022

In my opinion, we would have to analyze each case individually because I don’t think that a single recommendation can work for huge countries and small countries/regions. And even within small regions, it is not the same if there are only two or three local communities or if there are a dozen.

When we organized the first WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. in Pontevedra (Galicia, Spain), our first intention was that it would be the “party” of the region, Galicia, where there were five active meetupMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. groups at that time. But if you notice, the people who came were in a very high percentage from our city and a radius of 30 kilometers. Yes, organizers or enthusiasts of the other groups came, but the general public did not travel.

Even in the meetupsMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook., if you compare the audience of our city (before the pandemic) with the Vigo meetup, which is a larger city about 25 kilometers away, you will see some familiar faces. Still, a large group of people has never been to the meetup in the neighboring town, for not having transportation, for not being able to be away from home for more than X hours, for convenience, or any reason.

I think it is important not to lose focus on the fact that WordCamps should be local events that encourage local participation and growth. We all like to have people coming to our events from far away, top speakers, sharing our cities with other people… but the work that needs to be done for the community to grow is the day-to-day of local people. And indeed, for the health of a community, probably it is better to have four events of 100 people than one big event of 300 or 400 in a single city. The closer the personal contact, the easier it is to “hook” new members.

That said, if in a country or a region, all the active groups agree that the right thing to do is to have a regional event, go ahead. No one knows the local idiosyncrasies better than they do:
· Whether people travel.
· Whether they can assemble the necessary organizing team.
· Whether venues are available.
· Whether they believe the local and regional benefit of doing it this way is superior to having separate small events and it will have a positive impact on the community.

The question is whether it fits in medium or large countries. There have been more than 10 WordCamps in a year in Spain, and I think it is excellent. But we have also heard voices that there should be a national WordCamp and not so many small events. Something that has been done online (it makes much more sense in that environment), but I think it would be a mistake in the long term for in-person events.

Of course, this is 2022. We’re coming off two terrible years, and any effort right now, small, medium, or large scale, whether local, micro-regional, regional, or supranational, seems lovely to me.
Javier Casares 8:12 am on March 19, 2022

As @unintended8 said, maybe the proposals should be reviewed if they have a goal. Maybe in small countries there is no need to have some cities and some events the same year, but one “big country one” (like Switzerland said before) and do a rotation of cities.

In other context, there are countries like Spain that have some co-official languages, usually related to a region (non-administrative). We have “gallego”, “euskera”, “catalán” and Spanish as languages, and could be an opportunity to boost people in those languages that frequently don’t have the opportunity.

Probably there are other cases when there is a great reason not to have a city-level event, but a context-related event (language, rotation team between cities, small countries).
sallijane 3:41 pm on March 19, 2022

I really think it should be adaptable to local conditions—what defines an appropriately-sized “local” community varies widely from place to place across the globe. Whether it is possible to come up with guidelines that go beyond definition by city, or whether it must be case-by-case exceptions, I don’t know, but just like WordPress itself, the goal must be to make things as easy as possible, for both attendees and organizers.
Patricia BT 10:36 pm on March 19, 2022

As said by Mark (I’m also in Switzerland, like Mark), WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. Switzerland existed in 2014 and 2015, then we were not allowed to do it under our country name, so we did a WordCamp in rotation, with city name the following years (Geneva 2016, Bern 2017, Lausanne 2018, Zurich 2019, and Geneva 2022 (which is actually our 2020 postponed due to COVID).

Talking about COVID, it’s a bit surprising to read “At this time, our organizers are still encouraged to plan smaller city-based WordCamps over larger regional events (especially in the light of COVID restrictions that are still in place in many regions).”
In my opinion, it’s precisely because of COVID that a multi-group WordCamp sounds better, easier to fill the seats, less “risky” if having to cancel, all “forces” put together (from several groups).

In Switzerland, we would never fill 1 WordCamp per city anyway, our whole country is approximately only 3x the size of the New-York metropolitan area (Tri-State area), but with only 8 millions inhabitants. There is several meetupMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. groups in that area but only 1 WordCamp New-York, right? (I might be wrong there 😉 )

And in countries such as Italy, where there were several cities having their yearly WordCamp (before COVID), do you really imagine back to that in a close future? If a WordCamp Italy is in the books, it means several teams (= several meetup groups = several cites) working together, this is what I mean by ��joined forces”… so much better in this era with less pandemic related restrictions but still the COVID present and which can surge anytime.

When we recently asked Community team by email if that could be possible to organise a new WordCamp Switzerland after the Geneva one, I got this in the reply:
“our main ask from “Micro regional camps” like WordCamp Switzerland (if it happens) is that local communities should continue to remain active with meetupsMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. and camps even if there is a countrywide camp”

Actually, in our country, local communities are not less active because of WordCamps whatever the name (city or country), we are actually “energised” by the WordCamps. Friends in other meetup groups told me they want now to revive their groups now that most COVID restrictions are lifted, discussion happens, and some people cross the country even sometimes for meetups. I’m just not sure about “remains active with camps” as anyway we never did more than one WordCamp a year in the country.

Oh and about redefining or renaming, regional is a multi-country, right? (like Nordic), what do you say for a country-one (like Switzerland, or The Netherlands)? and what about when it’s organised by several meetup groups to join forces. In 2017 it was the case in Marseille (France), organised by 3 meetup groups from the same region of southern France.

These are all different situations, and reasons to ask for such a WordCamp. I guess every country or region has their own specificities. I listed everything about Switzerland, and someone else will tell you about their place and community, like Miroslav’s post about Slovenia. That’s great to understand needs and differences.
What I don’t really understand is the need to be “that” strict and enforce the same rule for the whole world, knowing that everywhere is different. Couldn’t it be what the local people know will be better for their communities?

Thank you all for your input and the Community team for thinking about it 🙂
- Taco Verdonschot 9:37 pm on March 20, 2022
  
  Traditionally, WordCamps have been local, city-based events that had active local meetupMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. groups, with the exception of flagship camps such as WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. US and WordCamp Europe.
  
  With all due respect, @harishanker, but this claim is false.
  
  Traditionally, WordCamps were organized by local communities, and the community team facilitated them. As you can see with -for example- WordCamp The Netherlands 2009, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2015, and 2016, and WordCamp Switzerland 2014 and 2015.
  It wasn’t until 2017 that WordCamp The Netherlands wasn’t allowed anymore until we (the Dutch WP community) proved we could do city-based ones as well.
  
  So before answering the questions asked, I want to pose another one. Why does the WP community team feel the need to ‘police’ local communities on this? Why can’t the team have confidence that local communities usually do what’s in their community’s best interest?
  
  1. What guidelines should a community meet to organize a regional event?
  
  There should be a large-enough organizing team that successfully went through the on-boarding for WordCamp organizers.
  
  2. How can the team better define micro-regional WordCamps, and can we do anything to simplify their process? For example, would a relatively smaller region – such as a state or a group of cities in countries like the USA or Canada, OR a country in Europe such as the Netherlands or Italy – qualify as a micro-regional WordCamp? Additionally, should we even have micro-regional WordCamps – can we just define regional camps using a uniform language and uniform guidelines?
  
  I don’t think we need the term regional WordCamp, let alone micro-regional. I completely fail to see why there is a need for the term (micro-)regional WordCamp vs just WordCamp.
  
  3. Is there anything that should be changed or simplified about the application process for regional WordCamps? (For example, are proposals still required for a regional guidelines, or can these guidelines still be enforced in orientations?)
  
  It should be as easy or as hard to apply for a regional WordCamp as it would be to apply for a “regular” WordCamp.
  
  4. Are there any learnings from online regional events in 2020 and 2021 that can be applied to in-person regional events going forward?
  
  Yes. I’ve experienced them as great boosts for their local communities, so I think we should continue that positive trend with in-person events.
Isotta 10:59 am on March 21, 2022

I echo something mentioned by @patricia70: in my opinion, encouraging regional WCs this year and the next would bring great engagement to all communities and it would be an effective way to bring people back to local events too.

As other people commented, it’s hard to have one general rule that applies everywhere, as every country and regions are very different and have different needs.

Regarding the application process, I have a question: what is the goal behind having regional WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. organizers sharing a proposal beforehand? Why they can’t send in an application like the one used for local WordCamps?
Angela Jin 12:30 pm on March 21, 2022
Thanks for starting this discussion, @harishanker! I’m excited to see regional events (super excited for WCNL!) and the evolution of the Community Team events program.

Firstly, I see some questions around why the Community Team wants to revisit global guidelines for regional events, coupled with the feeling that the Community Team should be more trusting of local communities. I would say that there is a lot of trust in local communities: this program welcomes people who may have little to no experience in organizing, shares resources for successful organizing, and offers opportunities to level up those organizing skills. So the goal here isn’t to “police”, but to ensure those opportunities for everyone, and add to the vibrant, global fabric of the WordPress community.

Another reason I think it important to have this discussion is because the Community Team does have a lot of experience with community organizing! Knowing your local community is a great foundation. Events being a primary way that WordPress community members connect, let’s share what we know so that our communities are even more accessible and sustainable.

In the Community Team’s experience, we’ve learned a few things over the years:
- When a community meets regularly (consistent meetupsMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook.) that makes for a more successful WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. (more organizers, volunteers, attendees, engagement).
- When a community regularly welcomes new organizers, speakers, volunteers, etc., the community itself is more sustainable because it doesn’t rely on one or a few individuals.
One question I have is, if a region only has an annual, regional WordCamp, do we lose opportunities for more organizers, speakers, and volunteers? Moving from participation in a local meetupMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. to a larger, more visible WordCamp could be an exciting opportunity for some but might deter others. More visibility may mean more risk, especially for underrepresented people. Because the ask is larger, it is also more difficult to set new participants up for success. And when we don’t have new organizers, it leads to the same group of people organizing the event year after year. Speaker rosters quickly become uniform. That’s not healthy for any community

On the other hand, I could see how a small region with a shared identity could quickly tire of organizing WordCamps so close to each other, especially if they are all multi-day, multi-track events. This feels like an opportunity to explore fresh formats and sizes for WordCamps: smaller events (and therefore easier to organize) with focuses, and a larger, broader regional event. For example, in the Netherlands, we could have a series of one day, smaller events like WordCamp Leiden for Designers, WordCamp Rotterdam for Developers, WordCamp Utrecht for Publishers, culminating in a larger, multi-day, multi-focus WordCamp Netherlands in Amsterdam. This would offer the community multiple connection points, and more organizer and volunteer opportunities that progressively lead to more advanced events.
Devin Maeztri 2:22 pm on March 21, 2022

Thank you for the discussion @harishanker and thank you all for sharing your thoughts! I learn a lot!

Application wise I think it can be the same as the regular WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. application. The current process is not demanding and I’m sure we can make some adjustments if necessary.

What I think important is to understand the intention of organizing a regional WordCamp and if the application and planning reflect the regional spirit and resources.

We might also want to see how regional WordCamp can and will support MeetupsMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. and local WordCamps.
Stefano Cassone 3:41 pm on March 21, 2022

I think regional WordCamps are a great way to restart with in-person events and especially to give the national communities a boost, so as to encourage for the resumption of meetupsMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook..
Dave Loodts 6:37 am on March 22, 2022

There is a reason that a “small country” like The Netherlands is now in the top of WordPress contributors and companies. It all started in the lap of all the previous WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. The Netherlands. Never underestimate the power of these kinds of events. What Marcel said: okay when the (local) community is active and healthy AND be happy if people want to organize. So, there’s no reason to forbid these kinds of events. It will benefit everyone in the long run.
Naoko Takano 9:40 am on March 22, 2022
This is great timing to revisit the base idea of what WordCamps are, the goal, and the role we can play as community members.

I live in Tokyo, where we have a meetupMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. group with multiple organizers (27 at the moment), each holding events focused on different areas of the city or content of interest. Personally not having an option to have a country-wide WC had not been a problem, as the city is large enough. I thought an opposite trend, breaking off into smaller areas was a good trend, WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. Haneda 2019 was organized by some of Tokyo Meetup organizers to represent their area within Tokyo.

Then last year I was involved in organizing WordCamp Japan Online, the first country-wide event here. There were some benefits:
- Great cross-learning among people in the different local area
- Collaboration with people who usually don’t work for the same event
- It was online, so no need to worry about travel cost
- Community organizers or speakers in the less-populated regions can still be involved in a WC
- Any attendees in the country feel it’s also “their own” WordCamp – not in a city distant from where they live.
Of course, online events are different from in-person ones, but I can see there are some benefits for an event across wider regions. Some of the reasons are also why WCEUWCEU WordCamp Europe. The European flagship WordCamp event./US etc. can benefit the global WP community.

As many comments above mentioned, there is no one-fits-all solution. The Community Team could help by setting a guideline for evaluating if the WordCamp will achieve the goal of the local team and the WordPress community as a whole. For example:
- Minimizing the organizer risks
- Encouraging new organizers and speakers to get involved
- Fostering a long-lasting community
- Avoiding creating barriers for organizing and attendees (e.g. time, cost)
- And more, probably best to be in some kind of non-arbitrary form.
Quote from Hugh’s Discussion: Micro-regional WordCamps post:

A long-standing rule for all WordCamps is that we only ever host a WordCamp in a city that has an active and healthy meetup group. This is to ensure that WordCamp has the support and longevity that it needs to keep its momentum going.

I’m curious, do we have data that suggests the size and total number of WCs in a region matter for the longevity of the community? Will that affect member diversity and the involvement of new members? We are all interested in what makes a community thrive. I’d love to take part in shaping the future of WordPress events based on the tried and tested success and mistakes of fellow community organizers!
Destiny Kanno 4:38 pm on March 22, 2022

As I read through everyone’s input, the idea of accessibilityAccessibility Accessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility) comes strongly to mind. Online events enabled more people to connect with their communities at less cost (or free) and also from the comfort of their homes.

However this pans out, I do wonder if we could consider maintaining online elements at future WordCamps in order to increase participation and make them all more accessible.
Jessica Lyschik 8:28 pm on March 24, 2022
I’m all for micro-regional WordCamps. Two years ago, just a month before the pandemic kicked off, I wrote a blog post about the German WordPress community and their events with the clickbait-y title, translated: “How the German WordPress Community destroys their WordCamps – and how we can maybe save them” – click here for the article, German only! The feedback was overwhelmingly positive. Of course, there was also some discussion about this but let me explain why this “city-based” WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. approach kind of destroyed the German WordPress community.

I have been involved in WordCamps as attendee starting in 2014 at my first WordCamp in Hamburg, to being a volunteer and/or speaker at the following German WordCamps and even lead organizer for the WordCamp Osnabrück in March 2019. While the WordCamp Hamburg in 2014 was the only WordCamp that happened, the following years between two and three WordCamps happened per year, and if you include WCEUWCEU WordCamp Europe. The European flagship WordCamp event. 2019, there were even four WordCamps happening in Germany that year.

What you need to know about the German WordPress community: there is a coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. group, roughly between 50 and 100 people (I never counted them so I don’t have a specific number). Those people are running the local meetupMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. groups or attending them regularly. And for almost every WordCamp that happened, they come together, no matter what city the WordCamp took place. I think the situation is kinda similar in the Netherlands or in Switzerland for example.

The problem with city-based WordCamps and more of them in the same year was basically: the repition. More WordCamps, that are smaller (like 200 attendees max in 2019 for each one), three to four times a year or even more? These are not sustainable. Every WordCamp has fixed costs like location, drinks (maybe food too), swag, and more. What do more WordCamps mean? More overall fixed costs that need to be covered, every time. Both by the Foundation, global sponsors and event sponsors. Let’s talk about event sponsors: it got so hard to find sponsors willing to support the WordCamps, because they got asked by another two sponsor organizers about the a similar amount of money for basically not much in return. Let’s be honest: WordCamps of this small size like the ones in 2019 are not attractive to sponsors. Yes, there’s a some kind of ideology wanted but from a business perspective, spending money three times to a WordCamp with 200 attendees of which the half of the people know you anyway, is not really something business owners go “yay let’s do this”.

What also happened to the German WordPress community over the years that it kind of broke apart in my opinion. When I attended my first WordCamp, it looked like a nation-wide community to me that worked together, despite being scattered all over the country also running their local meetup groups. In later years, this changed somehow: yes we met again at those smaller WordCamps but the more these happened, sometimes people missed out because they didn’t want to pay for travel/accomodation the third time that year or feeling it was simply “too much”. And instead of working together, each group wanted to make “their own WordCamp”. The WordCamps got smaller, although we attended each others WordCamp, it became sort of a competition. For 2020 and a bit of 2021 between five and six WordCamps were planned, as the community found out in the German SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. group by accident. Because no one talked to each other anymore. In my opinion, this is the wrong way to go, especially for the european countries, where the communities are often (if not almost) considered a community in the entire country, not just from a specific city or state like in the US.

In my blog post I talked about different options of events:
- first a small, one day “meetup day”, like an extended version of a meetup happening an entire day, not just an evening.
- “WordCamp Germany”, with organisers from different meetup groups working on one “flagship” event, just like WordCamp Netherlands or WordCamp Switzerland as a micro-regional WordCamp. Having between 400-600 attendees, rotating the city ever year and only happening once a year.
- thinking even further, a “WordCamp D-A-CH”, a regional one like WordCamp Nordic but for the German speaking countries. I’m not sure if there’s any interest from the Austrian and Swiss communities about this at the moment. WordCamp Geneva is happening in two weeks, WordCamp Vienna is happening next month again. So our neighbouring countries are already getting back into hosting WordCamps.
In my opinion, a “WordCamp Germany” (or even D-A-CH) would be a nice way to re-introduce in-person events to the German WordPress community. I’ve not yet talked to any other community members about this, but I’m pretty sure the German community would absolutely benefit from a country-based or micro-regional event. And being able to do marketing with the name “WordCamp Germany” would even help to get attention to anyone who’s currently not involved in the local meetup groups or in the German WordPress community at all.
Piermario Orecchioni 1:53 pm on March 25, 2022

Hello, friends!

My gut feeling is that the whole process of authorizing a WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. should be streamlined and kept as simple as possible. I think the authorization process should also be aware of the reality of the WordPress community in a given location (local, regional or national that is).

Provided a reasonably sized and qualified organizing team, solid planning, and a lively community (whether local, regional, or else) that is interested in taking part in the event, I think we should be allowed to discuss and consider where hosting a WordCamp would better suit the whole community.

One of the main factors I’d look into is the actual size of the overall WordPress community in a country.

I’m an active member of the Italian Polyglots teamPolyglots Team Polyglots Team is a group of multilingual translators who work on translating plugins, themes, documentation, and front-facing marketing copy. https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/teams/., and I was part of the WordCamp Italia 2021 organizing team. Pretty much the same team got together recently and applied to organize a WordCamp Italia 2022 as an in-person (or hybrid) event. We already agreed on a possible hosting town and venue.

Looking at the day-to-day life and activity of the Italian WordPress Community on SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/., frankly, there’s a relatively small number of active members and a much bigger number of folks who take part in discussions and meetings just occasionally. Everybody does what they can and that’s cool.

In my opinion, WordCamps are meant to bring a community together, offer a chance to meet fellow WordPress enthusiasts and professionals.

In a community like that Italian one, which is in my opinion relatively small (just taking into account the active WP Slack users), events such as a WordCamp could really boost the engagement of both relatively inactive old-timers and involve fresh volunteers and contributors.

I literally live on an island, yet I’d be one flight hour away from any major city we might consider to host a WordCamp. As a team, we could take care of logistics and accommodation for people coming to the WordCamp from any place in Italy.

I think that the priority right now should be on making WordCamps happen, and helping the local communities get together and grow.

If today we have just enough active WordPress users for a single national-level event, I’m sure that the impact of a well organized WordCamp Italia, hosted in a major city for all the Italian WordPress users, will eventually ripple out and breathe into life into existing local MeetupsMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook., create new ones and – above all – help grow the community.

Thanks for your attention! ☁️
- Francesco Di Candia 2:56 pm on March 25, 2022
  
  Thinking about the situation pre-Covid in Italy, could be rather impossible having the same WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. events in a short time. So, in Italy, we started discussing about having a big local WordCamp Italy in order to connect or, re-connect, the italian community. For this simple reason I think that could be a better idea starting having regional WordCamp (like in Italy) in order to have the community working together again. Thanks, Francesco
Cristiano Zanca 3:41 pm on March 25, 2022

I agree with a lot of persons that before me promoted regional WordCamps in 2022.
Regional WordCamps like the italian one could be the best way to re-start and re-connect the local WP Communities.
It’s much harder to organize city based WordCamps because, for example in Italy, in one city we don’t have enogh person = resource to organize it.
In 2022 it could be better to organize regional one that give a new energy and enthusiasm to all the community instead of waiting 2023 when, as we hope, the “situation” will be re-started globally
margheweb 4:13 pm on March 25, 2022

I joined the magical world of WordCamps by attending WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. Torino in 2016, shortly after applying to start a meetupMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. chapter in Ancona, Italy. I faced an 8 hours train trip and invested for my stay in Torino a part of my vacation savings. Italy is not a very large country but often to move from one place to another is not so easy. WordCamps, like meetupsMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook., aim to bring people closer to the community and to increase it: but often there are people who for a thousand reasons can not even participate in the meetup, moving within a radius of 30 km. For this reason, I agree with @unintended8: maybe it’s better to have more events with 100 participants but more within reach of people in the area, rather than just one event with 500 people. Certainly in this 2022, after 2 years of online events, making a big in-person event can have a strong appeal and an important impact on the community, but in the long run, in the return to normalcy, I think it is more desirable to think (also) about smaller events.
Lorenzo Fracassi 4:49 pm on March 28, 2022

Hi! I support the chance to ease the process for organizing regional/national events at least for this year. As we can see in Italy it’s hard at the moment to start again with in-person meetupsMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook., but a national in-person WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. could help a lot in rebuilding the community and a great way to lay the foundation for a 2023 with some local events.
We all know how these years have affected the local communities, it’s hard to go from zero to organizing local events as if never happened.
I see a great and positive chat here about that topic, thanks to everyone who contributed 🙂
- Giorgia Castro 2:46 pm on April 4, 2022
  
  We need to start again with in-person events. In a “small” country like Italy, it is difficult to restart with 3-4 small events: location, organizers, volunteers, etc. We have discussed this and believe it is better to join forces to make a single national event.
  Personally, I would eliminate the proposal before the orientation: too many details to declare. It can be done during the orientation.
  My idea is to make a “hybrid” WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more.: both in presence and streaming, but only for those who register by paying a symbolic ticket. So we wouldn’t exclude people who are afraid of getting infected or who can’t afford to travel.
  Next year, if possible, we will organize some city WordCamp like before pandemia. But this year, the better thing for us is WordCamp Italia. We can’t wait to get started!! 🙂
Hari Shanker R 3:28 am on April 19, 2022
A big thanks to @markhowellsmead @realloc @mbootsman @miroslavglavic @unintended8 @javiercasares @sallijane @patricia70 @tacoverdo @peiraisotta @angelasjin @devinmaeztri @deadpool76 @davelo @nao @piyopiyofox @luminuu @piermario @francescodicandia @cristianozanca @margheweb @lorenzof and @giorgiacastro for participating in this discussion and for sharing your thoughts honestly and openly. All of you have shared excellent feedback on how the community team can move forward with in-person WordCamps. Your feedback is invaluable, and I cannot thank you enough. The ideas you have shared will go a long way in reshaping our guidelines for regional WordCamps, and to strengthen our community, as we see a slow return to in-person WordPress events all around the world.

It was a pleasure reading through all your comments, and I was honestly impressed by the depth of the feedback we received in this post – it clearly shows your passion for WordPress and our community! <3

Many of you strongly supported regional In-person WordCamps. Here is a broad summary of your comments supporting in-person regional WordCamps:
- Regional WordCamps could be beneficial in restarting events in a region in a post-pandemic situation. It would be a great way to revive the community.
- WordCamps should be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, with conditions such as the region, geographic size, country, etc.
- Successful Country-based WordCamps were held in the past, and the community team should not police event organizers based on the region. The event organizing process could be simplified.
- City-based events could be difficult to organize because it’s difficult for a small group to organize a big event. It also causes repetition and a lack of repeat value for sponsors. Regional WordCamps might be a great way to solve this problem.
Quite a few of you had reservations about regional in-person WordCamps. I have listed a summary of your reservations for regional in-person WordCamps, below:
- Large country or continent-based events could be expensive to attend for individuals living in different cities, making them inaccessible. In order to make regional WordCamps accessible, they could be live-streamed.
- Having just one regional WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. takes away opportunities for speakers, sponsors, and volunteers in that region. It causes additional risks for underrepresented groups. and could cause the same people (organizers, speakers, and volunteers) to come back every year.
- While regional WordCamps are great to restart events, city-based events are also required to support smaller communities. In other words, city-based events and regional WordCamps could co-exist.
- The Community Team should evaluate events in a case-by-case basis. This could be done by setting a guideline for evaluating if the WordCamp will achieve the goal of the local team and the WordPress community as a whole.
What I’m hearing from your feedback is that while there is definitely a space for regional WordCamps in our program (the guidelines of which could be simplified and should be handled in a case-by-case basis), it should not be at the expense of local communities, which are the lifeblood of our program.

As a next step, we will be working on creating new guidelines to simplify the process of organizing regional WordCamps, while addressing the concerns involving how they could affect local communities. We will be publishing a blog post in the next few days, announcing the next steps on regional WordCamps and sharing more information on what they would look like. Stay tuned!
Hari Shanker R 5:13 pm on May 23, 2022

Update:
As mentioned in the comment above, we have published the latest guidelines for in-person events: https://make.wordpress.org/community/2022/05/23/regional-in-person-wordcamps-going-forward/

I am also excited to report that following this post, we now have three applications for regional WordCamps in our queue, with one event already in pre-planning! 😍