Scheduling an Online Workshop

Hosting an online workshop is a lot of fun! There are some things to remember before you host your very first one. Let’s get started!

Get Access: Apply to be an online workshop Facilitator. Once approved, you can create your first meetupMeetup All local/regional gatherings that are officially a part of the WordPress world but are not WordCamps are organized through https://www.meetup.com/. A meetup is typically a chance for local WordPress users to get together and share new ideas and seek help from one another. Searching for ‘WordPress’ on meetup.com will help you find options in your area. group!

Create your event on Meetup.com

  1. Go to “Create an event” on the Learn WordPress Meetup group (requires an Event Organizer role).
  2. Give it a compelling, but descriptive title — you want to make sure you’re reading the audience who will most benefit, so make sure the title is clear enough that interested people will sign up. Use “Sentence case” (not “Title Case”) to follow WordPress style conventions. For example, use “Exploring what’s new in the latest version of WordPress” – not “Exploring What’s New In The Latest Version of WordPress.” (More in the official WordPress Style guide).
  3. Pick a date and time; by default, it’s set to Pacific Standard Time. Note: if you plan to use a Zoom account to host your online workshop, whatever time zone your Zoom settings are in will be reflected in the sign up.
  4. Pick the duration. These online workshops can last anywhere from half an hour to two hours, but most people generally expect ~45 minutes to an hour.
  5. Add a featured imageFeatured image A featured image is the main image used on your blog archive page and is pulled when the post or page is shared on social media. The image can be used to display in widget areas on your site or in a summary list of posts., using the Figma thumbnail generator. Choose the Online Workshop template.
  6. Add a description explaining what the event is about and what people will learn.
  7. Select ‘Make this an Online Event’
  8. Add relevant details, such as a Zoom link, or another online tool you will use to facilitate your event.
    • You can request a community Zoom Pro account if you don’t have access to a video conferencing platform.
    • Faculty members can use the team’s shared Zoom account, depending on availability. Please pingPing The act of sending a very small amount of data to an end point. Ping is used in computer science to illicit a response from a target server to test it’s connection. Ping is also a term used by Slack users to @ someone or send them a direct message (DM). Users might say something along the lines of “Ping me when the meeting starts.” a Team RepTeam Rep A Team Rep is a person who represents the Make WordPress team to the rest of the project, make sure issues are raised and addressed as needed, and coordinates cross-team efforts. or Faculty Administrator for assistance.
  9. Click the red ‘Publish’ button once you’re ready. Don’t forget to click the button to announce your event – this will appear after have hit publish.

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Add your event to the Learn WordPress calendar

All online workshops are also posted on the calendar directly available on Learn WordPress itself: https://learn.wordpress.org/online-workshops/ – after creating your event on Meetup.com you will need to add it to this calendar as well. This requires Editor access to add new events in the Learn WordPress dashboard, so if you can see this page then you have the correct access already. If you cannot see that page then please ask in the #training channel 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/. for assistance.

  1. Click the ‘add new’ button to create a new event.
  2. When adding the event, you only need to fill in the following fields – leave everything else blank:
    • Title – the same as the title on Meetup.com
    • Start Date – this is the date the event is taking place in UTC time (note that this may be different to your local date for the event depending on your UTC offset)
    • Time – the event time in UTC
    • Link – the URLURL A specific web address of a website or web page on the Internet, such as a website’s URL www.wordpress.org of the event on Meetup.com
    • Language – this appears in the sidebarSidebar A sidebar in WordPress is referred to a widget-ready area used by WordPress themes to display information that is not a part of the main content. It is not always a vertical column on the side. It can be a horizontal rectangle below or above the content area, footer, header, or any where in the theme. and defaults to English – set it to the primary language in which the online workshop will be hosted
    • Topic – this appears in the sidebar – select any of the topics in the list that pertain to your online workshop
  3. Leave everything else blank and click ‘Publish’.

Important Note: Make sure not to set the End Date field, as this will cause the meeting not to show up on the calendar.

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