The numbers:
- How many tickets were sold? 381 in-person, 54 livestream
- How many people showed up? counting still in progress
- How many people came to the afterparty (estimate)? Maybe 125 or so. They had a reserved section of a bar with appetizers, drink tickets. SiteGround had some banners printed.
- How many people filled out the survey? 90ish responses so far. They’re planning on sending out a reminder email to get more responses.
- How did the money end up (+/-)? Positive variance, probably a couple hundred left over after they input the remaining expenses. Still need to balance budget.
The budget:
- Are all the vendors paid? Yes. There are still some outstanding personal expenses that need to be paid.
- All sponsors paid? All sponsors payments came in fine except one sponsor got the incorrect address, but that was corrected quickly and paid. Just had one sponsor back out ($250), but it was a small plugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party developer so it didn’t effect the budget too much.
- Was there a surplus? Got more sponsors than they thought they would. Original goal was to raise $20k, actual amount raised was $23.5k.
- What cost more than you expected? Rush fees for printing because they were late submitting printing. ~$300 in rush fees. They rented some laptops for in between speaker slides (add-on to budget) cost: $75. Purchased extra linens for lunch tables at the last minute.
The video:
- What’s the plan to get them on WordPress.tv? Livestream was recorded and archived on WordCampLivestreamUS1, WordCampLivestreamUS2, WordCampLivestreamUS3. In coming 2-3 months pull down footage, chop up into segments, cut in slides and get them up on WordCamp 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. TV. May reach out to @roseapplemedia about help with editing.
The opinions:
- What went great: Overall, the camp ran really smoothly.
- Sponsors
- Sponsor location was perfect because of foot traffic.
- Sponsors were very happy with the organization of the org team. They provided maps ahead of the camp and had painters tape down so they knew where they were going to be stationed when they got there.
- Lunch
- Lunch was smooth, served in about 20 minutes to 380 people.
- Social
- Lots of twitter activity due to organizers utilizing twitter.
- What could have gone better:
- Volunteers
- Volunteer situation was poorly organized and carried out. Late on asking for volunteers. Didn’t have dedicated Room MCs for two of the rooms.
- Speakers
- One of the speakers showed up late (Taylor Bare). Room MC flagged had someone else in the audience to speak on the same topic (Brian Krogsgard). When speaker realized what had happend, he asked if he could present his topic later in the day. The organizers spoke with remaining speakers about chopping 10 minutes off of their talks so he could give his talk. Takeaway for next year is to have a dedicated stage manager for all rooms that checks in speakers to make sure they know where they need to be and when before they’re going to present, and make sure all rooms have a dedicated Room MC to announce the speakers.
- What should happen again: Lots of pre-planning. Make sure everyone knows that it’s a 6-month committment. Getting additional organizers who are willing to put in the time so that no one gets burned out.
- What do you think should never happen again: Don’t wait until the last minute to get volunteers. Make sure they are assigned to specific areas.
Things that were a downer:
- Speaker situation outlined above.
- Need to blog about the event more next year on the WordCamp site.
Did you write a recap post? Not yet. They’re not sure if they’ll be doing that (it wasn’t in their plan). Organizers have been putting out recap posts on their personal sites.
Who’s on deck to organize next year? No clue, Alison has been lead for past two years so she’ll need to find someone else to lead next year.
#debriefs, #wordcamps
