I’ve been approached by a couple of people who want to apply for their city to host WCUS WordCamp US. The US flagship WordCamp event., and there is some confusion about what the application is actually for, and what is required. I want to share those questions here so that we can all be on the same page.
Q. Is there a Dream Team post in the making, or is the expectation that the local team would be the organizers?
WCUS has been compared to WCEU WordCamp Europe. The European flagship WordCamp event., and the city host survey was in part based on the one WCEU did. But, WCEU put out a call for people to apply to be on the organizing team at the same time, so experienced organizers from all over Europe would make up a pan-Europe organizing team. There has been no such post for WCUS, but will there be?
Thoughts: If it’s really WCUS (or North America), then we ought to follow WCEU’s example and have a pan-US organizing team. Local teams would obviously provide an important on the ground role, and would probably have at least one person on the dream team, but having one group of people shift so completely from a local focus to one that is significantly broader seems awkward (and it makes me think that could hurt their meetup 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. in the short-term, since all the organizers would be focused on WCUS). A dream team would take advantage of multiple points of view, offer more opportunity for diversity, and ensure that WCSUS doesn’t turn out to be just “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. [City] with fewer local speakers.”
Q. How much research is expected around budgets, dates, etc? There was almost no criteria to go by.
This is pretty big. We all know how long it takes for WC organizers to research venues and services and vendors to come up with their budgets. If this survey is just to get to a short list of potential cities, after which additional research and/or budgeting could be done, it seems like we need to provide more parameters. Having people call a dozen potential venues and get available dates without even an inkling of a desired date range or blackout dates seems like a lot of people might be wasting their time.
Could we shift some of the wording so it’s clear around when we’re looking to have this event, how many breakout rooms are desired, etc? WCEU includes this type of information in their city call, and it has been successful. If a whole team has to spend a month researching and writing all the potential combinations, that means a) that’s a month they’re not focused on their meetup group, and b) they’re going to give us way more information than is useful. If we give some parameters and are clear about how much or how little information is desired, then apples can be compared to apples for a speedier review process. Getting to a short list faster means people can spend meaningful time digging deeper instead of potentially wasting a month of people’s time.
Also, the sample budget that is provided with the application is a full WC budget, not just a sheet for listing venue costs. Why do we have people doing a budget for tshirts and stuff at this point? Shouldn’t we have them just be focused on the venue/lodging opportunities? I’m mostly concerned that we are asking for way more work than is needed to get to the first decision stage, and it will both slow down the decision and burn up our local organizers’ time.
Any and all clarification greatly appreciated! cc @camikaos and @matt
#events-2, #wcus
