Title: Regional WordCamps Author: Andrea Middleton Published: October 31, 2016 Last modified: July 12, 2019 --- [ ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/andreamiddleton/) [Andrea Middleton](https://profiles.wordpress.org/andreamiddleton/) 9:32 pm _on_ October 31, 2016 Tags: [discussion ( 11 )](https://make.wordpress.org/community/tag/discussion/), [WordCamps ( 247 )](https://make.wordpress.org/community/tag/wordcamps/)    # Regional WordCamps There’s been discussion in our community lately about expanding the number of regional WordCamps in the community program. In this post, I’d like to give some historical context about how the program came to include regional events, and then discuss how regional WordCamps fit into the goals of the community team’s programs. Finally, I’d like to gather opinions and thoughts about what kind of criteria we should set to decide on how to add regional WordCamps to the program. #### A little history First came 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](https://central.wordcamp.org/about/). SF, which was the first WordCamp ever and became to be the official annual conference of the WordPress open sourceOpen Source Open Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL. project. Over the years, WordCamp SF grew as WordPress itself grew (quickly). Then we tried a new event concept: WordCamp Europe, a large regional event that brings together WordPress community members in Europe to share knowledge and create closer community ties. When discussing WordCamp Europe with the first organizers in 2012, we set very specific goals: * to organize an event that exemplified the values of the WordPress project and the WordCamp program * to encourage the growth of local communities in Europe (to prompt more WordCamps, not less) In 2014, WordCamp SF finally grew out of its historic home in the (edit) ~Moscone Center~ Mission Bay and became WordCamp US. Unlike the WordCamp Europe tradition of moving to a new city every year, WordCamp US currently moves to a new city every 2 years. WordCamp US is also the event that hosts Matt’s annual State of the WordState of the Word This is the annual report given by Matt Mullenweg, founder of WordPress at WordCamp US. It looks at what we’ve done, what we’re doing, and the future of WordPress. [https://wordpress.tv/tag/state-of-the-word/](https://wordpress.tv/tag/state-of-the-word/). address. The success of these two events begs the question: why don’t we organize more regionally- based WordCamps? #### Community team program goals: ALL OF THE CAMPS! One goal for the WordPress Community program is to have a WordPress 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](https://make.wordpress.org/community/handbook/meetup-organizer/). and annual WordCamp in as many cities as possible in the world. So while regional or national events have a purpose, they should never be a replacement for our focus on supporting the growth and health of local communities. Regional events are big events, and big events are challenging. A lot of program resources (volunteer time especially) go into organizing both WordCamp Europe and WordCamp US. So as we start thinking about adding more regional events to the program, the question of “how is our volunteer time best spent” is important. For example, if we had to choose between organizing 3 more WordCamps in CountryX, **or** organizing just one WordCamp CountryX, then we’d always go with 3 more WordCamps in CountryX— because that directly helps us meet our goal of “a WordCamp in every possible city.” Of course, just as WordCamps don’t replace year-round monthly meetup events — but instead hopefully help the local monthly meetup community grow — regional WordCamps can also help our program grow by attracting people who weren’t already active in their community and/or inspiring attendees to start communities in their hometowns. #### Community team program goals: ALL OF THE PEOPLE! Another goal in the WordPress Community program (which dovetails nicely with our goal of having a community in as many cities in the world as possible) is to make WordPress community accessible to as many people as possible, regardless of their financial status or other factors that might limit travel. Having several WordCamps in a certain country every year makes WordCamp more available to more people, even if those folks are not able to travel. So more WordCamps gets more good quality content to more people, which is another good reason not to allow regional WordCamps (even one that travels from city to city every year) to replace an active local WordCamp scene. #### The Question What should a region have, to make a regional WordCamp possible and beneficial to the overall community? Here’s my first stab at a set of expectations: 1. **Multiple, active local WordPress communities:** Regional WordCamps need a lot of local, experiences volunteers wherever the event is hosted. If there aren’t already more than 3-5 local communities in a region that have experience hosting WordCamps (at least one but preferably two in a row), then a regional event won’t be able to move around and share the work of organizing a big regional event. 2. **Multiple, experienced and available regional organizers**: A regional WordCamp organizing team should represent and reflect all of the local communities in the region it represents. I’ve previously mentioned that regional camps should not be organized at the expense of multiple WordCamps being held in the region, so that means if a regional camp is going to happen, it should not be robbing local camps of all their prospective organizers. 3. **Further the goals of the community program: **As with any event in our program, regional WordCamps should help the program pursue our goal of having more, better local communities and more, better local WordCamps. What do you think about the idea of having more regional WordCamps, considering our community team goals? How about those suggested expectations? Please share your thoughts in the comments! [#discussion](https://make.wordpress.org/community/tag/discussion/) [#wordcamps](https://make.wordpress.org/community/tag/wordcamps/) ### Share this: * [ Threads ](https://make.wordpress.org/community/2016/10/31/regional-wordcamps/?share=threads) * [ Mastodon ](https://make.wordpress.org/community/2016/10/31/regional-wordcamps/?share=mastodon) * [ Bluesky ](https://make.wordpress.org/community/2016/10/31/regional-wordcamps/?share=bluesky) * [ Facebook ](https://make.wordpress.org/community/2016/10/31/regional-wordcamps/?share=facebook) * [ X ](https://make.wordpress.org/community/2016/10/31/regional-wordcamps/?share=x) * [ LinkedIn ](https://make.wordpress.org/community/2016/10/31/regional-wordcamps/?share=linkedin) * [Login to Reply](https://login.wordpress.org/?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fmake.wordpress.org%2Fcommunity%2F2016%2F10%2F31%2Fregional-wordcamps%2F%23respond&locale=en_US) 1. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/62cadbec28f6e032454e04beae081a31d389e4224dce3c1161c43ded3e480b19? s=32&d=mm&r=g) 2. [Noel Tock](https://profiles.wordpress.org/noel_tock/) 10:03 pm _on_ October 31, 2016 3. I’m a big fan of this. 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](https://central.wordcamp.org/about/). Europe is a great example obviously, having become the largest WordCamp in the world. It’s become instrumental in creating new relationships and experiences across different cultures and languages, especially where so many countries are packed together in such a small space. 4. Speaking for myself, I’m starting to feel that a lot of local WordCamps are putting in plenty of effort for what turns out to be a 100-150 person event. This isn’t to take anything away from the events themselves, but rather to question if 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](https://make.wordpress.org/community/handbook/meetup-organizer/). could carry more of the hyperlocal weight, whilst the bigger efforts are consolidated on a regional level. WordCamp Nordics (Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark) or WordCamp for German speakers (Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg) automatically come to mind. The dream of course, is WordCamp Asia. 5. I think the questions put forward also make sense at first glance. There’s enough experience between WCEUWCEU WordCamp Europe. The European flagship WordCamp event.& WCUSWCUS WordCamp US. The US flagship WordCamp event. now to help provide some support for larger scale events and the different organisational challenges that accompany it. 6. 100% behind more regional/continental WordCamps. 7. * ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/d5c3f2d93d1a7622578bf02f19b91bce32e642cf2962e04ab559fbc0ae333359? s=32&d=mm&r=g) * [Andrea Middleton](https://profiles.wordpress.org/andreamiddleton/) 10:48 pm _on_ October 31, 2016 * > a lot of local WordCamps are putting in plenty of effort for what turns out > to be a 100-150 person event * Can you elaborate more on this? Are you seeing a problem with the amount of work organizing teams are putting into WordCamps, and if so, do you have any thoughts about what might be causing the problem? 🙂 - ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/62cadbec28f6e032454e04beae081a31d389e4224dce3c1161c43ded3e480b19? s=32&d=mm&r=g) - [Noel Tock](https://profiles.wordpress.org/noel_tock/) 12:32 pm _on_ November 1, 2016 - Sure. This year we were forced to break up 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](https://central.wordcamp.org/about/). Switzerland to base it on city levels. Instead of having a single org team and a WordCamp of 300-400 people, we may now have smaller fragmented ones (not sure how many tickets WordCamp Geneva has sold, guessing < 100). There also won’t be a Zurich one as the goal was to rotate the “WordCamp Switzerland” concept, and the majority of the previous team isn’t interested in doing a “WordCamp Zurich” next year. - I don’t want to argue the rule, but it artificially imposes additional work and creates smaller WordCamps (it’s even worse for Croatia, they’re half the population of Switzerland). It just feels as if hyperlocal WordCamps are slowly losing “bang for buck” (plenty of organisational effort for not much attendance). Hence I (personally) prefer contributing to larger ones and like the concept of additional regional/continental. - Thanks for reading. * ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/d5c3f2d93d1a7622578bf02f19b91bce32e642cf2962e04ab559fbc0ae333359? s=32&d=mm&r=g) * [Andrea Middleton](https://profiles.wordpress.org/andreamiddleton/) 3:57 am _on_ November 2, 2016 * Just to clarify, the additional/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](https://central.wordcamp.org/about/). would come *after* there were enough local communities that were well- established enough within the region to support a regional event with local organizers and volunteers. So regional events, if we move ahead with the idea of expanding that concept past WordCamp US and WordCamp Europe, would be *in addition to* multiple city-based WordCamps, not a replacement for them. 🙂 - ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/62cadbec28f6e032454e04beae081a31d389e4224dce3c1161c43ded3e480b19? s=32&d=mm&r=g) - [Noel Tock](https://profiles.wordpress.org/noel_tock/) 1:53 pm _on_ November 2, 2016 - Thanks, I understand that and think it’s unfortunate. Taking the country level away took us 2 steps back (at least for Switzerland), which means we need to make 4 steps forward again for this new regional classification. These hard rules/guidelines/classifications of WordCamps is taking something rather simple and making it a lot more complex imho. - ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/984810650404cb68d9c5e69e96a36dad540d41e584600796076752189e5235cc? s=32&d=mm&r=g) - [dejliglama](https://profiles.wordpress.org/dejliglama/) 9:23 am _on_ November 8, 2016 - Well put @Noel Tock - We have the same problem in Denmark. Having barely 3 monthly 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](https://make.wordpress.org/community/handbook/meetup-organizer/).. The meetups would die if city level WordCamps should exist. And in size and level of WordPress knowledge shared would stay the same – so basically just a namechange from 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](https://make.wordpress.org/community/handbook/meetup-organizer/). to 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](https://central.wordcamp.org/about/).[ City]. - I’ve speculated before if that was the true goal for this rule of city level WCs. 8. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/6845456dbc9056f20a4cd50a6b95db78f2ae31df5c0601c613ee5b8939c41a82? s=32&d=mm&r=g) 9. [Jon Brown](https://profiles.wordpress.org/jb510/) 10:25 pm _on_ October 31, 2016 10. Hugely support more regional WordCamps and agree with pretty much everything above including what Noel added and a big +1 WCAsia. 11. A couple thoughts that aren’t above: 12. * I think these major camps should be _regional_, not _national_. US should adopt that and change to North America and roam from Mexico to Canada, at least until some day when there is actually a regional camp to serve Canada and/or Mexico and maybe even some day Western US and Eastern US as well. A bit more radically said: the WordPress community shouldn’t divide itself up upon geo-political boundaries by default. * I think the regional camps should take on a professional level conference stance, embracing that they are for professionals rather than amateurs (Both pro/am include developers, users and others in my semantics). * I would hope that in doing so annual camps would +shrink in attendance_ and refocus more on amateurs and hobbyists (again, including both developers and users in those groups). Many of the annual camps have gotten ridiculously large and try to out do themselves or each other every year. In doing so they become less and less accessible to new people. In this I also support “specialized” local camps like those for developers, teachers, etc… 13. Finally, I in light of what I said above above downsizing local camps I want to be clear I still full support those camps having lots of out of the area speakers. It’s extremely valuable to have out of area speakers at even the smallest most local of camps. 14. * ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/d5c3f2d93d1a7622578bf02f19b91bce32e642cf2962e04ab559fbc0ae333359? s=32&d=mm&r=g) * [Andrea Middleton](https://profiles.wordpress.org/andreamiddleton/) 10:45 pm _on_ October 31, 2016 * > I think the regional camps should take on a professional level conference > stance, embracing that they are for professionals rather than amateurs * Do you think this approach is at odds with the self-definition of WordCamps as casual, volunteer-organized conferences? Absolutely not saying our volunteers don’t conduct themselves professionally, but how do you envision the casual, inclusive “feel” of 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](https://central.wordcamp.org/about/). playing itself out in an event designed for professionals rather than amateurs? * > I want to be clear I still full support those camps having lots of out of > the area speakers * Sorry, I’m confused. Are you saying you disagree with the goal we set for organizers to have 80% local speakers and 20% out of town speakers? 🙂 - ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/6845456dbc9056f20a4cd50a6b95db78f2ae31df5c0601c613ee5b8939c41a82? s=32&d=mm&r=g) - [Jon Brown](https://profiles.wordpress.org/jb510/) 12:36 am _on_ November 1, 2016 - I think city WordCamps have become _less casual_ over the years and I’d like to see them return to being more like they were 10 years ago. Disclaimer: I frequent some pretty big city WordCamps so my perception is a little skewed. That said however, I have gone to more WordCamps than most and I’ve been trying to get to a wider variety of camps lately. - My hope is that in having regional WordCamps be more focused on professionals that would in turn free/encourage city WordCamps to return to being more casual and grassroots like they used to be. That might just be a pipe dream at this point but it’s a dream I have. - Heck I’d rather see big camps split into 2 annual camps with different focuses. I’ve heard mixed things about the cities that have recently tried that though… Not sure I’m ready to give up on that dream though. - More to the point of Regional WordCamps, my take is they should embrace having a professional audience and include most professional conferences do, have things like networking events (not after parties), having a mobile app/schedule for the event, having specific well tailored break out sessions and well designed content tracks. - “` Sorry, I’m confused. Are you saying you disagree with the goal we set for organizers to have 80% local speakers and 20% out of town speakers? “` - Correct. I’ve always disagreed with the 80/20 local/out-of-town goal for speakers and have been pretty vocal about it over the years. I think that speakers traveling between cities/regions for WordCamps is a great way to spread knowledge and inspire attendees. I’m not against local speakers, just I don’t see it as a good thing favor poor local speakers over great speakers willing to travel. I just wanted to be clear that my saying “City WordCamps should get more grassroots and local” doesn’t mean I think there speaker split should be 80/20, I still think 50/50 would be better. - ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/a715cc3104e7b54c8022436877053d54a4a751239ec08c8beb6c97f23b4ab51c? s=32&d=mm&r=g) - [Ibon Azkoitia](https://profiles.wordpress.org/ibonazkoitia/) 8:33 am _on_ November 1, 2016 - The major problem of the 80/20 is that sometimes there is not enough local people that wants to speak in 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](https://central.wordcamp.org/about/).. People have a lot of respect for doing it and it makes difficult to find candidates in town. - Another thing is to give the option to the local community to learn and hear great speakers that can come and share their knowledge. We have the 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](https://make.wordpress.org/community/handbook/meetup-organizer/). where local people can share knowledge and local community benefit. - And of course, we can do things to have a great balance between local and out of town speakers. In our first WordCamp Bilbao we made a third track( one television, a desk and 15-20 chairs) where local people could speak and teach without the pressure of been in front of 90 people. - We had: * 13 local (we still had 5 spaces in Track C for more local speakers) * 9 from Spain Community speakers * 3 international speakers - I think 50/50 it’s a great balance, or at least not to “force” to have 80/ 20 because sometimes it’s impossible. * ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/d5c3f2d93d1a7622578bf02f19b91bce32e642cf2962e04ab559fbc0ae333359? s=32&d=mm&r=g) * [Andrea Middleton](https://profiles.wordpress.org/andreamiddleton/) 1:08 pm _on_ November 1, 2016 * I vote we hold a discussion of the 80/20 speakers goal for another time, since this is thread is about something else, but thanks to the both of you for sharing your thoughts. 🙂 15. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/a715cc3104e7b54c8022436877053d54a4a751239ec08c8beb6c97f23b4ab51c? s=32&d=mm&r=g) 16. [Ibon Azkoitia](https://profiles.wordpress.org/ibonazkoitia/) 8:14 am _on_ November 1, 2016 17. During this year we have been discussing this in the Spanish Community. And I think this is the right moment to share it. 18. We are thinking of making a “rotatory” Big 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](https://central.wordcamp.org/about/). in Spain using the local WordCamps. The thing is that all the available WordCamp organizers in Spain could help that WordCamp to make it bigger. This is the approach of the WCEUWCEU WordCamp Europe. The European flagship WordCamp event., there is a WordCamp in Europe that one year is the WCEU with the help of other organizers. 19. We may have 8 WordCamps in Spain in 2017, so, for example, all the organizers could help WordCamp Barcelona 2017 to make it bigger and more prepared for giving value to the community. The name would remain and NOT be called WordCamp Spain. 20. Of course that a WordCamp it’s focused for local community, but local it’s also the Spanish Community. Not everyone can go to the WCEU. This way they would have a major WordCamp in Spain once a year and the rest WordCamps would remain as always. 21. * ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/b98cc60e2f12d4573ab0dca7442b45137144bac0ffb28dac83fe6a72bd6ba007? s=32&d=mm&r=g) * [Josepha](https://profiles.wordpress.org/chanthaboune/) 1:27 pm _on_ November 8, 2016 * Would this end up with all the organizers planning up to 8 events a year? It seems that creating a country-wide network of organizers might lead to burnout as well as make it hard for new organizers to get involved. 22. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/09ad13522ea71a8f81e1d032251b482a97c6c620453b6866fa550f4cc4bf7d6e? s=32&d=mm&r=g) 23. [Trisha Cornelius](https://profiles.wordpress.org/trisha_cornelius/) 9:08 am _on_ November 1, 2016 24. I think that regional WordCamps can be a great way to springboard local 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](https://central.wordcamp.org/about/). organization. One of the challenges that WordCamp Johannesburg is facing is the fact that only a small percentage of the organizers have been to a WordCamp and hence have an understanding of what is expected.What we have found is by talking to organizers of other WordCamps, specifically the lovely folks from WordCamp Cape Town have been really helpful but actually working together I think would vastly improve the mentoring process. 25. * ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/b98cc60e2f12d4573ab0dca7442b45137144bac0ffb28dac83fe6a72bd6ba007? s=32&d=mm&r=g) * [Josepha](https://profiles.wordpress.org/chanthaboune/) 1:28 pm _on_ November 8, 2016 * For a concern like this, would having a sister city sort of set up be better than a 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](https://central.wordcamp.org/about/).? Regional WordCamps tend to come after there are many successful WordCamps in the area first. 26. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/eae9b03fdf1750ad9ecddf610003712fb406bce09006a0c4596071960057ea0e? s=32&d=mm&r=g) 27. [Ulrich](https://profiles.wordpress.org/grapplerulrich/) 9:41 am _on_ November 1, 2016 28. Not all city have a large population. The largest city in Switzerland, Zürich has a population of just 375 thousand. The train journey from Bern the capital to Zürich takes one hour. New York has a population of 8 million. It take more than an hour to travel from side to the other. The state of New York is larger than Switzerland. 29. Not all regions are the same. Not cities are all of the same. It would be better to have the guideline based on poplulation and travel time instead of political boundaries. 30. From an organisational point of view it would be easier to organise one larger 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](https://central.wordcamp.org/about/). with over 200 attendees then organise three WordCamps with 75 attendees. 31. 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](https://make.wordpress.org/community/handbook/meetup-organizer/). should be local but WordCamps should be able to place where we meet people we would normally not meet at the meetups. As it is an annual event, people are more prepared to invest more. 32. * ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/c4c98a02364afe2f842564a3ec369d74777ba7e643cc1a172e5e1fc30f270f30? s=32&d=mm&r=g) * [Steven Jones](https://profiles.wordpress.org/stompweb/) 5:19 pm _on_ November 1, 2016 * + 1 * ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/984810650404cb68d9c5e69e96a36dad540d41e584600796076752189e5235cc? s=32&d=mm&r=g) * [dejliglama](https://profiles.wordpress.org/dejliglama/) 9:37 am _on_ November 8, 2016 * +1 * Having to explain Denmark – small from a geographical standpoint, but devided by time and huge costs in fairs and accomodation, makes it hard to attract out of towners in any city – even the capital. * Given the size of the entire community for the entire country, we’re about 200 pax that are active (estimated), and for us to create a city level initiative, would likely kill monthly 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](https://make.wordpress.org/community/handbook/meetup-organizer/)., or not happen at all. * To put time in, and advocate for a yearly trip to one place in the country is hard enough. The result is a turnout between 80 and 150 ( on a good year). So all in all a not so big a community to work with. * Growing it, is done more on meetups (that aren’t inforcing city level criteria, but rather proximity). * I believe many countries in Europe have this regional feeling, that go beyond that of a city limit or even coontry. * Heck, I wake up everymorning looking at Sweeden, only 5-6km away! - ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/b98cc60e2f12d4573ab0dca7442b45137144bac0ffb28dac83fe6a72bd6ba007? s=32&d=mm&r=g) - [Josepha](https://profiles.wordpress.org/chanthaboune/) 1:44 pm _on_ November 8, 2016 - (A side note, not meant to derail the overall conversation:) - Stopping 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](https://make.wordpress.org/community/handbook/meetup-organizer/). events is not something we would want to see. I do wonder if that’s what would happen, though. - In my home state we have two WordCamps annually and more Meetup groups than that. The average attendee/organizer from my own city isn’t likely to travel across the state to attend the other city’s 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](https://central.wordcamp.org/about/)., but that doesn’t seem to stop them from having a wonderful and inspiring event without us. - Sometimes all it takes to get people to step forward and help to have a demonstrated need for them. * ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/b98cc60e2f12d4573ab0dca7442b45137144bac0ffb28dac83fe6a72bd6ba007? s=32&d=mm&r=g) * [Josepha](https://profiles.wordpress.org/chanthaboune/) 1:35 pm _on_ November 8, 2016 * Deciding how to define a region is one of the problems we run into when looking into future “regional” WordCamps. It’s an important decision and worth the discussion if we get there. * That being said, the question of city-level WordCamps is a slightly different topic. I know it is related and a pain point for many WordCamps, though, so I appreciate you mentioning it. - ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/0ac69ae5d6ca6972b9f4d8e0c8892e80bfc5dac86dbd45d9e820cdd4fdb3604c? s=32&d=mm&r=g) - [Arnstein Larsen](https://profiles.wordpress.org/arnsteinlarsen/) 7:59 pm _on_ November 8, 2016 - > Deciding how to define a region is one of the problems we run into when > looking into future “regional” WordCamps. It’s an important decision and > worth the discussion if we get there. > > Drawing up rules and definitions are always difficult. In this case > > I don’t think it will be wise to draw up a global definition of what > > regional means. Different regions develop differently over time and > > I really believe this is a positive thing, so we should let the community > > be a dynamic movement with the flexibility to adapt to local and regional > > movements as they change over time. > > The foundation has the right to accept or decline all bids presented > > from organizers around the world. I believe the current process you > > have in place to vet each team works well. If someone comes up with > > a proposal that doesn’t match the guidelines or by some other reason > > doesn’t serve the community it can be stopped. * ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/0ac69ae5d6ca6972b9f4d8e0c8892e80bfc5dac86dbd45d9e820cdd4fdb3604c? s=32&d=mm&r=g) * [Arnstein Larsen](https://profiles.wordpress.org/arnsteinlarsen/) 8: 01 pm _on_ November 8, 2016 * looks like i messed up the blockquote.. Sorry about that. First part is quote. Second part is my comment 🙂 33. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/dad360d6d33cc359ccc77beb0de91ea2ac1c3ccaf28550b1e2727d5f6127ad00? s=32&d=mm&r=g) 34. [Petya Raykovska](https://profiles.wordpress.org/petya/) 4:42 pm _on_ November 1, 2016 35. 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](https://central.wordcamp.org/about/). Europe helped a lot of local communities get started mostly by inspiring already enthusiastic people to go a step further and start organising 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](https://make.wordpress.org/community/handbook/meetup-organizer/). and events. Switzerland, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Lithuania, Latvia, Greece, Italy (!) – many of these communities started in Leiden, Sofia and Seville because their representatives chatted to people who were already organising events in other countries. 36. Completely agree there need to be several strong communities in a region for a regional WordCamp to make sense. WordCamp Europe moves from country to country every year for a reason and it keeps growing for the same reason – WordPress people from around the world love meeting each other in different contexts, they are curious, they want to explore a new community and make new connections. But for a regional WordCamp to move from country to country, there need to be several countries with experienced organisers ready to take on the task. Europe has much more than Asia, so I would say that Asia needs to push for more and stronger local communities before having a WordCamp. 37. What we’re seeing in Asia that’s amazing, is how people from countries that already have established communities are willing to step up and offer mentorship and guidance for smaller developing communities so they could build a good base for a future regional WordCamp. The idea of WordCamp Asia is already helping the development of new communities around the continent before the event even happened. Isn’t that amazing? 38. In terms of how a regional WordCamp affects a local WordCamp: As an organiser of a local WordCamp (Sofia) and a member of a community that has also hosted WordCamp Europe, I can say that hosting a Regional WordCamp is extremely beneficial for both the local community and all neighbouring communities. 39. WordCamp Sofia has continued to grow after 2014, adding 20% more attendees each year, expanding the local team and volunteers and helping community members around the country start their own meetups and hopefully WordCamps (soon). 40. The experience of organising a regional WordCamp enables local organisers to serve as mentorsEvent Supporter Event Supporter (formerly Mentor) is someone who has already organised a WordCamp and has time to meet with their assigned mentee every 2 weeks, they talk over where they should be in their timeline, help them to identify their issues, and also identify solutions for their issues. for not just their own city WordCamp, but on a country, and sometimes on a regional level as well. Shared resources, visiting speakers, local sponsors support – that all can be done remotely of course, but it works so much better when people have met in person. 41. * ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/88f08eb424e714cd32448449d76674213631919d1b90aceee9c47e336c46acbc? s=32&d=mm&r=g) * [Jon (Kenshino)](https://profiles.wordpress.org/kenshino/) 6:27 am _on_ November 3, 2016 * Couldn’t have said it better 🙂 * ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/b98cc60e2f12d4573ab0dca7442b45137144bac0ffb28dac83fe6a72bd6ba007? s=32&d=mm&r=g) * [Josepha](https://profiles.wordpress.org/chanthaboune/) 1:48 pm _on_ November 8, 2016 * Well put. I want to call attention especially to the need for several strong local communities that can collaborate. * Personally, I am not against the concept of regional WordCamps. What I am for is a strong network of local groups who would all benefit from the time spent together at a regional event. * ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/0ac69ae5d6ca6972b9f4d8e0c8892e80bfc5dac86dbd45d9e820cdd4fdb3604c? s=32&d=mm&r=g) * [Arnstein Larsen](https://profiles.wordpress.org/arnsteinlarsen/) 6:12 pm _on_ November 8, 2016 * I totally agree with strong local communities being needed as the foundation. * In the Nordic region we have strong communities behind the WordCamps in Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway. The idea here is to have the regional Nordic 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](https://central.wordcamp.org/about/). rotate after model of the European one. Each year, the community in the country where the regional WordCamp is hosted will organize the regional WordCamp with support of the communities in the other countries. * My experience, from non WP-related communities, is as your experience with WCEUWCEU WordCamp Europe. The European flagship WordCamp event., that organizing a regional event is a great contribution to making the local community stronger. When organizing something that is bigger than itself, people step up, come closer together and becomes a stronger community. - ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/62cadbec28f6e032454e04beae081a31d389e4224dce3c1161c43ded3e480b19? s=32&d=mm&r=g) - [Noel Tock](https://profiles.wordpress.org/noel_tock/) 11:49 am _on_ November 14, 2016 - Big +1 42. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/49ce6f509c945b9c9009f75cae274d4d827e26b25616141df82e4fbdfaa207c8? s=32&d=mm&r=g) 43. [Josh Pollock](https://profiles.wordpress.org/shelob9/) 3:46 am _on_ November 2, 2016 44. I go to a lot of WordCamps. 10 or so a year. 45. I think that having low price events on weekends is important. It gives new users an opportunity to learn a lot fast and see what the community is. I wouldn’t be where I am without having gone to a few camps when. I got started and learned as much as I could by going to as many camps as I could. 46. But I also don’t think that these events are serving the needs of people who make up the community as well as they could. Obviously I’m going to all these camps to network and market my product as much as I am to contribute by speaking. I’m also going to see friends and that’s an important role of WordCamps as well. 47. So, I love the idea of the 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](https://central.wordcamp.org/about/). as a way to focus less on what existing WordCamps do well and more on the needs of professionals in our community. I see that as higher level business and development training. Less talks, more structured networking and collaboration time. Also, more focus on community and coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. projects. 48. Also, what if regional camps where niche focused? PluginPlugin 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/](https://wordpress.org/plugins/) or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party. development, SEO, blogging, etc. Or what if we had a WordCamp to spend three days making a big new feature for core? 49. * ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/d5c3f2d93d1a7622578bf02f19b91bce32e642cf2962e04ab559fbc0ae333359? s=32&d=mm&r=g) * [Andrea Middleton](https://profiles.wordpress.org/andreamiddleton/) 5:42 pm _on_ November 7, 2016 * > I also don’t think that these events are serving the needs of people who > make up the community as well as they could * Hey Josh, thanks for joining the conversation! Can you tell me more about what people you think are not getting their needs met by WordCamps as they’re currently organized? Is it WordPress business owners/professionals, or another group? * > what if regional camps where niche focused? PluginPlugin 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/](https://wordpress.org/plugins/) > or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party. development, SEO, blogging, > etc. Or what if we had 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](https://central.wordcamp.org/about/). > to spend three days making a big new feature for coreCore Core is the set > of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress.? * Any local community that wants to organize a subject-specific WordCamp or a more of a contributor/hackathon WordCamp is totally welcome to do so. 🙂 It wouldn’t need to be a regional event. 50. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/c5545907b74e7769b1db330c1bec48f2c94930e99e6f2f51eaff3b3df9ce2d8b? s=32&d=mm&r=g) 51. [Aditya Kane](https://profiles.wordpress.org/adityakane/) 11:30 am _on_ November 2, 2016 52. 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](https://central.wordcamp.org/about/). Asia is a nice idea, but Asia is not as easy as Europe in terms or travel and visa 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). Also some cities that would be ideal do not have much or no local community. 53. So its good there are people in Asia pushing for an event and helping local communities grow, I think right now a lot of them are just starting, will be interesting to see how many flourish locally with new organisers and members coming in. 54. I would probably support the idea of a WordCamp India in say 3-4 years. With 6- 7 WordCamps possibly being 3-4 years old by then it would be a great time to have a large pan-India WordCamp. 55. As you mentioned the two priorities are 56. * to organize an event that exemplified the values of the WordPress project and the WordCamp program * to encourage the growth of local communities (to prompt more WordCamps, not less) 57. The second point is interesting. In the sense, the more people think of larger and more professional WordCamp events the less likely (just my opinion) they would work towards a healthy expanding local community. That is because they would have only that much time to give for free. 58. * ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/2e74314758f9ec2a288cc9626376aca659bba8e2a96b607789193dc0d39939cf? s=32&d=mm&r=g) * [Harshad Mane](https://profiles.wordpress.org/bornforphp/) 5:43 am _on_ November 3, 2016 * +1 * ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/b98cc60e2f12d4573ab0dca7442b45137144bac0ffb28dac83fe6a72bd6ba007? s=32&d=mm&r=g) * [Josepha](https://profiles.wordpress.org/chanthaboune/) 1:52 pm _on_ November 8, 2016 * I totally agree with your timeline for almost any new major event like this. I don’t think we’re talking about regional WordCamps across the world by 2017, by any means. 59. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/39528c1a1f5fd19c624f5524312d8b5425221dacca8de72ce2763e6666c3aa34? s=32&d=mm&r=g) 60. [ivanblagdan](https://profiles.wordpress.org/ivanblagdan/) 10:09 pm _on_ November 2, 2016 61. Having taken part in organizing what started 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](https://central.wordcamp.org/about/). Croatia and ended up being WordCamp Split, I’d like to share a couple of thoughts. 62. I think every region is different and this needs to be taken into account. I don’t think its possible to create a blanket rule or a scheme for WordCamps because each one is specific to the people that take part in it. The general attitude that should be asumed is that the local community organizers are domain experts in their local communities. To that end, WordCamp CentralWordCamp Central Website for all WordCamp activities globally. [https://central.wordcamp.org](https://central.wordcamp.org) includes a list of upcoming and past camp with links to each. should be attuned to whats happening in each case individually and pursue the scale of WordCamps that make sense for that area. 63. We have our Croatian community organized on a national level, with plenty of cities connecting on that level. We all have our separate 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](https://make.wordpress.org/community/handbook/meetup-organizer/). and share speakers and whatnot. Once a year, we hold a WordCamp in one of those cities, pooling all the resources and knowhow together to create a more meaningful gathering thats has broader appeal. This allows us to get more speakers and sponsors to create more meaningful content. This allows us to show a glimpse of the more global community that gathered around WordPress and maybe inspire some more people to take a more active role. 64. We might have had our WordCamp named after a city its being held at, starting this year, but its being organized on a national level. We so far had two WordCamps done like this, in different cities, and they have been a great success, especially in getting people to get out of their rooms and meet their other peers. If we were aiming at having local meetups + a WordCamp in each city, I’m pretty sure there would be far less regularity and no continuity. 65. There shouldn’t be a need to impose any particular structure here, communities tend to grow or fragment naturally based on demand and maybe sometimes this requires some intervention. I think the less specific the rules on this are, the more diverese the WordCamps will be. Why not WordCamp Balkans, a Ex-Yu WordCamp or WordCamp Croatia? If people feel like its needed it will happen at the scale its supposed to. 66. In my opinion, communities in smaller cities, can have normal meetups, without the overhead of budgeting and organizing a WordCamp. It keeps things simple and easier to run continually. WordCamps on the other hand, should be special. I can see a case where either too many or to few WordCamps is equally bad longterm. 67. If WordCamp Europe is becoming a 4000 person event, where its fairly difficult to meet anyone, and other WordCamps are aimed at the city microcommunities, which is mostly the same people all the time – there needs to be something in between. In our case a national level event is the perfect size. 68. Sorry for the long read, its a very broad topic 😉 69. * ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/eae9b03fdf1750ad9ecddf610003712fb406bce09006a0c4596071960057ea0e? s=32&d=mm&r=g) * [Ulrich](https://profiles.wordpress.org/grapplerulrich/) 6:13 am _on_ November 3, 2016 * +1 - ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/5205ebac870a37726cf7d67db64f900727d7a9117bda6331cfdcbef82b62f11a? s=32&d=mm&r=g) - [fondalashay](https://profiles.wordpress.org/fondalashay/) 8:00 am _on_ November 4, 2016 - +1 * ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/735746204ddad01cc0e87b110f5fb42a30473c35b0fddd5977554b12e2368dcd? s=32&d=mm&r=g) * [dottir](https://profiles.wordpress.org/dottir/) 9:24 am _on_ November 4, 2016 * +1 * ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/d5c3f2d93d1a7622578bf02f19b91bce32e642cf2962e04ab559fbc0ae333359? s=32&d=mm&r=g) * [Andrea Middleton](https://profiles.wordpress.org/andreamiddleton/) 5:40 pm _on_ November 7, 2016 * Thanks for your thoughts, Ivan! * > Once a year, we hold 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](https://central.wordcamp.org/about/). > in one of those cities, pooling all the resources and knowhow together to > create a more meaningful gathering thats has broader appeal. This allows > us to get more speakers and sponsors to create more meaningful content. This > allows us to show a glimpse of the more global community that gathered around > WordPress and maybe inspire some more people to take a more active role. * I’d love to get a better idea of what you mean by “more meaningful content,” would you tell me more about that? * As far as inspiring people to take a more active role, one of the advantages to a distributed (city-based) community structure is that there are more opportunities for people to take active roles. When there’s only one WordCamp in an entire country per year, there are fewer opportunities for WordCamp-based leadership and participation for people in that country. If there are multiple WordCamps in a city per year, then there are more opportunities for people to actively participate in WordPress community events — very much in keeping with the open sourceOpen Source Open Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source** must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL. concept, “with many eyes, all bugs are shallow.” * > I can see a case where either too many or to few WordCamps is equally bad > longterm. * Can you give me an example of a problem that could arise from having too many WordCamps? 🙂 - ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/39528c1a1f5fd19c624f5524312d8b5425221dacca8de72ce2763e6666c3aa34? s=32&d=mm&r=g) - [ivanblagdan](https://profiles.wordpress.org/ivanblagdan/) 4:59 pm _on_ November 16, 2016 - When you have a longer list of speakers that want to participate, this certainly allows you to pick out the more interesting and diverse topics that i consider more meaningful to the community. Given a small region or a city, you would( and we do) get only so many topics to chose from. We face this with most meetps. I think WordCamps should be a step up in the quality of the talks compared to 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](https://make.wordpress.org/community/handbook/meetup-organizer/).. - What I’m thinking here is that the demand for a event is going to appear and people that want to participate will step up. I don’t see how forcing WordCamps into the city format creates opportunities vs addressing this issue when an actual concern like that arises in a region. - Personally speaking, I’m at the limit of my free time just by organizing a single 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](https://central.wordcamp.org/about/). for the year. I think this would become more of a problem for both organizers to team up and speakers to participate with the WordCamps being focused on cities. The 80/20 rule amplifies this even more. With a national context to our WordCamp we found more people to participate and spread the load more evenly and find a more diverse set of topics. 70. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/5205ebac870a37726cf7d67db64f900727d7a9117bda6331cfdcbef82b62f11a? s=32&d=mm&r=g) 71. [fondalashay](https://profiles.wordpress.org/fondalashay/) 7:55 am _on_ November 7, 2016 72. Norway has only 5 million people, Sweden has 9,5 million, Finland has 5,4 million each in an area smaller than the size of California. Denmark has 5.6 million in an area smaller than West Virginia. Iceland has 323,000 people in an area roughly twice the size of California. Combined we are 26 million people spread out over a very large area. Even though we are so spread out, the travel time between all the capitals and major cities is just a few hours. 73. As an organizer of 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](https://central.wordcamp.org/about/). Norway, I am 100% behind the idea of having regional WordCamps. As others have said above, they make the region grow and have been positive experiences. 74. The WordPress community in the Nordic countries is fairly strong, 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](https://make.wordpress.org/community/handbook/meetup-organizer/). and WordCamps happening for several years in Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Norway. However, despite the fact that the market share of WordPress is high in all the countries, the WordCamps have struggled to grow above 200 people in most of the countries. For example, if we were to have 2 different WordCamps in Norway in one year, I think we would see our 150 attendees become roughly two groups of 75. 75. We – the current Nordic teams + key Icelandic WordPress’ers – have all talked and would love to pool our resources and have a regional WordCamp. We feel that we would be able to make a larger impact on the region and be able offer something that is more attractive to attendees since we would be able to put more energy into the event. We still want to have our local WordCamps, but we want to offer the people something bigger as an option too. We think that the year a regional WordCamp was in Norway, for example, that we would not have another WordCamp that year so it could have all the focus. But we still think that the other Nordic countries should have theirs the years they are not hosting. 76. * ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/735746204ddad01cc0e87b110f5fb42a30473c35b0fddd5977554b12e2368dcd? s=32&d=mm&r=g) * [dottir](https://profiles.wordpress.org/dottir/) 10:35 am _on_ November 7, 2016 * +1 * ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/d5c3f2d93d1a7622578bf02f19b91bce32e642cf2962e04ab559fbc0ae333359? s=32&d=mm&r=g) * [Andrea Middleton](https://profiles.wordpress.org/andreamiddleton/) 5:27 pm _on_ November 7, 2016 * > However, despite the fact that the market share of WordPress is high in all > the countries, the WordCamps have struggled to grow above 200 people in most > of the countries. * When 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](https://central.wordcamp.org/about/). is struggling to grow, there are many possible limiting factors; a few are: venue size, activity level in the local community, programming, event scheduling, and publicity. I don’t think we have definitive evidence that proves why WordCamps in Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Norway have had around 200 attendees for the past few years. * > For example, if we were to have 2 different WordCamps in Norway in one year, > I think we would see our 150 attendees become roughly two groups of 75. * Evidence strongly points against this. In fact, the opposite effect seems to be the case, which is why we’ve decided to go with city-based/named events with no more exceptions as of this year. * > We feel that we would be able to make a larger impact on the region and be > able offer something that is more attractive to attendees since we would > be able to put more energy into the event. We still want to have our local > WordCamps, but we want to offer the people something bigger as an option > too. * Can you tell us more about what you mean by “be able offer something that is more attractive to attendees”? I’m super-interested to know more about this. * Is the thought that by organizing a WordCamp Nordic, that people from towns in Nordic countries that don’t already have 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](https://make.wordpress.org/community/handbook/meetup-organizer/). groups and WordCamps would come to WordCamp Nordic and be inspired to organize local communities in their towns? That was the goal set for WordCamp Europe organizers, they accepted the challenge, and I think they succeeded. - ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/984810650404cb68d9c5e69e96a36dad540d41e584600796076752189e5235cc? s=32&d=mm&r=g) - [dejliglama](https://profiles.wordpress.org/dejliglama/) 9:52 am _on_ November 8, 2016 - “Is the thought that by organizing 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](https://central.wordcamp.org/about/). Nordic, that people from towns in Nordic countries that don’t already have 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](https://make.wordpress.org/community/handbook/meetup-organizer/). groups and WordCamps would come to WordCamp Nordic and be inspired to organize local communities in their towns? That was the goal set for WordCamp Europe organizers, they accepted the challenge, and I think they succeeded.” - Yes, that would be the case. As with any WordCamp, we strongly suggest people to go home and start a Meetup in their homearea. - I think it’s clear that the ecosystem is based on strong hyperlocal communities, that feed into a larger community, on a regional or contrywide basis. - If a region can muster a secondlevel – in between a hyplerlocal and a larger regional setup, I believe that to be fine, and all in all, will further our push for wider WordPress knowledgesharing. If not – it seems as a rule that doesn’t help anyone. - It’s fine to have guidelines/ rules for a push towards hyperlocal communities. It’s also fine to have some sort of guideline (not rule) as to outoftown speakers. - The geographical rules have no real value. We should trust WordPress communitymembers to be able to self-organize in groups that does not challange the hyplerlocal activities. * ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/0ac69ae5d6ca6972b9f4d8e0c8892e80bfc5dac86dbd45d9e820cdd4fdb3604c? s=32&d=mm&r=g) * [Arnstein Larsen](https://profiles.wordpress.org/arnsteinlarsen/) 2: 33 pm _on_ November 8, 2016 * > Can you tell us more about what you mean by “be able offer something > that is more attractive to attendees”? I’m super-interested to know > more about this. * Our plan for the Nordic 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](https://central.wordcamp.org/about/). is, as mentioned by Fonda, to pool our resources from each country and present the most interesting from the community throughout the region. This way it will also be easier to meet the 80/20 quota on local speakers. * One of the things we would like to do at WordCamp Nordic is “a community building day” aimed at students and businesses. Giving students and businesses a place to meet. Towards the students this is important to make them understand that WP is a platform they should focus on to get interesting jobs. For the businesses, they all need a way to expand the recruitment base as they all struggle recruiting enough talent. * > Is the thought that by organizing a WordCamp Nordic, that people from > towns in Nordic countries that don’t already have 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](https://make.wordpress.org/community/handbook/meetup-organizer/). > groups and WordCamps would come to WordCamp Nordic and be inspired > to organize local communities in their towns? * Yes. We hope to make WordCamp Nordic a leading star for the local community just like Europe has been. Nordic will not replace any of the existing 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](https://make.wordpress.org/community/handbook/meetup-organizer/). or WordCamps, it will just be a bigger event once a year. * We strongly believe the regional WordCamp will be a very positive contribution to the community. Also getting people to travel between the countries here has already proved not to be a problem as you see people from all five countries on all the WordCamps in the region, in addition to strong support from the region by a relatively high participation on WCEUWCEU WordCamp Europe. The European flagship WordCamp event.. - ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/5205ebac870a37726cf7d67db64f900727d7a9117bda6331cfdcbef82b62f11a? s=32&d=mm&r=g) - [fondalashay](https://profiles.wordpress.org/fondalashay/) 2:40 pm _on_ November 8, 2016 - +1 - ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/dad360d6d33cc359ccc77beb0de91ea2ac1c3ccaf28550b1e2727d5f6127ad00? s=32&d=mm&r=g) - [Petya Raykovska](https://profiles.wordpress.org/petya/) 5:04 pm _on_ November 11, 2016 - >Evidence strongly points against this. In fact, the opposite effect seems to be the case, which is why we’ve decided to go with city-based/named events with no more exceptions as of this year. - Andrea, can you share some more details about that? Evidence from which countries, which continents, what are the numbers? It would be really great to have some data. I assume the data is from Europe as the States haven’t had a country WC before WCUSWCUS WordCamp US. The US flagship WordCamp event., but I’d love to see the numbers this argument is based on. Apologies if they’ve been shared somewhere already and I missed reading about that, in which case a link would be much appreciated. - ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/62cadbec28f6e032454e04beae081a31d389e4224dce3c1161c43ded3e480b19? s=32&d=mm&r=g) - [Noel Tock](https://profiles.wordpress.org/noel_tock/) 1:03 pm _on_ November 14, 2016 - 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](https://central.wordcamp.org/about/). Nordic makes so much sense. If you spend any time in the region, you’ll understand immediately. Be it the similar languages (Norwegian, Danish, Swedish are understood by each other and Finns learn Swedish in school anyway), cheap/short plane hops or the shared values. And we’re basically talking about 30M people which is similar to the scope of WordCamp New York (if you talk about the metropolitan area/surrounding areas). - If it happens through the foundation or not, I certainly see the community for this sort of regional WordPress event (even if unofficial, which I think is fine too). May 19th, 2017, kick it off 🙂 * ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/a803061162a2088226d20c6567bfef085985fddeb3bb09ec41b89ea7a9a7e3d1? s=32&d=mm&r=g) * [Scott Basgaard](https://profiles.wordpress.org/scottbasgaard/) 1:20 pm _on_ November 14, 2016 * Unfortunately I haven’t found the time to give this thread a proper response on my thoughts / experience and hope to do so soon but I wanted to agree with Noel’s feedback so far. * I can only speak for what I know of the Norwegian / Nordic areas so I totally understand if this doesn’t make sense for everybody but love that this discussion has been brought forward and would love to see us make a decision on a regional level if it brings us closer together and stronger. * Again, will try to give a more thorough response later this week! * Scott * ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/0ac69ae5d6ca6972b9f4d8e0c8892e80bfc5dac86dbd45d9e820cdd4fdb3604c? s=32&d=mm&r=g) * [Arnstein Larsen](https://profiles.wordpress.org/arnsteinlarsen/) 6:57 am _on_ November 8, 2016 * +1 * ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/984810650404cb68d9c5e69e96a36dad540d41e584600796076752189e5235cc? s=32&d=mm&r=g) * [dejliglama](https://profiles.wordpress.org/dejliglama/) 9:44 am _on_ November 8, 2016 * +1 * ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/d5c3f2d93d1a7622578bf02f19b91bce32e642cf2962e04ab559fbc0ae333359? s=32&d=mm&r=g) * [Andrea Middleton](https://profiles.wordpress.org/andreamiddleton/) 4:58 am _on_ December 15, 2016 * Sorry for being slow to circle back around here. 🙂 * I think 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](https://central.wordcamp.org/about/). Nordic could work. I do have concerns around an event like this (which are nearly identical to the concerns I expressed when we were first talking about making a WordCamp Europe back in 2013). I think solutions can be found to all the possible problems, but not unless we’re planning to avoid them, so here they are: - Organizing a WordCamp Nordic could use up the available volunteer hours in the relevant countries and result in city-based WordCamps not being organized. - City-based WordCamps might think that they need to make their events more complicated or expensive to emulate a fancy/pricey WordCamp Nordic, which could lead to city-based camps being too difficult to organize - Composing the organizing team in an open and inclusive way could be challenging. Organizers should be experienced with organizing WordCamps and live in a Nordic country, but then also it’s possible the Nordic community won’t have enough experienced organizers to staff a regional WordCamp organizing team. * To my mind, the reason it would be worth organizing a WordCamp Nordic — essentially the goal of the event — would be to inspire the organizing of new 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](https://make.wordpress.org/community/handbook/meetup-organizer/). groups throughout the Nordic region, as well as educating people about why it’s important/beneficial to get involved in the open sourceOpen Source Open Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL. project and how they can get active in the community. Maybe the latter is achieved by a contributor dayContributor Day Contributor Days are standalone days, frequently held before or after WordCamps but they can also happen at any time. They are events where people get together to work on various areas of [https://make.wordpress.org/](https://make.wordpress.org/) There are many teams that people can participate in, each with a different focus. [https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/](https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/) that focuses on training new contributors; I’m sure there are many ways to handle this. * If there’s are folks in the Nordics that think they can avoid the identified pitfalls and achieve those goals, then I think it would be worth trying this event for a few years to see what the results are. 🙂 What do you think? - ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/ba0d2e358a8e380c07e3d8d40dd9f58169de7bf544bcb4608ef734918882d9e3? s=32&d=mm&r=g) - [Bjørn Johansen](https://profiles.wordpress.org/bjornjohansen/) 3:23 pm _on_ December 16, 2016 - IIRC, there have been 5 WordCamps in Oslo, 4 in Copenhagen, 2 in Stockholm, 1 or 2 in NorrköpingPing 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.”, 1 or two in Helsinki, there are regular 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](https://make.wordpress.org/community/handbook/meetup-organizer/). all over and I think we have some people who have been volunteers at many other WordCamps, including 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](https://central.wordcamp.org/about/). Europe. On the organising teams of the Nordic WordCamps, there have been team members from far from the hosting city, e.g. in Oslo there have been team members from Stavanger and Kvinesdal. I believe we have organisers who are fully capable of pulling this off. - Being a small population, we have seen that we need to reach out in the region, and collaborate across the national borders (which historically have been on/off and moved all the time). Culturally we’re basically the same, with greater differences within the countries than between the countries. - If we manage to organise a WordCamp Nordic, I think that other regular host cities will think that they don’t have to be as fancy/pricey, but rather tone it down and be more informal, accessible and low key. Since there will be a larger, regional WordCamp, the local WordCamp get the pressure away from them. - But as you mention: We’re a small population, so using up the available volunteer hours is a real concern. 77. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/e7d522cfa4bcdbb1ef2932a712db0d635e6a7139fcccc8ece8dbdac47e2ffa09? s=32&d=mm&r=g) 78. [sheriebeth](https://profiles.wordpress.org/sheriebeth/) 12:41 pm _on_ November 7, 2016 79. /// The Question /// What do you think about the idea of having more regional WordCamps, considering our community team goals? How about those suggested expectations? 80. (fyi, I have no idea how to blockquote, so that up there ^ is a quote!) —— 81. I completely agree with Andrea’s suggested expectations for regional camps – multiple active local WordPress communities, multiple experienced and available regional organizers, and that the regional should further the goals of the community program( more better local communities and WordCamps). 82. Based on those criteria, I believe a more continental approach to regions would be better and agree with Jon Brown that the WordPress community shouldn’t divide itself upon geo-political boundaries. I think less is more when it comes to the Regionals and to prevent them from replacing or reducing local WordCamps, it’s best to keep them to a minimum. That being said, I do see them as being a very important part of the Community program and would like to see more of them. I can easily see one day have 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](https://central.wordcamp.org/about/). Europe, North America, South America, West Asia, East Asia, Australian (including New Zealand, islands), etc … when and if the local communities are active and widespread enough to support those Regional camps. 83. I also wonder if it might be better to refocus the Regional WordCamps (and possibly consider renaming them). I think that the title of WordCamp is best suited to the local, city camps and there is no arguing that something like WordCamp Europe is a vastly different experience than a city camp like WordCamp Bilbao, for example. It might help to differentiate the two types of events by focusing the Regionals more toward the stated goal of furthering the community program – by offering training and sessions geared toward helping organizers create stronger local communities and Camps. I also do think the regionals can focus on more of the professional level WordPress user, but still be welcoming to anyone who wants to participate, and affordable as well. 84. * ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/b98cc60e2f12d4573ab0dca7442b45137144bac0ffb28dac83fe6a72bd6ba007? s=32&d=mm&r=g) * [Josepha](https://profiles.wordpress.org/chanthaboune/) 2:03 pm _on_ November 8, 2016 * > I also wonder if it might be better to refocus the Regional WordCamps (and > possibly consider renaming them). * I have wondered if the “professional” focus turns WordCamps into something that inherently isn’t affordable, but I have zero evidence to suggest it would or would not. It’s just something I’ve been thinking about. 🙂 * PS – This is how we do the blockquotes, in case you wondered. 😀 [http://www.w3schools.com/tags/tag_blockquote.asp](http://www.w3schools.com/tags/tag_blockquote.asp) - ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/0ac69ae5d6ca6972b9f4d8e0c8892e80bfc5dac86dbd45d9e820cdd4fdb3604c? s=32&d=mm&r=g) - [Arnstein Larsen](https://profiles.wordpress.org/arnsteinlarsen/) 3:12 pm _on_ November 8, 2016 - > I have wondered if the “professional” focus turns WordCamps into something > that inherently isn’t affordable, but I have zero evidence to suggest > it would or would not…. - I don’t want to speak for anyone else here, but in my mind, professional is more about the content of the 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](https://central.wordcamp.org/about/). more than about making it more fancy in the way it is organized. Traditionally WordCamps have been catered towards bloggers and developers with limited focus on the professional users (using WP as a CMS rather than a blogging platform). I believe what we need to grow the community is to include the professional users more. (Not saying this means we are to forget the traditional audience.) - For most of the competing CMSs on the professional market there are a lot of different conferences helping the professional market get to know the system and increasing its validity as “the right solution”. The easiest argument still for vendors of other CMSes is that “WP is just a blogging platform”. By including content for the professional users on WordCamps we can prove that this is wrong. - Does this make WordCamps more expensive? No, I don’t think so. The ecosystem around professional users makes it easier to attract bigger sponsors, so the calculation should be positive. - ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/e7d522cfa4bcdbb1ef2932a712db0d635e6a7139fcccc8ece8dbdac47e2ffa09? s=32&d=mm&r=g) - [sheriebeth](https://profiles.wordpress.org/sheriebeth/) 6:52 pm _on_ November 8, 2016 - Thanks Josepha – I didn’t realize it takes just normal HTMLHTML HTML is an acronym for Hyper Text Markup Language. It is a markup language that is used in the development of web pages and websites. =) - As for a more ‘professional’ focus being unaffordable, I don’t think there is any reason why that would have to happen and would be absolutely for any guidelines that would make sure the Regional events are still just as affordable (or close to) as the local WordCamps. - Honestly, it’s still a rough sketch of an idea in my head – just thinking aloud that having a way to differentiate the local WordCamps from the regional WordCamps would be beneficial. Taking advantage of the fact that it’s a bigger, different kind of camp and really use it as an avenue to train/educate and give people something tangible to take back with them and strengthen their local communities (ie. more & better wordcamps + 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](https://make.wordpress.org/community/handbook/meetup-organizer/).). 85. ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/b3570426dc554b821b457cc8807eea58efd745bc3b8f8a8c6a80a2641add6608? s=32&d=mm&r=g) 86. [Randy Hicks](https://profiles.wordpress.org/vc27/) 10:27 pm _on_ November 8, 2016 87. I tried to condense my thoughts into bullets with out going too deep. Let me know if I should expand on anything. 88. * Regional camps will be starved for resources if local camps are too large * Regional camps will be starved for organizers if local camps are not getting new organizers each year * Regional camps by nature are going to be destination camps and thus cost attendees 10x more than a local camp. With this in mind ticket sales will be tied to the amount of local camps that are taking place within the same time frame. 89. * Sponsorship funds split between the WCUSWCUS WordCamp US. The US flagship WordCamp event., WCEUWCEU WordCamp Europe. The European flagship WordCamp event. and Local Camps already needs to be addressed. * Adding more camps to to the regional fold will bring with it a huge cost that the current WP ecosystem my not accept. * By adding more official regional camps with out first addressing the current local camp explosion we may have unexpected side effects crop up. 90. These side effects might be amazing events like these that are inadvertently drawing from the existing 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](https://central.wordcamp.org/about/). ecosystem. 91. * [https://wooconf.com/](https://wooconf.com/) * [https://poststatus.com/publish/](https://poststatus.com/publish/) * [https://pressnomics.com/](https://pressnomics.com/) 92. — 93. Just a note I don’t believe the WordPress community is accidentally dividing itself upon geo-political boundaries, it’s more about how feasible it is for attendees to travel to an event with out spending too much time and money. 94. * ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/b3570426dc554b821b457cc8807eea58efd745bc3b8f8a8c6a80a2641add6608? s=32&d=mm&r=g) * [Randy Hicks](https://profiles.wordpress.org/vc27/) 1:27 am _on_ November 9, 2016 * After re-reading this it kinda sounds like I’m apposed to regional camps. I think regional camps are a good idea. I’m just concerned that they are going to be a huge vacuum sucking up resources. ### Leave a Reply 󠀁[Cancel reply](https://make.wordpress.org/community/2016/10/31/regional-wordcamps/?output_format=md#respond)󠁿 You must be [logged in](https://login.wordpress.org/?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fmake.wordpress.org%2Fcommunity%2F2016%2F10%2F31%2Fregional-wordcamps%2F&locale=en_US) to post a comment. # Post navigation [← Proposed 2017 Global Sponsorship Program](https://make.wordpress.org/community/2016/10/31/proposed-2017-global-sponsorship-program/) [Sponsorship and Finances Report for October 2016 →](https://make.wordpress.org/community/2016/11/01/sponsorship-and-finances-report-for-october-2016/)