The 2018 Annual 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. Survey results for each chapter meetup group are being sent to organizers directly, but we’d also like to share some statistics about the program, as well as interesting findings from the survey with everyone!
WordPress Meetup Chapter Statistics in 2018
As of 31 December, 2018…
- Total WordPress chapter meetup groups: 691
- Total countries with chapter meetups 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.: 99
- New meetup groups joined the chapter: 166
- New members joined: 106,409
- Total members: 385,250
- Total number of organizers: 2,061
- Total number of events: 5,675
2018 Meetup Survey Participation
- Total member respondents: 912
- Total organizer respondents: 112
- Total countries participated: 70
Interesting Findings from the Survey
- Overall most people are pleased with the meetup program, but there is a desire for more variety both in topics/difficulty and in the scheduled time of events. See the post of Organizer Best Practices for some tips that you can use in your community!
- Member location: 54% of respondents live in the city that their meetup group is hosted in. Only 3% of attendees travel far to attend a meetup event.
- Factors that affect the decision to attend events: 19% of attendees said the posted topic is the most important aspect. Whether an event has food/refreshments is important to only 1% of respondents.
- Days/times that would make it easier for members to attend: 24% of respondents said they prefer meetup events on weekdays, and 34% prefer evenings.
- Types of events: 16% of respondents prefer formal presentations with a speaker followed by Q&A, 15% of respondents prefer workshops or trainings, and 12% of respondents prefer discussion groups.
- 38% of respondents have never contributed to the open 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! Perhaps this is your opportunity to host a contributor 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/ There are many teams that people can participate in, each with a different focus. https://2017.us.wordcamp.org/contributor-day/ https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/. for your meetup group. 🙂
Read on for more detailed results!
Below are the results of some of the questions:
How local are you?
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I live in this city
|
495
|
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I live in a city within driving distance
|
201
|
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I live in a suburb of this city
|
180
|
|
I live far away but sometimes travel to this city
|
28
|
|
I used to live here, but I have moved away
|
7
|
|
I have not been to this city, I just follow the group
|
1
|
|
I visited this city once
|
0
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How long have you been a member of this group?
|
Longer than a year
|
483
|
|
3 months – 1 year
|
301
|
|
I joined within the last 3 months
|
128
|
How often do you participate in these events?
|
I attend every month
|
348
|
|
I attend a couple of times per year
|
214
|
|
I attend every couple of months
|
211
|
|
I never attend
|
85
|
|
Our first event is coming up, so I haven’t participated yet
|
22
|
|
I used to attend regularly, but I’ve moved away and no longer attend
|
18
|
|
I attended during a trip to this city, but no longer attend
|
14
|
So far, what has your involvement in the group included?
|
I have attended events
|
740
|
|
I have suggested a topic for a meetup event
|
250
|
|
I have spoken or presented at an event
|
213
|
|
I have volunteered on a 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. team
|
179
|
|
I have not been involved except for joining the group
|
142
|
|
I have organized a meetup event
|
115
|
|
I have helped find a venue
|
93
|
|
I have helped line up speakers
|
87
|
|
I have provided refreshments
|
70
|
|
Other
|
58
|
|
I have provided A/V or other equipment
|
49
|
|
I have posted videos from the meetup to wordpress.tv
|
16
|
What factors affect whether you attend or not?
|
The posted topic
|
492
|
|
Work schedule
|
416
|
|
Day of week
|
383
|
|
Time of day
|
334
|
|
Location/venue
|
263
|
|
The posted speaker
|
130
|
|
Transportation/Parking
|
114
|
|
Format (presentation/discussion/social/etc)
|
99
|
|
Other
|
85
|
|
Cost
|
63
|
|
Childcare
|
42
|
|
Number of people at event
|
37
|
|
Waitlist/didn’t RSVP fast enough
|
29
|
|
Who else has RSVPed
|
28
|
|
Refreshments/food
|
24
|
Are there specific days/times that would make it easier for you to attend?
|
Evenings
|
400
|
|
Weekdays
|
283
|
|
Weekends
|
245
|
|
Afternoons
|
146
|
|
Mornings
|
80
|
|
Other
|
40
|
Which types of events sound appealing to you?
|
Formal presentation with a speaker followed by Q&A
|
730
|
|
Workshop/training
|
698
|
|
Discussion groups
|
554
|
|
Show & tell of what people are doing with WordPress in the community
|
500
|
|
WordPress help desk (either as a volunteer or seeking help)
|
441
|
|
Working on your WordPress sites/projects at a coffeeshop with others
|
416
|
|
Happy hour/purely social gatherings
|
277
|
|
Lightning talks
|
224
|
|
Hackathon
|
207
|
|
Watch videos from WordCamps on wordpress.tv and discuss with group
|
189
|
|
Get together and watch livestream of a WordCamp somewhere else in the world
|
188
|
|
Brown bag lunch
|
125
|
|
Other
|
24
|
Would you be interested in organizing an event within your WordPress group?
Do your group organizers ask members to suggest or organize events, and/or would you feel comfortable contacting them with requests or suggestions?
|
Yes, I feel comfortable approaching all our organizers
|
663
|
|
I’m not sure
|
166
|
|
Yes, I feel comfortable with one or some of the organizers, but not all of them
|
49
|
|
No
|
34
|
How do you feel about refreshments at the meetup?
|
Nice to have
|
550
|
|
Not necessary
|
242
|
|
Necessary
|
120
|
How would you describe yourself?
|
Small Business Owner
|
422
|
|
Developer
|
404
|
|
Site Admin
|
377
|
|
Advanced User
|
307
|
|
Designer
|
299
|
|
Consultant
|
296
|
|
Blogger
|
263
|
|
Beginning User
|
244
|
|
Other
|
61
|
Have you ever contributed or participated in the WordPress open source project?
|
I have not contributed to the open source project before
|
544
|
|
I’ve answered questions in the wordpress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/ support forums
|
206
|
|
I’ve organized or volunteered at a WordCamp
|
176
|
|
I’ve organized meetups
|
109
|
|
I’ve beta A pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process. tested new versions of WordPress
|
86
|
|
Other
|
81
|
|
I’ve contributed plugins to the wordpress.org free 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 directory
|
69
|
|
I’ve helped with the Codex, Handbooks, or other wordpress.org documentation
|
49
|
|
I’ve submitted patches to core Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress.
|
24
|
|
I’ve posted videos on wordpress.tv
|
19
|
|
I’ve contributed themes to the wordpress.org free theme directory
|
18
|
|
I have reviewed themes with the wordpress.org theme review team
|
18
|
|
I’ve subtitled videos on wordpress.tv
|
11
|
|
I’ve contributed design to core
|
5
|
|
I’ve contributed to one of the official mobile apps
|
2
|
Would you be interested in participating in a contribution drive for any of the areas you selected above?
Looking Forward to the 2019 Annual Survey
For the next annual survey (which will be sent at the end of 2019 or beginning of 2020), let’s brainstorm some ideas on how we can improve it!
- Are there any questions that you would like to see asked of your meetup members?
- Are there any questions in the current survey that are not useful, and could be removed from the survey?
- How can we engage more members to participate?
