Numbers in the Netherlands

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At the start of 2017, the decision was made to switch from a single national 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. in the Netherlands to local city-based WordCamps. This was in line with the same decision having been made in a number of other countries before that. @chanthaboune provided some additional context around this decision at the time.

The last time we had a public discussion about this was just over a year ago and after recent in-person discussions at WordCamp Europe in Berlin, now is a good time to revisit things in a public forum — and now with data!

The Numbers

Below is some hard data on the number of attendees, organisers, speakers, and sponsors taking part in local WordCamps over the past 6 years which the team may find interesting and could help inform the next round of discussion.

Here is the raw data from each event:

WordCamp	Date	Tickets sold	Organisers	Speakers	Sponsors
WCNL 2014	10-11 May	235	4	22	12
WCNL 2015	26-27 September	268	5	16	5
WCNL 2016	14-16 October	461	7	38	21
Nijmegen 2017	1-2 September	270	7	22	18
Utrecht 2017	25-26 November	250	6	22	32
Noord Nederland 2018	9-10 February	113	5	14	9
Rotterdam 2018	23-24 March	218	5	18	21
Nijmegen 2018	30 August – 1 September	298	7	37	21
Utrecht 2018	27-28 October	175	5	19	28
Rotterdam 2019	12-13 April	181	7	18	31

And here are a few calculations from that data:

Attendees

Total number of attendees at WCNL 2014-2016 (uniques):	716
Total number of attendees at local camps from 2017-present:	1,351
Total number of attendees at local camps from 2017-present (uniques):	910
Number of people who attended local camps from 2017-present, but not WCNL (uniques):	696
Total increase in the number of attendees at local camps from 2017-present:	194
Number of people who attended more than one WordCamp in the Netherlands from 2017-present:	441 (48%)
Number of people who attended WordCamps in more than one city in the Netherlands from 2017-present:	243 (26.7%)

Organisers

Total number of organisers for WCNL 2014-2016 (uniques):	8
Total number of organisers for local camps from 2017-present:	42
Total number of organisers for local camps from 2017-present (uniques):	28
Number of organisers local camps from 2017-present, but not WCNL (uniques):	24
Total increase in the number of organisers for local camps from 2017-present:	20
Number of people who organised multiple local camps from 2017-present (all in the same city):	14 (50%)

Speakers

Total number of speakers at WCNL 2014-2016 (uniques):	60
Total number of speakers at local camps from 2017-present:	151
Total number of speakers at local camps from 2017-present (uniques):	108
Number of speakers at local camps from 2017-present, but not WCNL (uniques):	88
Total increase in the number of speakers at local camps from 2017-present:	48
Number of people who spoke at more than one local camp from 2017-present:	43 (40%)
Number of people who spoke at local camps in more than one city from 2017-present:	30 (27.8%)

Additional Context

Numbers aren’t everything, however, and there are a few things that should be taken into account when interpreting the data here.

Firstly, had the decision not been made to switch to local WordCamps, the WCNL team was planning on increasing their number of organisers to 16 for the 2017 event, with an aim to host 600 attendees (up from 461 in 2016). Given that the decision to switch was made, this planned WCNL 2017 did not happen.

Secondly, the WordPress dashboard events widgetWidget A WordPress Widget is a small block that performs a specific function. You can add these widgets in sidebars also known as widget-ready areas on your web page. WordPress widgets were originally created to provide a simple and easy-to-use way of giving design and structure control of the WordPress theme to the user. was launched in 2017 which had a generally positive effect on attendees at both 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. and WordCamps around the world. We don’t have any data on how many people attended events because of the widget, but it is something worth taking into account. This would likely have led to an increase in attendees no matter what events had taken place in 2017 (and onwards).

Next Steps

The plan since 2017 was always to enter into talks about reintroducing WCNL after a few years of local WordCamps. With that in mind, the next steps here are:

Continue with local WordCamps in the Netherlands but also reintroduce an annual WCNL to complement the local events.
Given the scope of WCNL, initiate a discussion around some strategies local camps might try in the future – for example, whether organizing smaller camps or subject-matter-focussed camps will help local communities maintain the growth they’ve achieved and continue to grow sustainably.

Discussions are ongoing, and it’ll be really interesting to see what happens next.

Feedback

So over to you – what do you take away from the numbers provided above? Let us know in the comments!

Takis 9:39 am on August 1, 2019
I cannot see how numbers help in any way here. I mean they would be great if we were deciding the next country to hold the WCEUWCEU WordCamp Europe. The European flagship WordCamp event. and searching how active its community is, etc. But, in the context of national WordCamps, I do no see how a country with two 500 people WordCamps is much different from a country with four 250 people WordCamps.

What we need is an as uniform as possible and as fair as possible set of ground rules to differentiate national WordCamps from city WordCamps. And that is if we can first identify the need for national WordCamps. We should not be basing such decisions on exceptions and subjective views.

Looking at the “Difficulties with local WordCamps” section of https://make.wordpress.org/community/2018/07/06/local-wordcamps-in-the-netherlands-our-experiences/ one only draws the conclusion that too many city based WordCamps in a country face the challenge of sustainability. That is self explanatory of course. But does this present and justify the need for a national 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.? Actually the argument could work both ways, because a national WordCamp could make it even harder for city based WordCamps in the same country to keep up.

So, to sum up, we need to:
- identify the need for national WordCamps (if it exists)
- set some ground uniform rules for national WordCamps
PS: I am not saying that some times bending a few rules is not helpful, especially when we are dealing with people who volunteer their time and also because every country can be very different and there indeed cannot be a one size fits all rule. But we should not be bending the ground rules!
- Hugh Lashbrooke 9:54 am on August 1, 2019
  
  @nevma Thanks for your feedback!
  
  The goal of this post is specifically for looking at how things have gone in the Netherlands and what merits there are to the local camp model in the Netherlands when compared to the national-only camp model, using objective data. This post isn’t intended to draw conclusions for other countries or the global program in any way.
  
  You’re 100% correct that some sort of general guideline for how this can (or even should) be done in other countries would be helpful, but that wasn’t what his post is aiming to do. The numbers help because we can objectively see what kind of effect local WordCamps have had on the community in the Netherlands – an effect which looks hugely positive to me.
  
  The ‘Next Steps’ part of the post outlines where we’re looking at taking things in the Netherlands, but is not meant to apply to any other country at this time.
  - Takis 10:19 am on August 1, 2019
    
    I would just hope that we didn’t talk about the Netherlands in specific because this is something that might affect the community in any country. The discussion should be more general in order to help draw more uniform and fair conclusions. Making exceptions just doesn’t feel right.
    
    However, if the Netherlands is at the moment just a helpful framework, a case study, if you may, in order to study and help reach more general conclusions, then I guess it can indeed be useful (yet not totally a 100% right).
    
    But, as I said earlier, mere numbers do not say much and can be used to draw self-contradicting arguments in this context.
imath 2:21 pm on August 1, 2019

Thanks a lot @hlashbrooke for your detailed report on a country which started with a National 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. and switch to local WordCamps successfully. Congratulations to the NL Community.

I think they are giving us a good and great example about the fact having multiple WordCamps in a “small” country does not limit the number of speakers, organizers, volunteers or what I often heard sponsors. If this is true that one sponsor wouldn’t be able to sponsor all local WordCamps, your report shows that it opens the way to new sponsors, so local organizers shouldn’t fear not to be able to make their budget even if the number of WordCamp increases 😉
- Hugh Lashbrooke 3:48 pm on August 1, 2019
  
  This is a great takeaway from the data here. I agree – the organisers in the Netherlands have done a great job of showing that this transition really works.
  - wpbeveiligen 11:55 am on August 18, 2019
    
    Been at 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. in the Netherlands, it needs more speakers that really learn you about WordPress instead of an promotalk for themselves.
    That will make sure visitors will return next year.
estelaris 3:14 pm on August 27, 2019

When getting your data, did you separate the paid tickets from those given to volunteers, speakers, and organizers? Because we are all registered as attendees with ticket “sold”, but not necessarily means that we paid $$ for the ticket. I am not trying to make the data about the money made or spend at the events, but about the people that really attended the events. I have been a volunteer in the last 4 wordcamps and I can confirm that I have seen the same people attending all 4 (either as organizer, volunteer, speaker, attendee or even local sponsor). There has to be a huge crossover in all events. Those unique numbers are not telling you the reality if what is happening at the wordcamps.

Also, how can you say that it has had a big growth when the number of tickets for Rotterdam and Utrecht have decreased at least 20%?

I am sure it would be interesting to see the analysis from other countries in Europe. Because the situation over here is very different than what happens in the United States.

Total number of sponsors for WCNL 2014-2016 (uniques):	18
Total number of sponsors for local camps from 2017-present:	108
Total number of sponsors for local camps from 2017-present (uniques):	66
Number of sponsors for local camps from 2017-present, but not WCNL (uniques):	59
Total increase in the number of sponsors for local camps from 2017-present:	48
Number of companies that sponsored more than one local camp from 2017-present:	42 (64%)
Number of companies that sponsored local camps in more than one city from 2017-present:	22 (33.3%)

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Numbers in the Netherlands