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Proposed 2023 Global Community Sponsorship Program
If your company is interested in global sponsorship, please indicate your interest by emailing support@wordcamp.org by January 13, 2023.
After deliberation and conversation with current Global Sponsors, we have the proposed draft for the 2023 Global Community Sponsorship Program. If you know a company that you think would be a good candidate for global sponsorship, please suggest they review this post, provide feedback, and email support@wordcamp.org for more details!
TL;DR
2022 saw an increase of in-person WordCamps. Hooray! Package rates will increase from 2022 to 2023 to reflect that growth, as well as rising cost of hosting events.
Highlighted changes to the program
One package for the whole program, with three tiers: Gold, Silver, and Bronze.
For top level sponsors (Gold), the option to have one brand as the global sponsor, and select affiliated brands for representation at each WordCampWordCampWordCamps 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. (one brand per WordCamp). This is in reflection of the high number of mergers and acquisitions in the WordPress space in recent years.
Questions? Feedback?
If you have any questions, observations, or critical feedback about the program in general or these proposed changes, please comment on the post! Thank you for the diligent work in creating this year’s program, @kcristiano, @sippis, @harmonyromo, @peiraisotta, and thank you to our current Global Sponsors for their input.
The Details
43% of the web is powered by WordPress, the free and open sourceOpen SourceOpen 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. software built and maintained by thousands of volunteers all over the world. The WordPress contributor community is made up of developers, designers, writers, photographers, freelancers, agency professionals, and hobbyists, many of whom gather regularly around the world at locally-organized monthly and annual events. Official WordPress community events are exclusively volunteer-organized, and each reflects the interests and expertise of the local community.
In 2022, WordPress events continued to be held online, due to the pandemic. As the year progressed, local communities that had gone dormant during the pandemic were reactivated, new communities emerged, and events carefully moved to in-person formats. Today, we have 771 meetupMeetupMeetup 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. groups, and 498,669 members. There have been 2712 meetup events so far, and over 200 more scheduled through the end of the year! By the end of 2022, the community anticipates 25 WordCamps, 23 of those in person.
What’s a WordCamp?
WordCamp is the annual conference for local WordPress communities; it’s a casual, non-commercial, educational event about WordPress. Events range from intimate 50-person unconferences to multi-track conferences attended by over 3,000. Conference session topics include WordPress development, design, business, social media integration, blogging, and marketing. WordCamp tickets are sold at an extremely low price ($25 USD per person, per day) so that events are accessible to people of any financial background. Online WordCamps are always free of charge to attend.
In 2023, the WordPress project intends to host a Community Summit: an important event that brings together WordPress contributors from around the world, allowing for in-person, cross team collaboration. They will discuss critical topics of importance to the project as a whole, with the intent of moving the WordPress project forward. A portion of Global Sponsorship funds will be allocated towards supporting travel costs for Community Summit attendees, and more.
Please note that the Global Community Sponsorship program does not include current or future flagship events such as WordCamp Europe, WordCamp Asia, or WordCamp US, even though they’re listed on the official schedule.
WordCamp Program Data
At the time of writing, there were 24 WordCamps in 2022, 22 of those in person. While it is still difficult to project the growth of numbers of events in 2023, with concerns around the pandemic subsiding and based on conversations with local communities, we hope to see upwards of 55 WordCamps.
WordPress MeetupsMeetupMeetup 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. are locally-organized user groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis to discuss WordPress (commonly once a month). These events take many formats: presentations/lecture series, hackathons, social gatherings, workshops, coworking, running a WordPress help desk, contributor sprints/drives, and others. Groups hosted on meetup.com can become an official WordPress chapter group and receive financial and organizational support from the WordPress Community team.
Meetup Program Data (as of 3 November 2022)
771 groups
113 countries with a meetup group
498,669 group members, program-wide
2,712 meetup events scheduled in 2022 to date, and over 200 more scheduled through the end of the year
How does event sponsorship help WordPress?
Companies that sponsor WordPress community events support the WordPress open source project by helping our volunteer-organized, local events provide free or low-cost access for attendees. WordPress community events strengthen, inspire, and connect the community that builds and maintains WordPress.
Why sponsor via this program rather than sponsoring individual events?
As the WordPress community continues to grow, many companies find they don’t have time to coordinate with multiple teams of volunteer event organizers. The WordPress Global Community Sponsorship Program ensures that your support reaches WordCamps and meetups quickly and provides stability to locally-organized events. WordPress global community sponsors have a single, centralized point of contact and are billed annually or quarterly, saving companies time and trouble.
This year, we are offering three different sponsorship packages: Gold, Silver, and Bronze, each offered as an annual commitment. Each level of sponsorship offers a certain level of visibility at WordCamps and Meetups. Recognizing that there have been many acquisitions and mergers in recent years, Gold level sponsors will be able to sign one sponsorship agreement, but select one (1) company brand to be featured at each WordCamp (see section on costs and benefits for more information).
Global Sponsorship Level
Gold
Silver
Bronze
Price
$130,000
$95,000
$80,000
WordCamp Benefits
Name, logo, and company description on all WordCamp websites.*
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Inclusion in the “Thank You To Our Sponsors” blog post on each WordCamp.*
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Monthly email with spreadsheet of WordCamps in planning and on the schedule.
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A number of free tickets to each in-person WordCamp, reserved for your company representatives.**
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A number of swag items added to the swag table of in-person WordCamps in your region, if available. subject to approval.
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Acknowledgement in all WordCamp “ticket purchase successful” pages (10,183 in 2022).*
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A sponsor landing page that includes a discount or coupon code for your product or service in your company description, posted to all WordCamps in your region. subject to approval.
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Option to have a different company brand represented at WordCamp (subject to approval, and requires company communication in advance).***
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Table at in-person WordCamps for meeting attendees, if space is available.****
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Meetup Benefits
Featured on all WordPress chapter meetup group pages (as of November 2022: 498,669 Members, 771 groups, 113 countries). This includes your logo, with a link back to the company landing page of your choice, on chapter meetup group landing and event pages.
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Acknowledgement on all monthly Meetup Organizer Newsletters (received by 1,675+ WordPress community influencers every month).
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Opportunity to list speaker topics that your employees could speak on, whether in person or remotely. subject to approval.
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Verbal acknowledgement by Meetup Organizers who make use of venue sponsorship funds.
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Program-wide Benefits
Acknowledgement on the WordCamp CentralWordCamp CentralWebsite for all WordCamp activities globally. https://central.wordcamp.org includes a list of upcoming and past camp with links to each. home page (over 400k annual views).
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Acknowledgement on sponsor page on WordCamp Central (3,775 views in the past 365 days).
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Acknowledgement in one program-wide email to all (over 470k) members of a WordPress chapter account meetup group.
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Opportunity to list discounts or free resources that meetup and WordCamp organizers can use for new user workshops, charity hackathons, etc., on the official WordCamp Organizer handbook page for use at community events. This page will be promoted through the Meetup Organizer newsletter, received by 1,675+ WordPress community influencers monthly. subject to approval.
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Quarterly acknowledgements on WordPress.orgWordPress.orgThe 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/’s Twitter (643.9k followers) and Facebook.
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*Gold level sponsors will be featured more prominently by size of logo and order, followed by Silver level sponsors, and finally Bronze.
**Free, reserved tickets will return to the general ticket pool if they are not claimed one month before WordCamp. Tickets reserved for sponsors should not be used for ticket giveaways; these are only for your company representatives who wish to attend the event. While the number of tickets offered will vary from WordCamp to WordCamp, Gold level sponsors will be offered more free tickets, then Silver, then Bronze, and will depend on availability.
***As part of signing the sponsor agreement, the parent company will be the signor, and will be asked to list all affiliated brands that you would like represented at WordCamps. All entities are held to the same expectations as all global sponsors. Only one affiliated brand may be represented at the WordCamp, and requires at least one (1) month advance notice to WordPress Community SupportWordPress Community SupportWordPress Community Support PBC is a Public Benefit Corporation, created specifically to be the financial and legal support for WordCamps, WordPress Meetup groups, and any additional “official” events organized within the WordPress Community Events program., PBC and the WordCamp organizers as to which brand will be at the event.
****Not all WordCamp venues will have space to provide tables to sponsors, but if the venue has enough space to accommodate sponsor tables, then community sponsors will be offered exhibition space. If offered a table, Sponsors are asked to confirm in-person attendance at least one (1) month in advance to guarantee the space.
