Patricia BT 8:58 pm on June 1, 2023

Early Speaker and Volunteer Selection and Improved Visa Support

As the WordPress community continues to grow and evolve, so too must our approach to organizing 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. events. A key concern involves the timing of speaker and volunteer selections, along with the challenges faced in obtaining visas for international participation. We see so many visa rejections among speakers and volunteers for WCEU2023, it’s very sad!

In this post, I’ll outline why I think addressing these issues is crucial for our community.

1. The case for early speaker and volunteer Selection

Travel and Accommodation: Booking travel and accommodation is more economical and less stressful when done earlier. Early selection enables speakers and volunteers to plan accordingly. Some people will attend only if they are selected as a speaker or volunteer.
Visa Applications: For speakers and volunteers traveling internationally, getting a visa can be a lengthy process. Early selection gives them enough time to apply for visas, deal with any potential issues or delays, and, if necessary, appeal against visa rejections. See point 2 below.
Work Commitments: Early selection allows professionals to manage their work schedules, take necessary time off, and avoid overcommitments.
Personal Planning: Beyond logistical and professional considerations, early selection facilitates personal planning, including arranging childcare or coordinating with family schedules.
Sufficient Preparation Time: Speakers require ample time to prepare quality presentations. Earlier approval would also give unexperienced speakers more time to prepare their presentation. Similarly, volunteers need to understand their responsibilities well in advance.
Event Promotion: Announcing speakers and volunteers early can drive ticket sales and enhance overall event promotion.

2. Addressing visa challenges for WordCamp Europe and local WordCamps in Europe

Establishing an Official Address in Europe: To facilitate visa application process for speakers, volunteers, and attendees coming from outside of Europe, WordPress Community SupportWordPress Community Support WordPress 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. should establish an official address within the European Union or the Schengen area. This could be done through establishing a non-profit organization or a for-profit subsidiary of the US entity or partnering with an existing entity that can provide this support. This could significantly streamline the visa application process.
Visa Applications Processing: Visa applications should ideally be processed in the country where the WordCamp is taking place or the country where “WordPress Community Support, Europe” has an official address (see above). This can potentially increase the chances of approval.
Visa Support and Guidance: Speakers and volunteers should be provided with comprehensive support during their visa application process, including a very detailed file of invitation and assistance with necessary documentation.
Don’t forget that to apply for a visa, people usually need to buy a plane ticket and those tickets are often non-refundable, so we must do everything in our power to ensure that they are approved.
Contingency Planning for Visa Rejections: In case of visa rejections, a contingency plan should be in place. This might involve aiding in the appeal process or arranging for remote participation.

3. The Importance of longer lead times for local WordCamps

Even for local WordCamps focusing on local audiences, early speaker and volunteer selection is beneficial. This allows individuals to manage their other commitments and ensures better event promotion, thereby boosting local community engagement. It is not sustainable for speakers to be selected only in the weeks before the event, and for them to be announced only in the weeks or even days leading up to the event.

Conclusion

By addressing these points, we aim to make WordCamp events more accessible, enjoyable, and rewarding for everyone involved. We believe these changes will result in smoother event planning, better-prepared speakers and volunteers, successful visa applications, and improved attendee experiences. Let’s continue this conversation and make the necessary changes to enhance our WordCamp experiences for our growing WordPress community.

Please let’s brainstorm our ideas in this shared document
List potential partners who could be an official entity in the European Union or the Schengen area to act as the official european address for WordPress Community Support.

Taco Verdonschot 10:45 pm on June 1, 2023

While related, I think your post touches on two very different topics, which leads me to believe that it might be better to split this topic into two different topics. But since that’s not the case right now, I’ll briefly comment on both.

2. Fighting Visa issues
Since I have no legal experience whatsoever, I can’t comment on the solution you proposed or suggest alternatives. Yet I agree with you that it would be great if we could find a way to make those applications more successful!

1. (Flagship) 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. planning
I could not agree more that we’re doing ourselves (event organisers) and our community a huge disservice by the typical timeline for our events.

Speaker’s perspective
Any experienced public speaker will tell you you’ll need at least a few weeks to write your story, a few to build your slide deck, and a few to practise your presentation. This means we’re looking at -at least- 6 weeks of work, if you could work uninterrupted on just this. Realistically, that puts us at two months of preparation at least.

That means that, for an event in June, speakers should have been selected and confirmed in April at the latest. But, this is from a speaker’s perspective.

Attendee’s perspective
The earlier I can book flights and hotels, the cheaper it typically is. Now for local events, this may be a lot less of a problem as the audience and speakers will mostly be from that local community. But especially for flagship events, a significant number of attendees is from ‘out of town’. That means that making a decision to go to an event earlier can easily save you hundreds of dollars/euros/local currency.

But, deciding to travel before the speaker schedule is out may be harder to justify to bosses/partners/kids. So ideally, the attendee wants to see a full schedule several months before the event.
Let’s say, 3 months prior to the event date. This gives them at least a few weeks to discuss with their stakeholders.

Now when we take into account a VISA approval request, This typically takes a few weeks extra to get clearance.

Employer’s perspective
I’ve been involved with the event planning for Yoast, for quite a few WordCamps. Typically, we’ll have a number of people who can go to an event in mind. If people get accepted to speaker, they’re in. And sometimes they’re out if they’re not accepted as speaker.
Just like for the individual attendee, booking flights earlier scan save boatloads of money. And that easily goes up into the thousands, or even tens of thousands of dollars/euros/GBPs. So, booking earlier is important.

The thing is, hotels and flights are oftentimes booked in groups. This means that a company can’t book for any of their employees until the schedule has fully been release. This is directly affecting their hotel reservations. This either means they’re losing out on the best rooms, have to do a downpayment, and risk losing money for overbooking. And the same problem goes for flights to the WordCamps.

And this is when you’re not taking into account the work that has to be taken over from people leaving the office for a few days. Or weeks.

All-in-all, there are many arguments to be made for a longer period between picking/announcing the speaker line-up and the event, and these are just a few.

And we haven’t even touched on moving the flagship event days to be fully during work days, because weekends really aren’t the best choice for professional events. But that’s a topic for another day!
Patricia BT 5:14 am on June 2, 2023

Hi Taco,

Thank you very much for your insight.

You’re right it touches 2 topics, at first I wanted to write something about all the visa rejections I see in the volunteer slackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. channel for the upcoming WCEUWCEU WordCamp Europe. The European flagship WordCamp event., this lead to one of the potential issues, time.
All of them says that the reason for refusal was a “information provided not reliable”. And most of them asked for a local organizing address. And I believe the invitation letter is very minimal.
For sure, time was a factor. Applying in April and have 50 days+ of waiting does not let them easily file an appeal, and get help from WCEU organizers.

This lead to the other topic, about early schedule.
You write “But, deciding to travel before the speaker schedule is out may be harder to justify to bosses/partners/kids. So ideally, the attendee wants to see a full schedule several months before the event.”
Actually it’s not for the audience to see the schedule (even if this has been asked several times by potential attendees when I was a 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. organizer). It’s for the speakers themselves. For a lot of people, it’s a lot of money. Some might find valuable to go only if they are selected as a speaker.

Your employer’s point of view is interesting, and I want to add that it’s even worse for those who have a job outside WP, are self-employed or have a very small business = loss of working days and therefore money. So they might want to go only if they are selected as a speaker.

Taking part and volunteering for an event represents a lot of money. See this very interesting post from MasterWP, I see so many people relating to this. For sure, as an inclusive community, we should not aim to have events only for people with money or working in companies which pay for them (which would be even worse with the idea of moving to week days, more days off work).

Just as an example, to fly to Athens in June from most of Europe = €150 if booked in January, and nearly €400 if booked in May. same for finding nearby hotels etc. This could even be the case at local WordCamps for trains trips, hotels etc.

In terms of speaker preparation, I was thinking about first-time speakers (which is encouraged). Speaking for the first time, especially at a large event, can be very intimidating and require a lot of preparation. I added this as it was suggested by another person in slack, and I wholy agree with that.

Thank you very much for your reply and for all the points you listed.
Muhammad Kashif 12:27 pm on June 2, 2023

I have personal experience with the address issue, and I want to emphasize that it is a genuine concern. Having an invitation for a European event signed by a US company does not qualify as a “reliable” invitation, as I have encountered firsthand.

During WCEU2019, I faced visa denial from Germany due to this exact reason.

However, thanks to the 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. Nijmegen, who kindly provided a personal reference for my visa application for the Netherlands and got the visa, and was able to attend the event. This incident highlights the significance of having a valid address on your invitation when applying for a visa.

In our part of the world, visa officers tend to deny visas based on even the slightest doubt they find in any document. An invitation letter with an address from a different country than where the event is taking place can be a contributing factor to visa denials.

In addition to addressing the address issue, it would be beneficial to have a team of volunteers with experience in dealing with Schengen visas, especially for attendees from countries with visa-related challenges. These volunteers could provide valuable assistance and guidance to fellow travelers struggling with visa matters.

I am personally willing to volunteer for this cause and offer visa help and consultation to up to 30 attendees for WCEUWCEU WordCamp Europe. The European flagship WordCamp event. 2024.
- Patricia BT 2:25 pm on June 2, 2023
  
  thank you very much @xpertone
  
  I faced that visa issues years ago with a friend not able to come to visit… and I have some friends who have not seen their relatives for years. Visa rejections are very sad.
  
  Do you think that applying for a tourist visa has more chances of success than applying to attend an event?
  
  Please add your ideas in the shared document (link at the bottom of my original post)
  
  Thanks a lot
Gijo Varghese 11:58 am on June 10, 2023

Thanks for bringing this up! Please considers sponsors too. We’re planning to sponsor WCEUWCEU WordCamp Europe. The European flagship WordCamp event. next year. But worried if we’ll get the visa after sponsoring.

Getting an invitation letter early, especially one with a European address, would be a great help.
- Patricia BT 5:36 pm on June 16, 2023
  
  You are 100% right, I should have mentioned sponsors too.
  Let’s see if something will be done for a European address
Andy Keith 5:34 pm on June 16, 2023

Thank you for highlighting the issues around Visas for speakers and volunteers. One of our team was scheduled to speak at WCEUWCEU WordCamp Europe. The European flagship WordCamp event. in Athens but had their Visa rejected at the last moment. It would be great if there was more support available during the process and also for Visa rejections. Your ideas above and in the shared document sound sensible.
Amir Arabnezhad 8:43 am on June 19, 2023

Thank you for bringing this up. I have been selected as a speaker for WCEUWCEU WordCamp Europe. The European flagship WordCamp event. 2023, but my visa application was rejected. I am from Iran, and I believe that political issues may have played a role in the rejection.

As you may know, Greece is a popular destination for refugees. Many people from the Middle East who want to reach Europe travel (or somehow get) to Greece, which is why the country often rejects visa applications, especially from the Middle East.

I do not think that selecting another country in Europe would have helped. The result of a visa application depends on the individual’s situation and country of origin. The only thing that matters to the authorities is whether the applicant has traveled to the Schengen area before and returned to their home country.

If this is not the case, the application will be rejected, regardless of the other documents submitted. In my case, I submitted the following documents:

1- Plane tickets
2- Hotel reservations
3- Invitation letter
4- Proof of sufficient income
5- Official document showing that I own (not rent) a house in my country
6- Health insurance
7- Job contract

I provided all of these documents, but my application was still rejected because the authorities were not sure if I would return to Iran. The documents were all in order, and there were no issues with them. I was only rejected because this would have been my first visit to the Schengen area, and I have a remote job outside of Iran, which (in their mind) increases the chance of my not going back to Iran.

I hope that registering an official address for WCEU will help with the visa application process.