This is the home of the Make Community team for the WordPress 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. project!
Here is where we have policy debates, project announcements, and assist community members in organizing events.
Everyone is welcome to comment on posts and participate in the discussions regardless of skill level or experience.
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If you love WordPress and want to help us do these things, join in!
You may find it useful to set out a number of language/style guidelines to be used throughout your content, and create branding before you start. These can include:
Your overall theme. Does your 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. have an overall theme? This may relate to the host city.
You can brand all your WordCamp’s communication with this overall theme! This adds identity, uniqueness and fun to the brand!
Examples and ideas:
WordCamp Bristol 2017: nautical theme. Used nautical terms for sponsors; referred to attendees as “sailors”; nautical website branding; etc.
Useful key phrases. Set these out in a single document and copy/paste these to use consistently throughout all your communication. These may include:
An “elevator pitch” for the WordCamp: a one or two sentence “pitch” explaining what the conference is.
You may also wish to set up a number of tools which can make your organising life easier!
Standardised branding, including website banners etc, square versions for social, hex colours of the branding, a default featured imageFeatured imageA featured image is the main image used on your blog archive page and is pulled when the post or page is shared on social media. The image can be used to display in widget areas on your site or in a summary list of posts. for blog posts. Create these now and save time later!
Create social accounts including Facebook and Twitter.
Set up a Mailchimp account! Encourage people to sign up to a single WordCamp [Your City] newsletter, which can be re-used every year. This gives you an existing group of interested people every year who you can sell tickets to!
Below you’ll find the posts most WordCamps publish on their blogs in the run up to the event. These are in roughly the order you’ll need and include an overview of the aim of each post, suggestions for the content of each post and reference examples.
This is a non-exhaustive and non-complete list, so take the below as suggestions and do what’s best for your WordCamp!
This post can invite attendees to suggest the topics they wish to hear about at the upcoming WordCamp. This can be as simple as asking people to comment below the post, or a more complex form. Example from WordCamp Sacramento 2017
Example from WordCamp London 2017:
This is your WordCamp London and we’d love to hear about any WordPress related topics that would light up the stage for you. What would you be interested in hearing or learning more about?
[full post includes examples of previous topics]
Join the conversation directly in the comments section below…
This post is announcing your “call for speakers”. This should include all the information necessary to find out about and submit a speaker application.
You may wish to include:
A two sentence “elevator pitch” of your WordCamp to start the post.
Topics you wish to receive applications about.
The format for talks (ie 30 minute with 10 minute Q&A).
Which language(s) talks should be in.
A specific date and time (with timezone) that applications will close.
How to contact the organisers for any queries.
Any accessibilityAccessibilityAccessibility (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) details relevant at this time.
When applicants will hear if they have been successful/not.
Any extra details, including if speakers receive free tickets.
Example from WordCamp Europe 2016:
The 4th annual WordCamp Europe will be held in Vienna, Austria, June 24-26, 2016, bringing together over 1000 passionate designers, developers, business owners, entrepreneurs, marketing experts, bloggers and educators from around the globe. Submissions will close on 31 January 2016 at midnight [with timezone]. All candidates will be informed as to whether or not their talk was accepted by 16 March.
This post should answer frequently asked questions about the speaker application process.
If you have frequently received questions, address these here!
This post is announcing that your tickets are on sale! Hooray!
You may wish to include:
Different ticket types available such as regular tickets, micro-sponsor tickets (ie “pay the full cost of your ticket”), early bird tickets etc.
If possible, include details of a keynote speaker or any speakers you’ve been able to confirm. People will buy tickets if they’re excited for the talks!
Wish your readers and attendees a Happy [holiday name]! WordCamps are a celebration, so celebrate holidays! These are essentially an excuse to do a post, get social shares and push sales. The content can be very short and simple.
An elevator pitch for the event, so sponsors know what they’re dealing with.
How sponsors will benefit from their sponsorship. You may wish to reference who you’re expecting to attend (ie “bloggers, developers, agencies”), the number of expected attendees, networking benefits, previous WordCamps (and their success; with number of attendees and testimonials from previous sponsors if possible).
The different sponsorship levels! These should include a breakdown of what sponsors will receive at each level and the cost.
Form to enquire about sponsorship! Collect all the data required.
Also consider publishing a draft budget to show where your sponsorship funds are going to be spent! This helps show why the sponsorship is so important and can lead to useful feedback. Note this doesn’t have to be finalised; a simplified draft which communicates the general idea will be sufficient.
This post should outline the accessibility features and accommodations of your conference.
You may wish to include:
Accessibility features attendees can expect, possibly including: catering (and dietary requirements to be accommodated), multi-faith room, disability access, bathrooms, live transcriptions, quiet room, activities/workroom and crèche.
This post is announcing your speakers and their talk titles!
Some WordCamps like to split this announcement into multiple posts. Doing this in separate posts may have the benefit of getting you additional social shares with each post, and hopefully additional website traffic and ticket sales!
You may wish to include:
Link to buy tickets.
Individual bio, talk title and profile picture for each speaker.
This post, or series of posts, should thank you sponsors! Depending on the number of sponsors you have and your obligations, this can be an individual post for each sponsor or a round-up per-tier.
You may wish to include:
A very brief intro, including a link to become a sponsor and buy tickets if these are still available.
This post should let your attendees know the schedule for your event.
You may wish to include:
The full schedule, with links to talks (obviously). It should be clear which day each talk is on, if talks are running in parallel, the timings for each talk, timings for registration, timings for lunch and the social.
Explanation for any “oddities” such as the amount of turnover time between talks.
This post should include any useful information that would help the participants during the event. Attendees should be able to go here to find everything they need, all in one place!
It could be in separate posts/ emails, or all in one if there is not a ton of information.
You may wish to include:
Which colour t-shirts volunteers are wearing! (this ensures attendees can easily identify volunteers).
Parking information.
Map of the venue.
Childcare availability.
Catering information (when, allergies, etc) + If sponsors /speakers can go late/early.
Social events (networking, after party).
Restaurants and/or good places to visit in the city.
Link to the schedule.
Arrival/registration times.
Any other details you have been frequently asked about or think attendees will find useful.