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.
Get Involved
If you love WordPress and want to help us do these things, join in!
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. Europe 2024 is one month ahead and the Community Team would love to have as many contributors joining as possible. WCEUWCEUWordCamp Europe. The European flagship WordCamp event. is one of the flagship events held in a year along with WordCamp Asia and WordCamp US. During this time, we would love to welcome team members to get together, contribute, collaborate, onboard new members, and maybe come up with new ideas for the future. Several members including some of the Community Team Reps will be present at the event and we will have few facilitators to get through the day.
Here are some topics that could be discussed during the day.
Topic Examples
What would you like to see the community team accomplish at WCEU this year?
What topics do you think we should focus on?
What goals would be impactful to our day spent collaborating together?
How can we improve the Handbook for the Community Team?
New 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./WP Event Orientations / Vetting
WP Event budget reviews
Training for Meetup/WordCamp Organizers
Training for current Event/Program Supporters
Can’t attend in person?
Join the conversations that happen all year long in the Make Community SlackSlackSlack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/.. It’s simple to join and allows you to connect to all of the Make WordPress contributor teams!
We will try our best to have the #community-team channel running during the day, but we highly recommend you to comment in this post or in the channel about any specific topics we should look into during WCEU.
Your Feedback is Invaluable
The Community Team thrives because of its diverse perspectives and rich discussions. Don’t stop now. Please comment on your ideas below before May 31st, after that, we’ll close the comments, consolidate all ideas and we’ll publish another post with the final plans on June 7th.
Welcome to the April 2024 edition of your WordPress 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. Organizer Newsletter! The newsletter aims to inspire and empower WordPress meetup organizers worldwide to host engaging, impactful meetup events. Do you have ideas for topics to feature in a future edition of the newsletter? Please email your suggestions to support@wordcamp.org.
Elevate Your 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. With WordPress Playground!
Hosting or planning your next WordPress meetup? Make it unforgettable with WordPress Playground! This innovative tool transforms learning and interaction by allowing you and your attendees to run WordPress directly in your browser. Playground is the ultimate learning, teaching, and testing tool – perfect for demonstrations, hands-on learning, and exploring new WordPress features without the hassle of installations. Dive into WordPress Playground and bring your meetups to life: https://wordpress.org/playground/
Explore WordPress 6.5 Highlights
WordPress 6.5 “Regina” was recently released! This major releaseMajor ReleaseA set of releases or versions having the same major version number may be collectively referred to as “X.Y” -- for example version 5.2.x to refer to versions 5.2, 5.2.1, and all other versions in the 5.2. (five dot two dot) branch of that software. Major Releases often are the introduction of new major features and functionality. brings exciting features like the new Font Library, enhanced drag-and-drop functionality, and over 110 performance updates, making the Post Editor and Site Editor 2x faster than before. Notable improvements include AVIF image support, 65 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) enhancements, and developer-friendly features like the Interactivity APIAPIAn API or Application Programming Interface is a software intermediary that allows programs to interact with each other and share data in limited, clearly defined ways.. With contributions from 700 individuals across 57 countries, including 150 first-time contributors, WordPress 6.5 reflects a global effort to empower users with a smoother, more efficient experience. Following closely, the maintenance and security release of WordPress 6.5.2 addresses crucial bug fixes and security enhancements, ensuring the WordPress experience remains top-notch.
How Your Meetup Can Explore WordPress 6.5 Together
Interactive Workshops: Host workshops focused on 6.5’s innovations, like creating custom fonts with the new Font Library.
Show and Tell: Inspire your community by showcasing real-world applications of 6.5 features. Encourage members to share their projects and learn from each other.
Share Your Feedback with Meetup.com
Earlier this year, Meetup.com was acquired by Bending Spoons, an Italian-based tech company with an ambitious vision for Meetup’s future. Bending Spoons acquired Meetup because they believe in the mission to foster human connections. Over the next few years, this new parent company intends to invest nearly $50 million to improve the product and grow membership. In particular, the team plans to improve event discoverability and reduce the friction for organizers to create events and engage with their communities.
Harness 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. Europe 2024 for your Meetup Group!
WordCamp Europe 2024 has unveiled its schedule and speaker lineup! From talks on WordPress’s future to hands-on workshops, there’s something for everyone. WordCamp Europe talks are live-streamed and recorded, so you can bring together your meetup group to watch and discuss the sessions. It’s the next best thing to being there!
Celebrating Success: WordPress Contributor Mentorship Program
The WordPress Contributor Mentorship Program’s second cohort has just wrapped up, boasting 52 mentees guided by 28 mentorsEvent SupporterEvent Supporter (formerly Mentor) is someone who has already organised a WordCamp and has time to meet with their assigned mentee every 2 weeks, they talk over where they should be in their timeline, help them to identify their issues, and also identify solutions for their issues. over six weeks. A heartfelt congratulations to all mentees – including six recipients of the LGBTQ+Press Empowerment Grant – for their outstanding contributions to WordPress.
Introducing our newest WordPress Meetup groups
Let’s welcome the new Meetup groups recently added to our chapter! Do support them in organizing both local (in-person) and global (online) meetup events, and let’s learn from their experiences and experiments along the way.
This month, we celebrate the WordPress Meetup groups of Cebu (Philippines), Managua (Nicaragua), Sofia (Bulgaria), and Malappuram (India)!
Meetup Organizers, we want to feature you!
We’d love to publish pictures from Meetups all around the world in each newsletter. Do you want your Meetup to be featured? Share 1 picture with the Community team! Rename your picture as “Meetup-name_event-date” and upload it to this folder. The formats supported are jpg and png. Please remember, always ask for permission from your group members before taking the picture and sharing it with us!
If you have any questions, Community Team Supporters are here to help. Please email us at support@wordcamp.org or join the #community-eventsSlack channel. Thanks for everything you do to grow and support the WordPress community. Let’s keep sharing knowledge and inspiring each other with our contributions!
In an effort to provide some real-time information for event organizers and the community alike, Central is sharing monthly financial summaries for all the events of the prior month + any events from prior months that had not paid all invoices or submitted transparency reports by the month following their event. Below are links to the prior reports that have been shared:
Updates on WordCamps Held Before February with Open Budgets
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. Tokyo, Japan (Oct 20-22) Final Tickets Sold: 424 Approved Attendee Total: 400 Budget Notes*: Transparency Report reviewed and budget closed Final cost $40,926 USD/ 5,684,195 JPY and cost per person/ per day of $32 USD/ 4,469 JPY. Event closed with a contribution to Global Sponsorship funds of approximately $403 USD / 56,002 JPY.
Open Items – Finances: There was a surplus on hand with organizers totaling $6,634 USD/ 921,333 JPY that has since been returned to Central.
WordCamp Manila (November 11) Final Tickets Sold: 289 Approved Attendee Total: 230 Budget Notes*: Transparency Report reviewed but awaiting a few answers to open questions
Open Items – Finances: Open questions sent January 10, 2024, with the latest reply on March 8, 2024. Another request for answers was sent March 27, 2024.
WordCamp Udaipur (December 2) Final Tickets Sold: 300 Approved Attendee Total: 350 Budget Notes*: Transparency Report reviewed and a few open questions sent to organizers on March 18, 2024. Still awaiting a reply.
Open Items – Finances: Still awaiting answers to questions sent following the review of the transparency report.
WordCamp Ahmedabad (December 9) Final Tickets Sold: 1051 Approved Attendee Total: 800 Budget Notes*: Awaiting Final Numbers
Open Items – Finances: Still Awaiting final Transparency Report**. There has been communication with organizers on March 27, 2024, and the team has committed to providing the report by April 1, 2024.
WordCamp Nepal (Jan 12 – 13) Final Tickets Sold: 859 Approved Attendee Total: 800 Budget Notes*: Still awaiting Transparency Report submission and final numbers.
Open Items – Finances: Still Awaiting final Transparency Report**, and the team has been in communication as late as March 26, 2024, to say the information will be submitted as soon as possible.
WordCamp Zaragoza (Jan 19 – 20) Final Tickets Sold: 260 Approved Attendee Total: 225 Budget Notes*: The budget appears almost complete. The only remaining vendor to be paid appears to be the 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) services.
Open Items – Finances: One more vendor to pay. The budget wranglerWranglerSomeone, usually a person part of event organizing team, who looks after certain things like budget or sponsors. and organizing team were emailed on March 21, 2024, to ask about this remaining invoice.
WordCamp and Events Held in February
Kerala Photo Festival (Online) (Feb 3-10) Final Tickets Sold: N/A (333 tickets were claimed for participation) Approved Attendee Total: N/A Budget Notes*: Prize winnings are still being paid to the winners of the event
Open Items – Finances: All expenses still not paid
WordCamp Phoenix (Feb 9-10) Final Tickets Sold: 224 Approved Attendee Total: 400 Budget Notes*: Final cost $30,350 USD and cost per person/ per day of $67 USD Event closed with a contribution to Global Sponsorship funds of approximately $8,784 USD
Open Items – Finances: No open items
WordCamp Pune (Feb 17) Final Tickets Sold: 232 Approved Attendee Total: 400 Budget Notes*: Transparency Report submitted and reviewed Final cost $6,075 USD/ 506,221 INR and cost per person/ per day of $26 USD/ 2,182 INR. Event closed with a contribution to Global Sponsorship funds of approximately $2,366 USD / 197,166 INR
Open Items – Finances: There are still reimbursements to be made to the organizers, but the costs have been reported in total, so total expenses will not be affected.
WordCamp Kansai (Feb 23-24) Final Tickets Sold: 199 Approved Attendee Total: 260 Budget Notes*: Still awaiting Transparency Report submission and final numbers.
Open Items – Finances: Still Awaiting final Transparency Report**, and the team has been in communication to say the information will be submitted by April 14th.
Budget Notes*: If an event was able to raise more sponsorship income or ticket income, or the expenses were less than amounts listed in the approved budget, the additional funds are contributed back to the Global Sponsorship fund. If, on the other hand, an organizing team raises less sponsorship income or ticket income than planned, or expenses are higher than originally budgeted, the additional amount needed to cover all expenses is covered by the Global Sponsorship fund and will be stated as additional Global Sponsorship funds used.
The goal of WordPress events is to provide a space where community members can come together and share knowledge, build relationships with other members and sponsors, and spread love for WordPress. The goal is never to make money. Because 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. pays taxes on any net income at year end, we strive to hold events where income is equal to expenses.
Transparency Report**: WordCamps that run funds through WordPress Community Support (WPCSWordPress 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.) – meaning WPCS collects ticket income and sponsorship income, and pays vendors directly – are not required to submit a Transparency Report.
Alternatively, organizing teams that run money locally collect all or some of the ticket income and sponsorship income directly. The team then uses the collected funds to pay expenses of the event. The organizing team is responsible for completing a transparency report after the event where they submit receipts/documentation for all expenses, support for ticket income collected, and support for sponsorship income collected. More info can be found here.
Hi, WordPress 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. Organizers!
Curious to see all WordPress upcoming events worldwide? Check out the WordPress Events site! You can filterFilterFilters are one of the two types of Hooks https://codex.wordpress.org/Plugin_API/Hooks. They provide a way for functions to modify data of other functions. They are the counterpart to Actions. Unlike Actions, filters are meant to work in an isolated manner, and should never have side effects such as affecting global variables and output. by country, month, and event type and connect with the WordPress communities around the world!
News from 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. Asia
In his Q&A session at WordCamp Asia, Matt Mullenweg (WordPress Co-founder) announced that State Of The WordState of the WordThis is the annual report given by Matt Mullenweg, founder of WordPress at WordCamp US. It looks at what we’ve done, what we’re doing, and the future of WordPress. https://wordpress.tv/tag/state-of-the-word/. 2024 will be held in Tokyo, Japan on December 16, 2024. You can view the full recording of Matt’s Q&A session on YouTube.
The Community Team has announced a project to revive Meetup Groups in big cities in Asia that are inactive, or help the local WordPress community that are not yet part of the WordPress Meetup Chapter Program to join. Please see the project’s post for more details, and let us know if you’d like to be involved!
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. of the Month
This month, we celebrate the WordPress Meetup groups of Bengaluru (Bangalore, India), Griñón (Spain), and Satkhira (Bangladesh)!
Bangalore, IndiaGriñón, SpainSatkhira, Bangladesh
Introducing our newest WordPress Meetup groups
Let’s welcome the new Meetup groups recently added to our chapter! Do support them in organizing both local (in-person) and global (online) meetup events, and let’s learn from their experiences and experiments along the way.
We’d love to publish pictures from Meetups all around the world in each newsletter. Do you want your Meetup to be featured? Share 1 picture with the Community team! Rename your picture as “Meetup-name_event-date” and upload it to this folder. The formats supported are jpg and png. Please remember, always ask for permission from your group members before taking the picture and sharing it with us!
Meetup Tip of the Month
The best way to boost discoverability of your Meetup events is by putting relevant keywords in your event’s title and description (for example, “WordPress”). When writing your event description, be concise and specific. Include the same relevant keyword in your event title and at least twice in your description. The more you use a searchable keyword, the easier it will be for members to find your event.
If you have any questions, Community Team Program Supporters are here to help. Please email us at support@wordcamp.org or join the #community-eventsSlack channel. Thanks for everything you do to grow and support the WordPress community—let’s keep sharing knowledge and inspiring each other with our contributions!
TrelloTrelloProject management system using the concepts of boards and cards to organize tasks in a sane way. This is what the make.wordpress.com/marketing team uses for example: https://trello.com/b/8UGHVBu8/wp-marketing. has changed their free plan. It now limits free Workspaces to 10 collaborators. Currently their are about 24 current and former Community Team members associated with the team’s free Workspace.
Trello has informed us that:
On April 8, 2024, in free Workspaces at or over the limit, you’ll only be able to share boards with current Workspace collaborators.
On May 20, 2024, in free Workspaces over the limit, boards will become view only.
The initial conversation in Slack seemed to indicate that we might be done with Trello and ready to move to GitHubGitHubGitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories that can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers. Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged be the repository owner. https://github.com/ for project planning. If so, then we can close our free Trello Workspace.
If we want to continue using Trello, we will need to limit the number of users.
So, the question I need feedback on is:
Should we close Trello and use GitHub?
Should we keep Trello and decide which 10 members have access to it?
It has been proposed to a non-editable footer to all Event Website Pages moving forward. This footer would contain two things:
the Privacy Policy
a link to the new events.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/ website
It would be displayed on all 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. and New Format event sites. If it’s a site that is generated for a Community Team-sponsored event, it would have this footer at the bottom of each page.
This meets two goals.
One, it fills any legal requirements a state or country might have about displaying the Privacy Policy in a way that can’t accidentally be altered by an organizing team.
Two, it brings visibility to the new events.wordpress.org website where community member can find more events in their area, or easily apply to organize an in their area.
As always, feedback is welcomed and encouraged. Please share yours by 20 March, so we can get this footer into development as soon as possible.
The Community Team chat takes place the first Thursday of every month in the #community-team channel on SlackSlackSlack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/..
This meeting is meant for all contributors on the team and everyone who is interested in taking part in some of the things our team does. Feel free to join us, even if you are not currently active in the team!
You will find a preliminary agenda for the meeting below.
If you wish to add points to discuss, comment on this post or reach out to one of the team reps: @peiraisotta, @Shusei, @leo, or @nukaga. It does not need to be a blog post yet, the topic can be discussed during the meeting nevertheless. We use the same agenda for both meetings.
Call for meeting host If anyone is available to host the second sessions of the Community Team monthly meeting at 9pm UTC, please reach out to one of the team reps, who are all based in APAC and EMEA countries: @peiraisotta, @Shusei, @leo, or @nukaga.
Check-ins: Program and Event Supporters / Contributors
What have you been doing and how is it going?
What did you accomplish after the last meeting?
Are there any blockers?
Can other team members help you in some way?
Highlights to Note
Here are a few things everyone should be aware of.
This is your chance to discuss things that weren’t on the meeting agenda.
We invite you to use this opportunity to share anything that you want with the team. If you currently have a topic you’d like to discuss, add it to the comments of this post and we will try to update the agenda accordingly.
Hope to see you on Thursday, either in the Asia-Pacific / EMEA (12:00 UTC) or Americas-friendly version (21:00 UTC) of the meeting!
In a continuing effort to provide some real-time information for event organizers and the community alike, below is a month-in-review post with recaps of the prior month’s events and how they fared financially, in terms of ticket sales and budget.
Updates on WordCamps Held Before January with Open Budgets
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. Tokyo, Japan (Oct 21) Final Tickets Sold: 424 Approved Attendee Total: 400 Budget Notes*: Transparency Report has been submitted and is in review. Open Items – Finances: still in review
WordCamp Manila (November 11) Final Tickets Sold: 289 Approved Attendee Total: 230 Budget Notes*: Transparency Report reviewed but awaiting a few answers to open questions Open Items – Finances: Open questions sent January 10, 2024 & follow up email sent February 19, 2024, with a deadline of February 26th for a reply
WordCamp Udaipur (December 2) Final Tickets Sold: 300 Approved Attendee Total: 350 Budget Notes*: Transparency Report has not been submitted Open Items – Finances: Email check in was sent January 11, 2024, and additional time was allowed for completion. A deadline of March 4th has been set for the final report submission
WordCamp Ahmedabad (December 9) Final Tickets Sold: 1051 Approved Attendee Total: 800 Budget Notes*: Transparency Report has not been submitted Open Items – Finances: Post event email check in was sent January 11, 2024, and an additional email was sent February 19, 2024, to request the report.
WordCamp and Events Held in January
Kolkata Career Camp (January 6) Final Tickets Sold: 158 Approved Attendee Total: 250 Budget Notes*: Transparency Report reviewed and budget closed Final cost $3,240 USD/ 270,013 INR and cost per person/day of $17 USD/ 1,709 INR. Event closed with additional Global Sponsorship funds used of approximately $450 USD / 37,825 INR. Open Items – Finances: There was a small balance on hand with the organizer after the event totaling 3,805 INR that was transferred to WC Pune to assist with some of their outstanding expenses.
WordCamp Nepal (Jan 12 – 13) Final Tickets Sold: 859 Approved Attendee Total: 800 Budget Notes*: Still awaiting Transparency Report submission and final numbers. Open Items – Finances: Still Awaiting final Transparency Report**, and the team has been in communication to say the information will be submitted as soon as possible.
WordCamp Zaragoza (Jan 19 – 20) Final Tickets Sold: 260 Approved Attendee Total: 225 Budget Notes*: The budget appears almost complete. The only remaining vendor to be paid appears to be for the 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) services. Open Items – Finances: One more vendor to pay
Jakarta Web Challenge (January 27) Final Tickets Sold: 171 Approved Attendee Total: 130 Budget Notes*: Transparency Report reviewed and budget closed Final cost $3,090 USD/ 48,285,772 IDR and cost per person/day of $18 USD/ 282,320 IDR. Event closed with a contribution to Global Sponsorship funds of approximately $2,351 USD / 36,737,528 IDR. Open Items – Finances: There is a surplus with the local organizers totaling approx $633 USD / 9,902,372 IDR that will be returned to Central via PayPal.
Budget Notes*: An event closed on budget if the approved Global Sponsorship amount is what was utilized. If an event is able to raise more sponsorship income or ticket income, or the expenses are less than amounts listed in the approved budget, the additional funds are contributed back to the Global Sponsorship fund. If, on the other hand, an organizing team raises less sponsorship income or ticket income than planned, or expenses are higher than originally budgeted, the additional amount needed to cover all expenses is covered by the Global Sponsorship fund and will be stated as additional Global Sponsorship funds used. This amount represents funds in addition to the approved Global Sponsorship amount.
The goal of WordPress events is to provide a space where community members can come together and share knowledge, build relationships with other members and sponsors, and spread love for WordPress. The goal is never to make money. Because 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. pays taxes on any income at year end, we strive to hold events where income is equal to expenses.
Transparency Report**: WordCamps that run funds through WordPress Community Support (WPCSWordPress 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.) – meaning WPCS collects ticket income and sponsorship income, and pays vendors directly – are not required to submit a Transparency Report. Alternatively, organizing teams that run money locally collect all or some of the ticket income and sponsorship income directly. The team then uses the collected funds to pay expenses of the event. The organizing team is responsible for completing a transparency report after the event where they submit receipts/documentation for all expenses, support for ticket income collected, and support for sponsorship income collected. More info can be found here.
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. Asia is just around the corner, and there are still a few tickets available. If you’ve been waiting until the final moment to decide whether to go, now is the time to grab your ticket!
WC Europe Call for Volunteers closes on February 28, apply now!
Curious to see all WordPress upcoming events worldwide? Check out the new event page! You can filterFilterFilters are one of the two types of Hooks https://codex.wordpress.org/Plugin_API/Hooks. They provide a way for functions to modify data of other functions. They are the counterpart to Actions. Unlike Actions, filters are meant to work in an isolated manner, and should never have side effects such as affecting global variables and output. by country, month, and event type and connect with the WordPress communities around the world!
Watch the State of the WordState of the WordThis is the annual report given by Matt Mullenweg, founder of WordPress at WordCamp US. It looks at what we’ve done, what we’re doing, and the future of WordPress. https://wordpress.tv/tag/state-of-the-word/. 2023 in your language!
At the last State of the Word we experimented with AI technology! Now you can watch the whole event while listening to Matt Mullenweg speaking the following languages, assisted by AI: Spanish, French, Brazilian Portuguese, German, and Japanese.
Feeling bold and creative? Apply to organize a brand new event!
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. organizers are the pillar of the WordPress community. With your experience in community and event management, you have probably come up with several ideas for events that would have a powerful impact on your community, but would not fit the format of traditional WordCamps.
Don’t let this prevent you from giving your community a wonderful event! Apply to organize a creative WordPress event. Innovation is encouraged!
A group of community leaders published the proposal for a pilot program to test GatherPress, a community-developed pluginPluginA 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, within interested and active WordPress meetup groups. For detailed information and join the pilot head to the proposal.
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. of the Month
This month, let’s celebrate the WordPress Meetup Groups of Terni (Italy), Delhi (India), and Gdynia (Poland)!
Gdynia, Poland
Delhi, India
Terni, Italia
Meetup Organizers, we want to feature you!
We’d love to publish pictures from Meetups all around the world in each newsletter. Do you want your Meetup to be featured? Share 1 picture with the Community team! Rename your picture as “Meetup-name_event-date” and upload it to this folder. The formats supported are JPG and PNG. Please remember, always ask for permission from your group members before taking the picture and sharing it with us!
If you have any questions, Community Team deputiesProgram SupporterCommunity Program Supporters (formerly Deputies) are a team of people worldwide who review WordCamp and Meetup applications, interview lead organizers, and keep things moving at WordCamp Central. Find more about program supporters in our Program Supporter Handbook. are here to help. Please email us at support@wordcamp.org or join the #community-eventsSlack channel. Thanks for everything you do to grow and support the WordPress community—let’s keep sharing knowledge and inspiring each other with our contributions!
The WordPress annual 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. survey was open for responses from November 17, 2023, through January 14, 2024. The following Make Community posts relate to the survey creation and distribution:
In 2023, we didn’t have the bandwidth to prepare and coordinate two separate surveys for Meetup organizers and members in several languages as we did in 2022. Nevertheless, we didn’t want to miss the opportunity to collect feedback from the global community before setting the Community Team goals for 2024.
We decided then to create a unified survey for all meetup members and organizers in one language, English.
After the survey was closed, a working group worked on the analysis and this presentation of the findings. The Community Team members who actively participated in the survey results analysis are Luis Miguel Climent, Juan Hernando, and Isotta Peira.
Two important premises to take into consideration when reflecting on our findings:
The survey was open for two months, this limited amount of time might have prevented members from filling it.
The survey was only available in English, which might have prevented members from more diverse backgrounds from filling it.
Global overview: 595 community members from 65 countries have participated.
Findings: 2023 Annual Meetup Program Survey
We sought to answer the following questions through the meetup program survey:
How can we increase the number of WordPress events?
How can we increase the number of WordPress users worldwide?
Challenges
Similar to last year’s survey, we’ve found common challenges that our communities worldwide are facing:
The lack of free venues
The lack of information about our community and the resources available for the organizers
The lack of ideas for engaging event formats
The lack of time to organize and contribute to events
The lack of speakers and new technical topics
Actionable Insights
Not surprisingly, we noticed many trends related to ideas that we’ve been hearing from many communities in the past months:
The need to reach students and collaborate with schools and universities to include WordPress in their curricula
The need to increase our community and event visibility on social media and online
The need to improve communication and training for community leaders
The need to inspire organizers and community members
The need of attracting to our community speakers and professionals from outside the WordPress bubble
Suggestions of realistic actions to take in 2024
The survey analysis working group suggests the following action to address some of our community’s most impactful challenges.
Plan cross-team projects:
With the Marketing Team to increase WordPress community and events visibility on social media and with media partners.
With the Training Team to prepare training material for teachers to include WordPress in their curricula.
With the Training Team to prepare material about the latest WordPress updates for 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. to discuss and for speakers to include in their talks.
With the MetaMetaMeta is a term that refers to the inside workings of a group. For us, this is the team that works on internal WordPress sites like WordCamp Central and Make WordPress. team to improve the discoverability of our events and contribution opportunities in the WordPress infrastructure.
With Five for the Future to increase the number of sponsorships for active contributors.
Improve Community Team documentation, communication, and programs:
Increase and diversify the communication channels to share resources (meetup venue fund program, free Zoom accounts for online events, resources for organizers like examples of where to make local contacts: associations, types of businesses, etc.).
Highlight one meetup per month in the newsletter/web of events, showcase format ideas used elsewhere, share stories on how to grow the local community, and attract speakers.
Create a program for speaker mentoring and make it available to all Meetup groups.
Organize dedicated training sessions for organizers about community management, leadership and event organization.
Create a program for meetup mentoring with scheduled check-ins between the Community Team and the meetup groups to resolve doubts, and have dedicated volunteers mentoring organizers who need support.
Create a starter kit for event organizers with the basic information they need to simplify the onboarding process before using the exhaustive handbook. The kit should include tools and a framework for deciding the day and time for events, better engaging with group members, and attracting speakers from outside the WordPress bubble.
Pinging the Community Team repTeam RepA Team Rep is a person who represents the Make WordPress team to the rest of the project, make sure issues are raised and addressed as needed, and coordinates cross-team efforts. so this post stays on their radar for when they will present the discussion to define the 2024 goals. @leogopal, @nukaga, @st810amaze, @peiraisotta.
Discussion
In the comments, please share your reflection on the following questions:
What stands out to you in these findings?
What feedback do you have about the actions we suggest?
What other specific actions would you suggest to the Community Team to include in our 2024 plans?
On behalf of the Community Team, we want to thank everyone who helped create the survey, everyone who filled it, and every person who shared their suggestions. The biggest thank you goes to each of you making the WordPress Community every day with your contributions, your time, and your passion.
