Tag Archives: #meetups

Makarand Mane 10:56 am on September 2, 2025
Tags: #meetups, , ,   

Growing New Contributors: Kolhapur’s Online Contribution Journey

After the success of WordCamp Kolhapur 2025, I wanted to keep the momentum going. Instead of hosting just a one-day contributor sprint, we ran a nine-event Online Contribution Series with our Kolhapur WordPress Community—and it worked even better than we imagined.

Why We Started

I led this initiative as the Lead 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. Kolhapur 2025, with strong support from Abhay Kulkarni and our local team.

The idea was simple: many people cannot always attend physical contribution days because of travel, equipment, or time limits. So we decided to go online. This made contributing easier because:

  • People from other cities and remote areas could join.
  • Screen sharing allowed participants to get quick help and solve issues on the spot.
  • Back-to-back sessions were possible without travel fatigue.
  • We could focus completely on contributing instead of logistics.
  • Many people couldn’t bring laptops or travel for in-person 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..

While in-person events are great for networking, going online gave us more focus, less travel, and higher participation in actual contributions.

How the Series Worked

I took inspiration from both in-person Contributor Days at WordCamps and online Contributor Days. We mixed the best of both formats by spreading activities across several meetups, with each session focusing on one Make WordPress team.

This format allowed contributors to:

  • Explore one team at a time (CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress., Polyglots, Photos, Patterns, WordPress.tv, Test, etc.).
  • Learn hands-on with real-time guidance and screen sharing.
  • Join sessions easily, even back-to-back, without the barrier of travel.

It was a simple approach that gave contributors confidence and made learning easier.

Impact

This approach brought real results:

  • Many first-time contributors joined and discovered how WordPress is built.
  • Participants earned multiple badges and props, which encouraged them to stay involved.
  • Our reach expanded beyond Kolhapur, with contributors joining from other regions.
  • Some participants grew into mentorsEvent Supporter Event 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. themselves, guiding others in future meetups.
  • Several contributors continued contributing independently after the series ended.

How You Can Run One in Your Community

If your community finds it hard to gather people physically for contribution days—or if you want to give contributors a chance to dive deeper—an Online Contribution Series can be a good idea.

  • Focus each session on one Make WordPress team.
  • Use screen sharing to help contributors in real time.
  • Ask participants to set up their WordPress.orgWordPress.org The 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/ profiles and join 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/. before the first session.
  • Celebrate every contribution and explain how badges and props work.

Acknowledging Our Contributors

I’m thankful to the 29 community members who actively joined and contributed in this series. Your energy kept the initiative alive!

@contactprashantpp, @sohamjoshi8275, @snehal5774, @mrunalkulkarni, @harshada555, @rajeshrathodwp, @surajswalstar, @iamshubhamsp, @digitalpritam, @vaibhavsweb, @ketanniruke, @diguj, @atharvprakashan, @prathameshbhagat1511, @shreyashd21, @sunithak, @snilesh, @amitbhosale, @vgnavada, @rupesh5438, @akshaydhere, @adityab98, @sketchboy, @vaibhav2527, @dheeraj2995, @rajendrapatilraj, @prathameshp, @krupajnanda, @hiabhaykulkarni & @mkrndmane

📖 You can read the full detailed recap (with session details, photos, and stats) on central.wordcamp.org.

Our Next Steps

The Kolhapur WordPress community will continue to host contribution-focused events, and we welcome contributors from around the world to join us.

If you’d like to try something similar, connect with the Make WordPress Community Team

Together, we build a better WordPress for everyone.

Props to @webtechpooja for reviewing this post!

#meetups, #contributor-event, #contributor-meetup, #contributor-mentorship

Patricia BT 10:28 pm on May 28, 2025
Tags: #meetups, , , , , ,   

Update on the GatherPress project – May 2025

We were invited to give regular updates about GatherPress.

Here are the advancements made by GatherPress since our initial proposal from January 2024 and our update from September 2024.

The GatherPress team has continued working toward the goal of testing GatherPress as a potential alternative for managing WordPress community events.

After several months of back-and-forth discussions with the MetaMeta Meta 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, we’ve learned that integration with WordPress.orgWordPress.org The 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/ services (like user accounts or event listings) won’t be considered until the tool has been tested with real-world events. The technical tests that were requested in June 2024 and ran until the autumn provided a useful foundation, but they were not enough for the Meta team to properly evaluate GatherPress in a live setting.

To unblock the project and continue progressing, the GatherPress team has adjusted the approach. The next steps will be:

  • Run a real-world trial with a few selected local communities hosting events via GatherPress.
  • Use a self-hosted installation of GatherPress (hosting generously provided by Robotstxt.es) while waiting for potential .org integration. BuddyPress will also be installed on that instance. It’s a continuation of the previous test installation and all existing testing groups are welcome to participate.
  • We will start this new test phase as soon as we release GatherPress 0.33.0 and a new theme is developed by GatherPress team members.

Juan Hernando (@unintended8) is now overseeing the project for the Community Team, following the departure of the previous contributors involved.

What this means

Pros:

  • We move forward with actual testing using live events.
  • We collect feedback and usage data based on real organizer and attendee experiences, as well as input and needs from the Community Team, to support future scaling to more groups.

Cons:

  • As integration with WordPress.org won’t be in place for now, an activity update about organizing or speaking at an event won’t appear on WordPress.org profiles. This is already the case with MeetupMeetup 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., but one of the future goals of GatherPress on WordPress.org would change that and address invisible contributions for organizers.
  • Events won’t appear in the 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. in WordPress dashboards or on https://events.wordpress.org unless the Meta team is able to support discoverability in the interim. We’re open to collaborating on a solution, such as providing an APIAPI An 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. to support this. In the meantime, organizers can still publish their events on Meetup.com, linking to the ones on the new platform.

We hope that some minimal integration can still be explored to increase event visibility, even while the project remains self-hosted for now.

Latest version and features

The newly released version 0.32.x of GatherPress introduces a complete overhaul of the RSVP blockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. system. This redesign allows organisers to design the RSVP block and its inner block such as modal per RSVP status with flexibility.

Screen capture of a GatherPress event addition in WordPress admin. Shows the list views and RSVP block modal is selected

Upcoming

In upcoming releases starting with 0.33.0, new options will include:

  • RSVP by email handshake: attendees enter their email, receive a confirmation link, and confirm attendance without creating an account.
  • RSVP via Fediverse: attendees can confirm their presence using their Fediverse identity.
  • Events will optionally be federated with the event format to appear on the Fediverse
  • Rewrite of the calendar block
  • RSVP management screen

Those options are designed to make participation simpler and more privacy-conscious, whether events are hosted independently or eventually on WordPress.org.

What’s next

We’ll be supporting a handful of groups as they start running their 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. on the self-hosted version of GatherPress. The results will help assess how the tool performs in practical use and inform any next steps for broader testing or eventual integration.

If your community is interested in taking part in this pilot phase, or if you have feedback or questions, please leave a comment or join the discussion in the #gatherpress channel on 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/.. Development continues to be led by a group of contributors. We welcome new developers, testers, and organizers, as well as feedback of any form. You can participate in our weekly huddles on Fridays at 15:00 UTC. The upcoming huddles are always listed on the homepage of our website.

You can follow progress or explore the tool on GitHub, or launch it in a WordPress Playground instance.

The long-term goal remains to provide a fully integrated, community-owned alternative for event management on WordPress.org.

If you are attending 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. Europe 2025, you can connect with me (Patricia) for any question about the GatherPress project.

Thank you to everyone who continues to contribute to and support the GatherPress project!

The GatherPress Team

Written and reviewed by @patricia70, @mauteri, @malgra, @javiercasares and @blitz128 from the GatherPress team and contributors.
Reviewed by @unintended8, @_dorsvenabili
Many thanks!

+make.wordpress.org/meta/

#meetups, #community-management, #community-events, #community-team, #learn, #meta, #meta-wordcamp
Juan Hernando 3:35 pm on January 10, 2025
Tags: #meetups, , ,   

Statement regarding the events program

To all WordPress event organizers:

We know recent changes announced by Automattic and its temporary reduction of contributor efforts have raised questions and concerns, and we want to reassure you that the Community Team remains committed to supporting you.

Since the announcement states that contributors from Automattic time will be greatly reduced and focused on other areas until further notice, this team needs to determine a path forward. Fortunately this team comprises dedicated individuals —independent contributors and those sponsored by other companies— who are doing their best to keep things running and will continue to do so.

We expect processes to be slower during this time, and we sincerely appreciate your patience and support as we navigate this situation. We also want to thank the contributors from Automattic who have been instrumental in building this program over the years, and we look forward to their return.

Our focus on helping every event and organizer worldwide remains unwavering. Together, with the invaluable support of the rest of program and event supporters, we’ll continue to maintain this incredible community.

If you have any questions, we are at the #community-events channel or at support@wordcamp.org.

—Community Team Program Managers: Aditya Kane (@adityakane), Juan Hernando (@unintended8), Junko Nukaga (@nukaga), Kevin Cristiano (@kcristiano), Timi Wahalahti (@sippis)

#meetups, #community-team, #highlight, #wordcamps
Lidia Arroyo Vargas 3:02 pm on November 6, 2024
Tags: #meetups, 2024, , , Latam, , , , WPLatam   

Impact and Growth: First Year of the Community Reactivation Project in Latin America

Context

The WordPress Latam Community Reactivation Project was launched nine months ago to revive and strengthen WordPress communities across Latin America. With a vision to foster collaboration, mutual learning, and active member participation, this initiative aims to empower individuals, build strategic alliances, and create consistent monthly events that engage, connect the community, and activate local leaders and communities in the region.

Key Achievements

The WP Latam team has driven the growth and reactivation of WordPress communities across Latin America, creating spaces for mentorship, teaching, and collaboration. Today, more people of all ages are connected and have access to technology in their language and time zone, strengthening this supportive regional network.

Key Results

  1. Community Reactivation: We reactivated communities in:
  2. Community Expansion: Additionally, new communities were formed in:
  3. Support at WordCamps: WP Latam provided support at events like WordCamp Bogotá and WordCamp Guatemala, managing social media, registration, and volunteers. It also led contributor tables in marketing, support, and community.
  4. Regional Communication Channels: With Telegram (+150 members), social media, and email, we facilitated connection and learning throughout the region.
  5. Regional Latin American Meetup: This monthly space connects communities, showcasing local achievements and specialized topics in WordPress, development, and marketing.

Impact on Communities in 2024

  • Continuous Mentorship: Local mentorsEvent Supporter Event 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. support leaders in organizing events and developing strategies.
  • Regional Collaboration Network: Active exchange of best practices and resources between communities.
  • Structured Training: Monthly MeetupMeetup 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. sessions with high-value educational content.
  • Empowerment of New Leaders: New leaders have emerged, expanding communities and motivating others.

Key Contributors

Next Steps in 2025

  • Expanding WordPress events in San José (Costa Rica), Buenos Aires (Argentina), Nicaragua, and other cities.
  • Podcast featuring inspiring stories from the community.
  • Virtual Contributor Latam event.
  • Series of events for training new WordPress Event and 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. organizers.

The WP Latam mentorship team has significantly shifted collaboration and visibility for WordPress in Latin America. We’ve joined forces in a strong network that grows our community and fosters technology access for all!

Thanks to @peiraisotta and @_dorsvenabili for inspiring, mentoring, and supporting this initiative!

The following people contributed to this post: @lidarroy, @alexcu21, @sion99, @josvelasco, @arburola, @_dorsvenabili

#community-team, #community-management, #meetups, #wordcamps, #latam

#2024, #reactivation, #recap, #wplatam

Patricia BT 7:43 am on September 5, 2024
Tags: #meetups, , , , , ,   

Update about the GatherPress project

We were invited to give regular updates about GatherPress.

Here are the significant advancements made by GatherPress since our initial proposal. GatherPress continues to evolve, thanks to the active participation and feedback from community members. Here’s a detailed overview of our progress.

Call for Feedback and status of the Proposal

We are actively seeking feedback from current MeetupMeetup 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. organizers. Your insights are invaluable in helping us refine GatherPress to better meet the needs of the WordPress community.

There are several ways to help:

  • You can test GatherPress right now using this Playground demo in your browser or test it on your own site installing the pluginPlugin A 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 available in the plugin repository and provide your feedback in the comments below or in our main GatherPress GitHub repository.
  • If you are a Meetup organizer, you can start testing GatherPress by publishing your Meetup events in our Demo site joining the current WordPress Meetup groups that are already using this platform, helping us to test real cases. Read the home page here, fill the form to join the tests and provide your feedback on the same site or on our GitHubGitHub GitHub 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/ repositories: For the plugin features on our main GatherPress repository, and for the Community integration, on the Gatherpress-WP-org-integration repository.
    We would like to know if it was easy or not for you to add a venue, an event, and your general feeling about the use of GatherPress. ideally we would like to have feedback from attendees as well, so feel free to share the form with your attendees.
  • If you are a member of the Community or MetaMeta Meta 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. teams, please add feature requests and reply to questions for what is needed to create the integration between GatherPress and the WordPress.orgWordPress.org The 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/ network (user accounts, user activity in profiles, email sending, group creation and management, etc) here on the Gatherpress-WP-org-integration GitHub repository.
  • You can spread the word about the tool, invite event organizers to join the tests, invite people to test the tool and send feedback, etc.

It’s only after GatherPress has proven its viability through your feedback that the Meta team can implement it on the .org network for the pilot program, as we proposed in January. Therefore, your input is crucial to ensure a successful integration. Please test and provide feedback before the end of September 2024.

Improvements

Since introducing GatherPress, we have focused on integrating features that enhance event management within WordPress. Our initial release has been well-received, and community feedback has been instrumental in guiding our development process. Based on user feedback, we have implemented several improvements:

  • We added OpenStreetMap to load the maps by default, Google Maps is still available as an option,
  • Customizable post type and taxonomyTaxonomy A taxonomy is a way to group things together. In WordPress, some common taxonomies are category, link, tag, or post format. https://codex.wordpress.org/Taxonomies#Default_Taxonomies. slugs with localized defaults,
  • Improvements to accessibilityAccessibility Accessibility (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),
  • Import and export events, venues and topics using WordPress’ native tools,
  • Now using WordPress Playground to:
    • Enable the “Live Preview” on .org/plugins
    • Instantly preview changes from a commented Playground-link on each PR
    • Automatically generate multilingual screenshots for .org/plugins
    • Run end-to-end tests
    • Curate and maintain a set of demo-data, that is re-used in all of those Playgrounds,
  • And more, all our released features can be seen in our main GitHub project.

GatherPress on the WordPress Plugin Repository

GatherPress is now available on the official WordPress Plugin Repository since the end of June. This makes it easier for users to discover, install, and update GatherPress directly from their WordPress dashboards. Additionally, you can test GatherPress using the Playground. We encourage you to try the plugin, and as always, your feedback is invaluable.

Translation Availability

GatherPress is now available for translation. We invite community members to contribute translations, making GatherPress accessible to a broader audience. Please share it with your Polyglots teams to organize translation sprints and to get it translated to as many languages as possible!

Thanks to all the polyglots around the world, who have already translated GatherPress into 8 languages!

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. US Contributor DayContributor Day Contributor Days are standalone days, frequently held before or after WordCamps but they can also happen at any time. They are events where people get together to work on various areas of https://make.wordpress.org/ There are many teams that people can participate in, each with a different focus. https://2017.us.wordcamp.org/contributor-day/ https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/.

GatherPress will have a dedicated table at the upcoming WordCamp US Contributor Day (September 17, 2024). This is a fantastic opportunity to meet Mike and Mervin, discuss the project, provide feedback, and contribute to the development of GatherPress. We encourage you to join us and get involved. You can even join us remotely via a video call during the Contributor Day if you do not attend the WordCamp.

Involvement can happen in many ways, for example:

  • Contribution with tasks we have identified as important for our next version.
  • Small backlog tasks to help get your feet wet with the project.
  • Testing and identifying issues in the plugin and documenting them in a ticket to be prioritized in a future release of the plugin.
  • Helping test our code by contributing to unit tests (JavaScriptJavaScript JavaScript or JS is an object-oriented computer programming language commonly used to create interactive effects within web browsers. WordPress makes extensive use of JS for a better user experience. While PHP is executed on the server, JS executes within a user’s browser. https://www.javascript.com/. or PHPPHP PHP (recursive acronym for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor) is a widely-used open source general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for web development and can be embedded into HTML. https://www.php.net/manual/en/preface.php.) or end-to-end tests (playwright).
  • Work with the Meta team for the integration with the WordPress.org network.

Development Roadmap

Looking ahead, we have an exciting roadmap for GatherPress. Upcoming features include:

  • Recurring event management, 
  • BlockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. updates and improvements,
  • Email notification when event starts,
  • Event federation using ActivityPub,
  • New calendar block,
  • And more, all our planned features can be seen in our main GitHub project.

Furthermore, we are building addons to easily build integration with other plugins. 

We are also working to integrate GatherPress with the WordPress.org network, and are identifying the requirements with the Meta and Community teams before creating a full roadmap with dates for the integration and the start of the pilot program.

We are committed to continuous improvement and look forward to delivering these new capabilities.

Join the Team

We invite community members to join the GatherPress team. Whether you are a developer, designer, translator, community member or simply passionate about improving event management in WordPress, your contributions are welcome. Together, we can shape the future of GatherPress. You can join the GatherPress Slack or GitHub and participate in our weekly huddles on Fridays at 15:00 UTC (16:00 UTC from November to March). The upcoming huddles are always listed on the homepage of our website.

Get to know GatherPress and the Team

You can visit our blog and watch the interviews we gave, they are packed with information about GatherPress. To know more about who we are, you can have a look at the team page.

We are grateful for the community’s support and look forward to your continued involvement as we refine and expand GatherPress. Together, we are shaping the future of event management within the WordPress ecosystem.

For any queries or to provide direct feedback, please reach out to @mauteri or @patriciabt on WordPress 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/..

Thank you for your support!

The GatherPress Team

Written and reviewed by @patricia70, @mauteri, @carstenbach, @malgra from the GatherPress team, and reviewed by @_dorsvenabili, @nao, @peiraisotta.
Many thanks!

+make.wordpress.org/meta/

#meetups, #community-management, #community-events, #community-team, #learn, #meta, #meta-wordcamp

#meetups, #community-management, #community-events, #community-team, #learn, #meta, #meta-wordcamp

Courtney P.K. 12:16 am on July 27, 2024
Tags: #meetups,   

Update: Meetup Reactivation and Closures

Hello, WordPress Community!

This month, the Community Team has been focusing on reactivating WordPress Meetup Groups. Here’s an update on the progress:

  • July 3: We messaged organizers of groups inactive in April–June 2024, encouraging them to host events.
  • July 11: If we didn’t hear back, we contacted members to encourage them to step in as organizers.

By using the bulk email tool on Meetup.com, some issues occurred:

  • Members who opted out of messages from the MeetupMeetup 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. Pro Network (WordPress) missed the messages.
  • The message lacked the specific group name, causing confusion if if an organizer of an active group was also a member of an inactive group.

We are very sorry for the confusion this has caused.

Moving forward, groups not showing interest in reactivating will be removed from the WordPress Chapter Meetup Program in August. Please check this list for groups noted for removal. If your group is on this list in error, contact us at support@wordcamp.org by August 5.

What happens when a group is removed from the chapter program?

  1. WordPress steps down as the organizer, and the group is removed from the WordPress network.
  2. Meetup.com invites the group’s organizing team to continue independently (including paying the subscription fee).
  3. If no one from the organizing team steps up in five days, the invitation is extended to all members.
  4. If no one steps up in thirty days, the group is closed by Meetup.com.

To organize a WordPress Chapter Meetup, please submit a Meetup Organizer application. You are always welcome to reach out to the WordPress Community Team at support@wordcamp.org with any questions.

Thank you to everyone who has been a part of the WordPress Chapter Meetup program!

#meetups, #meetup-reactivation
Juan Hernando 10:28 am on February 9, 2024
Tags: #meetups, , , ,   

2023 WordPress Meetup Survey: Key Findings

Background

The WordPress annual meetupMeetup 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. 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:

About the Survey

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.

Circle graph of the survey's answers by number and country: USA 186 (31.3%), India 46 (7.7%), Spain 40 (6.7%), Canada 32 (5.4%), Germany 32 (5.4%), Italy 31 (5.2%), Netherlands 21 (3.5%), United Kingdom 19 (3.2%), Australia 18 (3%), Brazil (2%), Costa Rica (1.7%), France (1.7%), and Other 138 (23.2%)

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
Circle graph titled: Most recurrent challenges for Meetups: Venue and Attendance (39%), Awareness and Perception (29.3%), Organizational Struggles (17%), and Technical Learning Curve (14.7%)

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
Bar graph titled 'What ideas do you have to attract more WordPress users to join the community?'. All vary from 8% to 6% in this order: Diverse offer of topics; Promotion & outreach; beginner-friendly initiatives; Community Engagement and Networking; Onoline Presence and Accesibility.

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 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. to discuss and for speakers to include in their talks.
    • With the MetaMeta Meta 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 Rep A 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.

The following people have contributed to writing this post: @lmcliment, @unintended8, and @peiraisotta.

#meetups, #community-team, #highlight, #meetup-organizers, #survey

Patricia BT 2:48 pm on January 22, 2024
Tags: #meetups, , , , , ,   

Proposal: Pilot program to test GatherPress on the WordPress.org network as a Meetup alternative

Introduction

We propose a pilot program to test GatherPress, a community-developed pluginPlugin A 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 meetupMeetup 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. groups. This initiative stems from our community’s need for an innovative event management tool tailored to the unique demands of WordPress event organizers and participants.

The pilot program would be held in real-world conditions with WordPress Meetup groups.

We have expressed commitments to a trial run from New Jersey and Nashville groups in the USA, French-speaking groups in Switzerland, and potential interest from groups in Spain, Japan as well as from learn.wordpress.orgWordPress.org The 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/.

Overview of GatherPress

GatherPress, led by @mauteri and @hrmervin, is a plugin designed with functionalities akin to Meetup.com, but specifically crafted for the WordPress community by members of the WordPress community. It is the result of the WordPress community’s desire for new event management tools that meet the diverse needs of event organizers and members. 

You can find more information on the website and on GitHub.

Documentation pages, including a demo video, are available on the website.

We welcome everyone to comment here, to test GatherPress (also for accessibilityAccessibility Accessibility (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)) or join the GatherPress weekly huddles, 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 or even the team.

Summary of Value Proposition

GatherPress

✅ Members and Attendance data lives on your website and database. Community Organizers define privacy policies, selectively publish attendees lists, gather additional data from attendees, etc.

✅ Democratized access to data and functionality, as WordPress is customizable

✅ Open SourceOpen Source Open 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.: free, and scaled with WordPress

Meetup and Commercial Apps

❌ Data Ownership, Data Integrity, Data Privacy

❌ Control of Roadmap, Enhancements, and Integrations

❌ Cost and Scale

❌ Control UXUX UX is an acronym for User Experience - the way the user uses the UI. Think ‘what they are doing’ and less about how they do it. and accessibility

Pilot Program Objectives

Real-World Testing

The pilot aims to test GatherPress in a live environment, providing practical insights into its functionality and user experience feedback.

Community engagement

Engage with the participating meetup groups from the international community. 

Feedback & Analysis

Collect feedback from both organizers and participants throughout the course of their use of GatherPress during the trial.

Analyse suggestions, feedback, and bug reports to refine the application into its next version(s).

Reports

Periodic summary posts on how the program is working for the whole community to know about it.

Future Planning

Following the completion of the trial, set the public roadmap of functionality and integrations to be released. Ultimately, the objective of GatherPress is to potentially replace Meetup.com as the centerpoint of the WordPress Community Events and Dashboard 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. source data. 

Benefits of the Proposal

1. Community-centric development

This pilot and this project, empowers the WordPress community by directly leading the development process of a tool designed by and for the community at large.

A major challenge of the community is influence over the roadmap of commercially available tools, to build features and functionality needed by organizers, participants, and users with accessibility needs. 

2. Enhanced Event Management

GatherPress promises to offer a more integrated and seamless event management experience within the WordPress ecosystem. Among our goals are to allow community organizers to gather data from attendees unique to each hosted event as needed. Additional capabilities are present for triggering additional reminders, customized waitlist workflows, and selectively publishing attendees lists. The GatherPress plugin is built to be extendable and configurable. Companion plugins will be able to seamlessly integrate with the coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. plugin. GatherPress will also be built to leverage features of other community-based plugins (like BuddyPress).

3. Cost-Effectiveness

This project has the potential to reduce the community’s reliance on external platforms like Meetup.com. The estimated cost savings of leveraging our own application is approx $ 215,000 USD per year, coupled with the full control over event management tools and ownership of our community’s data. WPCSWordPress 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. pays Meetup.com $24.50 per group per month (inclusive of a 30% discount). There were 734 groups as of October of 2023.

4. Use-Case Specific Testing

An example of how this testing can grant case-by-case capabilities includes Localization (translated language). By opening the pilot program to groups from various countries, we ensure that the tool is adaptable and functional in a multilingual context, essential for the diverse WordPress community. Furthermore, communities will benefit from the open source nature of the application, enabling customization of RSVP and onboarding workflows.

5. Data Liberation

The WordPress Open Source community is indeed large, and our data is valuable, as is the privacy. GatherPress hosted by WordPress community proper, will enable organizers and leadership to 1) own the community’s data, and 2) make it selectively available for analysis. Insights learned from our community at large, will inform growth opportunities and strategic initiatives into the future. Today, WordPress operates the Data Liberation project, enabling users of commercial tools to migrate into a WordPress experience. You can learn more about the Data Liberation project at: https://wordpress.org/data-liberation/.

6. Meetup.com Importer

One of the first companion plugins the GatherPress team is currently working on is the ability to import meetup.com data to a GatherPress-powered WordPress site. This will make the transition from meetup.com to GatherPress as seamless as possible and simplify managing both as a group transitions from one platform to another.

Next steps

The ideal setup for the pilot is to run GatherPress on a multisiteMultisite Multisite is a WordPress feature which allows users to create a network of sites on a single WordPress installation. Available since WordPress version 3.0, Multisite is a continuation of WPMU or WordPress Multiuser project. WordPress MultiUser project was discontinued and its features were included into WordPress core.https://codex.wordpress.org/Create_A_Network. within the wordpress.org network, in collaboration with # metaMeta Meta 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.-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., # community-events, # meta, and # learn. This approach ensures seamless integration and alignment with the existing WordPress infrastructure, potentially allowing other meetup groups to join and already be in the definitive environment if the pilot program is successful. 

Alongside this trial, meetup groups should continue to leverage Meetup.com in parallel to GatherPress.

Timeframe

We are prepared to commence immediately and suggest a minimum of a 6 month duration to meet our pilot’s objectives.

Conclusion

This pilot program presents a unique opportunity to shape the future of event management in the WordPress community. By leveraging the collective knowledge and experience of our meetup groups, we can ensure that GatherPress evolves into a tool that truly resonates with the needs and expectations of our global community.

This proposal has been written by @patricia70 and @hrmervin and reviewed by @mauteri.

Suggestions, edition and additional information (thank you): @annebovelett, @devinmaeztri, @harishanker, @harmonyromo, @iandunn, @isvictorious, @javiercasares, @kcristiano, @nao, @peiraisotta, @unintended8, @_dorsvenabili

The draft was submitted for feedback to other community members as well, the above list only includes the persons who commented.

#meetups, #community-management, #community-events, #community-team, #learn, #meta, #meta-wordcamp

Isotta Peira 2:00 pm on January 8, 2024
Tags: #meetups, ,   

Reminder: 2023 Annual Meetup Survey

Hello WordPress MeetupMeetup 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. members and organizers,

This is a reminder about the annual meetup survey. This year, we propose a unified survey for all Meetup members and organizers.

Please take a moment to respond to the Annual Meetup Survey . This survey is an important opportunity to share your feedback on WordPress 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. in 2023 and how we can improve the program in the future. Even if you did not attend meetup events in 2023, your input is valuable! The survey takes less than 5 minutes to fill out, and the results will help strengthen WordPress meetups in the years to come.

The survey will close on January 14, 2024.

To open the survey in a new tab, please use the following link: 

Then comment here to let us know. Thank you for your precious feedback!

#meetups, #community-team, #meetup

Devin Maeztri 6:00 pm on July 21, 2023
Tags: #meetups, , , ,   

Meetup Organizer Newsletter: JULY 2023

Hello MeetupMeetup 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. Organizers,

We’re halfway through 2023 already, and it’s amazing how time flies! In just the past month, approximately 250 WordPress Meetup events have been organized. Thank you for keeping our community thriving!

Last month, we requested your Meetup photos, and here’s the first picture we’re featuring in our newsletter: a delightful crowd at Ahmedabad WordPress Meetup on June 24, 2023.

Keep sending photos from your Meetup Event!

Please share one picture with the Community team! Rename the image as “Meetup-name_event-date” and upload it to this folder. Supported formats are jpg and png. Remember to always ask for permission from your group members before capturing and sharing the picture with us!

Training Team needs a Translation Coordinator

The Training Team is ramping up its localization efforts for Learn.WordPress.org content and seeks your assistance! If you have a passion for translating content and want more resources to share with your local community, consider this exciting opportunity: Be a Translation Coordinator of the Training Team!

Inaugural Cohort of the Contributor Mentorship Program

The diverse group consists of 13 contributors from all over the world and will be working with a mentorEvent Supporter Event 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. from July 12th to August 9th. Seven Make team also participates in this cohort. They are CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress., Community, Documentation, Photos, Polyglots, Support, Test and Training. You can join or follow along with the cohort in the #contributor-mentorship channel on the Make/WordPress 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/..

Let’s be creative with our community events! 

We invite you to share and organize events with fresh formats and topics we haven’t explored yet. Consider self-learning events, idea pitches, networking days, show-and-tell, or speed-connecting sessions to enhance engagement with your audience. Join our Next Generation Pilot Events by sharing your ideas with the Community Team using this form!

A special thank you to our 2023 Global Sponsors: GoDaddy, Bluehost, Automattic, SiteGround, Weglot, and WooCommerce!

Need support or guidance from the WordPress Global Community TeamGlobal Community Team A group of community organizers and contributors who collaborate on local events about WordPress — monthly WordPress meetups and/or annual conferences called WordCamps.? 

You can always reach the Community Team by sending a message to #community-events in Making WordPress Slack or an email to support@wordcamp.org.  

Thank you for your contribution to the WordPress.orgWordPress.org The 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/ projects and supporting the WordPress Community! Let’s keep growing together, and inspire each other!

The following people contributed to this edition of the Meetup newsletter: @bjmcsherry, @bsanevans, @_dorsvenabili, @harishanker, and @peiraisotta.

#meetups, #community-team, #meetup-organizer-newsletter, #newsletter