This is the home of the Make Community team for the WordPress open sourceOpen SourceOpen Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL. project!
Here is where we have policy debates, project announcements, and assist community members in organizing events.
Everyone is welcome to comment on posts and participate in the discussions regardless of skill level or experience.
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Welcome to the May 2021 edition of the 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! You will find the latest updates from the WordPress world and resources for meetup organizers in this edition.
Newsletter contents:
Proposals on returning to in-person WordPress events
Full Site Editing updates for Meetup Groups
Online event updates
Tuesday Trainings
News from the WordPress world
Proposals on returning to in-person WordPress events
The Community Team has opened up a discussion on the path to in-person WordCamps and requests community members to share feedback. We have also published a separate proposal on adding vaccination status to the in-person meetup checklist as a criterion to organize in-person WordPress meetupsMeetupMeetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook.. All meetup organizers are invited to share their thoughts on these proposals in the comments. Please note: These proposals are still being discussed. WordPress meetups in most regions and all WordCamps will continue to be held online until further notice.
Don’t forget to catch up with online meetups across the world! If you’re organizing an online WordPress event, use the hashtag #OnlineWPMeetup for social media promotions. The WordPress Marketing team can help promote your online meetup – if you wish to avail of their assistance, reach out to them in the #marketing Slack channel for more information.
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 2021! One of the most exciting WordPress events, WordCamp Europe 2021, will be held online on June 7-9, 2021! Free tickets for the event are out, and their call for sponsors is still open. Sign up for email updates and follow #WCEU on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to stay updated!
Past WordPress Events Catch recordings of these past WordCamps by visiting their websites.
Diverse speaker training group workshop for Philippines and South East Asia
The Diverse Speaker Training Group (#WPDiversity) is organizing an Interactive, Transformational Watch Party on the topic: How to Own Your Expertise & Start Speaking at WordPress Events. This workshop is for marginalized and underrepresented folks (based on gender, race, class, sexuality, ability, age, etc.) in the Philippines and South East Asia. Meetup and WordCamp organizers are also invited to attend. Date: Saturday, May 15, 2021 at 3pm-4:30pm Philippines time (7:00 – 8.30 AM UTC). Read more about the workshop and register now!
Tuesday Trainings
Through Tuesday Trainings (#TuesdayTrainings), the Community team publishes a different topic on the WordPress Community Blog to help organizers and interested community members learn various skills. Meetup organizers will find our Tuesday Training on: “How can I keep my meetups interesting and fun” extremely useful! The post shares some helpful tips that organizers can use to spice up their online meetings. Don’t forget to check out our other Tuesday Training posts this month:
Learn how to use the Figma WordPress Design library to create WP UIUIUI is an acronym for User Interface - the layout of the page the user interacts with. Think ‘how are they doing that’ and less about what they are doing. prototypes.
GutenbergGutenbergThe Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/version 10.5 and version 10.6 are out!
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 available to help. Please send an email to support@wordcamp.org or join the #community-events Slack channel. Thanks for everything you do to grow the WordPress community. Let’s keep sharing knowledge and inspiring each other with our contributions!
We will see you online soon!
The following folks contributed to the Meetup Organizer Newsletter this month: @chaion07 and @jillbinder
April has been an exciting month for WordPress lovers so far! Read on to stay updated with the latest tidings from the WordPress community, along with resources for your 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. group!
Newsletter contents:
Fill out the 2020 Meetup organizer survey
Calling all Meetup groups to help test Full Site Editing
👉 Organize a dedicated testing sprint meetup. At the event, ask all the attendees to test FSE following the testing instructions and share your feedback with the FSE team! 👉 Encourage individual community members to test FSE. Amplify the latest FSE Testing call amongst your local community, and encourage folks to test the feature.
Online event updates
Don’t forget to catch up with online meetups across the world! If you’re organizing an online WordPress event, use the hashtag #OnlineWPMeetup for social media promotions. The WordPress Marketing team can help promote your online meetup – if you wish to avail of their assistance, reach out to them in the #marketing Slack channel for more information.
Featured WordPress meetup The South Florida Meetup group has joined forces with other nearby meetup groups to organize mega 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. for the last few months. The group recently organized another edition of the event – titled “The New Site Builder Episode,” on April 15. The event provided a detailed overview of the upcoming Full Site Editing feature and had around 266 RSVPs!
Upcoming WordPress events
Check out these upcoming WordCamps that are coming up later this year.
Diverse speaker training workshop for The Philippines and South East Asia The Diverse Speaker Training Group (#WPDiversity) is organizing an Interactive, Transformational Watch Party on the topic: How to Own Your Expertise & Start Speaking at WordPress Events. This workshop is for marginalized and underrepresented folks (based on gender, race, class, sexuality, ability, age, etc) in the Philippines and South East Asia. Meetup and 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. organizers are also invited to attend. Date: May 16th, 2021, in the afternoon (exact time TBD). Want to join this event? Express your interest by filling out this form!
Tuesday Trainings
Through Tuesday Trainings (#TuesdayTrainings), the Community team publishes a different topic on the WordPress Community Blog to help organizers and interested community members learn various skills. Don’t forget to check out our latest Tuesday Training posts:
WordPress Version 5.7.1 is out. Update all your WordPresses!
Full Site Editing features shipping with WordPress 5.8 have been announced. The remaining features like the Global Styles interface will only ship post-WP5.8.
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 available to help. Please send an email to support@wordcamp.org or join the #community-events Slack channel. Thanks for everything you do to grow the WordPress community. Let’s keep sharing knowledge and inspiring each other with our contributions!
Wow, can’t believe it’s March already! We have some exciting updates and resources for your MeetupMeetupMeetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. groups this month. Read on to find out more!
Newsletter contents:
WordPress 5.7 and your meetup group
Online event updates
Tuesday Trainings
News from the WordPress world
WordPress 5.7 and your meetup group
The latest major WordPress release – version 5.7, “Esperanza,” came out on 9 March 2021. The release comes with some neat blockBlockBlock 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. editor improvements such as inserter drag and drop for blocks & block patterns and improved reusable blocks. Additionally, it features a simpler default color palette, single-click HTTPHTTPHTTP is an acronym for Hyper Text Transfer Protocol. HTTP is the underlying protocol used by the World Wide Web and this protocol defines how messages are formatted and transmitted, and what actions Web servers and browsers should take in response to various commands. to HTTPSHTTPSHTTPS is an acronym for Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure. HTTPS is the secure version of HTTP, the protocol over which data is sent between your browser and the website that you are connected to. The 'S' at the end of HTTPS stands for 'Secure'. It means all communications between your browser and the website are encrypted. This is especially helpful for protecting sensitive data like banking information.migrationMigrationMoving the code, database and media files for a website site from one server to another. Most typically done when changing hosting companies., a new Robots 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., lazy loading for iFrames, and password reset links from WP-Admin. You can find more information in the field guide and the release post.
Upcoming 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. highlighting WordPress 5.7 Want inspiration for your Meetup event on WordPress 5.7? The following meetup groups have already announced sessions to promote WordPress 5.7. Check out these upcoming events!
Decision-making checklist for in-person meetups The Community Team has published handbook pages and a decision-making checklist for organizers to restart in-person meetups in areas where it is safe to do so (e.g., countries such as New Zealand, Australia, and Taiwan, where there are lower COVID-19 risks). However, WordPress meetups and WordCamps in most parts of the world will remain online due to COVID-19.
Through Tuesday Trainings (#TuesdayTrainings), the Community team publishes a different topic on the WordPress Community Blog to help organizers and interested community members learn various skills. Don’t forget to check out our latest Tuesday Training posts:
The 100th release of the GutenbergGutenbergThe Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/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 — Version 10, came out on February 17th. Check out Matias Ventura’s post to learn more. Version 10.1 also came out on March 3.
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 available to help. Please send an email to support@wordcamp.org or join the #community-events Slack channel. Thanks for everything you do to grow the WordPress community. Let’s keep sharing knowledge and inspiring each other with our contributions!
Happy new year! Welcome to the January 2021 edition of our 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. We are off to a great start in 2021 and we have a lot of exciting news to share with you. Read on to find out more!
Newsletter contents:
Learn WordPress is out
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/. 2020 recording
Online event updates
News from the WordPress world
Learn WordPress is out!
Learn WordPress, a new, free, on-demand WordPress learning resource, launched officially on December 15. It offers workshops, lesson plans, quizzes, and courses for anyone interested in publishing with, building for, or contributing to WordPress. WordPress enthusiasts can also participate in discussion groups focused on specific topics to learn with and from each other. Want to help make Learn WordPress more successful? Here are four other ways to contribute to Learn WordPress!
State of the Word 2020, the annual keynote address delivered by WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg, was streamed online for the first time on December 17. It was followed by a live Q&A from community members all across the world. You can find the stream recording on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. The State of the Word video and the Q&A session are also available on WordPress.tv.
Online event updates
Use the #OnlineWPMeetup hashtag to promote your online WordPress meetupsMeetupMeetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook.! You can also find all the upcoming online meetups around the globe at: https://make.wordpress.org/community/events/online/.
Don’t forget to use this opportunity to find participants across the world for your meetups too. If you need help with promoting your meetup, reach out to the Marketing team in the #marketingSlackSlackSlack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. channel.
Online 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. updates
WordCamp Sevilla 2020 was held online from 26-29 December 2020. Check out the event website to catch up with the recorded live stream. Videos of the camp will soon be available on WordPress.tv. You can also participate in upcoming online WordCamps!
do_actiondo_actiondo_action hackathons are community-organised events that are focussed on using WordPress to give deserving charitable organisations their own online presence. Learn more on doaction.org. charity hackathons and Open-source workshops in 2021
Seeing the impact of online do_action charity hackathons and open-source workshops, the community team wants to help more organizers host even more of these events in 2021. The team has published some ideas on how they can better support these events. If you have any thoughts, please share them in the comments of the post by January 25. If your local community wants to organize a do_action event, please submit an application.
GutenbergGutenbergThe Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/Version 9.7 came out with features like blockBlockBlock 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. pattern drag and drop, matching block variations, and improvements to reusable blocks.
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 available to help. Please send an email to support@wordcamp.org or join the #community-events Slack channel. Thanks for everything you do to grow the WordPress community. Let’s keep sharing knowledge and inspiring each other with our contributions!
Welcome to the December edition of our 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! Read on to discover some exciting updates and resources from the WordPress community.
Newsletter contents
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/. 2020
WordPress 5.6 release
Learn WordPress
Online event updates
News and updates
State of the Word 2020
Mark your calendars for the 2020 State of the Word – the annual keynote address of WordPress given by project co-founder, Matt Mullenweg. The event will be streamed on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter on Thursday 17 December 2020, at 16:00 UTC and will have live captioning in multiple languages. Meetup groups around the world are encouraged to host watch parties to celebrate this year’s WordPress accomplishments together!
Want to ask Matt a question at the State of the Word? Record a video question on your phone or computer in landscape format, and include your name and how you use WordPress in the video. Then, upload the video as an unlisted video on your favorite video hosting site, and send a link to: ask-matt@wordcamp.org.
The deadline to send in your question is 11 December, so don’t delay!
WordPress 5.6 is out!
The latest major WordPress release – version 5.6 “Simone”, came out on 8 December 2020. The release ships with a new default theme: Twenty Twenty One, and offers features like greater layout flexibility, more blockBlockBlock 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. patterns, video captioning support, auto-updates, betaBetaA pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process.-compatibility for PHPPHPPHP (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. 8.0, application password support for the REST APIREST APIThe REST API is an acronym for the RESTful Application Program Interface (API) that uses HTTP requests to GET, PUT, POST and DELETE data. It is how the front end of an application (think “phone app” or “website”) can communicate with the data store (think “database” or “file system”) https://developer.wordpress.org/rest-api/., updates to jQuery, among others. You can find more information in the field guide.
For sites which uses jQuery, to ensure a smooth transition, use the Test jQuery updates plugin to check your site for errors before you update. If you find errors with your site, you can use the jQuery migrate plugin.
The Marketing Team is pulling together resources (Questions and Answers, social media posts you can use, slides, and images) to help meetup groups with WordPress 5.6 outreach. You can find these resources in the Team’s GitHub repository in the coming week. Reach out to the #marketingSlackSlackSlack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. channel for more details.
Use the #OnlineWPMeetup hashtag to promote your online WordPress meetupsMeetupMeetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook.! You can find all the upcoming online meetups around the globe at: https://make.wordpress.org/community/events/online/.
Don’t forget to use this opportunity to find participants across the world for your meetups too. If you need help with promoting your meetup, reach out to the Marketing Team in the #marketing Slack channel.
Online 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. updates
WordCamp Mexico Online was held from 25-28 November 2020. Check out the event website to catch up with the recorded live stream. Videos of the camp will soon be available on WordPress.tv. Don’t forget to catch up the forthcoming online WordCamps:
The WordPress Sofia meetup group has been organizing lectures, workshops, and themed community meetups to facilitate community connections, even during the COVID-19 pandemic. As a lockdown was enforced in Bulgaria, the meetup group pivoted online with sessions to support the community, including COVID-19 tips, finding customers from home, email marketing, community development from home, and more. These sessions were held on Zoom and uploaded to YouTube. The group continued their experiments with online events — community members showcased their homes/workplaces during their summer meetups — and they invited members from the larger WordPress community to their other meetups. The group continues to meet online twice a month, and record and upload their meetups to YouTube.
Reimagining the work of the Diverse Speaker Training group
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 available to help. Please send an email to support@wordcamp.org or join the #community-events Slack channel. Thanks for everything you do to grow the WordPress community. Let’s keep sharing knowledge and inspiring each other with our contributions!
Welcome to the November edition of our 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! Read on to catch up with some exciting updates from the WordPress community and resources for your local WordPress meetup group.
Newsletter contents:
Online Event updates
Meetup organizer resources
News and updates
Online Event Updates
Meetup organizers can use the hashtag: #OnlineWPMeetup to promote your online meetup on social media. You can reach out to the WordPress Marketing team in the #marketingSlackSlackSlack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. channel if you need support with promoting your online meetup event — the team posts regular updates on local 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. in its LinkedIn page.
Featured Online Meetup Event Several WordPress Meetup Groups in the U.S. are joining hands to organize the: WordPress “Mega Meetup”: The “Plugin Draft” Episode event on November 18, 2020 6:30 PM. The event, which features several speakers such as Adam Silver, Birgit Pauli, and Topher DeRosia, aims to highlight several useful plugins and demystify them for participants, and will also feature a host of talks and sessions. The organizers promise a fun event with a WordPress Trivia game show and a T-Shirt contest. The event is being held on Zoom, and you can sign up for it right away!
Online 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. Updates Check out the websites of the following WordCamps from the past few weeks to catch up with their recorded live streams. Videos of these camps are being uploaded to WordPress.tv.
While you are at it, don’t miss the chance to get free tickets for the upcoming WordCamp Mexico Online (November 25 – 28)! Several online WordCamps are in the pipeline and will be announced soon!
Check out these upcoming workshops in November to encourage diverse voices to share their knowledge and stories to online WordPress Meetups and WordCamps:
Sharing WordPress release updates with your Meetup Want to include the latest WordPress release developments in your Meetup events?Meetup organizers can now join the WordPress CoreCoreCore is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. Dev chats on Wednesdays at 5 am and 8 pm UTC in the #core channel on the Make WordPress Slack, or follow recaps of these chats on the Make/Core blog so that they can share updates with their meetup groups. If you are interested in contributing to WordPress outreach initiatives, reach out to the WordPress Marketing team on the #marketing channel. Check out the WordPress 5.5 resources for reference.
WP Translation event planning You can now organize WordPress translation mini-events or sessions as part of your meetup. You can find more information on the 2020 mini-events on the WPTranslationDay website. Translator interviews on the Marketing Team YouTube channel will also be useful for organizing Translation Day events.
News and updates
WordPress 5.6 Beta 1, Beta 2, Beta 3, and Beta 4 versions came out, along with the following WordPress maintenance release: Version 5.5.2 and Version 5.5.3. Feel free to help test BetaBetaA pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process. releases!
The Core team released GutenbergGutenbergThe Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/Version 9.2 (the last Gutenberg release to be featured in WordPress 5.6) and Version 9.3.
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 available to help. Please send an email to support@wordcamp.org or join the #community-events Slack channel. Thanks for everything you do to grow the WordPress community. Let’s keep sharing knowledge and inspiring each other with our contributions!
+make.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//marketing +make.wordpress.org/training
This is the October 2020 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. newsletter. You can find the November 2020 edition of the meetup newsletter by following this link.
Hello friends,
Welcome to the October edition of our meetup organizer newsletter! We have many exciting news and updates from the WordPress community and resources for your local meetup group.
#OnlineWPMeetup: Organizers can use the tag #OnlineWPMeetup for online WordPress meetup announcements so that the Marketing team can facilitate better outreach. You can fill in a survey to get outreach support from the marketing team. Follow the team’s LinkedIn Page for weekly meetup updates.
Sponsored Zoom Pro accounts for Online Meetups: In the light of WordPress events moving online in April 2020, the Community team started offering Zoom Pro accounts for online WordCamps and special WordPress events. The team has opened up a discussion to investigate if these accounts can be made available for meetup groups. Please comment on the post to share what you need to successfully run your local meetup online, if you would like to get Paid Zoom accounts for your local meetup or if you have ideas on how to improve the process.
WordPress 5.5 marketing resources: Meetup groups can make use of the WordPress 5.5 marketing resources from the Marketing team and other teams. The resources consist of video presentations, slides, questions & answers, social media posts, and more – aimed at both developers and non-developers. If you would like to help out with WordPress 5.6 outreach, reach out to the team on the #marketing channel in the Make WordPress Slack.
Videos to help onboard WordPress contributors: Step-by-step video instructions on how to set up accounts on WordPress.orgWordPress.orgThe community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/ and Make WordPress SlackSlackSlack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. are now available on YouTube in the Marketing Team’s YouTube channel. The captioned videos are available in several languages. If you wish to add captions and voiceovers in your language for the video, get involved through the #marketing Slack channel.
Online Event Updates
Upcoming Online WordCamps Don’t miss the chance to get free tickets for these online WordCamps!
Past Online WordCamps Several online WordCamps were held successfully in the past few weeks. Did you miss these events, and would you like to catch up with them? Check out their websites to follow their recorded live streams. Videos of these camps are being uploaded to WordPress.tv.
As part of the International Translation Day celebrations on September 30, a host of WordPress translation events were held from 28 September to 4 October. After a couple of weeks, the celebrations are still ongoing! You can catch recorded talks and interviews with Polyglots on YouTube. In response to requests, the Polyglots and Marketing teams are considering month-long translation periods once or twice a year to promote translations. Follow @TranslateWP, and use the #WPTranslationDay tag on Twitter to share your translation adventures. The Translation week event highlights will be published on: https://wptranslationday.org/2020-events/.
More workshops will be in October and November to encourage diverse voices to share their knowledge and stories to online WordPress Meetups and WordCamps. Here’s a list of upcoming events for you or your members:
Don’t forget to keep up with the #WPDiversity announcements on the 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.Twitter and Facebook accounts, along with the Marketing team LinkedIn Page.
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 available to help. Please send an email to support@wordcamp.org or join the #community-events Slack channel. Thanks for everything you do to grow the WordPress community; let’s keep sharing knowledge and inspiring each other with our contributions!
It’s time for another edition of our 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, packed full of updates from the WordPress world and our community!
Newsletter contents:
Check out the brand new Learn WordPress Platform
WordPress 5.5 is now available
Online Event Updates
Tuesday Trainings
Check out the brand new Learn WordPress platform
Learn WordPress is a brand new cross-team initiative led by the WordPress Community team, with support from the training team, the TV team, and the meta team. This platform is a learning repository on learn.wordpress.org where WordPress learning content will be made available. The first iteration has launched with a few workshops, and more will be added each week. The four initial workshops are:
In addition to these workshops, we will also be hosting supplementary discussion groups based on the content of the workshops – facilitated by discussion group leaders. Anyone can be a discussion group leader, including workshop presenters themselves! The first of these discussion groups have been scheduled,and you can join an upcoming discussion on the dedicated meetup group. More will be added as new workshops are published. Each workshop page will link to the meetup group.
Want to contribute to the Learn WordPress program? Here’s how:
You can apply to be a discussion group leader so that you can organize discussions directly through the learn.wordpress.org platform. (Note: If you are a meetup organizer, you can organize workshop-based discussions exclusively for your local meetup group without having to apply for a discussion group leader position. More details below.)
Help out with updating and contributing new lesson plans by following this guide.
How Meetup groups can benefit from the Learn WordPress platform
Meetup organizers can use the Learn WordPress content for their meetup events – simply ask your meetup group to watch one of the workshops in the weeks leading up to your scheduled event, and then host a discussion group for that content as your event. If you do this, you do not have to apply to be a discussion group leader using the form above – you can just go ahead and do it as an existing organizer.
WordPress 5.5 “Eckstine” (named in honor of Billy Eckstine) came out on August 11th 2020. The release is a major update with a host of features like automatic updates for plugins and themes, enabling updates over uploaded ZIP files, a blockBlockBlock 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. directory, XML sitemaps, block patterns, inline image-editing, and lazy-loading images, to name a few. WordPress 5.5 is now available in 47 languages too! You can update to the latest version directly from your WordPress dashboard or download it directly from 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/.
As organizers, you can now help spread the word about WordPress 5.5 through your local meetup groups! Contributors from the WordPress marketing team are working on slides that could be used by 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 promote the new release. We request meetup organizers to fill in this survey from the team so that they can support the marketing needs of meetup groups in general. The survey will also help the marketing team to come up with resources for organizers so as to help them promote WordPress 5.5.
This month, Luke Carbis and Jonathan Wold organized one of the first “virtual” WordPress meetups! The event was held in a 3D virtual world (powered by a hosted instance of Mozilla Hubs – an open-source platform for creating virtual spaces), via the WordPress Brisbane Meetup. The large virtual hall, designed specifically for the event, was big enough for the 12 or so participants to break out into smaller groups, holding multiple conversations at once. The 3D audio helped participants feel immersed in the space, hearing people to the left and right, closer or further away. Most people joined from their computer, and some even joined from their VR headsets, including the presenter Jonathan who talked about the future of WordPress and the Open Web. Attendees could see Jonathan’s head movements and hand gestures as he delivered the session. Luke and Jonathan plan to organize monthly virtual events of a similar nature, and have already started planning their next virtual event.
The picture shows a virtual “stage” where the session was held.
Would you like to highlight recent online events from your local meetup group in our monthly newsletter? We will publish a “call for content” post for the next edition of the newsletter in the first week of August on the Make/Community Blog. Please comment on the blog post when it is up or send us an email to support@wordcamp.org to share about events in your local meetup group.
Upcoming Online Events
WordPress Meetup groups worldwide are currently organizing online events instead of in-person events due to COVID-19. The team recommends meetup organizers to avoid in-person meetups for the rest of 2020, to ensure the safety and well being of our community members. However, since meetup events are online, you can now attend meetups and WordCamps across the world from the comfort of your own home! You can find out about all upcoming online events here: https://make.wordpress.org/community/events/online/
If you are holding a meetup online and would like to have a global audience, please use the tag #OnlineWPMeetup so that the Marketing team can find you and bring you some communications and marketing support. We’d also like to remind organizers of our Online events handbook page that offers a wealth of information on organizing online events.
Here’s a list of upcoming online WordCamps. Don’t forget to grab your free tickets for these events!
The Diverse Speaker Training group (#WPDiversity) is holding workshops in July to support diverse voices to share knowledge and stories at online WordPress meetups and WordCamps. They have the following events scheduled for August – October 2020:
August 18-20, 2020: Beginner Speaking Topics
September 8-10, 2020: Intermediate Speaking Workshops
September 24, 2020: Hold your own Speaker workshop (Asia timezone)
October 6-9, 2020: Beginner Speaking Topics
October 24, 2020: Hold your own Speaker workshop (America timezone)
Follow the #WPDiversity hashtag on social media if you would like to keep track of diversity workshops.
Tuesday Trainings
Through Tuesday Trainings (#tuesdaytrainings) we publish a different topic on the WordPress Community Blog to train organizers and interested community members in a variety of skills, while also adding additional training documentation to our handbooks. Every Tuesday, a different topic will be highlighted on the WordPress Community Blog. You can find links to the latest Tuesday training posts below:
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 available to help. Please send an email to support@wordcamp.org or join the #community-eventsSlackSlackSlack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. channel. Thanks for everything you do to grow the WordPress community, let’s keep sharing knowledge and inspiring each other with our contributions!
It’s time for another edition of our 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, packed full of updates from past and upcoming WordPress events, as well as updates and inspiration for your local meetup.
Newsletter contents:
Reimagining Online Events: Feedback Required
Online Event Updates
Upcoming Online Events
Tuesday Trainings
Reimagining Online Events: Feedback required
In 2020, as the WordPress Community took big steps in moving WordCamps, Meetups, and other community events online, the focus has mostly been trying to recreate the in-person 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. experience. We feel that this may not result in the best experience for attendees or organizers. Hence, the team is exploring different options on finding out the best ways to use online events as a platform to teach people how to use and contribute to WordPress, while connecting and inspiring WordPress enthusiasts.
We have published a post to share some ideas from community 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. (like Decoupling online events from geography and exploring shorter online events, for instance) and to solicit feedback from WordPress Community organizers on how to make our online WordCamps more unique. Please share any feedback by commenting on the post before 17 July, 2020.
Featured Online Meetup The very first meetup group in Spain, the WordPress Sevilla Meetup group, has been meeting regularly for years now. The group that has been meeting regularly for years, pivoted online during the COVID-19 crisis. The group has two presentations a month – a formal session led by a speaker, and an informal session where attendees join hands for an informal lunch meetup. Members of the group joined together for a session on making WordPress themes and plugins compatible with RTL (right to left), organized by Said El Bakkali. The interactive session in Spanish had 38 RSVPs and offered an interesting learning experience for attendees. You can find a recording of the event in WordPress.tv.
An opportunity to highlight your online meetup events Would you like to highlight recent online events from your local meetup group in our monthly newsletter? We will publish a “call for content” post for the next edition of the newsletter in the first week of July on the Make/Community Blog. Please comment on the post when it is up, or just send us an email to support@wordcamp.org to share about events in your local meetup group.
Badges for Meetup Organizers Meetup organizers are eligible for a WordPress Meetup Organizer badge in their 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/ profiles. We have observed that many meetup organizers don’t have badges. If you are a meetup organizer, and would like to get a Meetup organizer badge, please reach out to us at: support@wordcamp.org with the name of your Meetup and the WordPress.org profile URLURLA specific web address of a website or web page on the Internet, such as a website’s URL www.wordpress.org, to request the badge.
Upcoming Online Events
WordPress Meetup groups across the world are currently organizing online events in lieu of in-person events due to COVID-19. Now you can attend online 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. and WordCamps across the world. You can find out about all upcoming online events here: https://make.wordpress.org/community/events/online/
If you are holding a meetup online, please use the tag #OnlineWPMeetup so that the Marketing team can find you and bring you some communications and marketing support. We’d also like to remind of our Online events handbook page that offers a wealth of information on organizing online events.
Here are some highlighted WordPress events and workshops coming soon:
Diversity speaker training The Diverse Speaker Training group (#WPDiversity) is holding workshops in July to support diverse voices to share knowledge and stories at online WordPress meetups and WordCamps. They have the following events scheduled for July 2020:
Through Tuesday Trainings (#tuesdaytrainings) we publish a different topic on the WordPress Community Blog to train organizers and interested community members in a variety of skills, while also adding additional training documentation to our handbooks.
We published some tips for managing online meetups that offer organizers a lot of ideas on how to effectively manage meetups. The post talks about sharing expectations before the meeting starts, a space for check-in, being respectful of time, as well as social hangouts, among others.
Encouraging diversity in Meetups and WordCamps is extremely important. To help organizers in making their meetups more diverse, we organized a panel discussion that delves into several ideas on how organizers can make their meetup events more diverse and inclusive. The discussion also contains links to useful resources that will help organizers in making their events diverse and inclusive.
The WordPress Community thrives from knowledge-sharing. Would you like to organize a Tuesday Training of your own? Please email us, with a brief pitch about your topic, its format (blog post/panel discussion/webinar), and an abstract of the topic to: support@wordcamp.org.
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 available to help. Please send an email to support@wordcamp.org or join the #community-eventsSlackSlackSlack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. channel. Thanks for everything you do to grow the WordPress community, let’s keep sharing knowledge and inspiring our 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. Community!
We are happy to share with you another edition of our 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, packed full of updates from past and upcoming WordPress events, as well as news, information, and inspiration for your local meetup.
Newsletter contents:
Online Event Updates
Upcoming Online Events
An opportunity to highlight your Meetup Group
Tuesday Trainings
Online Event Updates
WordCamp Europe Online 2020 Following the success of 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. Spain online, WordCamp Europe was held fully online from June 4 to 6. The event had a record 8,600 sign-ups from people belonging to 138 countries, along with 2,500 sign-ups for the contributor dayContributor DayContributor 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/.. WCEUWCEUWordCamp Europe. The European flagship WordCamp event. Online also had 33 sponsors and 40 sponsors, along with a Q&A with Matt Mullenweg. You can find the videos of the event in WordPress.tv by following the link, or you can catch the live stream recording of the entire event from the WP Europe YouTube Channel.
do_action Japan The first online do_actiondo_actiondo_action hackathons are community-organised events that are focussed on using WordPress to give deserving charitable organisations their own online presence. Learn more on doaction.org. event – do_action Japan was held from May 16 – 17. About 70 Japanese WordPress community members and 9 non-profit organizations came together to do the event, which was also the first do_action event in Japan. The team made use of free tools such as SlackSlackSlack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/., Gmail, Google Forms/Sheets/Docs/Slides, as well as Figma for design, and Zoom for calls to plan the event. You can read more about the event in its recap in the Make/Community blog.
WordCamp Kent online On May 30-31, 2020, the Northeast Ohio WordPress community came together online for the first online edition of WordCamp Kent. The event had over 1400 attendees from all across the world, along with 21 speakers and 10 sponsors! For those who missed the event, videos of the event will soon be available on WordPress.tv!
While many people in the community miss the camaraderie of in-person events — that are currently on a pause due to COVID-19 — online events enable people to attend 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. and WordCamps all across the world. In fact, we encourage you to attend online meetups and WordCamps, as it offers an unmatched learning experience! You can find out about all upcoming events here: https://make.wordpress.org/community/events/online/
If your local community is interested in learning about a certain topic, and if you are unable to find local speakers, feel free to reach out to external speakers. Other organizers have been able to successfully recruit a speaker they found on a WordCamp speaker list, for their online meetup.
If you are holding a meetup online, please use the tag #OnlineWPMeetup so that the WordPress Marketing team can find you and bring you some communications and marketing support.
Here are some highlighted WordPress events and workshops coming soon:
WordCamp Denver 2020 The WordPress Community of Denver, CO is coming up with the first edition of their Online WordCamp on June 26-27. The organizers promise a fun, informative, stress-free virtual conference for beginners, developers, and everyone in-between. The event will have 30-40 minute talks, fun activities, workshop-style sessions, Q&A panels, and more on a variety of WordPress topics, among others. Tickets for WordCamp Denver are free. Get yours now!
Diversity Speaker Training The Diverse Speaker Training group (#WPDiversity) has two kinds of workshops to highlight. As many tech events are moving to an online model, the Diverse Speaker Training group (#WPDiversity) would like to help your community members from marginalized and underrepresented groups share their knowledge at your virtual meetups and WordCamps. Even if you are not holding your events online yourself at this time, your members could be speaking at virtual events in other communities, and be excited to speak at yours once your events are on again.
We are holding facilitator trainings so you can learn how to run the workshop for your community: https://tiny.cc/wpdiversity Next training: July 18 at 5-7pm UTC. For this one and other dates, please fill out this form.
Opportunities to highlight your Meetup Group
We have two opportunities for you to highlight your local meetup group, as well as your events!
Showcase your Meetup group in the Meetup.com blog Meetup.com would like to highlight one of our groups, to inspire other community organizers, and also to recognize the work that WordPress volunteers do. Would you like to have your local Meetup group featured in the Meetup.com blog? Did your group host a unique event that you’d like to share to inspire other community organizers? Send us an email to support@wordcamp.org with a brief description of your Meetup group, as well as any pictures of your meetups. We will review your suggestions and select some to pass them along to Meetup.com. You have until June 30th, 2020, 23:59 UTC to send us your suggestions!
Feature your Online Meetups in our newsletter In an effort to highlight the hard work done by meetup organizers across the world, we will be sharing stories about online events from local meetup groups. Would you like to highlight recent online events from your local meetup group in our monthly newsletter? We will publish a call for content post for the next edition of the newsletter in the first week of July. Please comment on the post when it is up, or just send us an email to support@wordcamp.org to share about events in your local meetup group.
Tuesday Trainings
We started Tuesday Trainings (#tuesdaytrainings) last month as a way to share knowledge and help to train organizers and interested community members in a variety of skills, while also adding additional training documentation to our handbooks. Each week on Tuesday a different topic will be highlighted on the WordPress Community Blog. The content will come in a variety of formats including blog posts, recorded presentations, discussions, and workshops. You can find links to the latest Tuesday training posts below:
On Tuesday, the 16th of June, the Community Team is planning a live 1 hour workshop on conflict de-escalation, by one of our long-time Community 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., Andrea Middleton. The session will offer a better understanding of conflict and how it intensifies, plus a step-by-step guide for responding strategically to de-escalate conflict in text communication. The workshop will happen over video chat at 9am PST (4pm UTC). If you’d like to be a part of the online event please respond in comments of this post. You can expect a calendar invite and an email reminder on Monday with more information on joining the call.
If you’d like to contribute your knowledge for a Tuesday Training, please email us at support@wordcamp.org
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 available to help. Please send an email to support@wordcamp.org or join the #community-events Slack channel. Thanks for everything you do to grow the WordPress community, let’s keep sharing knowledge and inspiring our 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. Community!