Meetup Organizer Newsletter: May 2021

Hello friends,

Welcome to the May 2021 edition of 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. 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 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.. 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.

Full Site Editing updates for Meetup Groups

The sixth call for testing as part of the Full Site Editing (FSE) outreach program is out! Check out the testing call and join the #fse-outreach-experiment 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 to participate. Deadline for testing: 26 May 2021. Here is how your local meetup group can contribute:

👉 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 try the feature.
👉 BONUS: Help test the widgets editor on WordPress 5.8!

Check out this blog post on FSE to know more. You can also find answers to the most common FSE questions now!

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.

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 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. 

Upcoming WordPress events 
Check out these upcoming WordCamps that are coming up later this year. 

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 (7:008.30 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:

News from the WordPress world


If you have any questions, Community Team deputiesProgram Supporter Community 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

#meetup-organizer-newsletter

#newsletter

Meetup Organizer Newsletter: April 2021

Hello friends,

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 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. group!

Newsletter contents:

  • Fill out the 2020 Meetup organizer survey
  • Calling all Meetup groups to help test Full Site Editing
  • Online event updates
  • Tuesday Trainings
  • News from the WordPress world

Fill out the 2020 Meetup Organizer Survey

As we’ve reached a full year of online Meetup events, we would like to get your feedback on WordPress meetups in 2020. The survey contains general questions relevant to the global WordPress Meetup program and takes less than 5 minutes to fill out. Here is the link: http://wordpressdotorg.survey.fm/annual-meetup-program-survey. We have also published and sent out the Meetup Program Survey to all Meetup members – please amplify it and encourage your community members to fill it out. The deadline for both surveys is 30 April 2021.

Calling all Meetup groups to help test Full Site Editing

Contribute to the upcoming Full Site Editing (FSE) feature in WordPress by testing it! The fifth call for testing as part of the Full Site Editing outreach program is out! Check out the testing call and join the #fse-outreach-experiment 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 to participate. Deadline for testing: May 5th, 2021. Here is how your local meetup group can contribute:

👉 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 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. 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 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 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: 

News from the WordPress world


If you have any questions, Community Team deputiesProgram Supporter Community 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!

#meetup-organizer-newsletter
#newsletter

The following people contributed to this edition of the Meetup newsletter: @angelasjin @_dorsvenabili @jillbinder @meher @rmarks and @webcommsat

Meetup Organizer Newsletter: March 2021

Hello friends,

Wow, can’t believe it’s March already! We have some exciting updates and resources for your 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 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 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. 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 HTTPHTTP HTTP 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 HTTPSHTTPS HTTPS 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. migrationMigration Moving 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 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., lazy loading for iFrames, and password reset links from WP-Admin. You can find more information in the field guide and the release post.

Promote WordPress 5.7 in your Meetup group
You can now promote WordPress 5.7 by organizing an online meetup discussion or sending an email message to your group. Want to learn more? Check out this P2 post from the Community team with WordPress 5.7 resources for Meetup organizers. The Marketing Team is also working on WordPress 5.7 marketing resources that will shortly be published in their GitHub repository.

Upcoming 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. 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!

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 their assistance, reach out to them in the #marketing SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. channel for more information. 

Upcoming WordPress events 
Check out these upcoming WordCamps that are coming up later this year. 

Past WordPress events 
Check out these WordCamps that concluded in February! Their videos will be available on WordPress.tv shortly.

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.

Sign up for the upcoming Diverse Speaker Workshop on March 18!
How are you doing with getting speakers for your events these days? What about diverse speakers? The Diversity Speaker Training group (#WPDiversity) is organizing a workshop for encouraging underrepresented community members to speak at WordPress events. The event –  “How to Own Your Expertise & Start Speaking at WordPress Events #WPDiversity” is being held on March 18, 2021 @ 5:30  PM7 PM UTC (convert to your local time). Sign up 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. Don’t forget to check out our latest Tuesday Training posts: 

Upcoming Tuesday Training: How can meetup groups benefit from Learn WordPress?
Next Tuesday (March 16, 2021) at 09:00 UTC, we are organizing the first live and interactive Tuesday training on the topic: “How can meetup groups benefit from Learn WordPress?” The session will be held live on YouTube, in the WordCamp Central channel – where you can ask questions on live chat. Don’t miss this event! Sign up for notifications directly on YouTube or add the event to your calendar.

News from the WordPress world


If you have any questions, Community Team deputiesProgram Supporter Community 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!

#meetup-organizer-newsletter #newsletter

The following people contributed to this edition of the Meetup newsletter: @andreamiddleton @annezazu @daisyolsen @jillbinder

Meetup Organizer Newsletter: January 2021

Hello friends,

Happy new year! Welcome to the January 2021 edition of our 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. 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 Word This 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!

How can meetup groups benefit from Learn WordPress?
Meetup organizers can ask participants to watch a Learn WordPress workshop and organize a discussion group based on it for their local meetup. Or you can simply schedule a watch party based on a workshop and arrange a quick discussion based on the same. 

Watch the State of the Word 2020 recording

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 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.! 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 #marketing 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. 

Online 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. 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_action do_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.

Checklist for safe, in-person WordPress events

The Community team has shared a proposal on creating a checklist that organizers can use to ensure safe, in-person WordPress meetups later in 2021. While in-person meetups are still on hold right now, the team plans to decide about the same based on feedback from community members. Please share your thoughts in the comments section of the post.

News from the WordPress world

  • The Full Site Editing (FSE) outreach program has been launched to give feedback on the upcoming Full Site Editing feature. While the initial testing call has wrapped up, please join the #fse-outreach-experiment Slack channel to join upcoming testing calls.
  • Want to contribute to the Community team goals for 2021? Join us in these open discussion sessions in the #community-team Slack channel. You can also asynchronously share your thoughts on each proposed goal in the Community team Trello board
  • GutenbergGutenberg The 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 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. pattern drag and drop, matching block variations, and improvements to reusable blocks.
  • Would you like to have a Slack channel for discussion online WordPress events? If you do, please share your thoughts in this proposal post.

If you have any questions, Community Team deputiesProgram Supporter Community 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!

#meetup-organizer-newsletter #newsletter

The following people contributed to this edition of the Meetup newsletter: @angelasjin @courtneypk

Meetup Organizer Newsletter: December 2020

Hello friends,

Welcome to the December edition of our 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. organizer newsletter! Read on to discover some exciting updates and resources from the WordPress community. 

Newsletter contents

  • State of the WordState of the Word This 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 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. patterns, video captioning support, auto-updates, betaBeta A 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 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. 8.0, application password support for the REST APIREST API The 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 #marketing SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. channel for more details. 

Learn WordPress is launching soon!

Learn WordPress, the new online, on-demand WordPress training platform, is close to launch has been officially launched! Are you looking for a fun, different way to connect with your local WordPress meetup group? You can ask participants to watch a Learn WordPress workshop and organize a discussion group based on it for your meetup. Or you can simply schedule a watch party based on a workshop and arrange a quick discussion based on the same. Want to help make Learn WordPress more successful? You can apply to organize workshops and discussion groups. Can you help promote Learn WordPress? Contact the Marketing Team for materials.

Online event updates

Use the #OnlineWPMeetup hashtag to promote your online 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.! 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 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. 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: 
  • WordCamp Sevilla 2020 (26-29 December 2020)
  • WordCamp India 2021 (30-31 January, 6-7 February, and 14-15 February 2021)

Featured Meetup: WordPress Sofia Meetup

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

The Diversity Speaker Training group of the Community team wants your feedback on how they can reimagine their work in light of the ongoing world changes this year and in 2021. Please share your feedback as comments on the post by 18 December 2020.

News and updates

Meetup organizers can now request Community Zoom Pro accounts for their local meetup events! In order to get a Zoom Pro account for your meetup, submit a request using the zoom requests form at least a week before your event.


If you have any questions, Community Team deputiesProgram Supporter Community 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!


#meetup-organizer-newsletter
#newsletter

The following people contributed to this edition of the Meetup newsletter: @andreamiddleton @angelasjin and @webcommsat

Meetup Organizer Newsletter: November 2020

Hello friends,

Welcome to the November edition of our 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. 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 #marketing 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 if you need support with promoting your online meetup event — the team posts regular updates on local 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 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!

Wish to participate in more online WordPress events across the world? You can find all the upcoming online meetups around the globe at: https://make.wordpress.org/community/events/online/.

Online 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. 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!

Diverse Speaker Training Workshops (#WPDiversity)

Check out these upcoming workshops in November to encourage diverse voices to share their knowledge and stories to online WordPress Meetups and WordCamps:

Don’t forget to keep up with the #WPDiversity announcements on the WordCamp Twitter and Facebook accounts, along with the Marketing team LinkedIn Page

Meetup Organizer Resources

Meetup organizers can now request Community Zoom Pro accounts for their local meetup events! In order to get a Zoom Pro account for your meetup, submit a request using the zoom requests form at least a week before your event.

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 BetaBeta A 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 GutenbergGutenberg The 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.
  • Take the 2020 WordPress Annual Survey now! Results of the 2019 survey are also available. Feel free to remind your meetup group to take the survey!
  • The Polyglots teamPolyglots Team Polyglots Team is a group of multilingual translators who work on translating plugins, themes, documentation, and front-facing marketing copy. https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/teams/. has launched its 2020 Polyglots Translator Research form. Feel free to pass it on to your meetup group, translate the announcement template into your language, and publish it on your Rosetta site (if any). You can also help out by spreading the word on Social Media by amplifying these Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn posts.

If you have any questions, Community Team deputiesProgram Supporter Community 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!

#newsletter
#meetup-organizer-newsletter

The following people contributed to this edition of the Meetup newsletter: @chaion07 @courane01 @meher @nao and @webcommsat

+make.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//marketing
+make.wordpress.org/training

Meetup Organizer Newsletter: October 2020

This is the October 2020 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. 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.

Newsletter contents:

  • Learn WordPress 
  • Meetup Organizer resources
  • Online Event updates

Learn WordPress

The Learn WordPress initiative offers WordPress video workshops that can help 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.. Check out our new workshops on Contributing to WordPress, Using the WordPress Block Editor, WordPress Troubleshooting, and the Diverse Speaker Training, topics! Have questions on these workshops? Participate in our upcoming discussion groups to get answers!

All community members can now submit their workshop ideas for the program in any language of their choice! Meetup organizers can also organize discussion groups based on workshops for their local meetup groups. You can also contribute to Learn WordPress by helping the Training team update screenshots on existing lesson plans.

Meetup Organizer Resources

  • 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.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/ and 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/. 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! 

Upcoming Online meetups

You can find all the upcoming online meetups across the world at: https://make.wordpress.org/community/events/online/.

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.

The WordPress Translation Week

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/.

Diverse Speaker Training Workshops (#WPDiversity)

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 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. Twitter and Facebook accounts, along with the Marketing team LinkedIn Page

If you have any questions, Community Team deputiesProgram Supporter Community 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 people contributed to the newsletter this month: @angelasjin @chaion07 @courane01 @harishanker @hlashbrooke @jillbinder @lmurillom @meher @nao @oglekler @webcommsat and @tacoverdo

#newsletter #meetup-organizer-newsletter

Meetup Organizer Newsletter: August 2020

Hello friends,

It’s time for another edition of our 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. 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 learn more about the background and the roadmap of the Learn WordPress program in the following Make/Community P2 post.

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.

If you are interested, you can start right away by organizing a discussion group based on one of the available workshops for your meetup group. If you would like some guidance on how to make use of the Learn WordPress platform, check out our Tuesday Training post on the topic: How to be an excellent discussion group leader.

WordPress 5.5 is now available

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 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. 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.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/

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 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 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. 

Online Event Updates

Updates to the WordPress online events program

The WordPress Community team has implemented some major changes to our online events program during the past couple of months. The Community team made the difficult decision to suspend in-person WordPress events for the rest of 2020 in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. The team has decided not to accept new applications for flagship events for 2021, and to move existing flagship events planned for 2021 online. Based on feedback from the community members, the team has also decided to make changes to the current online WordCamp format. Key changes include wrapping up financial support for A/V vendors and event swag for newer online WordCamps, as well as suspending the Global Community Sponsorship program for 2020.

Featured Online Meetup

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! 

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 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)

Read more and get the sign-up links as they are announced here to share with your communities: https://make.wordpress.org/community/tag/wpdiversityworkshops/

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 Supporter Community 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 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. Thanks for everything you do to grow the WordPress community, let’s keep sharing knowledge and inspiring each other with our contributions! 

We’ll see you online soon!

+make.wordpress.org/marketing/

#newsletter

#meetup-organizer-newsletter

Meetup Organizer Newsletter: July 2020

Hello friends,

It’s time for another edition of our 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. 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 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. 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 Supporter Community 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. 

Online Event Updates

WordCamp Denver Online
The first online edition of WordCamp Denver was held on June 26th – 27th. The camp, that sold over 2,400 tickets, had 25 sessions in three tracks (Beginner, Marketing, and Power User/Developer). You can find the videos of WordCamp Denver in WordPress.tv and the recorded live stream on the event site.

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.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. 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 URLURL A 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 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. 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:

WordCamp Minneapolis/St. Paul 2020
The first edition of WordCamp Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN is coming up on August 21st, 2020. The one-day event has opened up their call for sponsors, and volunteers. Ticket sales for the event have also started. Get your free tickets now!

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:

Don’t miss this opportunity to participate in these diverse speaker training workshops. Sign up now! 

You can read more about the Diversity workshops here: https://make.wordpress.org/community/2020/07/02/wpdiversity-workshops-in-july-different-this-month/

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. 

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. 

In addition to these topics, we also did an exploration on de-escalating conflict in text communication and Thoughts on WordCamp Mentorship as part of our Tuesday trainings, last month. 

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 Supporter Community 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 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. Thanks for everything you do to grow the WordPress community, let’s keep sharing knowledge and inspiring our 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. Community! 

We’ll see you online soon!

#newsletter

#meetup-organizer-newsletter

Meetup Organizer Newsletter: June 2020

Hello friends,

We are happy to share with you another edition of our 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. 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 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. 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 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/.. WCEUWCEU WordCamp 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_action do_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 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/., 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! 

Featured Online Meetup: 
The WordPress Pune meetup (Pune, Maharashtra, India) is planning a weekly online meetup series called the: “WordPress Community Check-in Meetup”. The event is planned as a casual check-in for all attendees, and the idea is to mitigate the struggles faced by community members due to the lack of social interaction due to COVID-19. The first edition of the event – is scheduled for Friday, June 12th at 5:00 PM IST, and will subsequently be held every Friday.

Upcoming Online Events

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 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. 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.
    1. We are holding workshops for the members of your community from marginalized and underrepresented groups: 
      https://make.wordpress.org/community/tag/WPDiversityWorkshops
      Next series: Late July (dates TBD). It will be announced at the link.
    2. 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!

  1. 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! 
  2. 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: 

Upcoming Tuesday Training Alert

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 Supporter Community 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 Supporter Community 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 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. Community! 

We’ll see you online soon!
#newsletter

#meetup-organizer-newsletter