This is the home of the Make Community team for the WordPress open sourceOpen SourceOpen Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL. project!
Here is where we have policy debates, project announcements, and assist community members in organizing events.
Everyone is welcome to comment on posts and participate in the discussions regardless of skill level or experience.
Get Involved
If you love WordPress and want to help us do these things, join in!
July 3: We messaged organizers of groups inactive in April–June 2024, encouraging them to host events.
July 11: If we didn’t hear back, we contacted members to encourage them to step in as organizers.
By using the bulk email tool on Meetup.com, some issues occurred:
Members who opted out of messages from the 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. Pro Network (WordPress) missed the messages.
The message lacked the specific group name, causing confusion if if an organizer of an active group was also a member of an inactive group.
We are very sorry for the confusion this has caused.
In May I published a proposal to update the WordPress Events venue policy. The resulting discussion raised both opportunities and concerns from community members. Based on the feedback received, we will update our venue policy as follows:
You should also avoid venues with religious or political affiliations. Since one of our jobs as community organizers is to create a 100% welcoming space for everyone, we avoid holding events in venues where someone might feel uncomfortable or unwelcome.
New language
You should avoid:
Venues with political affiliations
Venues used for religious worship (such as a church, mosque, or synagogue)
Venues with religious iconography
Venues that engage in any form of proselytizing to organizers or attendees.
As part of the planning process, WordCampWordCampWordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. and Innovative WordPress Event (NextGen event) organizers are required to send the venue agreement to WordPress Community SupportWordPress Community SupportWordPress Community Support PBC is a Public Benefit Corporation, created specifically to be the financial and legal support for WordCamps, WordPress Meetup groups, and any additional “official” events organized within the WordPress Community Events program. for review and signature. During this step, the Community Team vets the venue to ensure it aligns with our venue policy. If we have any questions, concerns, or hesitation about a proposed venue, we check in with the organizers. Events are publicly announced only after WordPress Community Support reviews and signs the venue agreement.
¹ WordPress Community Code of ConductCode of Conduct“A code of conduct is a set of rules outlining the norms, rules, and responsibilities or proper practices of an individual party.” - Wikipedia Pledge:
We as members, contributors, and leaders pledge to make participation in our community a harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of age, body size, visible or invisible disability, ethnicity, sex characteristics, gender identity and expression, level of experience, education, socio-economic status, nationality, personal appearance, race, caste, color, religion, or sexual identity and orientation.
We pledge to act and interact in ways that contribute to an open, welcoming, diverse, inclusive, and healthy community.
This analysis examines global trends in WordPress MeetupMeetupMeetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. events from January 2023 to June 2024, focusing on both in-person and online events with at least 50 RSVPs, while excluding canceled events. The goal is to understand WordPress Meetup trends globally and identify commonalities with other tech groups active on Meetup.com.
Note: I focused on events with more than 50 RSVPs to identify the types that generate the highest interest among our worldwide meetup members, but this does not mean that I consider events with fewer than 50 RSVPs unsuccessful. Our 750+ groups range from fewer than 20 to over 5000 members.
TL;DR:
The Learn WordPress Online Workshops, led by full-time sponsored contributors, emerged as a significant trend, with sessions on modern web layouts and JavaScriptJavaScriptJavaScript or JS is an object-oriented computer programming language commonly used to create interactive effects within web browsers. WordPress makes extensive use of JS for a better user experience. While PHP is executed on the server, JS executes within a user’s browser. https://www.javascript.com/. being particularly popular. In-person events saw the highest engagement in Ahmedabad and Mumbai, India, while online events drew attention to SEO, accessibilityAccessibilityAccessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility), and AI topics. The WordPress Accessibility Meetup, an online-only volunteer-run group which cover accessible navigation and writing, also received substantial interest.
Regionally, Asia, especially India, showed strong engagement in in-person events. This could be tied to a higher population rate compared to other regions. Online learning events attracted more interest than their in-person counterparts, and accessibility remained a high-interest topic across the board.
General Meetup trends for other Tech groups indicate seasonal declines in attendance and a post-COVID shift towards virtual events. Popular topics for online events included AI and 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. design, while in-person events focused more on gaming, security, and AI development.
Next steps: Looking ahead, I’d love to develop further regional analysis to understand the types of events that are most successful in each area. Community feedback and participation in this endeavor are encouraged. Please leave a comment or reach out to me on SlackSlackSlack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. (@ peiraisotta) if you want to join me.
For those who enjoy delving into the numbers, please read the extended analysis below.
2023: We had 3890 total events (2223 in-person and 1667 online). Of those, 110 in-person and 189 online events had 50+ RSVPs.
2024 (as of June 26): 1207 in-person and 659 online events, with 52 in-person and 72 online events having over 50 RSVPs.
Average Attendance:
In-person events: 17 RSVPs
Online events: 24.5 RSVPs
Premise: The Location Challenge for Online-Only Meetup Groups
Meetup.com requires you to pick a location before creating a group, even for our online-only groups. The widgetWidgetA WordPress Widget is a small block that performs a specific function. You can add these widgets in sidebars also known as widget-ready areas on your web page. WordPress widgets were originally created to provide a simple and easy-to-use way of giving design and structure control of the WordPress theme to the user. in the WordPress dashboards shows upcoming events based on the selected location. This means that online-only events are not automatically visible to everyone. The WordPress Accessibility Meetup group and other theme-based, online-only 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. would benefit from appearing in everyone’s WP events dashboard widget, not just the arbitrarily designated city. For instance, the WordPress Accessibility Meetup group and the Learn WordPress Online Workshops are registered in San Francisco, US, and the Quedadas Online en Español (WordPress Gatherings in Spanish, with organizers and members both in Europe and LatAm) are registered in Madrid, Spain.
Top Trends
Learn WordPress Online Workshops:
Hosted 374 events with an average of 47.5 RSVPs per event.
Top events included developer-focused sessions like “Building modern web layouts with WordPress blocks” and “JavaScript for modern WordPress development.”
Top Trends Excluding Learn WordPress Online Workshops:
In-person events: 3430 events with an average of 17 RSVPs.
Online events: 1952 events with an average of 20 RSVPs.
Top in-person events: Mostly in Asia, particularly India.
Top online events: Focused on accessibility and AI.
Regional Trends
Excluding the Learn WordPress Online Workshops group, which is registered in the US/Pacific time zone, but including the WordPress Accessibility Meetup group, also registered in the US/Pacific time zone, the following is the regional activity of WordPress Meetup events, both in-person and online, from January 1, 2023, to June 26, 2024.
Region
Total Groups
Total Events
Total RSVPs
Africa
47
256
2954
Asia
138
1030
26060
Australia/Pacific
10
106
1597
Europe/Canary
199
1770
31291
LatAm
44
221
4302
US/Canada
134
1999
31553
Number of Events per Group
Below is the average number of events each group organized between January 1, 2023, and June 26, 2024.
US/Canada: 14.9
Australia/Pacific: 10.6
Europe/Canary: 8.9
Asia: 7.5
Africa: 5.4
LatAm: 5.0
Note: Among our groups, some meet consistently one or more times per month, while nearly half haven’t had any events in the past three months. These disparities impact the averages.
Want to help reactivate the inactive WordPress Meetup groups in your region? Join the Reactivation initiative!
General Meetup Trends
I asked our point of contact at Meetup.com Customer Success about worldwide trends for Meetup events within the ‘Tech’categoryCategoryThe 'category' taxonomy lets you group posts / content together that share a common bond. Categories are pre-defined and broad ranging. to make the analysis as relevant as possible.
It is important to note that Meetup.com’s popularity as an event and community platform varies by country, and the following feedback refers only to Meetup.com trends. Therefore, it might not represent global trends within tech communities that do not use Meetup.com.
Below is the feedback and information received. In general, Meetup.com observes:
Seasonal decreases in activity due to summer vacations and winter holidays.
General decline in attendance at in-person tech events post-COVID-19.
Shift to virtual events: 40% of RSVPs for tech events are online. For non-tech events, the percentage of online events VS in-person events is 17%, showing a stronger preference to online events for tech events compared to event types.
Below are some potential reasons identified that explain the shift to virtual events:
Remote work culture has changed professional dynamics and networking habits. (People seem less likely to go to the city for an event if they’ve been working from home all day, some have moved away from city centers, others got more used to online networking, etc.)
Content accessibility: Event recordings and online resources reduce the need for real-time attendance.
Changed priorities: Increased focus on personal time and family, which results in decreased meetup attendance and engagement.
Popular General Meetup Topics:
Online: AI, API, Design.
In-person: Gaming, Security, AI, Development.
Key Insights
In-person WP events: engagement appears to be stronger in Asia, especially in India, compared to other regions. It could be useful to understand whether this is primarily related to the high population rate or if there are specific organizational characteristics that other communities could learn from.
Online learning events seem to attract more interest than in-person learning events.
In-person social events seem to be more popular than in-person learning events.
Accessibility seems to be a high interest topic among community members.
Observations
There is a noticeable disparity in activity levels among WordPress Meetup groups, with some groups being very active, while many others organize less than two events per year. This highlights the importance of initiatives like the current Meetup Reactivation effort, which aims to invigorate inactive groups. Such initiatives are crucial for fostering an active and engaged community, ensuring that more groups can benefit from regular events and increased participation. By reactivating these groups, the WordPress community can enhance collaboration, knowledge sharing, and overall engagement across different regions. If you want to get involved, please reach out to @devinmaeztri or @courtneypk, or drop a message in the #community-team channel on Slack.
The above analysis focuses on WordPress Meetup trends worldwide, comparing countries of different sizes, population rates, WordPress Groups, and members. To gain a real understanding of regional trends, it would be interesting and useful to analyze the activity of each region and each country separately.
Feedback and additional insights from the community are welcome to enhance this analysis.
Call for interest
I intend to analyze the regional activity of our Meetup groups to determine which events are most successful in each region, providing organizers with valuable insights into the types of events that attract the most interest in their area. If anyone is interested in joining me, please leave a comment under this post or reach out to me via Slack (@ peiraisotta) before Friday, July 26, 2024.
Hi everyone! Sharing a recap of our conversation during the WCEUWCEUWordCamp Europe. The European flagship WordCamp event. 2024 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/. – covering the conversations we had at the Community Team tables. Many thanks to everyone who participated for your precious contributions, and to all the table leads for moderating and sparking the conversation!
Intro: We had a cross-table briefing intro from @_dorsvenabili on the new purpose of WordPress events, current challenges and state and a quick recap of the evolution of WP events. Rocío highlighted the need to ensure the growth of events/ecosystem in general – and shared cases of difficulties in diversifying our user base – both vertically (across generations) and horizontally (across professions).
Table discussions: Following the intro, participants rejoined their tables to have smaller-group conversations. Topics included:
Event Types: We discussed the various types of events we’re holding: ‘traditional’ events, which mostly meet the needs of existing community members like freelancers and makers, and more recent approaches focused on tracks (beginners, devs, etc.). While they seem to mobilize participants beyond the traditional WC audience, this is an avenue we need to explore further.
Increasing and Diversifying our User Base:
Vertical Axis (Youth): Ensuring the longevity of our platform by engaging young people. Ideas included focusing on topics like sustainability, climate change, and mental health, and showcasing WP websites making an impact in these areas. Notably, we’re considering youth-specific events like WordPress Summer camps, 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. Youth hackathons, and meditation and mindfulness sessions that incorporate WP demonstrations.
Horizontal Axis (Other Professionals): Widening our market share by engaging devs, agencies, and small/medium businesses. Content ideas included beginner guides to building websites, online payments, UXUXUX is an acronym for User Experience - the way the user uses the UI. Think ‘what they are doing’ and less about how they do it./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. strategies, security measures, and specific professional-focused events with deep and advanced content. We also discussed specialized events like a WP affiliates summit and B2B-focused gatherings.
Challenges:
Giving back: Ensuring participants feel they receive value from attending.
Community and belonging: Catering to different generations and demographics.
Retention: Balancing the focus on new users while retaining existing ones.
Application process: Making it more user-friendly.
Clear agendas: Ensuring all types of events have clear objectives.
Youth Engagement:
Making WP more relevant and accessible to youth.
Improving communication and leveraging social media.
Highlighting the value of 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. in a compelling way.
Exploring influencer marketing and gamification.
Rethinking product onboarding to meet the needs (and attention span) of youth.
Engaging Other Professionals:
Highlighting the ROI of participating in WP events.
Considering new event names and formats to appeal to a broader audience.
Running specialized and B2B-focused events.
Future Events:
Consider the imagery we’re using – ensure our images show diversity.
Cater to a variety of needs – our existing user base as well as those of demographics we seek to bring in; consider running both generalist and specialized events – and highlighting / showcasing speakers from our new intended audience.
Work with marketing in segmenting our audience and in creating adequate messaging for each segment.
Consider a youth council to provide feedback on what would make WP more relevant/appealing to youth.
Go back to the drawing board with both the events but also the product – if we started from scratch, what would we do differently?
For all target groups: position WP as the catalyst for opportunity but also as an end in itself (value of open source).
Make sure we promote the events using the social channels used by the audience we’re targeting; update our USPs (unique selling points) for the various audiences.
Create templates to share with all organizers before the event on how to plan, promote, and conduct a WordCamp/WP Event to improve attendance (e.g. specify the topic, problems we want to solve with the event, agenda, activities planned, what to expect from the meet-up, etc.) – these can be provided in all languages and organizers only need to fill these out with event-specific information.
Exploring the use of WP Playground as a tool for meetupsMeetupMeetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. (Ioana writing up notes from connecting with the Playground team and drafting an outline).
Key Wins and Collaborations:
We had several successful applications submitted during the day from Osaka, Skopje (including a WordCamp Youth hackathon), Kaunas, Lisbon, and Belgrade, with more to come, such as a WP Event for kids in the Netherlands.
MeetupMeetupMeetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. organizers from various countries discussed tips and ideas to improve and reach new audiences. For example, the Leon (Spain) Meetup organizers shared their successful strategies.
We had an interest in mentoring from Austria and the UK, with follow-ups planned.
Thanks again to everyone for their valuable contributions and participation. Let’s keep the momentum going and continue to grow and diversify our WP community!
Hello friends! It is time to host the next Monthly chat of the WordPress Contributor Working Group. We’re meeting this Thursday (July 18th) to continue our work on improving the contribution experience of WordPress and to continue our work on mentorship programs. For more information on the working group and its plans, check out our launch post and past chats.
Meeting times
We will hold these chats in multiple time zones to accommodate as many participants all over the world as possible. These chats will continue to be held on the Third Thursday of every month.
The chat will be held on the #community-team channel of the Make/WordPress Slack. Here’s the link to a handy `.ics` file containing calendar entries for our upcoming chat so you won’t miss it. These chats have also been added to the Make/Meetings calendar. Everyone interested in improving the contributor experience in WordPress and building future mentorship programs is welcome to attend!
1. Welcome, introductions, and check-ins How is everyone doing? New members joining the group can also introduce themselves. Do we also have any volunteers for notetaking, next agenda drafting, or next meeting host?
2. Program Updates Our early call for mentees closed on July 15th, 2024. Let’s take some time to briefly share some information on applicant statistics and updates.
3. Mentorship Program Cohort #3 Planning (Q4 2024) Based on all the discussions from our past chats, I have put together an initial plan for our first cohort, including some documentation. The goal of creating this document at an early stage is to create a clear, cohesive, and transparent plan for our initial cohort of the mentorship program helping us to create a more structured and systematic mentoring experience. We will use this time to discuss this plan out in the open and to get folks’ feedback.
4. Discussing Program Next Steps Let’s discuss a project plan to get our mentorship program going. The goal is to create a framework and to work out in the open as much as possible. We will also discuss next steps such as handling our early applicants, opening our call for mentees, as well as finalizing other dates and details for the next cohort.
5. Questions, thoughts, and open floor! If we still have time after all that intense discussion, we’ll open up the floor to discuss WordPress Contribution broadly and our program!
Looking forward to seeing many of you in the chat!
Since 2015, local 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. lead organizers have been invited to fill out a post-event survey, called WordCamp Debrief. Since 2024, lead organizers of Events other than WordCamp and 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. also received the same survey. The survey questions have remained unchanged since 2015.
Below are the questions we’ve been asking:
Focused Questions
The goal of this analysis is to better understand organizers’ needs and challenges shared in the WordCamp and WordPress event organizers’ debrief surveys from 2022 through 2024. To achieve this goal, I have prioritized the following questions:
How many tickets were sold?
How many people actually attended?
How did you wind up in terms of budget?
Which expenses were unanticipated, or cost more than you expected?
What do you think went really well at your event?
What could have gone better at your event?
Did you have enough support from WordCamp CentralWordCamp CentralWebsite for all WordCamp activities globally. https://central.wordcamp.org includes a list of upcoming and past camp with links to each.? If there were things that made planning this event harder or easier, let us know!
Summary
Local WordCamps and Events
Top 3 Organizers’ Challenges:
Budget Issues
Unexpected costs (sometimes due to mistakes when creating the budget such as excluding VAT, not requesting updated quotes, etc.)
Logistical Issues with Last-Minute Changes
Lower Attendance than Expected
Top 3 Organizers’ Needs:
Improved Sponsor Outreach and Global Sponsorship Assignments
Some organizing teams faced challenges finding local sponsors.
Some organizing teams weren’t satisfied with the amount of global sponsorship assigned to their event.
Enhanced Promotional Support and Marketing
Some organizing teams have asked for help to promote the events.
Clearer expectations on the expected timeline to address logistical issues
Some organizers faced delays or inconsistencies in responses from Central due to last-minute requests.
Observations
Number of events (Flagships included)
Debriefs Completed
Completion rate
2022
26
8
30.77%
2023
70
21
30.00%
2024* *as of June 26, 2024
28
9
32.14%
Total
124
38
30.65%
Unfortunately, The completion rate is too low to be considered a fair representation of the totality of organizing teams since 2022.
Despite the fact that the lead organizers receive an automated email inviting them to fill out the survey, the survey link is public and multiple people can fill out the same event survey: we have received one duplicated answer and one feedback from an attendee instead of the organizers. I have eliminated the duplicate and the response sent by the attendee.
While the survey provides us with information about organizational and administrative tasks, and offers organizers an opportunity for retrospective analysis, it does not sufficiently investigate the challenges they faced, or what changes organizers and/or our Events Program need to make to improve their experience.
Recommendations
WordCamp and Event Debriefs’ original purpose was to check if the organizing team had completed all the tasks needed to wrap up the event. The Community team should discuss if the current information we gather is still relevant, or if we need to ask the organizers different questions.
Make the organizer debrief survey mandatory for all events.
Limit the response to the organizer debrief survey to one per event, preferably by the lead organizer.
Standardize the attendee and sponsor surveys, and make it mandatory for all events.
Request for Feedback
Community feedback is key to understanding how we can make a better use of our tools, and surveys are no exception. So, please, if you’re reading this post and have been lead organizer for a WordPress event in the past, take a moment to answer the following questions.
As WordCamp and/or WordPress Event organizer, what prevented you from completing the post-event debrief survey for organizers?
What value did you find in completing the survey?
Have you ever organized events for other communities and answered an organizer’s survey? What questions were you asked that were helpful?
One additional question specifically for the Community team program supporters and managers:
Is the current information we gather still relevant, or should we ask the organizers different questions?
Please, comment on this post answering any, or all, of the above questions, and sharing any other thoughts you have about the Organizer post-event survey topic, before July 31, 2024.
I believe we can improve more on these numbers and the way we post them in the future. (Several comments were received on the draft Google docs, some of which could not be reflected.) I have set up a GitHub issue for the next release, so if you have suggestions for improvement, please comment.
This recap is a summary of the Community Team monthly meeting. It will cover the discussion points, ideas, and decisions that came up during the meeting. The aim of this recap is to provide a quick overview for those who were unable to attend as well as an overview for everyone. These meetings were based on the Agenda for July and are held in our #community-teamSlackSlackSlack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. channel on Make WordPress.
Please leave your comments if you have any feedback.
Additionally, each agenda item discussed may have its own Make post related to its topic with more information and you can add to the discussion directly to that post.
Chat Summary
Here are some discussion points from the meeting.
Reactivating Inactive 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
There are some community members helping with reactivation in some cities like: Karachi, Pakistan, Buenos Aires, Argentina. This month we are reactivating 370 inactive meetup groups around the globe. Also, there are some shared experiences in how to help to tackle challenges on the existing groups.
First time attendees post
The team recently published this post: First time attendees a key measure of success for WordPress events is the percentage of first-time attendees.
Addressing Overlapping Initiatives and Improving Collaboration Across Teams – An in-person meeting during 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 was convened to address the overlapping initiatives among various WordPress contributor groups and explore ways to enhance collaboration and streamline efforts.
A doubt was raised by community team members about the number of sessions per meeting. While other teams have only one session per meeting, they asked if the community team should also switch to one session each month instead of our traditional two sessions.
Some attendees agreed, if the meeting is running asynchronously, one session is ok.
“Something I’d like to bring to the attention is that our WordCamp websites need love, from an online marketing/SEO perspective. Old WordCamp websites are outranking current/upcoming WordCamps, WordCamp pages shared on social media don’t have proper descriptions/images, and quite a few more issues. Unfortunately, this is not a new problem, but I feel it’s important that we keep repeating the pain.”
According to some attendees, this is something that requires attention in order to improve SEO in events sites.
Next Meeting
Community Team Meetings are held the first Thursday of every month. There are two meetings to support different time zones. The meetings will take place on #community-team on Slack.
The Community Team Monthly Meetings happen on the first Thursday of every month. These meetings can be facilitated and run by any member of the community team, and is a great opportunity to engage with the rest of the community and team.
If you are interested in facilitating any of these meetings in the future, please feel free to comment or get in touch with any of the Community Team Reps.
If you wish to add points to discuss, comment on this post or reach out to one of the team reps:@peiraisotta, @Shusei, @leo, or @nukaga.
During 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/., we revisited the conversation we had at WordCampWordCampWordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. Asia earlier this year. The focus this time was on the global sponsorship program.
ROI for sponsors
The conversation started on the ROI of sponsoring WordCamps, and specifically the global sponsorship program. Various companies have different ways of calculating this. Some do that through the social exposure around events, others focus on newsletter signups. However, we’re all aware that most WordCamps are not the place for direct ROI. And everyone has mostly been able to convey that message to their upper managements.
Yet, showing ROI to upper management remains an unsolved problem. We know in our hearts that the exposure we get at events leads to a better public perception of our brands, but we all continue to struggle to quantify that.
How can WordCamps help?
Metrics
One of the things that would help sponsors, besides getting easier access to attendee data, is having more reliable metrics. How many tickets have been sold? How many people checked in? How many attendees did each talk have?
Consider better sponsoring offers
From tracking, we know that logos aren’t converting at all. Just placing a logo isn’t going to convince a potential customer to click. Therefore, logo placement on the website is not a real benefit to sponsors. Other things might be, for example, time on stage, or having a specific track or (side-)event named after them. Get creative. Come up with an amazing idea for your sponsors, please!
Lead time
WordCamps are oftentimes organized in a few months. Especially for larger brands, the time needed to design a booth is often over 6 weeks – after signing the contract and getting all the information (e.g. exact booth sizes). Also, deciding who attends an event on behalf of a company is usually done after the speakers are selected, as that influences who can come. If the time between that decision and the event is short, it hurts the quality of the talks, and it hurts financially for sponsors who now have to book their transportation last-minute.
Extending the lead time on sponsorships would be a big time- and money-saver.
Critically look at your budget
Sponsorships have gotten quite a bit more expensive in the last couple of years. At the same time, events have been cancelled or downsized significantly in that same period. We may need to reconsider how we’re spending our sponsors’ money. Are we doing the best we can to keep our events affordable, for everyone?
Regional vs global sponsorships
In the past, we had regional sponsorships as well. Both have pros and cons. Overall, we concluded that having the global sponsorship -for now- is most beneficial, although it may need a new approach.
Should global sponsors be more global?
Currently, global sponsors get most of their ROI from local events promoting them. In our discussion, we talked about the pros and cons of the current situation. One of the suggestions discussed was to offer more global visibility to global sponsors. For example through the WordPress admin and on the .org website instead of including top-tier local sponsorships.
Create global sponsor SlackSlackSlack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. channel with up to 3 reps per global sponsor
This idea was floated and seems easy to implement. The benefit would be that it allows more direct comms with the global sponsors, and amongst them.
The WordPress Project’s Big Picture Goals for 2024 highlight the crucial need to attract new users to WordPress; and the WordPress events program plays an important role in achieving this objective. As we progress through the second half of 2024 and beyond, a key measure of success for WordPress events is the percentage of first-time attendees – individuals who are participating in a 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. or Innovative WordPress Event for the first time ever (note: this does not apply to 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. events).
Our goal is to warmly welcome more first-time attendees at WordPress events, aiming for over 50% of our participants to be newcomers, while also celebrating our returning attendees. To achieve this, we encourage event organizers to make a concerted effort to attract new participants. This goal should inform event design, messaging, and marketing for your WordCamp or other WordPress event.
Of course, we also want all attendees to come away feeling like the event was time well-spent. So, we have an additional goal of 80%+ attendees responding that they are “Extremely Satisfied” or “Satisfied”, as measured through an automated post-event survey sent to all attendees. Currently, only Innovative WordPress Event attendees receive the post-event survey, though we plan to soon extend the survey to WordCamp attendees as well.
Why First-Time Attendees Matter
For WordPress and its events program to grow and thrive, attracting new attendees is essential. So far in 2024, our 29 events (WordCamps and Innovative WordPress Events) have averaged 41% first-time attendees. We believe we can increase this number and exceed our 50% target with your help. First-time attendee data is collected through the event registration form question that asks, “Will this be your first time attending a WordPress event?”
“The statistics show that while the number of events has increased significantly during our re-engagement project, the number of new attendees has also declined.”
This decline underscores the importance of intentionally attracting and welcoming first-time attendees. They bring fresh perspectives, new energy, and potential for long-term growth of the WordPress community and user base.
So far in 2024, some events stand out for their high percentage of first-time attendees (FTAs). As organizers, we can look to these events for inspiration and replication:
Notably, all of the top FTA events in 2024 are Innovative Events (non-WordCamps) with focused audiences. This trend highlights the potential of specialized and targeted events to attract new participants, which perfectly aligns with the 2024 Big Picture Goals:
“Our event series needs to grow past a ‘one size fits all’ strategy. With more advanced topics and more focused events, we can meet our community where it is – in a moment where time is valuable and joining an event should clearly help them reach their goals.”
The Path Forward: How You Can Help
To reverse the trend of declining first-time attendees and achieve our goal, we need the collective effort of the entire WordPress community.
Event MentorsEvent SupporterEvent Supporter (formerly Mentor) is someone who has already organised a WordCamp and has time to meet with their assigned mentee every 2 weeks, they talk over where they should be in their timeline, help them to identify their issues, and also identify solutions for their issues.: Please ensure that your mentees (event organizers) are aware of these goals.
Event Organizers: Below are some practices that may help you attract first-time attendees.
Thoughtful event design: Craft your events with first-time attendees in mind. Consider their needs, interests, and potential barriers to participation.
Targeted messaging: Ensure your promotional materials highlight the benefits of attending. What new knowledge, skills, and professional connections will attendees come away with? Share success stories of past first-time attendees.
Engaging outreach strategies: Experiment with a range of marketing channels to reach potential new attendees. Partner with local schools, organizations, and online communities who can help spread the word.
Program Managers: Let’s collaborate to monitor our progress and publish regular updates on the Make Community blog.
Do you have other ideas for reaching first-time attendees? Please share them in the comments!
Join the Conversation
In the coming weeks, we’ll invite members of the WordPress community, including event organizers, sponsors, and Community Team contributors, to join our scheduled calls. Your participation is valuable as we work together to strengthen this area of focus. Let’s ensure that WordPress events effectively attract and engage new attendees, especially those who are just starting their WordPress journey.
