WordCamp Europe 2020 took place online (for the first time ever), from June 4-6, with one contributor day and two days of sessions. There were 8756 registered attendees, 51% speakers identifying as Women, 40 Sponsors, 9000+ views for track 1, and 5000+ views for track 2. Those are some pretty good numbers!
[those] who couldn’t travel to a meetup or WordCamp can now be a part of those communities and really connect with folks.
⬆️ Matt Mullenweg mentioned this during his keynote, and it definitely applies to me!
Although my colleagues had attended WCEU in past years, being so far away from Europe, I had to resign myself to missing it, but since this year it was virtual and therefore open to a global audience, it was a privilege to be able to participate all the way from South America, not only viewing sessions, but also participating in Contributor Day.
I had just attended WordCamp España 2020 and I was impressed by how well organised that event was, as well as the high quality of the talks., so I had very high expectations for WCEU online! Besides the very high number of registered attendees, I also knew that we were expecting a lot of new contributors.
The sheer amount of new contributors was overwhelming – the amount of people interested in giving back to the WP community (2500+!) was inspiring, and in the months and weeks before the event, I also became aware just how much work goes on behind the scenes (not to mention during the event), to make sure things run smoothly and that no contributor is left behind.
.@WCEurope closing remarks:
Contributor Day by the numbers:
2514 registered attendees
700+ contributors@rociovaldi @2ndkauboy #WCEU pic.twitter.com/GcAQXtuJsT— David Bisset (@dimensionmedia) June 6, 2020
Sponsor Areas
The sponsor talks and virtual booths (Zoom rooms) were a lot of fun, although creating a booth experience that doesn’t add to the feeling of content overload/fatigue is one that all event exhibitors have to keep iterating on.
The lack of a hallway track made the entire event perhaps more exhausting, but popping into booths was a nice way to catch up with familiar faces who happened to be in the same room, preserving an element of spontaneity.⬇️
Missing the #WordPress community as much as we do? Visit our Sponsors Area at #WCEU to catch up and be part of some lightning talks we’ve prepared for you. We’ve got some digital goodies as well!https://t.co/GE5qqgiZKk pic.twitter.com/NP8qsthy2s
— SiteGround (@SiteGround) June 5, 2020
Kinsta shared time slots by language, which was a nice touch. ⬇️
We've had such a good time connecting with all of you at #WCEU! If you have any questions or want to spend your Saturday with us, feel free to stop by our virtual booth 😊 pic.twitter.com/Vm3YZ8YkAP
— Kinsta (@kinsta) June 6, 2020
After Contributor Day, I concentrated on watching all the talks I had bookmarked, including WordPress Performance Trends, In Conversation with Matt Mullenweg, How We Grew a Diverse Nigerian WordPress Community, eCommerce and Storytelling, and Towards Universal Design through Accessibility, Usability and Inclusion.
Below are visual notes from 3 of those talks, by our talented collaborator Nohemi.
The talks
Talk: WordPress Performance Trends
Speaker: Hristo Pandjarov
Length: 27 minutes
Beginner Friendly?: those that have some understanding of site performance factors would probably benefit the most from this talk 😉
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Talk: Towards Universal Design through Accessibility, Usability and Inclusion
Speaker: Stefano Minoia
Length: 23 minutes
Beginner Friendly?: yes!
(click image to enlarge)
Talk: Matt Mullenweg: In Conversation
Participants: Matías Ventura and Matt Mullenweg
Length: 1 hour
Beginner Friendly?: yes!
(click image to enlarge)
Even though the in-person aspect adds so much to WordCamps and is a big part of what makes them so special, not to mention that virtual attendance comes with its own set of issues (interruptions, bad connections, content fatigue, etc), I think WordCamp Europe captured the spirit of the event, which is bringing people together and learning from some great talks 🙂
