WordCamp US (WCUS) kicks off one month from today in San Diego, CA, and organizers have published the full schedule for all sessions. The three-day event will feature three tracks with a combination of lightning talks (15 min), standard talks (45 min), and workshops (1 hr+).
Block themes and plugins aren’t the only things on the menu for WCUS attendees. The event will include a diverse range of topics, including WordPress and the creator economy, accessibility, multichannel e-commerce, performance, community, and creating editorial experiences.
The sessions begin on September 9, and continue through the next day, capped off with a chat with Matt Mullenweg, who will also answer live questions from the audience. Contributor Day is scheduled for Sunday, September 11.
Unfortunately, for many hoping to attend, all 650 of the available tickets sold out within the first day. Everyone else across the world of WordPress will need to tune into the livestream, which organizers expect will be fairly popular this year due to the limited in-person tickets. The sessions in Sun track and Palm track will be live streamed, but the Surf track workshops will not. The livestream page is already published and no special tickets will be required.
WordCamp US will be hosting its first in-person event since 2019 in San Diego this year. The three-day event will run from September 9-11 at Town and Country Resort.
Tickets went on sale today and are still available but likely to sell out soon. Unlike previous years, which had attendees number in the thousands, WCUS 2022 will be capped at 650 tickets sold. Organizers said this is to allow for adequate social distancing and to give the team better flexibility in case changes are necessary.
Tickets will include lunch on Friday and Saturday as well as entry to Contributor Day on Sunday. It also includes admittance to the Saturday night after party and a commemorative t-shirt. WCUS will feature more than 30 speaker presentations and six workshops. Attendees will have the opportunity to network with fellow WordPress enthusiasts and approximately three dozen sponsors.
WordCamp US 2022 is requiring all attendees to be vaccinated or test negative within 24 hours of the event. Masks will be required indoors and organizers have hired a company to enforce proper mask wearing and verify vaccination and testing.
WCUS has negotiated a hotel block with a reduced rate ($199/night) at the Town and Country Resort. A reservation link will be published July 7.
There were only 50 tickets remaining at the time of publishing. Speakers have not yet been announced. Volunteers and speakers will receive a free ticket but are advised to buy one just in case and will be able to receive a full refund. Sponsors and organizers do not need to purchase a ticket.
WordCamp US, scheduled for September 9-11 in San Diego, is trialing a new program that would connect speakers from underrepresented groups with companies that agree to sponsor their travel and lodging.
“To improve diverse representation at WordCamp US (WCUS), our Programming Team has looked into the barriers that hold different groups back, the largest of which is the cost of hotel and airfare/travel,” WCUS organizers wrote.
“While WCUS can’t cover these costs, we can set up a connecting point between these speakers and companies that would like to support them.”
The WordCamp is calling for interested companies to get in touch so they can be matched with speakers who need financial support. The companies will be responsible for setting the qualifications and managing the funds transfer.
Earlier this month, in a post titled Sponsor Inclusion in Tech, WordPress contributor Winstina Hughes called the community to action, specifically to break down financial barriers to attending community events:
Underrepresented/minority groups in society frequently face disparities in income that limit their participation in personally valued activities beyond work activities that earn income. This is mirrored in the WordPress community when contributors forgo participation in community events due to income limitations. Participation in events requires a community member to personally pay for travel and lodging expenses or personally network for sponsorships to cover these expenses.
Transparently integrating travel and lodging sponsorships after a Call for Speakers submission selection would breakdown a notable barrier to inclusion that exists for many underrepresented/minority groups around the world – financial costs.
MasterWP editor Rob Howard continued this conversation, referencing Hughes’ call to action, in a recent post that advocates for all speakers and organizers being paid.
“The largest and most obvious barrier to attending and speaking at WordCamp is money,” Howard said. “In order to offer a truly equal opportunity to everyone, the WordPress Foundation needs to set aside enough money to pay for the airfare and lodging of every speaker and organizer, period. Anything less than this privileges people who work for WordPress companies or people who have the disposable income for a random trip to San Diego.”
Howard contends that this approach should not be a separate initiative but “should simply become how WordCamp works.” Yesterday MasterWP announced its own sponsorship program. The team intends to sponsor at least six speakers and organizers to cover the costs of travel, meals, and lodging.
In the meantime, Winstina Hughes worked with the WCUS speaker programming team to make speaker sponsorships a real possibility. Organizers will facilitate the connection between interested companies and selected speakers who are seeking sponsorship.
WordCamp US has also extended its call for speakers. It appears organizers may not have received enough diverse applicants, as they said their purpose in extending the call is “to showcase our community’s variety and diversity.” The updated deadline is Monday, April 25.
WordCamp US took place online last Friday. Organizers pulled off a successful one-day event with an engaging group of speakers who highlighted timely and important topics. There were 3,608 people registered for the event and the livestream had as many as 400 concurrent viewers at a time.
“Online events are notoriously difficult to get attendee stats for, particularly an event like WCUS 2021 where the audience is global and spans so many time zones,” WCUS organizer Cate DeRosia said. “Many people will watch what they can and catch the rest in their own time.
“We really love this as it makes for not only a more accessible event, but a more educational experience as it’s so easy to rewatch a session as many times as an individual needs.”
When asked on Twitter why the event’s organizers didn’t opt to use a more interactive event platform like Hopin or Veertly, organizer Jen Swisher said some of the platforms they looked into had accessibility issues or prohibitive costs.
As part of the leadership trio for WCUS, Swisher said the team had three issues they focused on when choosing a virtual venue: cost, accessibility, and time for implementation.
“We had a $30K budget,” Swisher said. “To use one of these platforms would have doubled it minimum. There was also a strong chance we would have faced additional costs from our production company for our resources through them to learn this new platform and connect it with their equipment.
“This would have resulted in additional time and resources spent on fundraising or increasing the costs of our sponsor packages. This would have forced the volunteers on the sponsors team to do twice as much work to get the sponsorship necessary to fund other platforms.”
Even with the simple setup of two YouTube livestreams, organizers provided a high energy, welcoming reception to attendees. They managed to bring some levity during these challenging times apart from one another. Swisher highlighted a few deliberate choices organizers made to give this year’s event a more lightweight feeling:
“We didn’t try to replicate the in person experience,” she said. “Making the choice to actively recognize that this isn’t like in person events in any way gave everyone permission to think about this event differently. By throwing out ‘the book,’ and starting from scratch, we were able to really ‘dream’ for the event, instead of what it could have been.”
Instead of planning a big multi-day event, organizers opted for a single day focusing on a smaller subset of topics. They also selected chat moderators and emcees that would bring enthusiasm to the event and gave them the autonomy to make decisions on the fly.
“The team agreed that a big event with multiple days and large numbers of tracks would be exhausting to plan and exhausting for attendees to sit through,” Swisher said.
After WordCamp US 2020 was cancelled due to pandemic stress and online event fatigue, the organizing team needed to make some changes to avoid the pitfalls of the previous year. Organizers were drained, spread thin, and frustrated by delayed tasks and external stressors. The WCUS 2021 team turned this around to make it a more healthy culture for volunteers.
“We fostered an atmosphere where stepping back to take care of yourself was strongly encouraged,” Swisher said. “This resulted in a team of folks that was well rested and able to handle the extra responsibility that comes with planning a WordCamp.”
“We gave the teams the autonomy necessary to get their work done. Decision making was done democratically, but decisions that didn’t impact the whole team didn’t involve the whole team, making it possible to move more agilely.”
The speaker selection was outstanding this year and the recorded sessions will soon be available on WordPress.tv after the production team finishes uploading them. In the meantime, if you are eager to watch or re-watch sessions now, one attendee, Marcus Burnette, has published a post with direct links to session recordings from the livestream.
WordCamp US 2021 will be held online this year on October 1. The free, one-day event will be packed with speaker sessions, workshops, and networking opportunities for attendees.
Organizers opened the call for speaker nominees earlier this month to speak on topics within the scope identified for this year: Connection, Contribution, and Inspiration:
We want to hear about unsung heroes doing great things with the latest WordPress releases, about successful businesses that could only have happened with WordPress, educators who are using WordPress with their students, and inspirational stories of community and connection. We also want to hear about innovative technology implementations and cutting edge design methods that can inspire site owners to do even more with WordPress.
The themes seem to be centered around the kinds of the stories one might hear at an in-person WordCamp around a meal, all of the organic connection that WordPress enthusiasts around the world have craved for the past 18 months. It’s impossible to recreate online but the event’s organizers are committed to spotlighting stories that will “help WordPress users find success with WordPress no matter how they use it.”
The deadline to nominate speakers has passed, but those who were nominated can find a list of recommended topics on the talk submission page. Recommendations include block development, making and using block patterns, FSE (full site editing), why companies should prioritize open source contribution, inspiring WordPress stories, entrepreneurship, marketing, e-commerce, SEO, and more.
Organizers seem set on bolstering the community during this difficult year of mostly online-only events. The talk submission page encourages speakers to find topics that will help users be successful on their journeys with WordPress:
As our goals with programming this year aim towards creating content that will help WordPress users become more successful with the platform, your first submission could ideally be focused on teaching users something they didn’t know when they signed on for WordCamp US 2021. We want to ensure that the content covered at this year’s WCUS is memorable and shared, ensuring that, no matter if online, in-person or hybrid, all future WCUS events are seen as those not to be missed.
The deadline to submit talk ideas is August 22 and prospective speakers are limited to three ideas. Organizers receive hundreds of submissions every year (more than 500 in both 2018 and 2019) and speakers are encouraged to send only their best ideas. Selected speakers will be contacted by August 27 and announced August 31. All sessions will be recorded prior to the event and recorded talks are due September 23.
Tickets for WordCamp US went on sale this week. They are free but you must sign up on the registration page for your entrance pass.
WordCamp US 2020 organizers have cancelled the in-person event in favor of hosting it as an online-only conference. With more than a million confirmed coronavirus cases in the U.S. today, 63,000+ deaths, and 31 states set to partially reopen this weekend, the pandemic’s trajectory throughout the country has become increasingly uncertain.
Many statewide stay-at-home orders are expiring tomorrow, despite no state having met the federal guidelines for reopening. Some businesses are opting to reopen in a limited capacity, but the general populace is still wary of returning to their previous way of life. In the state of Missouri, where WordCamp US was to be hosted in 2020, there will be no limitations on social gatherings as of May 4, as long as individuals maintain social distancing. It’s not yet possible to predict what will be happening in the area in October or how it might impact an event with international attendees.
After organizers extended the WCUS speaker application deadline for another 1.5 months on April 17, it seemed the general disinclination towards traveling and gathering in large groups had already taken hold. Booking hotels and travel arrangements five months in advance is still too much of a gamble for speakers and attendees.
The WCUS organizing team emphasized the longterm health and safety of the WordPress community as their primary concern in today’s announcement about moving to an online-only event:
The WCUS organizing team has been working with WordCamp Central and local health authorities to try to make sense of the current COVID-19 pandemic and what it means for our event in St. Louis this October. Throughout this, we have held the longterm health and safety of the WordPress community as the highest priority of our event. To move forward in a way that honors what is best for our community – both locally and globally – we have made the hard choice to convert WordCamp US 2020 to an online only event.
WCUS will still happen on the originally scheduled dates, October 27th – 29th. Organizers plan to run sessions, workshops, and a virtual Contributor Day, along with the annual State of the Word address from Matt Mullenweg. They are also putting together a hallway track, some form of swag, and creative ways for attendees to connect, which will be announced at a later date.
WCUS is now free for anyone who wants to attend. Without the necessity to rent a venue, provide lunches, and other physical aspects of the event, sponsorships are easily able to cover the cost of streaming to an unlimited number of attendees.
The call for speakers is open until May 31, 2020 at 11:59 pm CDT. WCUS is still accepting sponsorships and will be publishing a set of unique sponsorship packages for the virtual event. Organizers plan to put out a call for volunteers in the near future.
WordCamp US follows other major regional WordCamps in Asia and Europe that have canceled in-person events due to the pandemic. Several other upcoming WordCamps, including events in Spain, Kent, Denver, and Minneapolis / Saint Paul, have also announced that they are transitioning to online-only events.
Mark your calendars, folks. WordCamp US 2020 will start on a…Tuesday.
On November 11, the WordCamp US team announced that next year’s event will happen during the middle of the week, from October 27 through October 29. This is a change from the usual three-day weekend event. The time frame puts the event’s days on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. The yearly conference will remain in St. Louis, Missouri, in 2020.
Thus far, the switch away from a weekend has been met with generally positive responses via Twitter and Slack. However, some people fear the schedule will not allow them to attend.
The WordCamp US Twitter account cited date availability, Halloween, and giving the weekend back to attendees as the reason behind the change.
Number of reasons from date availability, letting folks get home for Halloween, and letting folks have a their weekend back on an out-of-town event
For professionals in the WordPress space, this move will likely be a welcome change. They are often able to get extra time off from work, sometimes paid leave, to attend the event. The company they work for may even be funding their travel. For them, attending a WordCamp is a part of their work.
The unfortunate side effect of attending a WordCamp over the weekend is that some attendees usually have to wake up for work on Monday morning after traveling back home on Sunday. Many are essentially working two weeks straight without any downtime. This helps pile on the problem of developer burnout. Rest days, time with friends and family, and getting away from code-related things is a part of a healthy work-life balance.
Moving the event to the middle of the week should allow professionals to better maintain that balance.
On the other hand, some attendees may find it harder to attend during the week. This is particularly true for WordCamp-goers who do not work with WordPress professionally. They may not be able to get the time off work.
As a general rule, Americans tend to have little paid leave they can take advantage of throughout the year. The average worker in the private sector only gets 10 paid vacation days per year after one year of employment. Those numbers rise the longer an employee sticks with a single company. The US does not guarantee paid leave for workers.
Without support from their employer, some people may have to choose between using their paid time off to attend and keeping those days in reserve for family vacation or holidays.
Unlike local WordCamps, the US conference is more of an industry event that sees professionals from across the US and the world. The move to a weekday schedule should be a nice change for many.
If there was one common theme in Matt Mullenweg’s State of the Word address this year at WordCamp U.S., it was that all roads lead to the block editor. His speech was primarily about blocks, blocks, more blocks, and a dash of community. This doesn’t come as a surprise because we are closing in on the one year mark of the official merge of the Gutenberg plugin into the core WordPress code. It has been a year about blocks, and nothing is changing that course.
WordCamp U.S. 2019 was held in St. Louis, Missouri, over this past weekend. The event was planned and put together by 47 organizers and 122 volunteers. There were 90 speakers who held sessions across a range of topics in multiple rooms.
For people who were not able to attend or watch via the livestream, the sessions are available via YouTube. Eventually, the videos will also make their way over to WordPress.tv
Open: The Community Code
Mullenweg opened The State of the Word by showing a documentary named Open: The Community Code, which is a film that primarily focuses on the WordPress community.
The film explores why people are so passionate about a project that is essentially just code. What drives them to organize and attend events like WordCamps? Why do they volunteer their free time contributing to an industry that sees over $10 billion in profits? What makes the WordPress community different from other projects? The film team interviewed 37 people to get to the bottom of these questions.
The team behind the project is also providing the film and all of the raw footage as open source for others to use.
The Events of the Past Year
Mullenweg primarily focused on WordPress updates and changes within the community when recapping events of the past year. Since the release of WordPress 5.0 on December 6, 2018, WordPress has had two major releases. A third major release, WordPress 5.3, is scheduled to launch on November 12.
During 2019, most heavy work went into the Gutenberg plugin, which was ported back into core WordPress. The number of contributors to Gutenberg more than doubled since WordPress 5.0 launch, an increase from 200 to 480 individuals.
The release of WordPress 5.1 introduced the first iteration of the site health page, new cron features, and a site meta table for multisite installations.
“WordPress is all about empowering users and we wanted to put the information and the tools in the hands of users as well to keep the site running in tip-top shape as we power an ever-increasing percentage of the web,” said Mullenweg of the site health feature. He further explained that it is WordPress’ responsibility to make sure users are up to date and running the latest versions of software.
Building on top of the site health introduction, WordPress 5.2 launched with a PHP fatal error protection and recovery mode. The release also bumped the minimum PHP version to 5.6 and ported all widgets to blocks.
Mullenweg then outlined the work done toward getting WordPress 5.3 ready for its November 12 launch date. The major changes include:
150+ block editor improvements
Twenty Twenty default theme
Date/Time improvements and fixes
PHP 7.4 compatibility
As of now, 83% of all users on WordPress 5.2 or newer are running at least PHP 7. This means the WordPress project has done what it can from the user end. It is now time to start working with hosts to get sites updated to the latest version of PHP.
The block editor is now available on both Android and iOS devices. Mullenweg announced they were almost done with offline post support and that a dark mode is coming in weeks.
The community had a good year. In 2019, there were 141 WordCamp events, 34 of which were in new cities. There were 17 Kids Camps for younger contributors to get involved. There were also over 5,000 meetups and 16 do_action() charity hackathons.
The WordPress news page has been highlighting one story from HeroPress every month in the past year. HeroPress is a project that allows people to tell their stories of how they got involved with WordPress.
Mullenweg held a moment of silence for long-time community member Alex Mills (viper007bond) who passed away earlier this year after a long-fought battle with leukemia. Automattic is planning to finance a scholarship in his honor. The scholarship will go to a plugin developer to attend WordCamp U.S. who has not had an opportunity to attend.
2019: The Year of the Block Editor
Slide with screenshots of Gutenberg criticism from users.
Mullenweg started focusing on the block editor after recapping the events of the past year. WordPress 5.0 was released one day before WordCamp U.S. 2018 in Nashville.
“We had people coordinating work from airplanes,” said Mullenweg. “There were impromptu groups of core developers, testing and packaging the release in the hallways. The polyglots, marketers, and support teams were just scrambling to get ready.”
He explained the reason for the biggest change to WordPress in its then 16-year history. “We came together and decided to make this big change cause we wanted to first disrupt ourselves. We wanted to empower more WordPress users to realize our mission of democratizing publishing, and wanted to make the web a more open and welcoming place.”
Not everyone was happy with the direction of WordPress and its new block editor. It was a rough year from a leadership perspective to have a vision and see it through, despite constant negative feedback. Mullenweg highlighted some of the comments that were critical of the block editor and explained that they had learned a lot from the process.
“I think that we also have a great opportunity when we make big changes in the future,” said Mullenweg. “Sort of build that trust in the conversations around testing, using GitHub for development, things like accessibility. So, I understand why we had a lot of this feedback. But, we did get through it together.”
Mullenweg highlighted that, according to Jetpack plugin stats, over 50 million posts have been written in the block editor. That amounts to around 270 thousand posts per day. It is important to note that this stat is on the lower end because it only accounts for users of the Jetpack plugin. Therefore, the number is likely much higher.
He covered the performance improvements to the editor, block motion when moving blocks, typewriter mode, block previews, and the social block. “These are like the Nascar stickers of the web,” he said of social icons. “They’re everywhere.”
The Next Steps for the Block Editor
In his address, Mullenweg covered the four phases of the Gutenberg project.
Easier Editing
Customization
Collaboration
Multilingual
The first phase was the initial launch and iteration of the block editor for content. The second stage, which we are in now, is about full site customization. This includes widgets and non-content areas, and will eventually cover areas like the site header and footer. It will be interesting to see how page-building plugins work with these upcoming changes. Some could use WordPress as the foundational, framework-type layer. Others may go their own way. Themes will also have to keep pace with the changes.
Phase three, collaboration, will introduce a feature that allows multiple authors to collaborate and co-edit posts on a site in real time. With any luck, WordPress will also build in a proper system for attributing posts to multiple authors.
The fourth and final phase cannot get here fast enough. As WordPress usage continues to grow around the world, it is past time that it offered a multilingual experience. “We’re going to tackle the Babel fish problem,” said Mullenweg.
Also on the roadmap is the concept of block patterns. Patterns would be a groups of blocks that follows common patterns seen across the web. The existing Media & Text block is an example of a common pattern, but new patterns would go far beyond something so basic. By providing patterns to users, they could simply insert a pattern and fill in their details, which should make it easy to rapidly create rich content.
Watch the State of the Word
Mullenweg’s entire presentation was done from the block editor. He used the Slides plugin created by Ella van Durpe.
Community Questions and Answers
The Q&A sessions after Mullenweg’s address was more focused on community and policy.
Rian Kinney asked whether we would see official policies on accessibility, ethics, conflicts of interest, and diversity. She wanted to know how the community could make this happen over the next year.
While a privacy policy is in the footer of WordPress.org, Mullenweg expressed his desire to not make changes than lean too heavily on policy. “That is in spite of there being a policy or not, we’ve tried to enact bigger changes in WordPress in a policy-first way in the past,” he said. “To be honest, it felt nice but didn’t always make things actually change.” He said we usually do better by working with people to make changes rather than starting with the policy.
Olivia Bisset, a young WordCamp speaker behind Lemonade Code, asked Mullenweg how we could inspire kids who are currently in school to get involved with WordPress. The project has tough competition coming from more exciting technology sectors such as robotics and other industries that are swaying the next generation.
“This is going to be on YouTube later, and boys and girls, maybe of your generation, will see you here asking a question and being a speaker at WordCamp in front of a thousand adults,” said Mullenweg. “And, you know, it’s kind of beautiful.”
Mullenweg said that we need more stories from younger people on HeroPress and that Kids Camps will help. He said that WordPress should be easier and more accessible, which are things that the current generation is more aware of and care about. He also mentioned Automattic’s recent acquisition of Tumblr, which has a larger user base of young users, as a way to introduce them to WordPress.
View the Q&A portion of The State of the Word in the following video.
For those of you unable to attend WordCamp US at St. Louis, Missouri, this weekend, the event will be available for live streaming. The conference runs from Friday, November 1, through Sunday, November 3. Friday and Saturday’s regular sessions, which do not include workshops, will be streamed.
While previous events like WordCamp US 2018 have always been available to watch for free, they required you to sign up before viewing. This year’s event is open with no such restriction. You can simply pick a streaming video and watch.
There will be multiple livestreams running simultaneously based on the room the parallel sessions are happening in. The WordCamp organizers have already set up the livestream videos with YouTube. By going to the Friday livestream or Saturday livestream page, you can set a reminder for any particular room you want to watch via the YouTube embed.
There are many sessions planned for the camp schedule. The tough problem is going to be figuring out what to watch with overlapping streams from three rooms. All times on the schedule are in Central Time US (CST).
If you have a question for a particular speaker, WordCamp US will have a volunteer social media team keeping an eye on the following hashtags on Twitter. The volunteers may ask your question if time permits for the session.
If you can’t wait for this year’s sessions, you can view the 2018 sessions from WordPress TV. It is a good way to get yourself in the mood for this year’s event and to look at how much WordPress has changed in the past year.
One of the most interesting WordCamp videos is always the “State of the Word” presented by Matt Mullenweg, co-founder of WordPress. You can watch last year’s video below. What do you expect to see in this year’s talk?
How Will You Attend WordPress US 2019?
Are you planning on attending in person this year? Or, will you be among the many who are watching from home, the office, or elsewhere?
Unfortunately, WP Tavern will not be able to cover the event in person this year. However, we will be watching from home like many of you. Feel free to drop your recommended must-watch sessions in the comments.
If you are unable to attend or watch via livestream, the videos will be available on WordPress TV and YouTube to watch at your leisure.
WordCamp US announced today that the event will be offering free on-site childcare for children aged 6 weeks to 12 years old. Organizers have contracted A Helping Hand, a licensed conference childcare service company based in Virginia Beach, VA, to provide childcare for all three days, with flexible drop off and pick up throughout the day as necessary.
When WCUS tickets went on sale in May, parents who registered had the option to indicate whether they would be interested in on-site childcare during the conference, as organizers considered different childcare options. This is the first time WordCamp US has offered it as part of the event. WordCamp Europe has included childcare for years and a handful of other camps have also had it available in a varying capacities, including WordCamp Nordic, WordCamp Pittsburgh, and WordCamp Vienna.
Parents interested in using this service at WordCamp US will need to pre-register by selecting a “Parent with Kids ticket.” Registrants will receive an email with a pre-registration link to complete the signup process on the childcare provider’s website. Both lunch and snacks will be provided, so parents will not be required to pick their kids up for lunch.
The availability of childcare makes it possible for single parents to attend and speak at events. It can also be helpful for parents with small children who are unable to be separated from their caregivers for long periods of time. With WordCamp US opting to provide childcare at this year’s event, it’s clear that this is a growing trend to help promote diversity at WordPress conferences.
WordCamp is about diversity, this is not a catch phrase, it is not just a moment. It is about real people, doing real things, in the real world across gender, generation and culture. WordCamp embraces the world. #WordCamp#WordPress@WordCamp#WCUSpic.twitter.com/GdcCDNJYed
For just $50, attendees will have access to everything throughout the three-day event, including more than 40 speaker presentations, workshops, “birds of a feather” meetups, and Contributor Day. The price also includes lunches, morning and afternoon snacks, admission to the WordFest party on Friday night, and a commemorative tee shirt with a surprise gift.
This year, parents bringing children children under 9 years old have a separate ticket option where they can indicate whether or not they are interested in on-site child care during the conference. There is no additional cost for selecting the “Parent with Kids” ticket option. Organizers are currently considering various options for childcare.
WordCamp is about diversity, this is not a catch phrase, it is not just a moment. It is about real people, doing real things, in the real world across gender, generation and culture. WordCamp embraces the world. #WordCamp#WordPress@WordCamp#WCUSpic.twitter.com/GdcCDNJYed
WordCamp US organizers have secured a block of hotel rooms at The Marriott St. Louis Grand with a special rate for conference attendees ($149/night). It is located directly across from the official venue. They anticipate the hotel block will sell out quickly. Attendees can follow the link from the WCUS website to reserve a room.
Attendee Services is now open, and this includes assistance with visa applications. Any prospective attendee who requires a visa may request a letter from WCUS organizers for the application. Requests must be made before September 1, 2019, in order to be processed in a timely way.
Speakers will be notified of their acceptance in June and the full schedule will not be announced until July. Volunteer applications will also open in July. Check out the WordCamp US 2019 Timeline to get a quick overview of what’s next and follow @WordCampUS on Twitter for all the latest.
