WordCamp Hamburg recap

On the weekend 14th/15th of June 2014, we held a WordCamp in Germany. Around 300 people attended for a great weekend of WordPress Sessions, Panels, Workshops and Lightning Talks.

On Monday, June 16th we then celebrated our first ever contributor day in Germany at the betahaus, a co-working space in Hamburg. More than 30 people attended.

Figures and Facts

On both days about 300 attendees joined WordCamp Hamburg. We had sessions out of our glorious community around topics like theme- and plugin-development, marketing, blogging, social media, SEO, design, journalism, concept and much more.

• 2 days
• 300 attendees
• 43 speakers
• 44 sessions
• 2 workshops
• 2 panels
• 4 sessions in english
• 6 spontaneous sessions
• 7 lightning talks
• 3 tracks
• first ever Contributor Day in Germany

Quite a few international contributors were around at contributor day and helped us get in the spirit. We built various teams for theming, support, translation, core and de.wordpress.org.

Right after the event we set up a feedback form. The responses are very helpful, so the next German WordCamp organizers can improve their events.

Sessions

We tried some new formats like lightning talks, panels and workshops.

One of the very often heard feedback was the wish of a more barcamp style of WordCamp. In Germany we don’t have a tradition of WordCamps so some people were disappointed by the preset schedule.

We reserved two slots for spontaneous sessions each day. But obviously that was not enough.

The demand for smaller groups and the possibility for spontaneous meetings were mentioned quite often. So next time we would definitely try to have more smaller rooms on top of the three huge rooms where there is room for spontaneous get-togethers, discussions and workshops.

Location

With the Geomatikum in Hamburg, we were hosted by a university, which meant we could easily host hundreds of people, the WiFi was stable (but a bit complicated), and it was very easy-to-reach.

Apart from the room requirements we mentioned earlier, a university is very functional. We maybe try to go for a bit more atmosphere and cut down to around 250 people.

Food

Right from the beginning, we decided that if we wouldn’t be able to afford organic meat we would go vegetarian. We provided a lot of veggies and all sorts of fruits and catered for gluten free, vegan, and lactose free. Many people were very happy about the choices for allergies and the veggie decision. But quite a few people were unhappy for the lack of meat. Food is a delicate matter. Because of the tight budget we went for rolls as lunch. We will try harder next time to provide a hot meal.

Contributor Day

We are proud to have hosted the first German Contributor Day in Hamburg. It was a great day with around 30 attendees working on WordPress.

Celebrating Our Community

Keynote speaker Zé Fontainhas reminded us of the strength of our community and also the power of a worldwide meaning of WordPress. During the camp new meetups were founded and workgroups built.

All in all we’re very happy about WordCamp Hamburg 2014. So many people traveled from all over Germany and some from all around the world to attend 2 days of WordPress fun.