WordCamp News

WordCamp Atlanta 2020 Has Been Canceled

Posted by on March 11, 2020 with Comments are off for this post

It is with deep regret that the organizing team, at the recommendation of WordPress Community Support (Central), has decided to cancel WordCamp Atlanta 2020. 

Each of our organizers has carved out time from their busy schedules, sacrificed time with family/friends or that would have been dedicated to other causes, and taken on very challenging work (we make it look easy, but it’s not!) in order to plan this event. Naturally, we approached the topic of canceling WCATL with deep reluctance and sadness. 

That said, one of our fundamental priorities must be to preserve the health and well-being of our attendees and communities. The local threat level from COVID-19 is increasing each day, and many of our participants travel to Atlanta for this event each year.

And it just wouldn’t be WordCamp Atlanta without ALL of us.

We know that many of you look forward to this special gathering each year as much as we do. We treasure your support and will truly miss the opportunity to see each of you this year.

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, and hope life will return to normal very soon, for all of us. 

In the meantime, here’s what you need to know:

Tickets

Refunds for your tickets will begin shortly. You do not need to take any action. If you do not receive your refund within 2 weeks, please contact us at atlanta@wordcamp.org.

Hotel and Airline

Please cancel your hotel and air bookings. If you have trouble getting a refund for your flight and/or hotel without penalty, we will be posting a letter from Central later this week to help you explain the circumstances.

Sponsors

We sincerely thank you for supporting us! We will be contacting you directly with details on how we’re handling the sponsorship refunds.

Finally

Thanks to all of you – sponsors, speakers, volunteers, attendees – who make WordCamp Atlanta such an amazing event every year. We’ll soon be starting to plan for Spring 2021, and we’ll let you know as soon as we have a date.

As always, let us know if you have questions.

See you in 2021!

 

Aaron Reimann, Diana Nichols, Brad Morrison, Stephen DeLorme, Mickey Mellen, Chris Shull, Rhonda Sterrett, Micah Wood, Kathy Drewien

Organizers, WordCamp Atlanta 2020

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WordCamp Athens 2020 Postponed (New date: 24th Oct)

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Dear friends of the WordPress Greek Community,

We have been monitoring closely the latest developments around the spread of the COVID-19 virus, which affects our country and the international community as well.

Always having in mind the safety and wellbeing of the attendees of WordCamp Athens 2020 and after careful consideration, we would like to inform you that the date of WordCamp Athens 2020 has been moved to the 24th of October 2020.

Unfortunately, the uncertainty that surrounds the current period does not allow us to move forward with our original plans.

We do hope that until the new date, there will be enough time for the situation to come back to normality and allow us to continue with our plans.

We, as an organizing team, commit to continue our efforts in order to make one more WordCamp Athens 2020 a reality. We will follow up with posts, updates, and calls in the upcoming weeks.

We wish to maintain the hype for the upcoming WordCamp Athens 2020 and we expect you all to be there.

Of behalf of the WordCamp Athens 2020 Organizing Team

Routsis Fotis
Lead Organizer

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WordCamp Jacksonville 2020 Cancelled

Posted by on March 10, 2020 with Comments are off for this post

WCJax Sponsors, Speakers, Volunteers and Attendees,

The WordCamp Jacksonville organizers convened today and had a lengthy conversation on moving forward with our event scheduled for the last weekend in March. Our decision was extremely difficult and honestly has left us completely broken-hearted. Due to our concerns over health and safety, we have decided to cancel WordCamp Jax 2020.

Over two thirds of our speakers were traveling from outside the Georgia / Florida area which is a huge risk for all involved. We had some recent speaker cancellations and, as the event gets closer, we fear we would not be able to provide the solid event you deserve.

We would like to thank speakers, sponsors, volunteers and attendees for supporting our community. Full ticket refunds will be processed shortly. Please stand by while our team makes this one final pivot.

It is our intention to come back with a vengeance next year. We look forward to seeing all of our friends in 2021 when the dust settles.

Sincerely,

WordCamp Jacksonville

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WordCamp Kansas City 2020 Postponed

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The WordCamp Kansas City 2020 organizing team has decided to postpone WordCamp KC, originally scheduled for the end of April.

The spread of the coronavirus and the first confirmed cases in the Kansas City area have led to us making this decision.

We felt that we would have had far more to lose if we push forward at the current dates whether those impacts are:

  • lowered attendance
  • nonrefundable deposits being lost if our hand is forced to cancel late
  • ticket refund headache if we have to cancel late
  • wasted organizational & promotional time on our end for April dates
  • extra organizational & promotional time for new dates
  • extra organizational time for the headache of moving dates after more is in place

Fortunately, we made the call to postpone right before we opened ticket sales and before we placed any big deposits with vendors.

We are shooting to reschedule with JCCC for the end of the summer or early fall. Make sure you’re on our email list to get all the updates. Sign up here – https://www.wpkansascity.org/newsletter

Our Meetup events will go on as scheduled. Check out the calendar – https://www.meetup.com/wordpresskc/events/

A positive note! We’ve started a Facebook Group for our community. Join here – https://www.facebook.com/groups/wordpresskc & join the first discussion by sharing your favorite plugin!

Sincerely,
Karissa Skirmont (Lead Organizer) and the WordCamp Kansas City 2020 Organizing Team

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WordCamp Albuquerque 2020 Postponed

Posted by on March 7, 2020 with Comments are off for this post

Dear Friends,

It is with a heavy heart that I must inform you that WordCamp Albuquerque 2020 has been postponed due to COVID-19 concerns. Though the threat level in New Mexico continues to be low, we have made the difficult decision as a Team to postpone the event until later in the year once the risk and panic around the virus have subsided.

We have all worked very hard to make this an awesome WordCamp. After meeting today, our Team came to the conclusion that the current atmosphere with regards to concern about travel and large events means that it would be best to host WordCamp later in the year after this difficult time has passed.

We are very sorry for any inconvenience this may cause you at this time.

We are all still very motivated to put on an awesome WordCamp later this year and we hope that you will join us for our rescheduled WordCamp. The event will likely be rescheduled for the Fall but we would like to wait and see how things go in the next couple of months before committing to a new date for WordCamp.

If you would like to stay up to date about when WordCamp will be rescheduled, please sign up for our eNewsletter thru this link: http://eepurl.com/gO1M31

Best Regards,
Acacia Carr
Lead Organizer WordCamp Albuquerque 2020

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WordCamp Santa Clarita, Friday and Saturday, April 3-4, 2020 is Postponed Indefinitely

Posted by on March 6, 2020 with Comments are off for this post

WCSCV Community Members, Speakers, Attendees, and Sponsors,

Your health and wellbeing are important to us. In light of recent developments with the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) here in Los Angeles County, our Organizing Team has decided to indefinitely postpone the second annual WordCamp Santa Clarita, scheduled for Friday and Saturday, April 3-4, 2020.

We’ll be processing ticket refunds beginning today, which should show up within seven (7) days.

We will be in touch soon regarding an online event.

Thanks in advance for your understanding,

Joe A Simpson, Jr
Lead Organizer, Organizing Team,
WordCamp Santa Clarita 2020

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WordCamp Washington, DC postponed due to COVID-19

Posted by on March 5, 2020 with Comments are off for this post

We have been surveying the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) and international health recommendations carefully as we follow the stories of those around the world who have been impacted by this virus. Our hearts are going out to all affected.

Due to increasing concerns over large gatherings, mounting company policies suspending employee travel, and the recommendations of the CDC regarding COVID-19 in the US, we are canceling WordCamp DC originally planned for March 27-29 2020.

We have taken a data-driven and science-driven approach to understanding the problem and the risks. We feel that hosting a 3-day event of 500+ people at this time is not the best way to support the vulnerable populations, including but not limited to the older and immune-compromised individuals within the greater WordPress community.

We were so very excited to see all of you at the second ever WordCamp DC and we are disappointed to have to cancel this event. Over the next couple of weeks we will explore other ways to engage with our amazing, supportive community.

The decision to cancel the Camp was not made lightly.  In the end, the health and safety of the community was paramount in our decision. We hope you understand that the organising team believes this is the right decision to ensure the safety of all WordCamp attendees.

We know many of you have already booked travel and made plans with friends and colleagues. Below is information to help you navigate the situation:

WORDCAMP TICKETS

All paid WordCamp DC tickets will be refunded automatically. No action or request for a refund is needed on your part.

HOTEL AND AIR

Please cancel your hotel and air bookings if they are fully refundable. If you have trouble refunding your flight and hotel without fees, we will be posting a letter from Central later this week to help you explain the circumstances.

SPONSORS

We thank the sponsors for supporting us through this difficult period. We’ll be contacting the sponsors directly with details on how we’ll be handling the sponsorship funds.

OUR COMMUNITY

We want to thank our speakers, volunteers, sponsors, and fellow organizers for all the hard work, long hours, and unwavering support over the past months.  Our community would not be the supportive and engaging place it is without you! While we will not see the fruits of our labor this time, we have created a fertile ground for the next WordCamp DC.

We don’t have any specific dates/plans for the next WordCamp DC at the moment but we are hoping to hold it in early 2021. We will make announcements as soon as possible.

We greatly appreciate your patience and understanding during this unpredictable time.

Sincerely,

Your WCDC Organizing Team (Courtney, Beth, Leland, Tara, Kev, Zak, & Anthony)

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WordCamp San Antonio Going Forward with Virtual and Live Components

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Dear WordCampers,

We have great news! WordCamp San Antonio 2020 is happening on schedule, March 28-29, 2020 at UTSA Downtown! With coordination from our awesome team, our speakers, our vendors and venue, and WordCamp Central, we have come up with a solution that will allow our local community to meet in-person while also ensuring remote participants get to be involved without having to travel.

“How?” you ask? We will have live speakers at UTSA Downtown and will have a live audience, but will also have remote speakers and all three tracks will be livestreamed for those who cannot attend in-person. The best news? WordCamp Central is helping us present the livestream component for free! You will need to register, but there will not be a charge. We’ll let you know when we have registration set up.

Remote participants will be able to ask questions of our speakers and our speakers will continue the conversation on Twitter if needed. Our live audience will also be able to ask questions of our remote speakers. (Details on how this will all work have not been worked out in full yet, but we are confident it can all be done.)

We know this is a hard time for conferences which are having to make some hard decisions and this type of solution will not be the right one for every one. We are able to do this because:

• WordCamp San Antonio is primarily a local event—most attendees will not need to travel
• NOWCastSA, which was already contracted to video the event, is fully on-board and working with us to make this happen
• The event is being held on a university campus, giving us access to resources others might not have.

If you already purchased an in-person ticket and wish to attend remotely, you may request a refund for your purchase and then signup for the virtual ticket (or, if you want to donate your purchased ticket to help offset the costs of the virtual conference, just signup for the virtual component and let us know your ticket is a donation.)

We are excited to be able to go forward with WordCamp San Antonio 2020 and look forward to putting on a great event for everyone, whether you attend in-person or join us through your computer. The schedule will be updated to indicate which speakers will be presenting remotely as those decisions are made.

Join us March 28-29, 2020 at UTSA Downtown for a unique WordCamp designed to work for everyone. You’ll be glad you did!

The WordCamp 2020 Team

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