WCEU 2017 Preview - The Things You Need to Know Before Attending WordCamp Europe 2017

We had so much fun in Vienna last year that our whole team can barely wait to relive the WordCamp Europe experience again this summer! Thankfully, in less than two short weeks, well get the chance to head off to Paris to do it all over again here comes WCEU 2017!But before you hop on a plane or train to Paris, we want to introduce you to what you can expect at WordCamp Europe 2017, as well as some general insights into the WordCamp atmosphere.WordCamp Europe 2017 introduces a few tweaks from previous WordCamps, so even if youre a seasoned attendee, you still might want to read on to learn exactly what to expect from this years WordCamp.TOC WCEU 2017:WordCamp Europe 2017 by the numbersA new WordCamp formatTracks and talks my subjective roundup of the most interesting stuff to attendTribe Meetups and Speed Networking are backUnfortunate visa troublesWordCamp Europe 2017 on social mediaMeet our team there! Before we dig into the structure and talks, here are some basics about WordCam p Europe 2017.Lets start with the when and where. WordCamp Europe 2017 will take place from June 15th to June 17th at Les Docks de Paris, in Paris (obviously). The after party will be very Parisienne, so to speak. So pick your most elegant clothes out of your wardrobe and bring them with you in the capital of France because, after the conference (Saturday, June 17th), all the fun will move to Pavillon dArmenonville, a green oasis in the middle of the city.And since we know you guys love hard data, heres a quick picture of the statistics behind WordCamp Europe 2017:3,000 participants will come to Frances capital in June a massive 1,000 more people than last year. So, brace yourselves, this conference is going to be huge! Check out the full list of the attendees here.42 speakers will talk about a variety of topics, grouped into 31 sessions and 2 tracks, all scheduled over 2 days (Friday and Saturday). There will be 26 long talks and 16 lightning talks. 50 people around the world are involved with organizing the event. To manage such a big event, you definitely need a ton of human resources. The organizers are themselves grouped into 10 teams: leads, communication, community, content, design, local, sponsors, volunteers, PR, photography.250 volunteers from all around the globe (not only Europe) will help the organizing teams to offer attendees the best possible WordCamp experience. Registration desk, door guard, swag store, mic runner, social media, photography, happiness bar these are just a few of the things volunteers usually do at the conference.A total of 350 people (speakers included) are involved in making this event happen. Go to topA new WordCamp formatTwo tracks instead of threeBreaking tradition from the three-track format that all big WordCamps used to have, there will only be two parallel tracks of talks in Paris. So now, instead of choosing one of three talks going on at a time, youll only need to pick between two. Still a choice, but not quite as difficult now!The two-track format was introduced because people asked the organizing team several times in the past for more time to talk to each other, something that couldnt really happen with such a busy schedule. And its not just the tracks the time between the talks will also last longer so that attendees can chat more. The WCEU 2017 organizers shared with us some details about this special track:The sponsor track is an additional track we introduced this year for the first time. Its an opportunity for the WordCamp attendees to get to know the sponsors and their products better.The sponsors have been asked to do workshops, or product demos followed by some QA. The workshops planned are very exciting, everything from creating a website with a new theme, to website localization, sneak peak at new features, client communication and getting to know the community.The sponsors track wont be as formal as the normal ones, it will be more like a discussion where the attendees can easi ly reach out to the speakers and talk to them. Each sponsor will be allowed at least two workshops, so you have plenty of time to  organize your agenda so that you can attend their presentations and meet them in person.WordPress Community SummitThis year, the WordPress Community Summit will convene right before WCEU 2017. This event gathers the WordPress core team and various WordPress contributors from around the world who, together with Matt Mullenweg, will discuss the present and future state of WordPress.What will be the structure of the event? Each contributor team prepares a list of the things they want to discuss in the meeting and nominates attendees who can back up their story/topic. Our CEO Ionut will be there too, as a part of the theme development group, where they will talk about ways to improve the repository review process, among other topics.The topic list is already public and contains the following items (in short): global involvement in the community team, Wor dCamps and money, marketing engagement, paying for speaker travel, regional camps, improving deputy training, code of conduct harassment reports, and supporting other event types. But these are just broad headlines, check out the detailed list of debates here.A different Contributor DayAnother change at WordCamp Europe 2017 is the  date of the Contributor Day. Contributor Day will now take place before the event, rather than after the conference. So, on Thursday, June 15th, get ready to contribute to WordPress by attending the Contributor Day. And, in another piece of news, the event will not only include the well-known contributor  teams but will also include talks and workshops, which is (again!) a new thing.Check out the full schedule for Contributor Day here.Go to topTracks and talks my subjective roundup of the most interesting stuff to attendThere are two types of people who come to WordCamps or other similar events. One group comes to hear the speakers, attend as many talks as possible, and learn new things from the experts that they can then apply to their own business. Another group is more dedicated to the social aspect of these events they come for meeting people, making friends, having fun, and eventually exchanging words about their businesses. In a nutshell networking.If youre part of the first group, this section is for you. Lets talk a bit about the schedule and talks. While all the talks have their value, these are a few that specifically caught our eye:Friday, June 16thPetya Raykovska, one of the last years organizers, will break the ice with a presentation related to the community. It will be called WordPress Beyond Borders: Cross-Cultural Communication and the Fundamentals of CaringIf youre a designer, John Maeda will present you a few types of design, along with the dos and donts of a successful design project. Attend this track The Three Kinds of Design if youre curious what category you fit in.Right before the lunch, Mark Jaqui th will talk about security in WordPress and how it doesnt happen overnight. His talk will explain why security is a process and a mindset, not merely a plugin that you install and also teach you how to protect your sites from a variety of web threats. The talk is called Security is a ProcessAre you a content-focused WordPresser? After lunch, youll have the chance to listen to Syed Balkhi, Dario Jazbec Hrvatin, Monique Dubbelman, and Jennifer Miller in one single session speaking about optimizing your site with quality content and SEO. The track is called Lightning Talks Content.The above speech is followed by Joshua Strebels 5 Ways You May Be Sabotaging Your Business, in which hell put you up to date with the five most dangerous mistakes hes made during his entrepreneurship career.Saturday, June 17thLets freshen up for the second day of the conference with some code. Andrew Nacin will host the first presentation of the day, called People Over CodeWhat are you using WordPress for? If your main goal is not seeking revenue with it, you should attend this talk by Sasha Endoh, Using WordPress for Good. It will be a presentation about non-profit and cause-based organizations. The main idea of this topic is to use WordPress to help others too and not just for the economic aspect of it.If youre interested in getting more involved with the WordPress community or simply curious about how certain groups become communities, go to How WordPress Communities Are Built by Andrea Middleton.Eat well during the lunch break and prepare for Matt Mullenwegs apparition in a 50-minute interview hosted by Om Malik (the founder of Gigaom) and a 20-minute QA session with the audience. It will be live in Track 1, Pullman, and also streamed in Track 2, Eiffel.Next, Michael Arestad will tell you what is it like to design in an open source space nowadays. If youve ever experienced with communication difficulties, tech limitation, slow implementation times,  complex developer tools, lack of design process, you might find the Big Design Troubles in Open Source interesting. speaker, sponsor, and volunteer dinner! Anyone involved in making this event possible will gather at Le Concorde Atlantique, a fancy venue installed on a ship on the Seine river! If youve havent confirmed your spot yet, you still have a few days to do it.Go to topTribe Meetups and Speed Networking are backSpeed Networking at WordCamp Europe 2016Nothing surprising here. I remember from last year when I was volunteering, and the Leopold Museum in Vienna was almost full during tribe meetups and speed networking.So, the popularity of these two mini-events convinced the organizers to add them to the agenda again. This time, there will be even more sessions than in the previous two WordCamp editions. So, get ready for ten Tribe Meetups and three Speed Networking  encounters.In case this is your first time hearing about these two events, heres a quick overview:The Tribe Meetups  are meant to help peo ple with the same interests connect with each other. During the meetups, there will be different groups, each with a unique theme, that you can join based on what youre interested in. For instance, if you are into content, youll probably get the chance to meet other writers and chat about  the things you have in common. But before you attend any of them, you have to fill out a form that you can find here, along with the schedule of both events.Go to topUnfortunate visa troublesProblems with being allowed to enter France? It seems that attending WCEU 2017 caused some trouble for people coming to Paris from around the world. Several WordCamp Europe attendees (and many yet to be interviewed) were rejected for their visas on the grounds that the ticket was too cheap to justify an international travel, believe it or not.So far, the organizing team received 60 requests for invitation letters from the attendees, which caused them (the organizers) to take a step forward and help their fel low WordPressers by sending an open letter to the French president Emmanuel Macron that explained the situation to him.The letter went viral in the WordPress community.So ashamed to be French. Dear #WPFriends from around the world, please forgive us. #WCEU @EmmanuelMacron https://t.co/7rLXPcDPTf pic.twitter.com/pQ6DgJZMfZ Isabelle Garcà ­a (@aicragellebasi) May 19, 2017The organizers statement regarding this action was:We hope the President of France can help unblock the situation for the remaining attendees who are still going through the visa application process. We are aware that the chances of the open letter being read by anyone with the power of changing anything are small, especially since the French government went through a major change last week.We didnt write it to get an official response, as it is an open letter, but we hope to send the message about the importance of being inclusive and accessible – what WordCamps are, mainly because of the small ticket price.G o to topWordCamp Europe 2017 on social mediaBut, despite the visa incident that caused disappointment and mixed feelings among the foreign participants, the overall WCEU 2017 mood is in full swing. At least on social media, where people are expressing their excitement for heading to Paris. The community is communicating via the #WCEU hashtag on Twitter and everyones sharing their status regarding the upcoming WordCamp.I  selected some of the most interesting (and funny) ones we found on Twitter:I’m making a Spotify playlist for #wceu 🙂 https://t.co/iAA0RytsnR Bowe Frankema (@BoweFrankema) May 26, 2017The Kid found this picture I drew of @xmiax in Paris (I think from 2001). We will be there again very soon 😊 #WCEU pic.twitter.com/Pp0FvS5RgN Tracy Levesque (@LilJimmi) May 26, 2017Working on my #wceu slides on a sunny holiday 😠´ Pascal Birchler (@swissspidy) May 25, 2017Found another page in the wash #passport #wceu #washingmachine https://t.co/zEyKPOkA5O pic.twitter.com/mhPf9ND2m9 Tom J Nowell (@Tarendai) May 24, 2017Excited to announce Ill be attending my first ever @WCEurope ! Tickets are still available if youre still on the fence #wceu pic.twitter.com/CGMkuWGq9m Jaki Levy (@jackomo) May 23, 2017Looking forward to Andouillette sauce moutarde in Paris. Whos in? @WCEurope #wceu 😊 Phillip Roth (@PRwebcare) May 20, 2017https://twitter.com/idea15webdesign/status/867652250646310912OMG 4 WEEKS CLEARLY NEED MORE COFFEE #WCEU pic.twitter.com/1xCDYNFVRF Jenny Beaumont (@jennybeaumont) May 18, 2017Anyone have or getting a place with extra room for @WCEurope #wceu (floor space acceptable) Zac Gordon (@zgordon) May 14, 2017I still cant believe Im off to #wceu next month! My first trip to Europe is gonna be fantastic. 16 days. 3 countries. Cant wait! Jasmine Vesque (@jasmineVesque) May 4, 2017Go to topMeet our team there!For the second straight year, most of the ThemeIsle team reserved their mid-June for WordCamp Europe. And we wont be there just as attendees, but we are also involved in a few interesting departments in order to help the organizers as much as we can.(A few of) us in front of Museums Quartier in Vienna after a long day of volunteering at WCEU 2016.First of all, just like last summer in Vienna, we will all be volunteers.Being a full-time volunteer makes you see things from another perspective and puts you in the center of everything. We had an awesome time volunteering a year ago, which we talked about right after we got home. So here we are again, willing to repeat that beautiful experience and walk in those shoes again.But, apart from volunteering, ThemeIsle is also a media supporter in Paris.This means that we will have access to the organizing teams, sponsors, and speakers. In other words, we will have some privileges that were excited to take advantage of. Follow us on social media and on the blog for more news about these goodies during the conference.And thats not all. We are even sponsoring the WordPress Community Summit that will take place right before the conference, on June 13th and 14th. Ionut will participate in the debate, with Matt Mullenweg and the WordPress core team, as a member of the theme development team in the WordPress community.