The Community Team at WCEU 2024

Simon Kraft: For this year's working in europe you are one of the team leads what's the proper term it's like team leads not lead organizers that's.

Liza Bogatyrev: Other people the lead organizers are actually the global leads so we changed that name to lead organizer and I believe the reason for that was to make it sound less formal so that's fine yeah yeah so lead organizers are the global leads and we are the team leads everyone who has a team can.

Simon Kraft: You from the top of your head. Name all the different teams in this year's organizing team.

Liza Bogatyrev: I could try.

Simon Kraft: Let's do this.

Liza Bogatyrev: So we have my team, who is the community team, obviously.

Simon Kraft: We have the local team.

Liza Bogatyrev: We have the local team. We have the attendee services team. We have a production pool that is now formally a team because they have been around helping us with production.

Simon Kraft: That's the company that's been with WordCamp Europe since Belgrade, I think?

Liza Bogatyrev: I think so. I wasn't around back then. But yes, the production pool that is run by Mirko is part of the family now. They do every WordCamp. So we have the production pool. We have the sponsors team. we have the comms team the comms marketing and pr team really and then we have the content team and we have the volunteers team and we have the budget team the design team design.

Simon Kraft: Team the it and website team yes local team photography.

Liza Bogatyrev: Yes we do have a photography team.

Simon Kraft: And then as its separate team on the list. It says Five for the Future.

Liza Bogatyrev: Oh, that is a semi-secret project that is run by Jason.

Simon Kraft: How secret can it be if it's literally on the WordCamp Europe website?

Liza Bogatyrev: We just like to say that because it started off by Jason not being on the sponsors team like he always is and instead joining our first call to introduce his new exciting Five for the Future project. That now has his own team, because Fight for the Future is pretty big this edition of WordCamp Europe. Even for us in the community team.

Simon Kraft: That is lovely. And I guess we'll touch on that a bit later. But before we start with that, let's see what's your community team? What are you all about?

Liza Bogatyrev: So the community team is responsible for all the community events that take place during WordCamp Europe. So the main and most visited community event, I guess, would be the Contributor Day.

Simon Kraft: Famously, the most important day of every WordCamp.

Liza Bogatyrev: Exactly. So we organize Contributor Day. We also organize other side events, such as WordCamp Connect, previously known as WP Connect, previously known as WP Cafe, which is a series of informal talks that resemble a panel, but is not a panel, where community members can gather and talk about community-oriented topics in a very informal manner, where there is no real speaker, but rather a facilitator of discussion, where the community members who are attending the talk are free to interrupt at any point, ask questions or counter a statement at any given time and engage with the community. We also do a kids workshop on Contributor Day that is it's called kids workshop but it's actually a youth workshop for teens up to 16 years of age where they will learn about creating content and publishing which is really what WordPress is all about.

Simon Kraft: Sounds so cool. I just checked my birth certificate. I'm not eligible to join that workshop, unfortunately.

Liza Bogatyrev: I could sneak you in as a volunteer, maybe. But it's going to be super cool. It's going to be run by Aida and William Jackson. And they did it last year as well in Athens. And they did a stellar job at that. I'm really excited to have them back. And I'm very, very thankful for them coming back and doing this again. Whole five hours with the kids. They're going to do lots of fun activities and learn a lot about WordPress and possibly a handful of new WordPressers will be born right then and there. This year we also have added an Italian speaking co-lead for the workshop.

Simon Kraft: Oh that makes sense. So can people sign up for the kids workshop thing or sign their kids up probably? Yes they.

Liza Bogatyrev: Can and they should and the registration is just about to open we are about to post the kids workshop registration page in a matter of days there will also be a release form that is pretty important that they sign and print and make sure that they get to us so their child or youth can participate in the workshop it's limited to about 20 kids.

Simon Kraft: Okay that.

Liza Bogatyrev: Is because we don't have more space than that.

Simon Kraft: So um if by the time we publish this episode the page is already live i'll link it in the show notes yeah and otherwise we'll post about it somewhere so you mentioned the contributor day yes which i said is the most important day of every word yeah that's really a thing i am quite convinced of because that's where the magic happens but maybe for our listeners who don't know what a contributor day is could you describe it in like three and a half sentences maybe?

Liza Bogatyrev: Three and a half sentences? I can do it in one. It's a day that is about you, the contributor. You are a contributor regardless of what you do in WordPress. You are very, very needed and very, very important. And this day is all about you. So the contributor day is a way of learning how contribution works, to find a team that works for you, to find out what you're good at and what you enjoy doing in WordPress, it is not expected of you to be productive during Contributor Day. And because it's not expected, that is why the magic happens. And people do not realize this, but a lot gets done on a Contributor Day. A lot. When you tally up the tickets that are finished at the end of the day, you get pretty amazing results. And that is by having people doing work that doesn't feel like work. They get to engage with community members, learn something new, try something new, or just spend some time doing something they're already used to and meet old friends. It doesn't matter, but Contributor Days are super productive despite being a noisy, chaotic event that is more fun than anything else. So I really, really think that everyone who is visiting for the first time, should give Contributor Day a try. Because everyone can do something. Everyone can translate a text string or take photos, write code. If you can write code, there's always something.

Simon Kraft: The bad news, though, is that this one is already sold out.

Liza Bogatyrev: It is.

Simon Kraft: Sorry for everyone who's not signed up yet.

Liza Bogatyrev: But feel free to join online. There will be announcements in the Contributor Day Slack channel. and if you really want to contribute we will find a way for you to contribute.

Simon Kraft: Also that is something to keep an eye out on for next year's word camp europe because that always comes with the contributor day and also for local word camps because many of those sport a contributor day as well that is arguably slightly smaller in size but still um also at these local word camps the magic happens there as well yes but speaking of size how many people do you expect for contributor day in terena we.

Liza Bogatyrev: Expect a little over 600 people contributing we have room for 600 seated contributors there will be more people than that at the venue that are not seated at a table that are volunteers that are organisers.

Simon Kraft: Media partners.

Liza Bogatyrev: Well, I might find you at the sustainability table.

Simon Kraft: Probably, yeah.

Liza Bogatyrev: You will probably gravitate towards the sustainability table.

Simon Kraft: Kind of worked, so this is a thing. How do you feel about the Wi-Fi this year? Because, oh, we have to explain that. The running joke, I think, every single contributor today at every single WordCamp all over the world is, expect the wi-fi to be down for like the first two hours of the day.

Liza Bogatyrev: Right no.

Simon Kraft: Matter how how well you prepare for that.

Liza Bogatyrev: I don't want to jinx anything news this year is that we actually have wired internet for some teams wow.

Simon Kraft: For some teams.

Liza Bogatyrev: For some teams we can obviously not provide this for everyone it's only available in parts of the venue and we will try to place the tables for such teams that might require a little bit more bandwidth than others to sit at those tables so they don't have to hog the Wi-Fi. Because we realize that it is suboptimal to try to instruct people to turn off their Dropbox. I'm not even sure I know how to. This is something I want to credit Mirko from Production Pool for, who arranged this. So this is amazing. Thank you so much, miracle for this. I think it's going to improve the quality of the Wi-Fi overall. But also, can I just say one final cool thing about Contributor Day? Sure thing. Yeah, so this year, we decided that we're not going to have any special procedure in place to onboard new contributors, not more than having a help desk and helping them out when they seek help from us. This year, we decided to let the experienced community members take one for the team. Pick up a green sticker when they register and that is their signal that they are open to helping a new contributor. So if you want to adopt a little baby contributor who is a first-timer, we thought that identifying newcomers might make them feel more vulnerable and uncomfortable. Comfortable but if you are experienced it's a lot easier to self-identify as hey i'm open to helping you out and onboarding you so seek out a person if you're a newcomer with a green sticker on them and they will lead the way yeah.

Simon Kraft: That's a clever idea speaking of newcomers what would be your advice for people attending contributor day for the first time to make like the most out of the day?

Liza Bogatyrev: I would say be nice to yourself and don't put pressure on yourself to perform. Have fun and dare to change tables. If you see that the table you joined is not the best fit for you, try multiple things. This is about you finding your way into the WordPress community. This is a day about the contributor, you. So make sure to be at a table that you enjoy and that you can see yourself doing even after Contributor Day.

Simon Kraft: Okay, so we have Contributor Day, we have the Kids Workshop, we have WordCamp Connect.

Liza Bogatyrev: And we also have the Community Booth.

Simon Kraft: That's what I was leading up to. What else do you have in store for us? What's the Community Booth?

Liza Bogatyrev: The Community Booth is an expo booth Among other booths that sponsors. In the middle of the expo area, there is a community booth that belongs to the WordPress community. And there's a lot of fun stuff to do at this booth. So first of all, there is a selfie station. So if you just feel like taking a fun selfie with new and old friends alike, there are props for that. There's an excellent background. It's fun. It's shareable. It's cute. Stop by the community booth for a nice selfie. Also, don't forget to pin your location on the world map. about that map. So we also have a theme for this year's community booth that kind of ties to Jason's secret Five for the Future project in some ways. And our focus is on all aspects of sustainability. And one often overlooked aspect of sustainability is the personal sustainability for the people of WordPress. And I know that many of the listeners will recognize the struggle of finding sponsorship and wanting to contribute and wanting to do more and to be a part of the WordPress community, but simply not having the opportunity to do so financially. And we also know that there are companies out there who are seeking guidance from experienced WordPress community members who have the knowledge and skills that these companies might benefit from, who they would potentially like to sponsor. So what we want to do is to connect them at the community booth in two ways. First, there is a little closed off area, just big enough to hold a meeting with someone whom you might want to enter into a partnership agreement with, whether you are a company seeking someone to sponsor or someone seeking sponsorship. So you don't have to go and rent a meeting room. That costs a lot of money. It's entirely free for that purpose alone.

Simon Kraft: Do I have to sign up for that?

Liza Bogatyrev: No, pop in and see if it's free. And if it's free, that room is yours for as long as you need to have your meeting. And what we hope to get from this is more connections, more connections between sponsors and people seeking sponsorship. But for those who don't find their sponsorship, we still want these people to be seen. And we want them to mark their location on the world map with a different color. So, at the end of the conference, we know the extent of unsponsored contributors in the global community. We want to put it on the map.

Simon Kraft: I'm really curious what that map will look like. Oh my.

Liza Bogatyrev: Me too. Because it's an anonymous way to say, hey, I need help. I am struggling and I want to be here, but I'm not sure I can. It's an easy way of saying that without necessarily putting.

Simon Kraft: Your face out there.

Liza Bogatyrev: Right. So you don't have to be the poster child of sponsorship struggles. You're just a dot on the map.

Simon Kraft: Is there anything else you have planned?

Liza Bogatyrev: Well, there is also WordCamp Connect, of course, and we want to take this year's theme and spread it across our community events. We want to make sure that the topics that we want to promote get heard, and that is going to be central in the WordCamp Connect talks that we have. So they all tie into sustainability in one way or the other. Personal sustainability is a big focal point this year. So that will be covered in the last panel on the Friday of WordCamp Europe. And that talk will actually happen in one of the main tracks. It's going to be in track two. And we have some different perspectives to lead the discussion. WordCamp Connect, as I said, it's not a talk per se. It's not a classic panel. Everyone is free to jump in and participate in the discussions. Our speakers are not really speakers, but facilitators of conversation. So that will be one topic. We will also have topics on other aspects of sustainability, like setting community standards for web development. I think that's a very important topic, because we really like to reflect on how we can get better as a community when we gather and meet. And we always do our best to keep WordCamps sustainable and not to print swag that is going to be thrown away or print swag from sustainable materials and such. And that is a really important thing. But we tend to overlook that WordPress powers 43% of the internet. And we have actual power to put standards out there that would make an impact, that would apply to future adopters of WordPress. So I think this is a nice starting point. And I hope that someone would take this and run with it, whatever comes out of that discussion to actually make change that moves the needle. So these are the things we will gather to talk about. We will also talk about the value of sponsoring WordPress events such as WordCamps, Flagships or smaller, and again, we want to invite multiple types of perspectives to these talks, so we don't have a monologue from community only or sponsor only. We want to mix perspectives and try to see where do we disagree, where is the misalignment in these topics.

Simon Kraft: I like the underlying theme for all the different things. That's really neat. Once the WordCamp Connect sessions will be announced, they'll end up in the schedule with all the other regular talks, right? So people will find them just in the schedule.

Liza Bogatyrev: There is a link from the regular talk schedule that will redirect to WordCamp Connect. And there will also be a bit more info on how WordCamp Connect works. I understand it is confusing at times because it does resemble a panel without being a panel. And we want people to understand that this is not something to join just to listen. This is a way to... Be interactive. Yes, to be interactive, make yourself heard. So if you have opinions, they are more than welcome.

Simon Kraft: From personal experience, I can recommend last year, I was on a panel at WP Connect back in the day, and we had a really lovely conversation with the whole audience on organizing the local community. That was really cool.

Liza Bogatyrev: It was, I was there.

Simon Kraft: Right, yeah, you were. You took the time. Good. That all sounds really lovely. Is there anything else? I will not ask for the 750th time to what else you have in store. Is there anything else from the community team's side that we should definitely mention regarding WordCamp 2024 in Torino?

Liza Bogatyrev: Well, we should mention that the site events registration is now open. And that is also handled by the community team. And here is an excellent chance to meet up after the conference days to do a fun activity together. The only thing we want to post it on the WordCamp Europe website is that it is for everyone. So it has to be open to everyone. Of course, it's okay to have limited availability. ability. It's okay if you cannot invite 3,000 people to your event. It's fine as long as everyone is welcome. We do not organize the events. We only promote them. And it's an excellent way of meeting new people. It can be as big or small as you want. Last year, there was a number of activities, everything from city walks to big parties.

Simon Kraft: Picnic.

Liza Bogatyrev: Excellent idea. It doesn't have to be fancy. It can be a simple gathering as long as everyone who wants to join is welcome. So all side events, again, are welcome. We will post them. We do not take responsibility for what happens there. We just expect the organizer to follow the code of conduct that applies to the conference. Some basic stuff.

Simon Kraft: And I guess there's a form on WordCamp site to register a side event. Right.

Liza Bogatyrev: So please make it detailed and provide as many details as you can about whereabouts of your event, if there's a sign-up page, so people can actually sign up for your event.

Simon Kraft: Is there anything else you have planned?

Liza Bogatyrev: Oh, I did forget a thing. Our team is doing a lot more than that. And I just realized that I forgot a very important aspect of the community team's work as well. well, we have a wellness track. And this is for those who want to decompress and do something physical to kind of mix up your WordCamp Europe experience a little bit. It will be very interesting this year because the yoga is in the main hall. It's in the expo hall and we had no room for yoga. So it's in the gaming and wellness area. It's a closed off area. So there will be some noise canceling. I'm not sure how well that will work out to be honest but a yoga class will take place pretty early so if you feel like getting your energy levels rebalanced namaste and stuff yoga class is for you and we will also arrange a walking tour so if you want to see the surroundings. With a local certified guide. This is very important. This is one of my hard requirements that we get. A real board-certified tour guide. In Italy, that's super important because certified tour guides have something that is like one year short of an art history degree. They have to go in front of a board and they study 25,000 UNESCO sites in order to get their certification. This is the sign of the highest quality this will be an educational experience you'll be guaranteed to be guided by a person who knows their stuff so.

Simon Kraft: Outside of all the amazing things your team is involved in what are you looking forward to the most in wordcamp europe 2024.

Liza Bogatyrev: I cannot possibly choose that that is it's.

Simon Kraft: Such a mean question i know.

Liza Bogatyrev: It is a mean question because so much good stuff.

Simon Kraft: You can name up to 20 things.

Liza Bogatyrev: Well, I would say one to 19 will be meeting everyone again. It's a great feeling to see familiar faces of old friends. And that is really what makes organizing worthwhile because we're such a great bunch and our calls always end up being about cracking jokes and talking about the food we want to eat and stuff we want to see.

Simon Kraft: That's an obvious topic for Italy. Yes.

Liza Bogatyrev: So I'm really, really looking forward to see all the people that I have seen on weekly Zoom calls organizing this thing and it's going to be great to have everyone under one roof.

Simon Kraft: Good. Thank you for taking the time.

Liza Bogatyrev: Thank you.

Simon Kraft: I would like to say that I came to Malmo just for that and it would have been worth it but it's not true. I'm so looking forward to seeing you in a warmer country than Sweden Sweden in just a couple of weeks. I'll make sure to be at all the events. Thank you for doing this.

Liza Bogatyrev: Thank you.

Simon Kraft: Not just the interview, I mean everything.

Liza Bogatyrev: Thank you for spreading the word.