Wow! It’s been over a month ago that we held the very first WordCamp Nijmegen. After the event, we decided to slow down for a few weeks before writing our recap. This allowed us to ‘zoom out’ and give you a realistic overview of how we experienced the (preparations of) the event.

Preparations

Kicking off WordCamp Nijmegen

After having a call for organizers in February and March, we had our kickoff meeting on April 4th, 2017. Anette, Louis, Linus, Sharon and Taco gathered In de bak (with 2 others), where we discussed our vision for WordCamp Nijmegen 2017. We then also realized that we needed someone skilled in (web)design, so we reached out to Amir who immediately joined the team. In the weeks after the meeting, two organizers dropped off. Fortunately, Benoit stepped up.

Budget approval and launching the site

For almost two months, we researched possible locations and other suppliers. On May 29th, we proposed our budget to WordPress Community Support (WPCS). Luckily, it was approved immediately. Now that it was sure that we were going to have a WordCamp Nijmegen, it was time to publish our website. Thanks to Amir and Luc, who introduced Amir to theming for WordCamp.org, we launched our site on June 20th.

Calls

We immediately launched our Call for Speakers and Call for Sponsors and the Call for Volunteers followed soon after. To our surprise, the top tier (Gold) sponsorship package was most popular, it sold out within a day. Finding speakers took a few reminders more, but eventually, we received over 50 talk applications. This meant we had to make a selection, as we only had 20 spots available. Long discussions and kind requests to turn talks into lightning talks followed until our final schedule was ready. Meanwhile, we’d been searching for volunteers. This proved to be one of the hardest things to accomplish. So hereby a special thanks to everyone who volunteered at WordCamp Nijmegen!

WordCamp Nijmegen!

The first day of WordCamp Nijmegen was all about contributing to the WordPress project. This day went very smooth, no long lines at registration, no (serious) WiFi issues and a lot of new contributors! The team leads, including ‘The Other Remkus’, did a great job onboarding new contributors. And we closed the day with the recap of a lot of translated strings, new patches, and great discussions.

On Saturday morning we arrived at the venue really early for Conference day, so we would have plenty of time to set everything up. Registration, swag station, sponsor booths, a lot had to be done in just a few short hours. And we couldn’t have done this without the help of our amazing volunteers, who also showed up really early in the morning. There was a tiny bit of stress because the mics of our camera kits hadn’t arrived in time, but fortunately, Amir was able to fly through Nijmegen to get us those much-needed mics in time. Truly heroic!

The keynote was followed by many great and inspiring talks. The speakers absolutely gave their best! And before we knew it, it was time for the closing ceremony. Fortunately, it was followed by drinks and good conversations. We really showed that networking events don’t have to be boring!

Pictures and more!

During the day, our photographers took amazing shots. You can find them at https://2017.nijmegen.wordcamp.org/wordcamp-nijmegen-2017-in-fotos/.

But we’re not the only ones. You should really check out these community reviews:

• Thorsten Frommen: https://tfrommen.de/wordcamp-nijmegen-2017-recap/
• Robert-Jan Budding (Savvii): https://www.savvii.nl/blog/wordcamp-nijmegen-2017-recap-interview/
• Carole Olinger (Plesk): https://www.plesk.com/blog/plesk-news-announcements/wordcamp-nijmegen-recap/
• Brecht Ryckaert (Combell): https://www.brechtryckaert.com/content-management-systems/wordcamp-nijmegen-a-small-review-of-wcnmgn/
• Thomas Brühl: https://her.ein.de/2017/09/07/pictures-from-wordcamp-nijmegen-2017-wcnmgn/
• Rian Rietveld: https://make.wordpress.org/accessibility/2017/09/04/accessibility-work-at-wordcamp-nijmegen/
• Marcel Bootsman: https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/2017/09/05/contributor-day-polyglots-team-report-from-wordcamp-nijmegen/

(Missing your recap here? Post it in the comments and we’ll add it!)

Some stats

• • 180 tweets sent
  • 87 facebook posts posted
  • Over 400 emails sent
  • Over 300 Trello tickets resolved
  • 34 volunteers
  • 21 speakers
  • 19 sponsors
  • 7 organizers
  • Average of 115 hours spent on WordCamp Nijmegen per organizer, which adds up to over 800 hours invested!
  • Chances there will be a WordCamp Nijmegen 2018: 100%!

Your opinion

Now that we’ve talked about the event, and what you already wrote about it, it’s time to voice your final opinion.
Please help us improve WordCamp Nijmegen 2018 by completing our survey: https://wordcampnijmegen.typeform.com/to/xZhZTL!

Thanks a million, and see you next year?