As the world scrambles to invent and manufacture therapeutics and vaccines for COVID-19, the World Health Organization has declared the pandemic “a once-in-a-century health crisis, the effects of which will be felt for decades to come.” Outbreaks vary in severity across the globe, making it impossible to host international conferences safely for many months (and possibly years) to come. In …
WordCamp US 2020 Canceled Due to Pandemic Stress and Online Event Fatigue
WordCamp US 2020, which was originally scheduled for October 27-29, was officially canceled today. In April, organizers transitioned to planning for it to be held as a virtual event, but the tenuous situation with the pandemic in the United States and the stress on the event’s large crew of volunteers has precipitated a full cancellation. The decision was announced on …
WordPress to Stick with Online-Only Meetups and WordCamps for Remainder of 2020
photo credit: Burst The WordPress Community Team has officially updated its guidelines for WordCamps to be online-only events for the remainder of 2020. The six WordCamps on the schedule through the end of the year were already planning on using an online format but the guidelines also include local meetups. “The team acknowledges that this is not easy for the …
WordCamp Europe Goes Virtual for 2021, In-Person Conference to Resume 2022
While much of the world is currently suspended in the uncertainty caused by the pandemic, WordCamp Europe delivered a surprisingly decisive announcement today regarding the status of the 2021 event in Porto. Organizers moved to make it a virtual conference, 10 months in advance of the planned dates, June 3-5, 2021: After careful consideration, and following guidance from WordCamp Central, …
Open Source Initiative to Host Virtual State of the Source Summit, September 9-10
OSI (Open Source Initiative) is hosting a new 24-hour, virtual conference called State of the Source Summit, September 9-10. The non-profit organization plays an important role in the open source ecosystem as stewards of the Open Source Definition (OSD). OSI is responsible for reviewing and approving licenses as OSD-conformant, which indirectly helps mediate community conflicts. As part of the organization’s overall mission …
WordCamp Denver 2020 Online Features Yoga, Coffee, Virtual Swag, and 3 Tracks of WordPress Sessions, June 26-27
WordCamp Denver begins Friday this week and tickets are free for anyone who wants to join June 26-27. The event has been running since 2012, but like many other conferences, it is going virtual in 2020, as the pandemic continues to worsen around the globe. Attendees will have to forego the city’s extraordinary landscapes, friendly summer climate, and legendary beer …
OpenJS World 2020 Conference Goes Virtual, Tickets Are Free: June 23–24
Like many tech conferences, OpenJS World 2020 was forced to go virtual for its upcoming event scheduled for June 23-24, in Austin. The global conference was designed to be representative of all 32 projects hosted with the OpenJS Foundation. This includes Node.js, webpack, jQuery, Mocha, ESLint, Lodash, Grunt, and other popular projects. The Foundation is also in the process of initiating …
WP Café to Host Live Discussion on Gutenberg Theme Development
Highrise Digital is set to host the first of a new video series under the banner of WP Café. The first episode will begin at 11 am BST (10 am UTC) on June 11, which will be a discussion on building WordPress themes in the new era of the block editor. Highrise Digital is a UK-based agency that focuses on …
WordCamp Europe 2020 Announces Schedule, Plans to Debut Networking Rooms and Virtual Sponsor Booths
The 8th annual WordCamp Europe is only 9 days away and organizers have just announced the schedule. Friday and Saturday sessions are split into two tracks that will run 30-minute talks simultaneously. Each talk is followed by a 10-minute Q&A. The schedule also mixes in a few 10-minute lightning talks, with 15-minute breaks every hour. The WordCamp will feature a …
WordCamp Kent Online Features Business and Marketing Tracks, May 30-31
One of the exciting things about WordCamps going virtual is the community gaining access to more events and presentations than ever before, from anywhere in the world. Even in this new online-only format, local camps still retain their unique character as they feature speakers from their respective communities. WordCamp Kent (Ohio) is one of these upcoming events that has been …