We have great news!
As you might have gathered – the organisers have started to work on WordCamp Asia 2021.
We are working behind the scenes to devise the new roadmap.
The event venue remains the same (TRUE ICON HALL at ICONSIAM, Bangkok, Thailand) and we are discussing dates in January 2021.
We’ll be announcing the finalised event date once we’ve got ink.
Until then, stay tuned!
The next few months will be tough for people, WordPress and the community. WordCamps are being cancelled around the world and we were the first in the chain.
We were lucky to have a very good team working on both possibilities:
While we were printing our swag and designing the final floor plans, we were also discussing with vendors on possible exit plans.
We didn’t want to cancel — but we needed to plan for that eventuality as well.
Because of all the active planning by the WordCamp Asia 2020 team and the help afforded to us by WordCamp Central, we managed to lower the cost of cancellation to less than $20,000. For context, that is around 6.25% of our budget.
The single biggest ticket item as you might guess is the venue and its associated costs. Our venue team managed to negotiate postponing for a year without incurring any costs. We had a similar experience with the social events team and a similar graciousness offered by ICONSIAM was matched by our partner hotel, Royal Orchid Sheraton.
Items that could not be cancelled are being repurposed for next year — it’s going to be amazing.
While cancellation came at a relatively low cost to the organising team, there were great personal costs of flights, hotels, time from attendees, sponsors, volunteers, speakers and organisers alike. We couldn’t do much around personal costs. Other WordPress companies came into the picture to help with that. We went with offering full ticket refunds and a free one to the next conference.
I mentioned that we had a cancellation cost of around $20,000. In the grand scheme of things, it seems like a tiny amount but it could also very well support the running of a city WordCamp.
We want to thank the sponsors for helping out by donating a partial amount of their sponsorship contributions.
These were the 4 companies that just asked first (and we hit our cancellation cost requirements right away) — at least 1/3 of our sponsors offered to either donate a partial sum of their sponsorship or the full amount.
Every sponsor answered that they were looking to sponsor again in 2021.
We want to thank all of the support granted by these sponsors to us and the WordPress Community. We also want to especially thank Harmony from WordCamp Central who has been single-handedly handling all these refunds with all 39 of our sponsors.
Because of everyone’s generosity and support, we were able to publish our plan for WordCamp Asia 2021. We really hope to see you there and catch up.
The WordCamp Asia 2020 organisers planned for a Community Bazaar. It was supposed to exhibit posters, swags, t-shirts, etc. from local communities.
Since WordCamp Asia 2020 was cancelled, we want to publish all these posters online. And by all means, please join the WordPress community!
Continue reading “Community Bazaar Posters” →We are currently processing all refund request we received so far.
For all remaining ticket purchases and tickets without a refund request, we shall process the refund automatically. This will be done by our budget team over the next 14 days.
If you have purchased a ticket from someone else, the refund will be issued to the original purchaser. Kindly liaise with them for your refund.
We appreciate your understanding on this matter
We have been receiving some inquiries about an online event in place of or in association with WordCamp Asia. In the previous announcement, we have stated:
We believe our efforts are now best focused on making the best arrangements necessary to assist all affected participants. We will not be able to organise an online event.
We appreciate the kind thoughts, support, and offers to help. We hope you understand our decision not to hold an online event in place of WordCamp Asia.
We still have a WordCamp Asia 2021 to plan for 🙂
If you are looking for an online event to attend, check out WordSesh APAC, an online event for the Asia-Pacific region held by WPSessions on March 18, 2020. They are still accepting speakers for 10 more days, and you can register to attend for free.
Due to the recent COVID-19 concerns in the region, Matt Mullenweg has decided to cancel WordCamp Asia 2020.
While we regret that we will not see you in Bangkok this time, we hope you understand that the organising team is standing by this decision to ensure the safety of all WordCamp attendees.
We don’t have any specific plans for the next WordCamp Asia at the moment but are hoping to hold it in early 2021. We will make announcements as soon as possible.
We have also been asked to evaluate the possibility of an online event in replacement of this cancellation. We believe our efforts are now best focused on making the best arrangements necessary to assist all affected participants. We will not be able to organise an online event.
We will be sending out an email to everyone who purchased a ticket with a link and instruction for requesting a refund.
Edit: We now have the ticket refund instruction page.
In addition, we will provide a free ticket for the future WordCamp Asia event to anyone who registered for this event (even if you request a refund).
Please cancel your hotel and air bookings if they are fully refundable.
We will be working with hotel officials to clarify their cancellation policy to those who made a booking at our official hotel. We will share updates soon, no action on your side is required at the moment.
If you have trouble refunding your flight and hotel without fees, please use this letter.
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.
We regret the inconvenience caused. The organising team would like to do our best to help you with any difficulties you face in an effort to rearrange your plan. Please don’t hesitate to contact us.
We want to thank our Silom level Sponsor, SiteGround! Thanks to our sponsors and their generous contribution, WordCamp Asia is able to keep tickets at an affordable price.
Continue reading “Sponsor Highlight: SiteGround” →
We want to thank our Silom level Sponsor, Plesk! Thanks to our sponsors and their generous contribution, WordCamp Asia is able to keep tickets at an affordable price.
Continue reading “Sponsor Highlight: Plesk” →
We want to thank our Siam level Sponsor, Jetpack! Thanks their generous contribution, WordCamp Asia is able to keep tickets at an affordable price.
Continue reading “Sponsor Highlight: Jetpack” →
We want to thank our Siam level Sponsor, WooCommerce! Thanks to our sponsors and their generous contribution, WordCamp Asia is able to keep tickets at an affordable price.
Continue reading “Sponsor Highlight: WooCommerce” →
