That’s right … WordCamp US will be an online WordCamp in 2020.
For many weeks now, the WCUS organizing team has been working with WordCamp Central and local health authorities to try to make sense of the current COVID-19 pandemic and what it means for our event in St. Louis this October. Throughout this, we have held the longterm health and safety of the WordPress community as the highest priority of our event. To move forward in a way that honors what is best for our community – both locally and globally – we have made the hard choice to convert WordCamp US 2020 to an online only event.
This isn’t a decision we wanted to make. Like you, we miss seeing each other in person and would have loved to do that in St. Louis again this year. However, making this decision now also gives organizers, speakers, and sponsors the opportunity to create an innovative virtual WordCamp US.
Moving Forward
WordCamp US 2020 Online will be held on the same dates as we intended for our in person event, October 27th – 29th. The online event will be 100% free to anyone who wishes to attend. We plan to still offer many of the WCUS events that you’ve come to know and love, including sessions and workshops, Contributor Day, State of the Word, a hallway track and more exciting ways to connect and celebrate WordPress!
Full information about all WCUS 2020 Online events will be released as it becomes available, so follow us to get the latest updates.
Sponsoring
Much like every other WordCamp, our generous sponsors help fund this event and, through their generosity, we’re able to bring our community together for this online celebration of WordPress!
To facilitate this, our Sponsors Squad is currently in the process of putting together unique sponsorship packages. If you are interested in sponsoring WordCamp US 2020 Online, please contact us here, and we’ll be in touch soon.
Speaking
Want to speak? WordCamp US 2020 Online is still accepting speaker applications! If you are interested in speaking at our virtual event, please apply on our speaker application site. Applications will be accepted until May 31, 2020 at 11:59 pm CDT (UTC -5) / 4:59am Saturday (UTC).
We’re also creating expanded speaker office hours and events for you to ask questions and learn about how to be a fantastic speaker at online events. Watch for updates on our Call for Speakers post regarding dates and times, and other information as it unfolds.
Volunteering
Want to help us make WordCamp US 2020 Online an amazing experience for everyone? Awesome! Be on the lookout on our social media for information about how to apply to volunteer during this one-of-a-kind virtual event.
We’re Here to Help
Have questions about WordCamp US 2020? Drop us a line on our contact page.
How can we participate in the virtual WordCamp US 2020? I saw the application links for sponsors and speakers in this post.
Will you allow us later? I am asking this as I wish to attend.
Regards
As soon as ticket sales are open we will post about it everywhere: here and in all of our social media channels.
I am happy to hear this because although I’m sure we will be back to being able to meet in person, I like the certainty of knowing that it’s going to be online only. When you have to buy plane tickets, it gets tricky to be able to do that at the last minute.
Agreed. We didn’t want anyone to have to deal with that. This made the most sense to be able to move forward with definite plans.
Although I will miss the in-person networking, I’m thankful you’re thinking of people’s health lives first.
I’m excited to see how the virtual event will work with a totally different setup for vendors.
We are too…we’re working on that now. 🙂
Totally looking forward to this. I would probably not be able to ever attend any of these events from overseas if it weren’t for this new streaming thing 🙂
We’re excited about how this opens up attendance to everyone. Silver lining!
Looking forward to it….
Yay! I’ve wanted to go to this event for a long time and now I finally get my chance! So glad you’re going virtual!