If you’re brand new to the WordPress community and looking to learn everything possible, you might be hearing about these things called “WordCamps”. I’m here to give you some of the details of a WordCamp.
A WordCamp is a WordPress-centered conference. To host a WordCamp in your city all you need is a regularly held WordPress meetup, which means there are camps all over the world. Some smaller and more local, and some bigger and more popular.
Quite often there will be a theme to camps. You might find one centered around design, or development. Or, right before it came out, I remember there was an entire camp all about Gutenberg.
They can range from one to three days, but let’s go over what a typical camp might look like.
The first thing you’re going to do when you step into the venue is find registration. It’s usually a volunteer table where they’re handing out name tags and swag. Quite often they’ll put the Session Schedule inside your name tag, along with posting it on the site. (Shout out to WordCamp Ann Arbor in like 2014 for printing the schedule on the back of their t-shirts.)
Next is Opening Remarks, and attending sessions. I highly recommend figuring out which sessions you want to go to ahead of time. Don’t underestimate the benefit of the “Hallway Track” either. The Hallway Track is a term used to describe networking outside during sessions, but it means a lot more than that.
The WordPress community is full of people that love to invest in each other. I’ve heard so many stories about people sitting down and working on a project, or simply connecting with each other. Inspired by the concept of the Hallway Track, there’s a podcast called Hallway Chats.
Usually Camps do a couple different things with lunch. Either they’ll provide lunch and send an email about dietary restrictions, or require you to forage the city streets for some form of nourishment. Often when they do this they’ll give some restaurant recommendations, and sometimes they’ll provide a map of their local area. (I’ve seen this printed on name tags as well.) For the rest of the day you’ll have a few more sessions, then retire to your hotels for the evening. (Or go out for food, which is what I recommend.)
On the last day of WordCamp you’ll finish up your sessions and go to Closing Remarks. (Don’t forget to share contact information with whatever new friends you meet.) There is also 90% of the time an after party in the evening. Sometimes Camps will have their after party in the same venue, or they’ll have it somewhere else. In that case you can find it posted on the WordCamp website.
Not every camp has these, but sometimes they’ll have a day designated to giving back to WordPress. I’ve personally never attended this day (I’m more of a networking and marketing kind of person), but I believe they’ll split up all attendees into different groups and tackle different aspects of WordPress. WordCamp Europe had a workshop for first time contributors to walk them through the process.
WordCamps are always working towards more and more inclusivity, and providing more ways to help people be able to come and learn things.
I’m neurodivergent and have anxiety, and have struggled in the past with getting overwhelmed at venues. Being tired from travel and socializing doesn’t help either. One of my favorite things I saw at WordCamp US in 2019 was a quiet room to help you rest and regulate. However that was for a large camp, and smaller camps don’t always have a need for a quiet room. Usually there will be a room off to the side you can hang out in for a bit if you need, and a Camp Volunteer will likely be able to help you with this.
This is for those that have questions they need answered. Quite often there will be a designated table full of various people that can answer questions about websites. Either front end or backend, or development or design. And if no one at that table knows how to help you, they will likely know someone who does know how to help.