WordCamp Zagreb 2017 Recap

Posted on by Lucijan Blagonic
We also managed to do a proper group photo just before lunch.

Two weeks after the conference and we are ready to take look at this event with a cold head. Judging by most people feedback, our dear attendees and media — we can say that we did a pretty good job of promoting WordPress and open–source in yet another successfull WordCamp in Croatia. But let’s get into a little more details.

Planning

Our application for WordCamp Zagreb went out on January 28th. Right after sending the application, we had our first organisation team call and things started moving. We got the green light from WordCamp Central on Februrary 17th — it was official, WordCamp Zagreb 2017 will be held on 2–3 September. At that point, we decided to make the workshops official part of our WordCamp so we updated the date to include the 1st of September to reflect that.

Location

Our team scouted several locations but Kraš (chocolate factory) and Musem of Contemporary Arts were our favorites. Discussing further within the team, we decided to go with the Museum option, since it had the vibe we hoped to achieve, it was closer to the city center and we managed to organise the after–party there as well — which turned out a good choice since we heard a lot of good feedback about the venue, before and after the event.

Museum of Contemporary Arts

Tickets

When we applied for WordCamp Zagreb, we set the expected number of attendees to 300, which was 100 people more than last year. We were optimistic but it paid off — we sold out all our tickets a week before the event. Workshops were free for everyone, but we gave priority to people who bought the ticket since we had a limited number of seats. This also helped us sell another (approx) 50+ tickets to interested people. We had 140 registrations for the workshops, and in the end, 100+ people showed up for 12 workshops total. As some of them (especially for certain workshops like WordPress for beginners) went to workshops only, combined we had around 400 different people at our third WordCamp.

Since we had a lot of workshops (more than planned initially) we had to give out extra tickets to our speakers which were not planned in the budget. Although we were covered with sponsors, we are really proud that our community helped us sponsor for this as well. We released 20 tickets with double the price called Freelancer Tickets — we sold all of them <3.

Summer

Our community always considered the end of summer to be a perfect time for organising the WordCamp. First weekend of September made it possible for people coming abroad to explore beautiful cities of Rijeka and Split, and maybe plan a vacation there while they are at it. The problem with organising a conference during summer is that a lot of people are on vacation. In the final weeks leading to the event, it was challenging to promote the conference and ensure ticket sales.

Although we had sold out all the tickets in the week before the event, the ticket sales in the month before were slow and to be honest, I wasn’t sure if we would make it up to 300. Definitely something to think about when setting a time table for next WordCamp.

Speakers

This was the first year that our WordCamp had two tracks. One was for inspirational talks, and the other one (smaller) was for more technical talks. The advanced track had 70+ attendees at one point, which was great. We didn’t expect such interest and we were happy that people showed up. We also continued the practice of interviewing each speaker before the event, and presenting each one in an individual article on the website.

Sponsors

We closed the budget completely (same as previous years) with the help of old and new partners: Convertiv, Jetpack, WooCommerce, Neuralab, Databox, Algebra, AM2 Studio, CaptainForm, GoDaddy, Bluehost and our silver and bronze sponsors.

Media coverage

WordCamp Zagreb was covered by more than 60 articles, before and after the event in the print media, on the web and even on the national radio. We tried to get some television time but we’re still not that big and important – maybe next year ;). A big thanks for the media promotion goes to our team – and of course, to our media partners Večernji, Netokracija and Bug. Read the full list of media mentions.

Workshops, Conference and Contributor Day

Workshops

We started with 3 unofficial workshops at WordCamp Croatia 2015. We doubled it to 6 for WordCamp Split 2016. and again doubled to 12 this year and making it an official part of the event schedule.

Read what several attendees said about the workshops:

“Workshops were so much better than I expected. Speakers gave a ton of practical information and insights, and the exercise tasks we did at the end were fun.”

“Excellent experience, great talks, lots of useful information shared by speakers.”

“Great for basics, so you can search and learn more by yourself if you liked it”

Workshops are proving to be on of the best parts of our WordCamps and I’m hoping we will keep the tradition in the future.

Conference Day

The day before the conference, we managed to prepare everything in advance. Neuralab, our production partner was helping us prepare the live stream and recording for the big day and volunteers prepared goodie bags for Saturday. On the day of the conference we met at 7AM, put up the signage for tracks, schedule and given out tasks throughout the day. We had a strong team of almost 20 volunteers and organisers, who made sure that everything was going smoothly: from keeping an eye on the schedule, introducing the speakers, giving out badges etc. Special thanks goes to Nevena Tomović and Milan Ivanović for MCing the inspiration track.

Conference day, inspirational track

One other important thing was the children’s playground. We had 10 children (we had to close the registrations as 10 kids was our maximum capacity) during the day and the most inspiring thing is to listen kids laugh in the playground, while their parents listen to the talks. I’d like to say a special thanks to aRTiS INcludum for making it happen <3.

Children’s playground during the conference day.

The conference ended at 6PM and the after–party followed soon after that, on 7PM and up to midnight. We had some heavy rain in the afternoon which continued into the evening which was probably responsible for less people showing up than expected — but stil, the after–party was well received. No loud music but a place to talk and network. After midnight people moved to the city center where they continued with the unofficial after–party.

Contributor Day

People say it was our best Contributor Day yet. We had 35 signed up and around 30 people showed up. I guess the unofficial after–party was probably a deciding factor for some who didn’t show up. We brought more people on board to help with the localisation, contribution and we had a vivid discussion about communities and how to improve them. Having people from other communities (Croatian Drupal community, Serbian WordPress community) at our Contributor Day was crucial into understanding how they grow their local communities. What works for meetups, speakers, audiences…

Contributor day

Feedback

Several days after the event, we sent out a questionnaire to get feedback from our attendees.

How was your overall experience of WordCamp Zagreb?
Great (5), 61%
Very good (4), 33%

How were the speakers and the agenda?
Great (5), 47%
Very good (4), 41%

How was the location (city of Zagreb)?
Great (5), 70%
Very good (4), 22%

How was the venue (Museum of contemporary arts)?
Great (5), 70%
Very good (4), 19%

How was the registration?
Great (5), 86%
Very good (4), 9%

How was the food?
Great (5), 77%
Very good (4), 17%

How was the afterparty? (if you came to the afterparty)
Great (5), 50%
Very good (4), 25%
Good (3), 15%

How was the Contributor day? (if you attended)
Great (5), 93%

Did you have any problems following the talks in English?
No, 95%

Is this your first WordCamp in Croatia?
Yes,67%
No, my second WordCamp in Croatia, 11%
No, my third WordCamp in Croatia, 22%

Do you plan to attend a WordCamp in Croatia next year?
Yes, 97%

How did you find out about WordCamp Zagreb?
Facebook, 49%
Online media, 37%
Twitter, 17%
Newsletter, 9%

And the best speaker award goes to…

As with every WordCamp so far, we ask our attendees to tell us about their 3 favourite talks. During the conference day we heard a lot of rumour that Nela Dunato had an amazing and inspirational talk (she is an inspiration to us all, speaking for the first time last year and being selected as the best speaker). It was no surprise to us that Nela was once again voted the best speaker on our WordCamp.

What did our attendees said about the event

“Great speakers, perfect location for workshops, incredible organization, low ticket price. Museum was also great place for this event. 5 stars for everything!”

“WordCamp was a great opportunity to meet people with different backgrounds and stories from the community. It was a transforming experience that helped me see my own business from a new perspective.”

“Just pure awesomeness in my honest, humble opinion! The organization was really good, everything went smooth, from the attendee, and speaker’s point of view. The venue was awesome and the catering as well. Same goes for Contributors Days, really a perfect place for this (and the workshops). Also, all information was clear and communicated well, which is in my opinion extremely important for everyone coming to the event.”

https://twitter.com/crowdedtent/status/905047517334790147

We were also mentioned by our attendees in their articles.

Photos

Gallery by Mauricio Gelves

Conference day, inspirational track
We also managed to do a proper group photo just before lunch.

Gallery by Emanuele Lizzi (Neuralab)

Have something to add? Let us know in the comments 😀