Budget and Survey Feedback

In the mindset of transparency and open-source, here is a budget breakdown for the conference so that you can see where the money came from and what it was spent on.

Budget Summary

  • Total ticket sales (incoming) were $16,070
  • Total sponsorship (incoming) was $39,205
  • Total cost (outgoing) was $53,846.44
  • Profit made was $1,428.56
  • Total number of attendees were 252
  • The Cost Per Person for WordCamp Sydney was $213.68

All profit goes back to Linux Australia to be distributed amongst other open source events and conferences within Australia.

View our WordCamp Sydney 2019 Budget document.

Survey Feedback

Thank you so much for filling out the survey – it really helps us focus on putting on a WordCamp that you are going to enjoy.

We’ve looked at every single feedback entry and would like to answer a few of them here so you have a better understanding of what WordCamp is, how we put it together and that we are listening to you!

More Developer/Tech/WordPress Talks

As organisers, we provide a platform to let others shine on stage. It’s unlikely you’ll see an organiser talk on stage at a WordCamp unless a speaker has dropped out and there are no more options left open to us.

The organisers don’t generate/design/set out or demand specific topics. On the submission form, we do suggest topic areas that are generally popular at WordCamps to encourage people to submit a topic.

We select the talks from a pool of speaker submissions that have been collected from after we announce the date and location for the pending WordCamp.

This year we had 56 speaker submissions from 41 unique speakers (some speakers submitted multiple talks).

We try not to have the same person on stage twice, except for the Q&A Panels.

This resulted in having 41 speakers to fill up 30 slots. Not a huge amount of leeway there.

The speaker submission form asked the submitter to choose a primary category of the target audience that their talk was aimed at.

Those categories were: Advertising, Building With WordPress, Business Owners, Community, Content Marketing, Networking, Non-Techincal, SEO & SEM, Technical and UI & UX.

Here are the results from the speaker submissions:

52% of the submitted talks were business-focused which is why the overall WordCamp felt more of a business conference and slightly less of a WordPress conference this year.

The dark blue slice is Community at 1.8% (1 submission)

The 2018 Venue Was Much Better Than 2019

We agree.

Starting On-Time and Fixing Technical Issues Beforehand

Conference set-up, especially with A/V, different companies and people working together is complicated.

We get access to the venue at 7 am on the first day of the conference. That only leaves 2 hours to set up the entire venue and iron out any issues.

We endeavor to start promptly every year but stuff happens 😮

Get Overseas Speakers

WordCamps are branded conferences with rules from WordCamp Central and are meant to be local conferences, highlighting local talent.

We did have some international speakers apply, however, obtaining a visas to come to Australia is very difficult, especially so within a short window of time.

It can literally take months to get a visa to visit Australia.

Why Don’t You Announce WordCamps Sooner?

We would love to open up submissions and ticket sales earlier, however…

We can’t announce a WordCamp or get access to the website (to take ticket sales and submissions) until we have a venue and a preliminary budget (which requires quotes) approved by WordCamp Central and Linux Australia.

Venues, especially UTS and other educational organisations, don’t allow bookings until they have reviewed the availability and pricing increases for the new year. This usually happens Nov-Dec of every year.

In previous years, we have shared a Linux Australia Stripe account between the different Australian WordCamps so we have to wait until the previous conference has finished and reconciled the account before we can use it for ticket sales.

Why Don’t You Charge More For Ticket Prices?

Actually, we would love to, but we are not allowed.

Personally we think that having the ticket price so low can work at a disadvantage giving potential attendees the idea that it’s just a cheapo waste of time conference.

WordCamps are branded conferences run under WordCamp Central out of the USA.

They come with rules (lots of rules!)

One of those rules is that we have to keep ticket prices very low so that cost is not a barrier to attendance.

WordCamp US ticket prices are USD $25 per day which works out to be about AUD $35 per day here in Australia.

We are not allowed to go any higher than the price charged by WordCamp US.

In fact, it was a struggle to get the authorisation for $70.

Door Slamming All The Time In The Main Lecture Theatre Was Annoying

Yes, it was!!

We didn’t have enough volunteers to stay at each door over the weekend and we did try to engineer some solutions (Blue Tack and scrunched up paper taped to the door frame – didn’t work), sorry about that.

We have also fed this information back to the venue.

The Sessions I Wanted To See Clashed And Were On At The Same Time

It is unfortunate, however, this is always going to happen for somebody.

We have recorded the sessions and they will appear on YouTube and WordPress.tv soon-ish.

Technically you could have stayed in Room 2 and watched the live stream from Room 1 at the same time! 😛

Fewer Carbs – More Fruit and Salads

Heard. 50% of all the food was vegetarian this year.

When Will The Next WordCamp Sydney Be Held?

We, the current organising team, have decided not to put on a WordCamp Sydney in 2020 – we’re pooped out and to be honest, it was a real struggle to get sponsors, speakers, and attendees this year 😢

That could have been related to timing (end of year/clash with WordCamp US sort-of) and the fact that there were three other AU/NZ WordCamps before us and all of them were crammed into the last 5 months of the year.

Thanks to everyone who helped to put on WordCamp Sydney 2019 and stay tuned to our Facebook pages WCSyd and WPSyd, Twitter hashtags #WCSyd and WPSyd, Meetup group and Slack group channels #wordcamp and #wpsydney for future updates and announcements.

Until next time…

Friday Night Social

Hi all WordCamp Fans.

If you are in Sydney on Friday for the weekend WordCamp Sydney, we invite you to mingle with others at our Friday Night social gathering.

RSVP on meetup: https://www.meetup.com/WordPress-Sydney/events/266401435

We’ll be meeting at 7:30 pm at the Pyrmont Bridge Hotel, level 1 (in the middle).

Look for the Wapuu signs.

Come along and meet the organisers, some speakers and others who are going to be attending WordCamp at the weekend.

It’s a great pre-conference ice breaker and a good chance to meet up with new people that you can continue to network with over the weekend.

Remember that it’s registration at 8 am on Saturday for a 9 am start to WordCamp Sydney!

Can’t find us? DM us at @wordcampsyd or post to #WCSyd on twitter and we’ll try to give you directions.

Thank you to our Silver sponsors

WordCamp Sydney would like to thank all of our Silver Sponsors for helping to make the event a success!

Bluehost

Bluehost has been a WordPress partner since 2005 and powers over 1 million WordPress sites worldwide.

Their objective is to help customers, whether novice or pro, create a thriving online presence at an affordable price.

With a team of in-house tech experts available 24/7, Bluehost dedicates time and resources to providing the best support and services in the industry.

Join millions of other site owners and see what Bluehost can do for you and your online presence.


GoDaddy

GoDaddy Pro offers a robust suite of free tools to web developers & designers to help them save time managing all their clients and sites.

With GoDaddy Pro, you can easily shop for your client, monitor their sites, and manage all their WordPress websites from one place.

Exclusive time-saving tools let you update WordPress core, plugins and themes with one click, as well as automate WordPress backups, cloning and migrations.

Get real-time performance, security and uptime monitoring across all your websites. Additionally, your free membership includes advanced 24/7 technical support.

When you pair GoDaddy Pro with GoDaddy hosting products, the benefits are even greater.

Check out the Free Tools


Hubspot

HubSpot (NYSE: HUBS) is a leading growth platform.

Since 2006, HubSpot has been on a mission to make the world more inbound.

Today, over 56,500 customers in more than 100 countries use HubSpot’s award-winning software, services, and support to transform the way they attract, engage, and delight customers.

Comprised of Marketing Hub, Sales Hub, Service Hub, and a powerful free CRM,

HubSpot gives companies the tools they need to Grow Better. Learn more about HubSpot for WordPress.


Weglot

weglot

Created to simplify your translation process – the Weglot plugin is a reliable and easy way to make any website multilingual in minutes.

Quick, seamless installation – with no coding required and no developer time needed.

Use Weglot’s simplified interface to manage your translations and order additional manual translation where required. And, say hello to new audiences, as with Weglot all your translated pages are automatically indexed on Google.

Trusted by more than 50,000 websites owners and developers, Weglot is a translation plugin that works.  

WooCommerce – WCSyd 2019 Gold Sponsor

WordCamp Sydney would like to thank our Gold Sponsor WooCommerce!

WooCommerce is an open-source eCommerce platform built on WordPress.
Sell anything online with the flexibility and freedom of the world’s most popular CMS.

Whether you’re selling a few handcrafted items to a niche market, taking an existing business online, or going global with an enterprise-level eCommerce business WooCommerce gets you set up and selling fast, scaling securely as you grow.

Your content is forever yours and customizable down to the button color. Plus you’re joining a supportive, global community of developers and store owners.

Developed and supported by a distributed team, WooCommerce is powered by Automattic, the creators of Jetpack and WordPress.com.

Jetpack – WCSyd 2019 Gold Sponsor

WordCamp Sydney would like to thank our Gold Sponsor Jetpack!

Transform how you work with your WordPress sites: Jetpack connects your site to the global services, community, and support provided by WordPress.com. Focus on the substance of your site, not the software.

Jetpack security tools automatically shield your site from spammers, hackers, and malware, while real-time syncing and backup means never worrying about data loss. Traffic-building tools like easy social sharing help you attract readers and search engines, and pages delivered from a high-speed, global content delivery network mean those readers never bounce because of a slow-loading site.

Jetpack’s Affiliate program gives you 20% every time you sell Jetpack to a customer or client — with unlimited referrals, the sky’s the limit!

Whether you’re one person with a website or an agency with a dozen clients, Jetpack helps you grow. Make your site work for you at Jetpack.com

Zuver – WCSyd 2019 Gold Sponsor

WordCamp Sydney would like to thank our Gold Sponsor Zuver!

Zuver is Australia’s best-value WordPress Hosting provider, offering a Plesk-powered solution that makes it easy to keep your websites secure and your plugins up to date thanks to their powerful WordPress Toolkit and fully-integrated dashboard. 

With the recent release of their Smarter WordPress Hosting products, Zuver has redefined what it means to provide a dedicated WordPress Hosting solution, ensuring that the needs of the average user is met without breaking the bank. 


Founded in 2012 due to the exponential growth of VentraIP Australia and with the goal of providing Australia’s most affordable hosting services, Zuver is 100% Australian and offers 24/7 local support to over 25,000 customers across the nation. 

Conetix – WCSyd 2019 Gold Sponsor

WordCamp Sydney would like to thank our Gold Sponsor Conetix!

Conetix  has for over 18 years helped countless businesses and developers build their own customised WordPress hosting solution. Using a hands on business approach and years of experience, Conetix delivers a tailored, solid hosting environment that meets web professionals needs at every level.

With a continued focus on superior hardware and intelligent automation systems, Conetix is able to provide enterprise grade solutions ranging from basic WordPress Web Hosting through to advanced fully Managed WordPress Hosting. 

Follow Conetix on the Socials

Twitter: @conetix

Facebook: https://facebook.com/conetix

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/conetix-pty-ltd

Linux Australia – WCSyd 2019 Event Sponsor

Linux Australia

Linux Australia

Linux Australia is the peak body of Open Source communities in Australia.

Linux Australia represents approximately 5000 Australian users and developers of Free Software and Open Technologies, and facilitates internationally-renowned events including linux.conf.au – Australasia’s grassroots Free and Open Source Software Conference

Without the help of Linux Australia, WordCamp Sydney would never get off the ground, so from the bottom of our hearts, we would like to thank you again!


WordCamp Sydney 2019 is over. Check out the next edition!