Save the date! Join us for the #WCEUBall on Saturday, June 25th at Halle E+G!

Posted on June 13, 2016 by Petya Raykovska

After parties, socials, gatherings, meetups, the after hours social events at WordCamp Europe have always had one purpose – get together, have fun, chat, relax and make friends and a lot of memories.

This year, with the help of our awesome after party sponsors SiteGround and Hover, we have something special planned for you all.

Welcome to the WordCamp Europe Ball

Ladies and gentleman of the WordPress world, pack your dresses, shirts & bow ties and join us on Saturday, June 25th, at 8:30 pm for the WordCamp Europe Ball in Halle E at the MuseumQuartier.

Continue reading Save the date! Join us for the #WCEUBall on Saturday, June 25th at Halle E+G! →

Welcome to Vienna – a public transport guide

Posted on June 11, 2016 by Alex Kirk

In two weeks Vienna will welcome more than 2200 WordPressers and according to our stats, 2000 of you are not Austrian! So in this post, we’ll try to give you some useful tips about getting around the town.

General information

Vienna is the capital of Austria, the main language spoken is (Austrian) German: “Wien” [vi:n] is the German name for Vienna. The local currency is the Euro. We have recently grown to almost 2 million inhabitants (Austria: 8.7mio) and rank top in the World’s most liveable cities. This is in part because Vienna is considered a very safe city (don’t push it, though), with good and affordable restaurants, and has an excellent public transport system.

Getting to Vienna

Airport

Vienna International Airport (IATA: VIE) is located about 16 km southeast of the city center.

From the airport to Vienna

Vienna Tourism has a good overview page but here is a quick list of the most useful options:

ÖBB

Take the regional train S7 (operator ÖBB) for 4.40 Euros (buy two single tickets at the machine, located directly on the platform – one to the city border plus one to any destination within Vienna). Make sure to validate the tickets before boarding the train! The train runs twice every hour at :18 and :48. At Wien Mitte – Landstraße station, 24 minutes later, change to the orange U3 (destination Ottakring) to get off at the venue at station Volkstheater.

City Airport Train (CAT)

The City Airport Train is more expensive but a bit quicker. It also runs twice every hour at :06 and :36 and will take you in 16 minutes non-stop for 11 Euros (17 return; buy at a machine upfront) to Wien Mitte – Landstraße station. Then buy a ticket (see below) and change to the orange subway U3 (destination Ottakring) to get off at the venue at station Volkstheater.

TAXI

A Taxi will cost you between 28 and 50 Euros and takes about 25 minutes. It can be cheaper to book it in advance.

UBER

Uber operates in Vienna and offers both UberX and Black Car services.

Train into Vienna

You will most likely travel with the ÖBB and arrive at the new central station, Hauptbahnhof Wien. Buy a ticket (see below) and take the tram line D (destination Nußdorf) and get off near the venue at stop Dr.-Karl-Renner-Ring (adjacent to Volkstheater).

Bus into Vienna

Most international buses stop at the Vienna International Busterminal (VIB) at Erdberg. Buy a ticket (see below) and take the orange subway U3 (destination Ottakring) to get off at the venue at station Volkstheater.

Getting around Vienna

Public Transport

The three main types of public transport in Vienna (the name of the operating transport company is Wiener Linien) are subway (“U-Bahn”), tram (“Straßenbahn”, colloquial “Bim”) and bus. They mostly run very often, with intervals of up to 5 minutes. One ticket is valid for all types of transport.

Last trains and busses leave around 1am, though there is a separate night bus network; subways run all night on Fri-Sat and Sat-Sun.

Be aware that for political reasons public transport routing is not included in Google maps, so consider to download the official app qando (Android alternative: Öffi). Web version Journey planner.

Tickets

You can buy tickets online (you will have to create an account, though) or at the multilingual ticket machines (at all subway stations). Single tickets are also available in trams and buses with a surcharge for 2.30 EUR (children: 1.20 EUR). They are valid for one ride including transfers.

On ticket machines, the area of Vienna is sometimes also called “Zone 100”, so apart from the airport, you’ll always be travelling within that zone.

One-way: 2.20 EUR (unlimited changes, also available as 4-strip version for 8.80 EUR)
24hr/48hr/72hr ticket: 7.60 / 13.30 / 16.50 EUR
Vienna weekly ticket (careful: only valid from Monday to Monday 9am): 16,20 EUR
8-day-ticket Vienna: 38.40 EUR (8 independent strips, invalidate one per person, valid all day until 1am), can be used as a 4-day ticket for 2 people always travelling together.
Trivia: a yearly ticket is only 365 Euros.

Children up to the age of 6 travel for free. Children up to fifteen years of age ride free on Sundays, holidays and during the Vienna school holidays.

Bike around Vienna

Vienna is also great to get around by bike! There are a lot of biking lanes and tracks and a convenient system to rent bikes: At 120 Citybike stations all around town, you can rent a bike (almost) for free, and ride from one station to the other. At the stations’ terminals, you can find out where other stations are and the number of available bikes or empty bike boxes.

Registration: Online at www.citybikewien.at (website optimized for mobile use!) or at a Citybike Terminal with a credit card (Master Card, Visa, JCB) or a Maestro Card (debit card) issued by an Austrian bank. One-time registration fee: 1 Euro.

Rental charges: The rental starts with the removal of a Citybike from the bike box and ends when the Citybike is returned to a bike box. Caution: Wait until the green lights come on, which signals the end of the rental. Per rental, the first hour is free, 2nd hour 1 Euro, 3rd hour 2 Euros, for every further hour 4 Euros.

Warning: If the bike is not returned after 5 days, a flat rate of 600 Euros is charged.

If you want to use a journey planner for biking around Vienna, we recommend the website AnachB or their app .

Whether it’s by bike, foot or tram – have fun exploring Vienna!

Meeting people is easy! Join the #WCEU Tribe Meetups and Speed Networking

Posted on May 26, 2016 by Sara Rosso

They’re back! We know how important it is to meet people at WordCamp Europe, and while we know everyone is friendly and outgoing, we thought we’d give you some specific occasions to get to meet others.

We’ll be bringing back two favorites from last year: Speed Networking and Tribe Meetups. Read on for more information about both!

Speed Networking

During both morning breaks (at 11am), we’ll do some speed networking! You’ll have ~2-3 minutes to introduce yourself to and meet someone from the WordPress community, and when you hear the signal, you’ll switch and move on to someone else! We’re hoping you’ll get to meet 5-6 new people you wouldn’t have been able to meet otherwise.

What do I need to do to participate?

Show up in Leopold Museum during the morning breaks (at 11am). Bring your business cards!

Do I need to sign up before then?

No.

Tribe Meetups

In parallel with the amazing content being covered in various sessions over the two days, we’re also going to have a room dedicated to specific interest groups so you can get to know each other and talk about your common interests in Tribe Meetups.

The Tribe Meetups are absolutely optional, unstructured, and unmoderated – we’ll provide a room to gather, and you can bring yourself and be ready to meet your fellow tribe members. The primary focus is networking and meeting others!

What do I need to do to participate?

Go to the appointed room during the time slot for your tribe, indicated below. Please don’t go into the tribe meetup room unless it’s your tribe meeting so we can keep conversations focused.

Do I need to sign up ahead of time?

The space is not unlimited, so it would be good if you do. If you’re interested in attending, please fill out this form. Registration now is not a requirement to attend, nor is it a commitment to be there, but we’d like to get a sense of participation interest prior to the event. Let other people know via Twitter which Tribe Meetup(s) you’ll be attending!

Speed networking at WordCamp Europe 2015

Wait, that’s not enough time! Enter: the Unconference & Leopold Museum networking spaces

Tribe Meetups are about meeting up and networking. If you’ve got something deeper to discuss, we’ve got some options for you, too! People will be able to sign up on Friday to give a flash talk on Saturday afternoon during the Unconference.

In addition, the Leopold Museum foyer and hall 3 will be set up as a networking and hang out lounges, giving you a chance to continue conversations started during tribe meetups or the unconference and spend some quality time with fellow WordPressers.

Stay tuned for more details!

Tribe Meetups Schedule

The times for meetups will roughly mirror the regular conference sessions with starting times and breaks at the same time, and all Tribe Meetups will take place in the Leopold Museum.

Day 1, Friday, June 24th

10:00 Community
10:30 Plugin authors
11:00 Speed Networking
11:30 Support
12:00 Theme Authors
12:30 Multilingual
16:00 Agencies
17:00 Accessibility
17:30 Freelancers

Day 2, Saturday, June 25th

10:00 Content Creators & Bloggers
10:30 BuddyPress
11:00 Speed Networking
11:30 Mobile Development
12:00 Designers

Didn’t you say something about warm up events the day before the conference?

We did!

Ideas for #WCEU warm up events on Thursday? Picnic in the park, Vienna walk, Prater, drinks, karaoke. What (else) would you like to do?

— WordCamp Europe (@WCEurope) May 23, 2016

And you can help us make them happen. With so many people coming to Vienna early, there will be a lot happening on Thursday.

We will post a list of all the activities soon. And If you’d like to organise something fun for WordPress people (that would be ace!), give us a shout on Twitter!

Excited about it all already?

Us too! See you in less than a month.

Introducing the WordCamp Europe 2016 schedule

Posted on May 5, 2016 by Petya Raykovska

Seven weeks to WordCamp Europe 2016! We can’t wait to meet you all in Vienna for three days of everything WordPress!

The Schedule

Today, we’re excited to share the full schedule for WordCamp Europe 2016 and some interesting speaker demographics. During the next several weeks we’ll keep introducing our speakers so you get a chance to know them better before meeting them in Vienna.

The applications and the selection process

We received 227 applications from 33 countries

The overwhelming number of applications we received this year are making us extremely happy because they show a trend of more and more people stepping up to share their experience with others, and on a bigger stage.

We received 227 applications from 33 countries in 5 continents (121 from Europe, 85 from North and South America, 12 from Asia, 9 from Australia and NZ). We also received twice the number of applications from women compared to WordCamp Europe 2014 and 2015.

Our selection process included internal voting within the 18-person WordCamp Europe team followed by a careful selection of the final speakers shortlist with topic, gender, and location diversity in mind.

The final selection

We are proud that we will have 73 speakers from all over the world on the WordCamp Europe stage covering topics from beginner to advanced development, design, accessibility, business, big media, hiring, community and personal growth.

Our final speaker demographics: 73 speakers from 20 countries. 43 from Europe, 21 from North America, 1 from South America, 5 from Australia & NZ, 2 from Asia, 1 from Africa.

There will be 22 women and 51 men on stage in three tracks in Halle E, Halle G and the Leopold Museum at the Vienna Museum Quartier.

Focused tracks in the Leopold Museum

There will be three thematic tracks in the big hall at the Leopold museum, dedicating half a day each to “Introduction to WordPress development”, “Running a WordPress business” and “Running a local WordPress community”.

Unconference

On Saturday, after lunch, the Leopold’s big hall will host a Barcamp – a format which we’re excited to experiment with and which will give you the opportunity to get on the #WCEU stage for a flash talk.

Networking events

Last year we gave networking events during the conference a try. Based on the feedback, attendees enjoyed those a lot, so we’re bringing them back in 2016. There are many scheduled networking events around the official schedule to let you connect with others – we will have tribe meetups and speed networking in the Leopold museum. Stay tuned for the specific announcement.

To keep up with the most recent updates from the WCEU team, don’t forget to follow us on Twitter, Facebook and to subscribe to receive news by email!

Love,

The Organising team

Sign up for WordCamp Europe 2016 Contributor Day!

Posted on April 20, 2016 by Rocio Valdivia

WordPress is created by thousands of people just like you. You don’t have to be a developer or a designer to start contributing.

If you answered a single question on WordPress.org forums, I have a surprise for you – you already contributed! But, you should come to WordCamp Europe Contributor Day on Sunday, June 26th, and learn new ways of giving back to the community.

Sign up for #WCEU Contributor Day on Sunday, June 26!

Did I mention that this would probably be the largest Contributor Day ever? Now’s your chance to write history.

What are contributor days?

The Design team at WCEU 2015 Contributor day. Photo by kreatidos.com

Contributor days give you a special opportunity to share a room with some of the awesomest developers, designers and community enthusiasts from all over the world. So, don’t worry, we’ve got you covered nonetheless you’re a seasoned contributor or if this will be your first Contributor day. Ever.

Every year Contributor days get bigger with more and more people involved. WordPress is now running 25% of the World Wide Web and it needs our help. And there are so may ways you could help. From helping the Theme Review team, working on Translations, Community, Docs, Support, Accessibility or WordPress.tv – to name just a few. And don’t forget – that’s not nearly all. You could also contribute to Core, Design, GlotPress, Mobile… the list goes on and on.

We encourage you to take part of Contributor Day especially if you have never contributed before and you’re looking for a way to get started.

Become a WordPress Contributor!

If you’ve never contributed to WordPress before, WordCamp Europe would be a great place to start. There are plenty of opportunities for everyone to help the projects, such as:

Core – improve the main WordPress platform
Theme Review – join the team responsible for the high quality in the Themes Directory on WordPress.org
Translations – make WordPress and its accompanying resources available in your language
Community – improve the WordCamp and meetup organization processes
Docs – improve the Codex, handbooks and other online resources for WordPress users and developers
Support – spread some happiness by helping out WordPress users in the support forums
Design – UI and UX updates
Accessibility – test and improve the accessibility of the WordPress project
WordPress.tv – reviews and approves every video submitted to WordPress.tv. They also help WordCamps with video post-production.
GlotPress – help to improve the collaborative, web-based software translation tool, which was recently converted into a WordPress plugin
Mobile – with the growing number of mobile devices on a daily basis, let’s make WordPress more mobile-friendy
Meta – help the main WordPress websites such as WordPress.org or WordPress.tv
BuddyPress & bbPress – grow the community building group by helping each of these projects
Marketing – join and contribute to WordPress with other marketers from all around the globe
Rest API – join the Rest API team and start contributing to the future of WordPress
Training – join the group of educators teaching WordPress around the globe

See? There’s plenty of room for everyone, and we’re more than happy to welcome newcomers to each of the WordPress Contributors team!

If you’re not sure which team is best for you, check out the Make WordPress website and all of the active teams.

What do I need?

Don’t forget your laptop and charger – you’ll need them during the contributing process.

a WordPress.org account
a Slack account for WordPress users

Currently, the main communication medium for contributors is Slack, so download a desktop version or use the web one with your credentials.

If you have any questions regarding the Contributors day, reach out to any organizer or use the #wceu hashtag on Twitter.

For Experienced Contributors

If you’re an experienced WordPress contributor, join the Contributor Day! We are looking for more mentors for the people starting out, and your experience would be a great asset for the day.

If you are interested in helping out and/or mentor new contributors with a specific team, let us know!

Plan For the Day

The Contributor Day will start at 11am on June 26th at the Vienna University in the city center. And we will wrap up at 6pm. Make sure that you are present at 11am when we will introduce the team leaders and the room that each team would be using for brainstorming and work.

Lunch would be available, so don’t forget to mark your dietary requirements (if any) in the form below.

In addition to the contributing teams, workshops would also be given at a separate room at the building. Nothing is set in stone yet and you will be able to switch teams or attend some of the workshops.

Sign Up Now

Fill in the form below to secure your place. The places are limited so act fast and reserve your slot!

http://wceurope.polldaddy.com/s/wordcamp-europe-2016-contributor-day

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Welcome to our first group of #WCEU speakers

Posted on April 15, 2016 by Petya Raykovska

Good morning Europe, hello world!

There will be an exciting line-up in Vienna on June 24-25! We’re happy to announce our first group of speakers coming from different parts of the world to share their design, development, business and community knowledge with you. Please meet John Blackbourn, Sonja Leix, Marko Dugonjić, Francesca Marano, Caspar Hübinger and Naoko Takano!

John Blackbourn

Sonja Leix

Marko Dugonjić

Francesca Marano

Caspar Hübinger

Naoko Takano

John Blackbourn

John Blackbourn is a senior WordPress developer at Human Made in the UK. He’s a WordPress Core Developer, a member of the WordPress security team, and he was the release lead for WordPress 4.1.

Sonja Leix

Sonja is a location-independent WordPress front-end designer. She’s an active member of the WordPress community, co-organized WordCamp New York 2014 and WordCamp Europe 2015. She has a strong design background and is passionate about UX, the WordPress community, and traveling.

Marko Dugonjić

Marko Dugonjić is a designer, speaker and author based in Velika Gorica, Croatia. As the creative and user experience director at Creative Nights, he improves customers’ digital experiences for international clients. He is an editor at Smashing Magazine, the author of the Smashing Book 4, chapter “The Next Steps For Web Typography”, and the founder of Typetester, an online tool for designing with web fonts.

Francesca Marano

WordPress professional, community junkie, business explorer. She makes WordPress things happen in Torino, Italy: WordCamp organizer, Polyglot PTE, Meetup co-founder.

Caspar Hübinger

As a self-taught post-dotcom web developer, he got introduced to WordPress “Billy Strayhorn” and has stayed ever since. Caspar Hübinger has a fundamental interest in people and how they interact.

Naoko Takano

Naoko Takano is a Globalizer at Automattic. She is a part of Team Global, which facilitates internationalization and localization of WordPress.com and other products.

Ready for more speaker announcements? Don’t forget to subscribe for updates and follow #WCEU on Twitter and Facebook to keep up with all event announcements and to share the love.

Say hello to our first two #WCEU speakers – Mike Little and Matt Mullenweg

Posted on April 11, 2016 by Petya Raykovska

It’s time. The WordCamp Europe team is delighted to announce our fist two speakers – the founders of WordPress – Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little.

Matt Mullenweg

Matt is the co-founder of the open-source blogging platform, WordPress, the most popular publishing platform on the web, and the founder of Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com and Jetpack. Additionally, Matt is a principal and founder of Audrey Capital, an investment and research company.

Matt is originally from Houston, Texas, where he attended the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts and studied jazz saxophone. In his spare time, Matt is an avid photographer. Matt splits time between Houston, New York, and San Francisco.

We’re extremely happy Matt is joining us again on the #WCEU stage.

Mike Little

Mike Little is the co-founder of WordPress. After he responded to a post on Matt Mullenweg’s blog about forking their blogging tool in 2003, he paved the way for WordPress’ success today. 13 years on and it powers more than 26% of the web. Mike now runs Zed1.com, his WordPress consultancy, training, and web development company.

He’s an author and has contributed to a number of open source projects, including DJGPP, CVS, MYSQL, and the original b2. He has helped organize 9 or 10 WordCamps and attended a few more. He has run a WordPress meetup in Manchester, England for the last 7 years.

WordCamp Europe 2016 will be his first WordCamp outside of the UK and we’re delighted he accepted our invitation to join us in Vienna and share the early story about the early years of WordPress.

We’ve got an incredible line-up prepared for you for the fourth WordCamp Europe. In the next two weeks, we’ll announce all of our speakers and the full schedule will be posted by the end of April.

Follow #WCEU on Twitter and Facebook to keep up with all event announcements and to share the love.

We wish you a wonderful Monday!

Your WCEU team

Child care at WordCamp Europe – parents, fill out our survey

Posted on March 16, 2016 by Petya Raykovska

There are more and more WordPress babies at WordCamp Europe every year. We love seeing kids around the camp, but we also know how important it is to be able to have an hour or two of focused time to go to sessions and chat to friends and make new connections.

That’s why this year we’re planning to provide child care at WordCamp Europe for both days of the conference – Friday 24th and Saturday 25th of June.

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All ages are having fun at WordCamp Europe! Photo by Found Art Photography

If you are a parent and you’re planning on bringing your kid, here’s what you need to know:

We’re going to hire a professional service with nannies to take care of the children of our attendees which are 12 years old and younger.
We are planning on adding some of our volunteers to the professional team – mostly so that we can cover multilingual issues and more fun for the kids.
We hope to be able to provide this service for free, but that will depend on the number of children we need to cover. That’s why if you’re planning on bringing your child and want to take advantage of the service, it’s really important that you fill out the survey linked below.
We’re also planning to provide options for group visits and workshops in the Leopold Museum and Zoom Kids Museum, that are located within the MQ (where the conference is happening). Those will need to be paid for by the parents, but the average cost is between 4 and 6 EURO per child. Totally worth it. We need to make early bookings for those, so stating your interest would be great. Details on the options are in the survey
If you or your partner would like to volunteer some time to the child care efforts, you can and it will be much appreciated.
Even though we provide child care, you are more than welcome to bring your kids to the conference itself. They won’t need a separate ticket to get in if they are younger than 16 years old. If you’d like them to get a printed badge and swag, please get them a ticket.

To help us plan better, please fill out the child care survey for each child you plan on bringing to the conference.

http://wceurope.polldaddy.com/s/child-care-at-wordcamp-europe

If you have any questions, please add them in the designated place in the survey. We will answer them in a separate FAQ section of the website dedicated to child care.

Thanks for your help and looking forward to meeting you and your little humans in Vienna!

Love,

The WordCamp Europe organising team

Planning your trip? Get a #WCEU discount on for your flight and accommodation

Posted on February 26, 2016 by Petya Raykovska

If you’re in possession of a WordCamp Europe ticket (good for you!) you’re probably going to need to plan your trip to Vienna soon. Our local team has gone above and beyond this year to help you out.

Book your flights with Austrian at a 15% discount

We’re happy to announce that Austrian Airlines is the official airline of WordCamp Europe 2016 and as such has special offers for WordCamp Europe attendees. Follow the instructions below to book your ticket.

How to book?

You can book your flights to WordCamp Europe 2016 online at www.austrian.com and save 15% on all applicable fares! To do so, simply enter the code WCEU16 in the eVoucher field on the Austrian homepage booking-engine.

Conditions

Booking period: now until June 26^th, 2016
Valid for flights to Vienna and return as of June 17^th, 2016 until July 3^rd, 2016 (final date for return flight) on OS operated flights and code share flights with OS flight numbers.

Book your flights here and we’ll see you in Vienna!

A note: Please note that the Austrian airlines final confirmation page will state the full cost of your tickets (before the discount), but you will only be charged with the discounted amount.

Hotel recommendations for WCEU

We managed to get you discounts on several hotels in Vienna. In the Accommodation page, we also have several hotels that won’t offer discounts, but that are highly recommended either for their excellent location near the MuseumsQuartier or for their value for price.

Go to the Accommodation page to choose your hotel.

We hope you manage to find a great deal and we look forward to seeing you in Vienna!

We have released a limited number of tickets for WordCamp Europe

Posted on January 20, 2016 by Petya Raykovska

Hello everyone,

At 10 am today, a limited number of tickets for WordCamp Europe 2016 will be released. A reservation link will be sent to everyone who signed up for the waiting list so that you can secure your ticket for the event in Vienna.

The reservation link will be available to people who signed up for 24 hours. After that period, at 10 am tomorrow morning, the remaining tickets will become available to purchase from the tickets page on the site.

If you signed up for the waiting list, please check your email and claim your ticket as fast as possible, the number of tickets and the number of people on the list is almost the same and we can’t stop people from purchasing multiple tickets.

Note: If you sign up after 10 am CET today, January 20th, you won’t receive the reservation link for this batch.

Good luck! We hope to see you in Vienna.

Love,

The WordCamp Europe org team