WordCamp Europe 2016: The big recap | #WCEU

It’s been a month since WordCamp Europe 2016 and the buzz about Paris is growing strong. 300 tickets are already gone, so make sure to get yours!

But before we look to the future and the beautiful French capital, let’s look back at Vienna by the numbers!

WCEU in numbers

The #WCEU wapuu, designed by Scott Evans

Regular Tickets sold: 2032
Microsponsorship tickets: 150
People attending: 1952
Live Streaming tickets: 1402
Live streaming sessions: 5150
Total time watching sessions via live stream: 1079.625 hours
Sponsors: 39
Speakers: 69
Number of countries attendees came from: 68
Number of countries attendees watched the live streaming from: 82
Number of Twitter users active on the #WCEU hashtag: 923
Tweets: 2727
Number of Twitter impressions: 6.2 million
Contributors during contributor day: 440
Nannies that took care of the WordPress kids: 6
Volunteers: 160
Organizers: 20
Co-founders of WordPress: 2 ☀️

Your feedback about WordCamp Europe 2016

A couple of days after the event, we asked you to fill out the WordCamp Europe 2016 survey and we’ve been enjoying the incoming feedback ever since. A huge number of you responded and what makes us really pleased is the amount of people who left feedback as open comments, suggestions, and ideas. Let’s look at what you liked and didn’t like so much.

All in all, you really really liked WordCamp Europe 2016

You gave really high ratings for overall experience (4.31 out of 5), the organisation of the event (4.32 out of 5) and our speakers (4.15 out of 5)! We are so happy you had a good time!

You were pleased with the quality of the sessions, but thought they could have been a little longer. You rated the talks you saw very high, with 72% of you sharing that you feel satisfied, fulfilled or ecstatic about them, and for 18% the talks were okay.

A lot of your comments about the schedule and the talks gravitate around the question of whether or not they should be longer, more focused on the topic or workshop-like. We are asking ourselves the same questions every year when we start planning the content. With WordCamp Europe being the first WordCamp for more than 1/3 of the people coming (38% for WCEU 2016), we need to make sure that we provide a great introduction to the community for everyone.

We try to strike a balance between providing a clear glimpse of the state of WordPress in many different areas as well as educating. We are happy that many of you got inspired during WordCamp Europe.

We need bigger breaks between sessions

We also heard you about the short breaks between sessions. We added a third venue at a very late stage of the event and we had already formed the schedule and confirmed the speakers for Tracks 1 & 2. Bigger breaks offer a better opportunity to mingle and network, so we will do our best to make the times for switching rooms between sessions more comfortable for everyone in the future.

You suggested lunch logistics improvements

We received a lot of comments about lunch on Day 1 and we understand that it could have gone better. More space, better instructions, enough food for the people with special dietary requirements. These are all things that will be taken into consideration for next year.

You loved the after party

85% of you said they really enjoyed the WordCamp Europe Ball. For the first time this year, we succeeded in providing two separate spaces for people during the after party – a party area where you could dance your night away and a lounge area where you could chill, relax and enjoy nice conversations and connecting with other people.

You gave us really good, constructive feedback around the after party, which will be taken into account for next year. We know you travel to WordCamp Europe with your family and would like to bring them to the party. We did not have the capacity for it this year, but the team is already thinking how to change that for 2017.

You are coming back!

An overwhelming 94% of you said that you would come back to WordCamp Europe next year. This is the greatest gift for the organising team. And we can’t wait to see you in Paris! (Seriously, get your tickets.)