Inclusivity starts with awareness

On behalf of the WCEU organizing team, I would like to thank our muslim community members, and M Asif Rahman in particular, for bringing us greater awareness, so that we can continue to improve and accomplish our mission of making WordCamp Europe truly accessible and inclusive.

The choice of dates for our annual event starts with the application process, when local communities apply to host future editions of WordCamp Europe, and is shaped by a number of factors, including:

• The venue’s availability.
• A hard requirement to be at least 5 months apart from WordCamp US.
• Local bank holidays and school vacation periods.
• WordCamp traditionally falling on a Friday-Saturday.

Whereas we were aware of the period of Ramadan, which has fallen around our event dates for the last two years, we were ignorant of the fact that the dates we had chosen for our upcoming event June 14-16, 2018, fall more specifically on Eid al-Fitr, a special day of observance.

After learning of this, we went back to the venue and tried to change weekends. We deeply regret that we were not able to at this late date, and offer our sincere apologies to all those who will not be able to attend in 2018 because of this conflict.

Looking ahead, we are happy to see that our mid-June dates will no longer fall during Ramadan at all for at least the next three years. And what’s more, we now have this valuable lesson to bring to future organizing teams and host cities, bringing us all greater awareness, improving our processes and continuing to provide a welcoming, inclusive experience for all.

Please believe us when we say that this truly is important to us, that we really do care.