It\u2019s been so great to read positive feedback on social media about WordCamp Europe 2019. A lot of people worked really hard on this event, and we hoped that everyone would have a great time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, we don\u2019t want to shy away from discussing the things that didn\u2019t go as planned. We were very disappointed to know that some people didn\u2019t have the great experience we had envisioned. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Retrospective posts will be published later this year, once more people have had a chance to rest and reflect. However, we can’t take our break without apologising about a few things as soon as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
During the After Party, there was a show with impersonators of music legends. We\u2019re so sorry that this show included images of women that were sexualised and objectifying. We realise this is not what attendees expect when they attend a WordCamp, and we\u2019re so disappointed to know that this affected our attendees, changing the party atmosphere and making some guests feel less welcome, in the way it did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The WordCamp Europe venue includes a floor show with its standard party package. Because one of our primary goals for WordCamp is to create a welcoming atmosphere, we were cautious about this party feature, worried it might include some content \u2014 sexualised or objectifying portrayals of women, specifically \u2014 that could work against that goal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When we communicated with our venue, the Estrel, about our concerns, they assured us that the show didn\u2019t need to include that kind of content. Still cautious, since cultural sensitivities around sexualised content can vary widely, two of our lead organisers attended a show (on Estrel\u2019s invitation) during a previously scheduled site visit to see for themselves. The show they attended was as Estrel had promised: various solo performers, singing in front of a band, wearing impersonator costumes. Some acts included fully-clothed backup performers. Based on that experience, we decided to go ahead with the show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To our dismay, the show put on for WordCamp Europe partygoers included precisely the kind of sexualised content we had explained to the Estrel that we did not want at our event. Because this content came up toward the end of the show, we did not find out in time to be able to stop the show mid-progress. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Please know that moving forward, we\u2019ll work even harder to ensure that the After Party at future editions of WordCamp Europe is welcoming and safe for everyone. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We also really regret that some of you were initially turned away from enjoying the After Party. Simply put, we did not correctly estimate how many attendees would arrive and when, and we should have done a better job of understanding ahead of time how the venue would be keeping a count of party attendees. Security counted incoming guests but not outgoing guests, and between about 9pm and 11pm, we had to redirect people from the party to some other locations in order to meet fire code regulations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With drinks tokens, we also made a mistake. Initially, we planned to give one token to each attendee. During the event, we mistakenly promised two each, and therefore they were not distributed equally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We also should have done a better job of providing seating areas for attendees with mobility considerations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rounding out our regrets, we should have made water free for everyone at the beginning of the party. This was an oversight, and we\u2019re sorry if anyone paid for water before we made the change with the venue and covered the cost of bottled water for everyone. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Though this and every other WordCamp is organised and staffed by volunteers, we have high standards for our work, and are committed to creating a safe and welcoming experience for attendees. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We\u2019ve identified a number of ways that we didn\u2019t meet our own expectations, or yours, this year. If you observed or experienced anything at WordCamp Europe that made you think, \u201cwell that could have gone better,\u201d we encourage you to share this with our team, so we can improve. Here\u2019s how: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thanks so much for attending WordCamp Europe 2019. We hope to see you next year in Porto!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It\u2019s been so great to read positive feedback on social media about WordCamp Europe 2019. However, we don\u2019t want to shy away from things that didn\u2019t go as planned, and we want to apologise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15025730,"featured_media":2459,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[5421],"class_list":["post-11606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-announcements","tag-after-party"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/europe.wordcamp.org\/2019\/files\/2018\/11\/featured-image-standard.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa076x-31c","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/europe.wordcamp.org\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/europe.wordcamp.org\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/europe.wordcamp.org\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/europe.wordcamp.org\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15025730"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/europe.wordcamp.org\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11606"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/europe.wordcamp.org\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11606\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11613,"href":"https:\/\/europe.wordcamp.org\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11606\/revisions\/11613"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/europe.wordcamp.org\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/europe.wordcamp.org\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/europe.wordcamp.org\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/europe.wordcamp.org\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}