WordCamp Europe 2023 Budget

Let’s talk about money. Let’s talk about the WordCamp Europe 2023 budget. If you don’t want to read all the details and want the final figure, here it is:

WordCamp Europe 2023’s income was 1,079,500€ and the event’s expenses were 1,055,000€
Leaving a balance of 24,500€.

When you prepare the budget for an event like WCEU, there are a lot of uncertainties, so initially, the amounts were higher. We expected to sell more sponsor packages (we went from 4 to 2 Super Admins, for example), and, equally, we planned everything with very optimistic attendance figures. We never know how many tickets will be sold, and each attendee has a cost in swag and food to cover.

That’s why the budget team is known as the ‘No team’, as they have to balance many numbers by cutting costs to the bare minimum to have a fantastic event. It’s the only way to make it sustainable. We know from experience that unforeseen events and last-minute needs arise in the last few weeks before the event, and we want the teams to have the peace of mind that it will be possible.

Income

2160 regular tickets were sold at 50€ and 110 microsponsor tickets at 150€. At WCEU 2022, we experimented with the price of the microsponsor ticket at a similar cost to the cost per person of the event (350€) and only sold 30 tickets. We understand that with more affordable microsponsor tickets, more people can support the event a little bit more, and we are very grateful for that. The total amount raised from ticket sales was 124,500€.

In addition, 653 tickets were sold at zero cost, corresponding to sponsors, organisers, volunteers, speakers, photographers, media partners and other workers who collaborated with the event. Similarly, this year, as the budget was in the green, dozens of tickets purchased were refunded after the standard deadline, as some attendees could not arrive in Athens due to visa problems.

Sponsors covered the major cost of the event, a total of 955,000€. There were 2 Super Admin level (80K), 8 Admin level (45K), 4 Editor level (30K), 20 Author level (12K) and 30 Small Business level (2.5K). We had to adapt to the space available at the Megaron and the interest of companies in the various packages.

This year, we did not sell extra sponsorship such as the after-party, coffee, or other options, which will surely come back in future WCEUs.

Expenses

Almost 80 invoices and reimbursements to organisers were paid, totalling 1,055,000€. We won’t go through each and every one of them, but we can give you some insight into the costs of an event like this.

The fixed costs (independent of the number of tickets sold) were 613,000€ while the variable costs were 442,000€ (we’ve left out the cents to avoid making it all too complicated).

Among the fixed costs, we have:

The event’s production, the rental of the entire venue, staff, security, all the A/V, furniture: 340,200€.
Wi-Fi, the ticketing system, live captioning of the tracks: 61,300€.
Sponsors booths, signage and branding printing: 182,500€.
Tools, subscriptions, extra printings, photo team needs, bus shuttles for the social dinner, after-party band, printings, childcare, safety and health, accessibility needs, yoga classes, and other small and extra stuff: 28,700€.

Variable costs include:

Swag for attendees (T-shirts, tote bags, postcards), speaker gifts, stickers and game postcards: 30,755 €.
The cost of Stripe fees for ticket payments: 4,615 €.
Food, all-day coffee, contributor day coffee breaks, two days of WordCamp and water dispensers: 301,000€.
Rental, food and beverages for the social event and after party: 105,790€.

All figures are inclusive of taxes, if any.

Final balance

The cost per person came to 1,055,000 / 2,923 ≈ 361 euros. Divided over the three days of the event, that would cost approximately 120 euros per person per day. Considering that the entrance fee was 50€, this means that the sponsors covered 86% of the cost of each attendee.

It is essential to note that WordPress Community Support retains the surplus funds from WordCamps to support other official WordPress community events and programs, including local meetups and WordCamps worldwide. In other words, with that buffer we’ve kept just in case, we’ve helped other local communities around the world to hold their events. Isn’t that great?

Also, thanks once again to the sponsors and attendees who make all this financially possible and the organisers, volunteers and speakers who collaborate with their time and effort to make an event like WordCamp Europe possible.

See you at WordCamp Europe 2024!