Unless you’ve been under a rock you’re already aware of all the buzz going around WordCamps and the challenge that some are having in terms of being able to sponsor and present at these events. It’s been hashed and rehashed in so many different ways in the last few days and more intelligent people have been adding their thoughts to the pile of collective ideas that I have almost nothing left to contribute.
But I’ve been thinking deeply about it not only because our team here at WP Daily is co-organizing a WordCamp but because at the heart of what everyone is trying to do is simply this: Create incredible value in a local setting to help others appreciate, use, and fall in love with WordPress.
Whether you stand on one side or another does matter but nearly as much as our collective and global intent in helping others adopt the best semantic publishing platform on planet earth. As such, we can all agree that it is in our best interests to promote that collective initiative always.
This means, at least from my perspective, that if your execution by which you achieve success founded on that motive and initiative doesn’t “fit” squarely in one philosophical camp or another then you have the full right to simply roll your own. In other words, go on and be your bad self and put together your own WordPress-centric event.
The thing is that people have been doing it for years and I now imagine even more people are considering it as things have become tense in who can and cannot present and sponsor.
This isn’t about which event is better or which event or philosophy is more popular – it’s about providing incredible value in your own local and geographical context.
There are some events, like WP Camp, that inspire me in huge ways because they have not only blazed their own path but have used their freedom in execution to extend value to not only people interested in WordPress but also to other local organizations that are doing incredible good:
The WordPress community is large. Large enough to go beyond criticism and and encourage better behavior by good examples. In Germany the team did just that and named the event WP Camp.
It was a really great bar camp, and the money was sent to Help e.V. to help Syrian refugees.
If you’re motivated to not only help others love and use WordPress more as well as interested in helping your fellow brother and sister in need (like helping refugees) I do not see any reason why you need to get tripped up or slowed down in doing just that.
Go forth and prosper and try to leave the politics and legalese aside. You have everything you need to put on an incredible local event and you don’t need anyone’s permission to do it. The benefit is that you’re forced to innovate and to push the bar in terms of value – and the world could use a bit more of both.
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