We’ve had another successful WordCamp here in Calgary! We had a few different firsts that were exciting and as organizers we learned a lot. This recap shares our awesome sponsors, our budget, and the behind the scenes of the team effort.

There were so many people involved in making this awesome event happen, and first and foremost we have to thank our sponsors, without whom none of it would be possible.

Gold WooCommerce, Jetpack, Bluehost, Build, WP Engine, SteppMedia, Liquid Web, GreenGeeks, Vendasta, Sajak & Farki

Silver GoDaddy, WeGlot, Secure by Design, FS Creative, WP Cerber Security, URSA6, Paper Leaf, A2 Hosting

Bronze Dreamhost, Wanderoak, Wisdom Plugin, Tischdecke, ELLA Juwelen, Armadillo Studios, The Writing Department, Arch Web Marketing, HotHouse Marketing

In Kind Sticker Giant, Little Rock Printing

White Hat Ticket – WP Spell Check

Learn about our sponsors in more detail here.

We’d also like to thank all the volunteers and speakers who helped make this event happen! We appreciate the effort you put in to help us create a fantastic event!

New Milestones

For the first time, the speaker roster at WordCamp Calgary had more women on it than men. Last year we came close to a 50/50 ratio, and this year nearly 56% of our speakers were women. This was incredible and we look forward to continually supporting and encouraging not only new speakers but also a diverse set of speakers (and attendees!) to come to WordCamp Calgary.

We had a Global Sponsor come to our event! WordCamp Calgary has been growing slowly every year, and it was exciting to have one of the global community sponsors come to the event and participate actively. It was great having you, Green Geeks!

KidsCamp continues to grow. Last year, we held our first KidsCamp with 8 kids and their parents attending the all day workshop. This year, we had 15 kids. We’re excited for the future of this workshop!

Budget

WordCamp Calgary is run as a non-profit event through the WordPress Foundation. Since the WordPress community values and believes in openness and transparency, we want to share our final budget numbers with the community.

Expenses Venue + Venue Service: $6,190.65

Speaker/Volunteer Tickets: $1,800

*Lunch Day 1: $3,248.70

*Lunch Day 2: $3,248.70

**Coffee + Tea: $1,102.50

KidsCamp Lunch: $270

Swag (notebooks): $1,248.00

KidsCamp Swag (T-Shirts): $202.94

VIP Dinner: $258.30

After Party: $1,181.50

Tickets for Sponsors: $700.00 Income Tickets Income: $5,800.00

Community Sponsorships: $6,750

Local Sponsorships: $6,400

KidsCamp Tickets: $150.00

Summary

Total Income: $19,100

Total Expenses: $19,451.29

Variance: -$351.29

*We have to provide final numbers for how many lunches we want beforehand, and based on the trend, we requested lunches for 130 people, however, we ended up only selling 116 regular tickets.

**This cost was more than double what we anticipated.

We, unfortunately, went over budget by $351.29 because of a few unanticipated costs and slightly lower than expected ticket sales. We’ll be adjusting our anticipated budget for next year, accordingly.

Notes from the Organizing Team

This was my first year as the lead organizer and there was lots to learn from that respect. We have a great team of volunteers that I could rely on to get their pieces of the event taken care of so I wouldn’t have to stress about them. I’m looking forward to 2020 and we’re looking forward to bringing on new volunteers to the organizing team that can help make the event bigger and better than ever. Kevin Brennan

I learned a lot this year doing sponsorships for the first time properly. I feel more equipped to make sure we hit budget next year. Really loved working with everyone and I can’t wait to get started for 2020! As a team, we already have so many ideas for how to make next year more awesome. Aurooba Ahmed

It was great to see KidsCamp attendance almost double this year! We’re hoping to continue growing and have plans for returning kiddos to learn new skills in 2020. Christina Workman

Helping with WordCamp is often a highlight of my year. Connecting with people who all share a similar passion is invigorating and the excitement is always contagious. Russ Fee

Being a part of this community is something I truly enjoy. With a team of passionate organizers, I can’t help but feel excited for what next year’s event will bring!

We were very fortunate to have our print sponsor step in to provide all our promo materials and signage for the event at no charge, which certainly helped ease some of our budget issues. Jaime Wedholm

WordCamp has always been, and continues to be, the most rewarding time of year for our local community. It is an opportunity for everyone to come together for the sake of doing better than we did last year. This spirit will continue as WordCamp YYC heads into its 8th year. I look forward to seeing everyone again in 2020! Re Carlson