In my previous post, I argued that WordCamp tickets are too cheap to be sustainable. I also stated that most of the financial burden of WordCamps falls to sponsors. At first sight, that seems true. But it’s not the entire story. 

So let me ask you, who’s paying for your WordCamp ticket?

What did you say?

I asked the question on Twitter and in the Post Status community on Slack. Most people responded with “I’m self-employed, so I pay for my ticket” or “My employer pays for my ticket.” The split was about 60% own vs. 40% employer on Twitter and nearly the same in the Post Status discussion. One person even mentioned that sponsors covered the majority of the actual ticket costs.

And while they were all correct, there are also hidden costs for WordCamps. And those are largely not paid by companies, sponsors, or attendees.

Then, who else is paying?

Looking at WordCamp budgets, sponsors are responsible for the largest percentage of income for WordCamps. That is, when you look at the events’ budgets and financial planning. The challenge there is that those budgets only list income and costs. They don’t list anything that doesn’t have a financial loss or gain, like the unpaid hours of the organizers, volunteers, and speakers. And those ‘hidden costs’ add up.

Organizers

Organizers are volunteers who spend time and energy organizing our events. Every local meetup and WordCamp depends on them. I’ve been part of several WordCamp organizations, and every time, I roughly kept track of the time spent on organizing the event.

What I’ve seen is that being an organizer of a WordCamp takes between 100 and 300 hours per event. In my case, I’ve always been lucky that a significant part (40-60%) of that was paid by my employer. The rest, I paid with my own time. Time I could not spend with my family. Time I could not put into my hobbies. Now I know that’s not directly a financial burden. But it is a hidden cost, and at the scale we’re “using” volunteer organizers, it adds up.

For those who are self-employed, every hour spent on the event is an hour you’re not making money. If you charge 65 euros an hour, 100 hours of organizing is 6500 euros of lost income. In a way, we can say you sponsored the event for 6.5k.

If you’re organizing a local WordCamp, this would probably put your contribution between the top-tier sponsors, if not above.

We’ve not even included the cost of travel and accommodation if you’re organizing an event ‘out of town.’ 

So, I’d say organizers are paying a significant part of the hidden costs.

Volunteers

Organizers aren’t the only ones contributing unseen value. Our volunteers also donate significant time and energy. 

What we typically refer to as volunteers are the people helping on the day(s) of the event. They usually don’t have a huge role before or after the event but are crucial during. Think of tasks like coordinating tracks, handing out badges at registration, guiding people to sessions, and more.

Like organizers, some of them get paid by their employers for volunteering at an event, but many don’t. In WordPress, it’s the norm that we give our volunteers a free ticket, but that’s it. The hours, travel, and accommodation (if they’re from out of town) are costs they cover themselves.

Using the same 65 euro/hour freelance rate and a daily 4-hour shift at the event, it means they’re sponsoring 260 euros per day, minus the cost of the ticket.

So, I’d say volunteers are paying a significant part of the hidden costs.

Speakers

Sessions are one of the key elements of our events. Having great speakers with informative, insightful, and innovative sessions is key to successful ticket sales. That’s why our community is always searching for new talent to bring to our stages.

Public speaking means spending many hours building and preparing. Some speakers do this as part of their jobs, but many don’t. And by the time they’ve pitched their talk, built it, complied with all the rules our events set, and rehearsed, they’ve spent hundreds if not thousands of euros in time.

Their talks are listened to by hundreds of people at the event and published on wordpress.tv. The knowledge and expertise they shared makes a difference for others. Attendees take home years of accumulated knowledge, which hopefully helps them be better at WordPress and increase their income. 

In return, we give our speakers a free 25-euro/day ticket. Full stop. Speakers receive no fee or travel reimbursement. They’re volunteer speakers.

So, I’d say speakers are paying a significant part of the hidden costs.

Should we change this?

I’m not sure. Maybe, partially?

Let me explain where I’m coming from. In reality, we have quite a difference between our so-called ‘local WordCamps’ and the ‘flagship WordCamps.’ And I still think the flagships shouldn’t be called WordCamps. Anyway, our ‘local events’ are aimed at bringing together the local community, with a small percentage of speakers coming from out of town. For those events, I don’t think we should be paying speakers. They’re helping their own community thrive.

Speakers at flagship events

For the flagship events, it’s a slightly different story. I’d argue that the majority of speakers at a flagship event should be from the WordPress community. So, they’re giving back to their own community. But flagships should have the opportunity to invite outside speakers. People who are not in WordPress, or maybe not even in web tech, and who are not local to the event location. In those cases, paying for travel and accommodation, and perhaps a small speaker fee, makes sense. After all, these speakers are not giving back; they’re simply giving.

And I think it’s valuable to have some outside speakers at our flagship events. It can lead to more cross-pollination between the various areas of expertise, which would help us move our entire community and project forward. 

A role for the WordPress Foundation

I would also love to find a way for the WordPress Foundation to play a more prominent role in advancing diversity in our events, both flagship and local. Right now, as a community, we depend mostly on company grants like the Yoast Diversity Fund and The WP CC to help speakers from typically underrepresented groups overcome financial roadblocks that prevent them from speaking. Doing this through the foundation, for example by expanding the Kim Parsell Memorial Scholarship program, would help us create a sustainable way to get more diverse voices on our stages.

And if we pay some of our speakers, should we also pay our organizers and volunteers? My blunt, direct, Dutch answer to that would be ‘no, we don’t.’ At the core, our events are community events. This means we’ll always need the help of community volunteers to keep our events affordable and financially as inclusive as possible.

However, I don’t have the ultimate answer. I just wanted you to realize there’s more to WordCamp cost than just the ticket price. And I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments!