WordCamp Europe Assembles 130-Person Volunteer Team

The call for volunteers for WordCamp Europe closed this week and organizers announced that they have assembled a team of more than 100 people to help run the event. The 130 applicants represent 33 countries from Europe and beyond, with the highest numbers from the United States, Germany, The Netherlands, Italy, and Romania.

The event will be held in Vienna at the end of June where the team will finally gather together in person. In the meantime, organizers are navigating the challenges of working remotely with a volunteer team that is spread across the globe.

“For now we are using Zapier with Trello as connected apps and lots of well organized columns,” said Milan Ivanović, one of the leaders of the Volunteer Team. “We contacted every volunteer via email manually and soon we will use WordPress Slack for general communication before and on the day of the event.”

WordCamp Europe organizers have high expectations for cities that apply to host future events. Potential cities will need to have a volunteer team with experience at previous events. This year’s event nearly doubles the number of volunteers from last year, expanding the pool of capable hands for 2017.

“The biggest challenge would definitely be meeting everybody’s wishes while assigning roles,” Ivanović said. “Next week we will do a final check of the venue and start working on assigning roles.”

Volunteers are expected to arrive a few days ahead of the event for a briefing and to familiarize themselves with the venue.

“Leading up to the event we are going to have weekly meetings and try to cover as much as we can to prepare as best as possible,” Ivanović said. “Volunteers are investing dozens of hours into this event. I also want to emphasize that we are not covering the costs, but there is something so noble and beautiful when volunteering.”