The Toronto WordPress meetup met on Saturday afternoon to discuss plans for WordCamp Toronto 2013. The turnout was great, and we got a lot of fantastic conversations going about what’ll be happening on October 5th & 6th at Humber College.

Thanks to B2B marketing agency Brainrider for providing the space for us on last-minute notice. It was greatly appreciated! We wouldn’t have been able to do this without their support.

Notes from the meetup are after the jump.

Meetup Notes

These are in point form. We’ve beefed up some of the points with contextual details.

Schedule

Tracks

• Structured. We want there to be a logical theme for each track and each session time slot.
• Four tracks on Saturday. 3 are defined (Beginner/Intermediate/Advanced) – still figuring out the 4th.
• Sunday is open. Planning on dedicating it to workshops and panels.

Panel Discussion Ideas

• WordPress for Non-Profits
• WordPress on a Budget
• Content Development, Inbound Marketing
• Running/Building a WordPress-Based Business

Venue

Humber College

• Lakeshore West campus @ Kipling and Lakeshore in Etobicoke.
• Accessible by transit from the Kipling bus or streetcar. Mimico and Long Branch GO stations nearby.
• Massive parking lot at the adjacent West campus. Parking is free!
• We’re hosting WordCamp in the new L building. Modern equipment, rooms are wired, lots of outlets available for laptops.
• Big space available in the building. We’re calling it the “WordPress Commons”. Will house our Happiness Bar and networking/socializing space for people wanting to chitchat.
• Humber will cover Security & First-Aid.
• There’s a Tim Hortons out front!

After-Party Venue (TBD)

We don’t know where we’re going to hold our after-party!

• Talked about locations in Liberty Village.
• Lots of buzz about Sherway Gardens / Bier Markt.
• Also mentioned: Canadiana.
• To cover higher costs: Opting into after-party during registration, possibly charging a bit more for after-party attendees.

Speakers & Sessions

Topic Ideas

We’ve got a list of starting points on our Speak page. Here are some other ideas that came up:

• Building a membership site.
• Choosing a hosting provider
• Securing WordPress
• Boosting performance (speed, resource usage)
• Content Development
• Specific verticals using WordPress
• Niche plugins
• Showcasing projects
• Related topics but not specifically WP (e.g. running a shop, biz dev.)
• Submit whatever you’d like to talk or learn about!

Sponsors

In-Kind Sponsorship Needs

We’re looking for in-kind sponsors who could help us offset the following costs.

• Printing (Merchandise, Signage)
• Live Streaming
• A/V Equipment
• Video Production (Editing)

Microsponsorship Ideas

Microsponsorship is an idea we’ve been kicking around, a new opportunity for individuals to make smaller contributions to the event while still being recognized for their support.

WordCamp is a community event, after all, and it seems odd that we’d block people from contributing below a certain amount. Every bit helps, right

Here are some ideas that came up:

• Provide a common table to put out merch/biz cards
• Limit the number of microsponsors?
• Less than core – $50 to $100
• Straight up text-only link on the site

Potential Sponsors

Who else should we be reaching out to?

• Ryerson DMZ
• Mars DD
• Other local incubators or accelerators
• Local economic development orgs

Volunteers

In previous years we just had an open free-for-all on volunteer spots. This year we’re doing things a bit differently. We’ve got Room Teams, Registration, Wizards (Happiness Bar), and Float Team as separate groups. More details are available on the Volunteer page. Points:

• Volunteers will pay their registration fee and be refunded after serving a 3 hour shift.
• We have limited slots, so not all volunteer applicants will be accepted.
• Being a volunteer at a previous WordCamp doesn’t mean you’re automatically accepted.

Promoting the Event

• Need to print collateral/literature for distribution.
• Flyers in coffee shops, libraries, etc… (community boards)
• Other Meetup Groups/Networking Events/WordCamps – Dev TO & Hackernest
• Colleges & Universities: UoT, Ryerson, Humber, George Brown, etc…
• Reaching out through economic development orgs.
• Reaching out through incubators and accelerators.

And that’s it! Here’s how you can get in touch with us:

• Want to speak at the event? Go to our Speakers page.
• Want to volunteer? Go to our Volunteers page.
• Want to sponsor, either financially or in-kind? Go to our Sponsors page.
• Have another idea, suggestion, comment, criticism, etc? Use our Contact form.

Thanks again to everyone who joined us for the meetup.