The spirit of community is alive at WCTO

Every so often, something happens which makes you smile in appreciation of someone’s thoughtfulness.

As a speaker in #WCTO 2017 next month, I received an email a few weeks ago from Martha Chan offering to put up a speaker in her home and save the expense and bother of a hotel for the two nights of the conference. She included a drive in on both days.

I couldn’t resist replying just to express my appreciation for her offer notwithstanding that I’m in Toronto and not in need myself. She replied and, in our exchange, it occurred to me that this would make a good WordCamp post.

When I asked for her permission to quote her, she responded,

Of course, whatever you think will help cement the idea.

I am willing to offer this every year.

Please help me make this a tradition, so I don’t have to write to offer this every year! I may be able to get some more volunteers.

Perhaps WordCamp Toronto 2017 is the first to do this, and this idea can spread across the world. What are communities for? We maybe able to get more speakers to consider WCTO.

P.S. I already got about 8 or 9 email on this. Mostly from people acknowledging me for my offer. We are hanging out with nice people.

So there it is, a challenge to the GTA WP community.

Could we organize a registry for people to offer accommodation
and for speakers to apply, a way to match one appropriately one with another,
address the inevitable but not insurmountable legal issues and publicize the
program in (say) 2 weeks? Could we document what we’re doing and share it with other WordCamps? Is there a plugin suited to or adaptable for this use case?

On reflection, I realize that getting something organized for this year is too ambitious. If you think otherwise, do say so in the comments (below)! But next year, that’s another matter.

In discussing this idea at a recent WP Toronto Meetup, several people recommended the WooCommerce Bookings plugin/extension. I found a free addon for that, WooCommerce Accommodation Bookings – WooCommerce. Given that WooCommerce is an Automattic company and the latter’s massive support for WordCamp, this could be a practical proposition.

Does this reinvigorate your sense of community as it does mine? Comments are welcome.