WordCamp Turku Wrap-up

Posted on by Teemu Suoranta

A few weeks have passed since WordCamp Turku and it’s time to look back and wrap-up the event.

First, I’d like to thank you for all the organizers, volunteers, speakers, sponsors and guests for everything. The people and the community really make the event.

Photos

We had two exchange students from Germany taking a few photos from event. Thank you Sven Wiegmann and Dennis Wilke!

Some of the guests have also taken pictures:

Videos

The presentations were recorded and uploaded to WordPress.tv. The publishing process is still going and we will update the link here when it’s done.

Slides

Blog posts

There’s a few blog posts written about the event. They are all in Finnish.

Feedback

After the event we asked feedback from all the attendees. We got 42 submissions and here’s some things to note.

Who attended to WordCamp Turku?

  • Mostly people from Helsinki (36%). Next up was people from Turku (21%). There were people from all around Finland like Tampere, Vaasa, Espoo, Hämeenlinna, Joensuu, Jyväskylä, Lahti, Oulu, Pori, Rovaniemi and Seinäjoki.
  • Over half travelled by train. This should be noted with schedule as some people missed breakfast or first presentations because of train schedules.
  • Mostly people who have already been in WordCamps as there was only about 25% of first-timers.
  • Roughly 50% WordPress developers and 25% from companies that offer WordPress services. The rest were users, freelancers, students and hobbyists.

How did people hear about WordCamp Turku?

  • 26% First announcement on WordCamp Jyväskylä
  • 21% Co-worker asks to come
  • 19% Knowing organizer/volunteer
  • 12% Social media (Twitter/Facebook)
  • 12% WordPress Finland Slack
  • Also WordCamp Central website and friends

What did people think about presentations?

  • Some people found something useful from all of the presentations.
  • Daniel Koskinen’s presentation on the web accessibility directive was found most useful.
  • People in back had sometimes hard to hear or see the slides. This should have been tested better in advance.
  • The speakers have received more detailed feedback and greetings from their presentations. Thank you for your comments!

How did the panel discussion go?

  • WordCamp Turku had the first panel discussion in Finnish WordCamps.
  • The questions were a bit too generic and didn’t get deep enough for advanced listeners. There was also too little time for questions from audience.
    • It might be better to choose a topic that will be more specific.
    • Around five questions would be a good amount.
  • Most people still got something useful from the panel even though there is a lot room for improvement. We hope to see panel discussions in future WordCamps as well.

What did people think in general?

  • 29% Brilliant
  • 62% Great, but definitely room for improvement
  • 7% OK
  • 3% I wasn’t impressed by it
  • 0% I didn’t enjoy the event at all

There were some issues with WiFi, fresh air, availability of coffee, lack of tables and electricity. All in all, the organizing team did a great job and got the big thing right.

What would people want to see in future?

  • More presentations for non-developers and more advanced talks for developers – multiple tracks
  • Contributor days and workshops
  • Better possibility to work during the event – tables, better WiFi, electricity
  • Working air condition (is there one?)
  • Faster sharing of presentation slides and videos even sharing them during the event
  • More coffee ☕

See you at WordCamp Nordic!

The next WordCamp in Finland will be WordCamp Nordic 2019 on 7.3.2019. Subscribe for updates on the official site and we’ll hope to see you all there!

– WordCamp Turku 2018 Organizing Team