Mistakes at the #WCEU After Party
It’s been so great to read positive feedback on social media about WordCamp Europe 2019. A lot of people worked really hard on this event, and we hoped that everyone would have a great time.
However, we don’t want to shy away from discussing the things that didn’t go as planned. We were very disappointed to know that some people didn’t have the great experience we had envisioned.
Retrospective posts will be published later this year, once more people have had a chance to rest and reflect. However, we can’t take our break without apologising about a few things as soon as possible.
The show
During the After Party, there was a show with impersonators of music legends. We’re so sorry that this show included images of women that were sexualised and objectifying. We realise this is not what attendees expect when they attend a WordCamp, and we’re so disappointed to know that this affected our attendees, changing the party atmosphere and making some guests feel less welcome, in the way it did.
The WordCamp Europe venue includes a floor show with its standard party package. Because one of our primary goals for WordCamp is to create a welcoming atmosphere, we were cautious about this party feature, worried it might include some content — sexualised or objectifying portrayals of women, specifically — that could work against that goal.
When we communicated with our venue, the Estrel, about our concerns, they assured us that the show didn’t need to include that kind of content. Still cautious, since cultural sensitivities around sexualised content can vary widely, two of our lead organisers attended a show (on Estrel’s invitation) during a previously scheduled site visit to see for themselves. The show they attended was as Estrel had promised: various solo performers, singing in front of a band, wearing impersonator costumes. Some acts included fully-clothed backup performers. Based on that experience, we decided to go ahead with the show.
To our dismay, the show put on for WordCamp Europe partygoers included precisely the kind of sexualised content we had explained to the Estrel that we did not want at our event. Because this content came up toward the end of the show, we did not find out in time to be able to stop the show mid-progress.
Please know that moving forward, we’ll work even harder to ensure that the After Party at future editions of WordCamp Europe is welcoming and safe for everyone.
But wait, there’s more
We also really regret that some of you were initially turned away from enjoying the After Party. Simply put, we did not correctly estimate how many attendees would arrive and when, and we should have done a better job of understanding ahead of time how the venue would be keeping a count of party attendees. Security counted incoming guests but not outgoing guests, and between about 9pm and 11pm, we had to redirect people from the party to some other locations in order to meet fire code regulations.
With drinks tokens, we also made a mistake. Initially, we planned to give one token to each attendee. During the event, we mistakenly promised two each, and therefore they were not distributed equally.
We also should have done a better job of providing seating areas for attendees with mobility considerations.
Rounding out our regrets, we should have made water free for everyone at the beginning of the party. This was an oversight, and we’re sorry if anyone paid for water before we made the change with the venue and covered the cost of bottled water for everyone.
Committed to excellence
Though this and every other WordCamp is organised and staffed by volunteers, we have high standards for our work, and are committed to creating a safe and welcoming experience for attendees.
We’ve identified a number of ways that we didn’t meet our own expectations, or yours, this year. If you observed or experienced anything at WordCamp Europe that made you think, “well that could have gone better,” we encourage you to share this with our team, so we can improve. Here’s how:
- Contact us via contact form
- Email us at hello@wp-europe.org
- Comment on this post.
Thanks so much for attending WordCamp Europe 2019. We hope to see you next year in Porto!
Beautiful apology, but let’s not allow this awesome experience to be shadowed by a couple of “mistakes”! Everyone of you did a great job!
Who on earth was offended with that amazing show? it was a great after party and the performers were outstanding. I am sorry but i didn’t see anything wrong with the show. So now, a girl or girls dancing are a bad thing? Or Tina Turner impersonator had a non appropriate attire? If some people can’t understand or enjoy art without sexualising everything, we are in a very low point as a society.
Agree 100%
Had to leave earlier because I had a flight the next day so I had to pack, but I suppose that the “PC Brigade” was offended. Oh well. Sometimes I’m so glad that I was “made” in the 20th century. No PC existed at that time.
So many failures at this WordCamp. It was difficult to breathe in the after party area, didn’t get any drink and the show was really bad. Just get a DJ next time (the majority of us are young people). Besides this, the food was so-so, couldn’t find any meals with meat. Good luck and looking forward to next year!
Dude, for instance I love techno) But like a half of the attendees were above 40. I think the show was pretty balanced. I saw tons of grandma’s meatloaves at the party, while my friend who is vegetarian couldn’t find anything for himself. It’s improssible to please everyone, and there’s no point to put in under a microscope. Expecially because the party was pretty good.
It´s so great to be part of a community where things like the controversy over the party details are discussed in great transparency. Thanks a lot for the good work!
How sad that in this day and age you have to apologise for something so innocent. I hope these people will never go to a Madonna or Shakira concert, because they might die of shock.
Groetjes!
Thank you very much for this well written apology! A great example for not dismissing the complains and without being too defensive. Explaining things in public is hard, but transparency is important and you did a great job here. So again: Thank you very much for this fast reply. Let us be better next time. Lessons learned! 👍
You guys did a great job both at the conference and the afterparty (access to the party should really have been a bit more elaborated though)! And while we don’t mind everyone expressing themselves the way they prefer, why wouldn’t those who complained be more tolerant to those who want to listen to Tina Turner?:-)