WordCamp Sydney 2016 Budget & Costs

To embrace the open source nature of WordCamps we’d like to share our operating budget with you so you can see the breakdown of costs, money in and money out.

The budget spreadsheet is based on a modified Google Sheets template supplied by WordCamp Central.

We ran the event management through Linux Australia who looked after event insurance, liability and finances (bank & invoicing).

Ticket sales were through CampTix and PayPal which is built into the WordCamp website template.

We operated with a 10% across-board contingency just in case anything unexpected happened.

The aim was to bring the budget in as close to break even as possible.  We don’t plan to make profit on WordCamps.

Any losses would have been absorbed by Linux Australia and any profits are distributed by Linux Australia to future open source conferences in Australia also managed by Linux Australia.

We had additional sheets/tabs for Vendors, Sponsors, After Party, Schedule, Volunteers, Speakers and Swag to help manage numbers, ordering, scheduling, catering etc.  They contain some private information so we’re not sharing those.

PDF: WordCamp Sydney 2016 Budget

On the budget in the top right are three cost scenarios, Low, Medium and High.

Low cost is based on money in just from ticket sales.
Medium cost is with additional food, water and AV (audio & visual).
High cost is with additional swag, after party and speakers dinner.

The Low cost scenario is based on the minimum we needed to pay to bring a WordCamp to life; venue, insurance, and ticket fees.

Medium and High cost scenarios can only be achieved with the addition of sponsorship money and that’s what makes for a great memorable conference.

We truly could not bring an event of this scale to you without the money donated from our kind sponsors.

If you’re interested in organising a WordCamp in your local area and don’t know where to start, hopefully this budget will give you a starting place.

Feel free to get in contact with us if you have any specific budget questions.

#WCSyd Team

WordCamp is tomorrow!

Wow didn’t that come around fast?  WordCamp Sydney is on tomorrow!

We’ve had a couple of speaker changes and unfortunate last minute cancellations but our schedule is now finalised.

Rego opens at 8:30 tomorrow.  Bring along the email with your ticket purchase confirmation on it and show it at the desk to get your badge.

There’s a great line up of speakers this year but remember to network and talk to people too.

Check out Wil’s Making the Most of WordCamp Sydney post for some handy tips.

See you tomorrow!

 

WP Bosses at WordCamp Sydney

wpbosses-itunes-artworkIf you haven’t heard of WP Bosses yet, we’re a community of WordPressers from Australia, here to spread WP cheer around the country.

We started a youtube channel in mid-July where we host interviews with WP Aussies and share the news with anyone who will tune-in.

We thought WordCamp Sydney would be the perfect place to meet lots of new people and do some lightning interviews. We’re not after anyone in particular, it doesn’t matter if you’re only learning about WordPress for the first time at the conference. There’s always someone who will listen.

The sessions at WordCamps are filmed and uploaded to WordPress.tv, but what about the mingling and the meeting new people, and the conversations between sessions? Some would argue that that is their favourite part.

rode-videomic-me-004For those of you unable to make it to WordCamp, whether it’s due to accessibility issues, dates not aligning, finances not in the greatest shape at the moment (don’t worry, I’ve been there), then we’d at least like to try to bring some of that hallway chat to the viewers at home. Even if you did go, you might (virtually) meet some new people you didn’t get a chance to approach at the event.

So if you do see someone approaching you holding a selfie stick with a big furball (that’s the mic) attached to their phone, it’s likely us coming to ask a few quick and friendly questions. So please don’t run away  🙂

Robey,
WP Bosses