 Thank you for being here and let's start with this, you know, I'm European. I like to go fancy This is Julius Caesar depictic during the Renaissance 51 years after What we consider the date of Christ so? 51 common era Julius Caesar crossed the Rhine and Conquers north Europe Well, we now call France at that time was populated by more than 800 tribes and The Roman Empire was just in the south and in the Mediterranean area of Europe and Has a very interesting characteristic from the army they had the army was extremely extremely organized From the last footman to the first general Everybody knew what they were doing and everybody was compact on the other end There were 800 tribes that they were completely scattered in the land And when they decided to invade the Roman Empire made sure to apply a strategy called the Vita et Impera that means divide and conquer making sure that none of them were communicated with each other so they could not form alliances and And be Competitive on the ground and actually it went that way So the Roman Empire wiped out one after the other with no major effort And they got it to the north of Europe 2000 years after that Europe has Interesting landmarks. So if you travel in Europe and you go to major cities or even small towns you find Relics of that time you find buildings that they are coming from that era and Europe is still Something that we see very fragmented. We see it very fragmented way more when we are there than when we see it from outside only after the World War two and from the ashes of our continent that was completely destroyed Things started to change in that sense in 1957 we had the Treaty of Rome where a few countries like six seven countries they got together and they decided to start have something like economic growth together ten years after we had the European community and Only 1993 we have something that is what we have now the European Union the European Union and two years after the Schengen agreement to started to to effect and What is the what is the consequence of all of this? things That for European citizens now traveling across borders is free So we don't have passport control when we go between Austria and Germany We don't have passport control between Italy and Austria in other countries so we travel freely across borders and we can purchase with the same currency in the entire continent almost almost Not every country is in the eurozone But most of them are and even countries that they don't have euros their currency they accept payments in euro near the border and sometimes even in the capital city and The real game changer is the fact that we all speak the same language Europe has a common language for every country not really Nope nine and noon We don't Every country is holding really strong to their to their language Because the language is very eradicated in the culture and the culture is very connected with the language And no one wants to give away that the roots that they have and it's fine that way however, creates problems when you have to talk to each other and So many different languages are still a European struggle We still find those Borders that they're not there anymore when we trade. They're not there anymore when we buy but they're there when we try to talk to each other and If there's one thing that we do really well is the wordpress is we rocket languages So that was a big problem and wordpress started solving that And was really good at that. So we have a Lot of locals that they start that they are that they start first as languages But then as sub languages or because locals are located are Identifiable as a place not a language But still we had a lot of problem communicating with each other we had a lot of problem to understand a platform that was in English and so The initial sparkle of many European communities in wordpress starts with the need of solving the language barrier My name is Luca Sartoni. I work at automatic I am part of the Italian community and I am a co-organizer work in Europe and today I'm going to show you how work in Europe helped local communities to to reinvigorate so the first work in Europe happened in Leiden the Netherlands in 2013 The second one in Sofia Bulgaria and the third one this year in Seville, Spain and The next one will be in Vienna, Austria in June what was The work camp scene in Europe before work in Europe Work camps were supposed to be hyper local events because work camps they spring out of me ups and Meetups are very eradicated in the land So we had work camps that they were identifiable as a city sometimes as a country But most of the time they were just addressing communities. They were metropolitan areas And work in Europe for the first time Tried to do this to create something that was bigger than just the sum of the parts and the first group of organizers They were coming from different communities from different countries They said well, why don't we do something together? Why don't we just try to do something bigger and they spoke with the foundation they got that approved and they started this adventure With the question in their head with a big question mark. There was How it's gonna go how it's gonna How will Europe react are people gonna come to the event are people gonna just Know about it. Are they gonna travel? Which language are is the Italian community interested in an event in English? So there was this big question mark Because you know you organize an event you put together the venue and the carrying and all this stuff and then you end up just by yourself It's not pleasant. So this is the big the big fear of every organizer But in that case was really really strong so I heard about work in Europe in 13 and And I was like I'm gonna go check it out when there is an attendee and that man over there Was like I need volunteers Join and so I started volunteering and that was the first time that I volunteered at a work camp and Was amazing it was it was a life-changing experience for me and Since then I tried to contribute as much as I could to all the followings So that event started something For people that were there things were were pretty interesting because it was not before before was not like that But something bigger happened after something that was not In the plan was was expected maybe but not at that scale the local communities started to become stronger they got really really better and And there are a few reasons If we look at that now after three years running for the fourth year We I identified a few reason why They got better. So the first one is that work impure offers a stage a Stage that is just not the size of the stage But is the potential of the stage when you have an event that covers an entire continent You have speakers that they can address a way more diverse Audience you have people coming from different countries. You have different cultures. You have to You have to address all of them and so for speakers is very very engaging being in that stage at the same time people that they contribute with presentations they For the first time they have this large audience in front of them like rooms are bigger and More diverse more the feedback is different. You usually talk to your own To your own community, so Probably, you know most of them and then suddenly you are in front of a wider community Where you don't know many of them or it's the first time that you got to know them So the stage was the first was the first thing that happened because during the event is the major part of the event but then after that Things started to get even more interesting because we're computer sparks contribution My name is Petja, and I am from Sofia, Bulgaria. I Help translate WordPress and I help people who translate WordPress. I am a part of the polygloss team We have more than 70 Locals that are associated with places in Europe and languages that are Well, there are languages that have different types of different different Locals for formal and formal and they're locale specific their location specific languages as well We have German, but we also have Swiss German We have Spanish, but we also have a lot of different Spanish locals depending on the location where people speak Spanish So locales are not just languages there are languages as spoken in this particular place and Europe has a lot of places That speak maybe speak the same language, but they speak it in a different way because of the location. I think what Camp Europe opened up the contribution gates to a lot of people and What it's what it created was this period of togetherness that allowed a lot of people to go to different work camps and Participate in different communities So that also meant that people felt a lot more tease to actually start to contribute to WordPress What camp Europe did something very very important for the WordPress community in Europe because there are so many countries and so many active Communities but before 2013 they weren't really talking to each other There were people that were chatting online and contributing to WordPress and talking all the time that had never seen each other and What camp Europe 2013 changed that you put a face to an avatar You put a smile to like the reactions that you're used to in online interactions and it becomes a different Relationship it becomes something very very different and a lot stronger and What camp Europe did that for a lot of people who were already contributing but the thing that it did for me in particular and I believe for a lot of new people that were just getting Introduced to the community is that it just made you realize how many wonderful people are involved with this project and Made us feel welcome and made us want to stay and to contribute more So what camp Europe 2013 is for me is the reason I am so active in community today So a lot of people that they were experiencing this idea of contribution. I was attending work camps even before but for the first time for instance, I had a contributors day right after and And And after that I've seen contributors day coming up more often more frequently connected to other work camps Then work computer leads by example because when you organize an event of that size when you go over the usual 150 250 people you go bigger you need to have practices that There are more open you cannot just pull off an event of 600 700 a thousand people just like you would do for 150 so We had open applications for For many of the roles in the organization. We had applications for volunteers. We had applications for speakers We had applications for now we have applications for cities so if you want to host your neck the next Work computer you have to apply as a city and there is a process very transparent process and all these practices Help people to feel part of a home help people to understand that it's not about Who you know or about who you work with but it's something open you can take part of it and Now our computer bill is organized with a global team that covers all the All the parts that can be done remotely because the team is distributed It's and then there is a local team that takes part that takes care of the logistics for everything that happens on-site and that happens through An open application and very transparent practices then as I told you before Communities before work in Europe were very strong sometimes, but Don't forget there were countries that not many years ago We're at conflict with each other in Europe And if we go to Serbia and Croatia and Slovenia and Bosnia all that area Faced big challenges not long time ago. However Check this out My name is Milan and I'm one of the founders of WordPress Serbia as strange as it sounds But that is how we all met it was back in 2013 and the first work in Europe where a couple of my friends and colleagues introduced a couple of guys from Serbia and Croatia and At that time in Serbia. There was only one meet-up organized by Vladimir the founder of manage WP So as soon as I got back to Serbia We started brainstorming the organization of the free future WordPress meet-ups So when the hundred people showed up for the second Meet-up we we were sure that we did a great job We had to organize couple of WordPress meet-ups in order to get working back with approved so It will turn out that the birth camp Europe just started the whole avalanche of all the IT conferences and not just in Serbia, but the whole region There are a lot of groups derived from a WordPress Serbia group groups like customer happiness Groups like hosting Serbia. So we surely own that success to first work in Europe After the first one in in Leiden there were two more and this is from this is a picture from Bulgaria from Sofia and This is just a group of volunteers from Sevilla last June We had this experience of people that were getting more and more and more entangled in The mesh of work in Europe as soon as people started to get in contact. They could not leave There was no way to send them away It happened to many of us that are our part of the organization team But it happened to people to apply as soon as they got volunteers for the first one They started to apply and to be volunteers or speakers or being even more involved for the following ones It happened at every level including the attendance We had people that they Went to Leiden and they were traveling for the first time to go to a work camp And after that they started traveling to other work camps because they realized that in this Opportunity that the Europe offers you're never too far from another capital So if you live in a capital probably in a couple of hours you go to any other capital made the Europe to be even smaller and For communities that were already very strong, but a little isolated Also came a big change. My name is Casper. I live in Potsdam in Germany currently, I'm a blog editor on de wordpress.org and I recently started joining the forums forums team on the wordpress.org also the German community started out in 2004 with Translating WordPress into German which made WordPress very popular in Germany and in German speaking areas very quickly That same team that started translating WordPress also founded their own platform in German It seemed to happen that the German community from the outside looked quite introverted I oftentimes heard from people outside of Germany that we are perceived as very organized from the outside We are I think we're also often perceived as skeptic and harsh critics But we're also very hard-working and committed individuals here regarding Collaboration on a US central platform like WordPress.org Germans can get very suspicious also regarding leadership. I would say in a self-organizing community Germans tend to have quite a different take on leadership and hierarchies compared to maybe you guys Over there in the US We didn't feel the longing really over here and what can Europe change that completely? Suddenly there was a feeling of belonging. I would say the German community was Immensely impacted by the spirit of a word camp Europe for those people who went there actually I heard comments like it was a true eye-opener and it was like a wall-come-down experience for them Realizing that there are so many more people speaking WordPress I'm not locked into this community I can just travel and meet like-minded people all over the place talk about WordPress and learn and contribute and exchange and Make friends the good thing about us is When you finally gain us as friends you have us for a lifetime Nowadays members from the German community Contribute on make WordPress.org and they found meet-ups and organized word cams themselves and travel to other word cams And there's a great exchange with other communities in Europe for me personally the whole work can be because Europe experience was life-changing and is still today and I can feel that as it opened up something in me and I'm seeing the world differently today sitting here now actually and record this video for you guys and being someone from the German community talking to you guys and Sharing things from over here. I Think that wouldn't be have that that wouldn't be possible without having word camp Europe first and Haven't had that experience of opening up as a community So, um, yeah, thanks for your time. Thanks for listening. I think that's a thing I got for you today. Have a great work in work computer Next year would be in Vienna on the 24 25 and 26 of June and We still have tickets not many But we have them right The application for speakers is still open the application for volunteers is still open We still have a few tickets. So hurry up. They didn't want me to say that but hurry up and For everything you want to know about it and for accommodation travels go to Europe that work on the org is a little cutoff, but you can find it and Thank you very much. Thank you We have one Check that out. Do you think there will be a word camp earth in the future? Of course, so as we colonize Mars We can have work on Earth Yeah, that would be great Was up for organizing it was up for sponsoring look at that the usual suspects Yeah, please so normally like the workham. They hit like this, you know, normally this this tracks and then the closer That's too close. That's too close. So how do you how does Having like a multi-language like group button these influence the tracks you guys have like How do you handle it? So like it's what work on BNS is just going to be in Germany, yes Or how does that work like that language part? That's that's a great question The first work computer was in English Second one was in English the third one needed a little help because we thought that we were Growing enough and we wanted to try to offer also the local language as an option So we had real-time translation in Spanish. So the event was in English, but we had real-time translation in Spanish and That for the last work up. I was dealing with volunteers and I had many volunteers. They were Belingual so they were speaking English and Spanish. They were making they were our bridges But we had a few volunteers. They were Spanish only so we had first to bridge to them and then But it was amazing because it doesn't matter as soon as you are Somewhere all together with the same purpose and with the same spirit and sharing values You find a way like you point you talk slowly English is pretty much a common language And you know, we're in the taxine. So at the very end English helps In the future would be nice would be great to offer a multi-language experience because if we really want to go and we want to Address a wider audience and to open up even more We need to start looking into that and we know that we need to get there. So, you know It would be really really great to get to the point where To do like very very big conferences where you have Multiple languages covered from all the angles. So you have speakers that they speak their own language If they want or English and you have real-time translation for everybody that wants to have it that would be great And we'll get there. We don't have any plan to stop the conquering. So Work and be one. Yeah, well slowly. What's that? Thank you. That was really inspiring I'm curious because you've you've been to WordCamp Europe and WordCamp US and the previous one Is there a difference in the type of content that's being presented On the other side of the ocean from what is being presented here and the type of conversations that happen Yes Like every single work is different from the others every work by the definition of work and itself So it's very tied with the land and with the local culture express the local culture so When you go to When you go in Europe and you go to different work camps you have different feelings from different work camps the way The rooms are Convention center like this probably there are a few in Europe, but they are designed in a different way Here you have super high ceilings in Europe. You tend to have a little lower Here you have everything is designed for to be super accessible in Europe is a little more challenging Even if we're we're getting there All of those little details they highly impact the experience of WordCamp In here you have people that they really like to network a lot outside WordCamp Europe you have more focus on sessions So usually people rush in at the very beginning of every session then they rush out at the end of every session And that changes the experience that you have But I would not say that one is better than the other I would just say that they're very different and They are equally good Of course, you can always improve the experience and if you focus on your own experience and you give like These are things that they didn't go as I as we expected and we want to improve it. That is the natural evolution to get that What was the term that exponential growth that we were looking for? Thanks And do you have any comment about WordCamp Asia? Yes, I know nothing about it No, what do you think of the idea the idea is to have a WordCamp in Asia What is it? WordCamp Asia. Yeah, yeah WordCamp in Asia. I have no idea I've never heard of it. It's the first time that I hear and I cannot address that. Okay But why not then we just need WordCamp Africa I would love to have WordCamp Africa and WordCamp Antarctica But first we need WordCamp America. How about that? Yeah, nice good Okay, thank you. Welcome Well, thank you very much. Give yourself a round of applause and let's go for lunch