This post summarizes the WordCamp program for 2017. WordCamps in 2016 was also recently posted if you’d like to take a look!
In 2017, over 41,000 WordPress enthusiasts came together at 128 different WordCamps to spend a day or three talking about WordPress, the free and open source software that now powers 29% of the internet!
WordCamps were held in 48 different countries in 2017, with events in 6 continents: Africa, Asia, Australia/Oceania, Europe, North America, and South America.
As you can see in the chart below, the number of WordCamps continues to steadily increase.
| 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | |
| Total number of WordCamps Year-over-year growth |
128 11% |
115 29% |
89 11% |
80 13% |
71 6% |
| WordCamps in the US Year-over-year growth |
49 2% |
48 14% |
42 -2% |
43 39% |
31 -9% |
| WordCamps outside the US Year-over-year growth |
79 18% |
67 43% |
47 27% |
37 -8% |
40 21% |
| Total number of unique speakers Year-over-year growth |
2,346 13% |
2,056 23% |
1,677 0% |
1,676 43% |
1,176 34% |
| Total number of unique sessions Year-over-year growth |
3,085 16% |
2,635 23% |
2,135 -9% |
2,355 50% |
1,565 62% |
| Total number of unique sponsors Year-over-year growth |
1,118 6% |
1,036 16% |
891 -1% |
896 72% |
522 5% |
| Total number of WordCamp tickets sold (rounded to the nearest 500) Year-over-year growth |
over 41,500 12% |
over 32,500 16% |
over 21,000 5% |
over 20,000 8% |
over 19,000 8% |
Detailed data and information for 2017 is below if you choose to read more!
WordCamp Organizers in 2017
- Number of unique organizers: 990
- Number of first time organizers: 641
WordCamp Speakers in 2017
- Total number of unique speakers: 2,346
- Number of first time speakers: 1,384
- 30% Women Speakers (up from 28% in 2016)
WordCamp Sessions in 2017
- Total number of unique sessions: 3,085
WordCamp Sponsors in 2017
- Total number of unique sponsors: 1,118
- Number of first-time sponsors: 726
WordCamp Attendees in 2017
- Total number of WordCamp tickets sold: 41,432
- WordCamp Europe tickets sold: 2,475 (3500 with live stream tickets)
- WordCamp US tickets sold: 1,644 (2618 with live stream tickets)
- Average number of tickets sold per WordCamp: 252.1
Trends and analysis
Average number of attendees = 252.1: This is an increase from the past few years in which the average was demonstrating a downward trend. This is probably due to the increase in tickets sold for flagship events.
What else did the Community team do in 2017?
- Launched credit card payments for sponsors.
- Transitioned the Community Team from SupportPress to Help Scout.
- Launched the Events Widget Plugin, which was merged to core in 4.8.
- Launched a new Mentor Tool, the Planning Checklist.
- Launched the Deputy Training module.
- A new WordCamp base theme by the WordCamp Europe team, “CampSite 2017”, was released. (#, #)
Questions?
If there’s a figure above that you’d like to learn more about, or an observation you’d like to share based on the data here, please respond with a comment!