Is a WordCamp ever really over? Well, yes, sadly. Before you dust off your hands and move on to something else, though, you’ll need to take care of a few things in order to call it a day.
- Balance your budget. Make sure your account is clear with all vendors, record any expenses or income that has not yet been tallied, and figure out where you stand financially. Submit your final budget to WordCamp Central.
- Send a thank you note (or email) to every speaker, sponsor/supporter, and volunteer. Also send thank you notes to your contacts at your vendors; the people you worked with at the venue and local businesses will appreciate the gesture. Be sure to include some event stats in your email, to give an idea of how many people benefited from their support.
- Get all the video processed and posted to WordPress.tv. Name your files with city code, speaker’s last name, session title (or keywords) and the date of the presentation. This will ensure nothing gets lost in the shuffle. Example: pdx-wells-how-decisions-get-made-091810.mov
- Send a follow-up email to all attendees. Thank them for coming, make any lost/found announcements, and recommend they get involved with the local WordPress meetup group to keep the love going all year long. Include a link to the follow-up survey that WordCamp Central will provide to get feedback from your attendees.
- Pack up and ship back any supplies that came from WordCamp Central. Put one of your event t-shirts and stickers (and/or any custom printed swag you had made for the event) in the box so it can be added to the WordCamp archive.
- Get some rest: you’ve earned it!
And of course, don’t forget to blog!
We published a number of blog posts after our event. The first was a quick post with links to interesting resources like videos, slides and photos.
Later, we published a photo gallery and then the results of our feedback survey. All of which helped reignited the discussion about the event, and also the next event.