Inclusivity starts with awareness

On behalf of the WCEU organizing team, I would like to thank our muslim community members, and M Asif Rahman in particular, for bringing us greater awareness, so that we can continue to improve and accomplish our mission of making WordCamp Europe truly accessible and inclusive.

The choice of dates for our annual event starts with the application process, when local communities apply to host future editions of WordCamp Europe, and is shaped by a number of factors, including:

  • The venue’s availability.
  • A hard requirement to be at least 5 months apart from WordCamp US.
  • Local bank holidays and school vacation periods.
  • WordCamp traditionally falling on a Friday-Saturday.

Whereas we were aware of the period of Ramadan, which has fallen around our event dates for the last two years, we were ignorant of the fact that the dates we had chosen for our upcoming event June 14-16, 2018, fall more specifically on Eid al-Fitr, a special day of observance.

After learning of this, we went back to the venue and tried to change weekends. We deeply regret that we were not able to at this late date, and offer our sincere apologies to all those who will not be able to attend in 2018 because of this conflict.

Looking ahead, we are happy to see that our mid-June dates will no longer fall during Ramadan at all for at least the next three years. And what’s more, we now have this valuable lesson to bring to future organizing teams and host cities, bringing us all greater awareness, improving our processes and continuing to provide a welcoming, inclusive experience for all.

Please believe us when we say that this truly is important to us, that we really do care.

8 Replies to “Inclusivity starts with awareness”

  1. Have been talking about this issue since WordCamp US 2015 and was the only reason we couldn’t attend WordCamp Europe each time. But regardless all the issues and problems, we attended WC Europe this year and supported the event by sponsoring from weDevs and was looking forward to the 2018’s WordCamp.

    That post was written with frustration by not being heard for a long time. Finally it felt really good to know that you guys took our word and reacted to solve the issue. It would’ve been nice if the conflict could be avoided, but at least you guys tried your best. Looking forward to attend WordCamp Europe in 2019 🙂

    1. Thank you once again for making the trip out and supporting WCEU 2017. Hope to see you again at a future camp…and definitely in 2019!

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