{"id":3804,"date":"2019-10-28T20:27:05","date_gmt":"2019-10-29T03:27:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/2019.longbeach.wordcamp.org\/?page_id=3804"},"modified":"2019-10-31T19:31:30","modified_gmt":"2019-11-01T02:31:30","slug":"50-positives","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/longbeach.wordcamp.org\/2019\/50-positives\/","title":{"rendered":"50 Positives"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

50 Actions We’re Proud Of<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A lot changed from the earliest conceptual stages through the Pre-Planning Phase and Planning Phase<\/strong> – even up until the event weekend itself. We came to most of our biggest decisions through collaborative discussion – dissecting problems, brainstorming solutions, and experimenting with possibilities until we found a workable action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are some of the actions we’d do again<\/strong>. Not everything we wanted to do was possible – but many things were.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

4 Ground-Breaking Firsts<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
  1. Inaugurating<\/strong> Sunday’s Future of WordPress single track<\/a>, the first of its kind in the world<\/a><\/li>
  2. Designing<\/strong> a coded, double-sided badge that doubled as a ticket for t-shirts and boxed lunches without revealing actual shirt sizes and lunch preferences<\/li>
  3. Arranging<\/strong> t-shirts and lunches on tables in the Sponsor Gallery in coded U-Pick systems for attendees to match their badge ticket codes to their own t-shirts and boxed lunches, while event day Volunteers assisted<\/li>
  4. Writing <\/strong>“A History of Los Angeles WordPress Meetup”<\/a><\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n
    \n\n\n\n

    11 Atypical Decisions We’d Choose Again<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
    1. Carving<\/strong> out a pregnant\/nursing parents space from the Green Room close to all the programming in the same building<\/li>
    2. Collecting<\/strong> vendor estimates as a team and building our Approved Budget together<\/li>
    3. Creating<\/strong> a quirky social media and public relations voice<\/li>
    4. Conducting<\/strong> a blind Speaker selection with a diverse committee of WordPress specialists<\/li>
    5. Paying<\/strong> a highly-skilled professional film crew<\/a> to film and edit all our Speaker footage<\/li>
    6. Reserving<\/strong> tables with visual signs at the front of each programming room for attendees with accessibility needs<\/li>
    7. Showcasing<\/strong> a big, front-and-center Happiness Bar in the Sponsor Gallery<\/li>
    8. Offering<\/strong> gluten-free, vegan, and vegetarian options at all meal, snack, and dessert times<\/li>
    9. Gathering<\/strong> outside under cheerful umbrellas for Saturday’s picnic table lunch <\/li>
    10. Gifting<\/strong> our guests a free instant print photo booth<\/a> at our After Party<\/li>
    11. Building <\/strong>a public archive<\/a> of generic versions of some of our organizing documents to share with other WordCamp organizing teams<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n
      \n\n\n\n

      35 Other Actions We’re Happy We Did<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
      1. Organizing<\/strong> as much as possible ahead of time <\/li>
      2. Embracing<\/strong> a Streamline Moderne visual theme enhanced with bolder colors and cues from nautical logistics, a marriage between historic Long Beach and the contemporary city<\/li>
      3. Adopting<\/strong> the tagline, “WordPress: the Port to the Wider Internet”<\/li>
      4. Designing<\/strong> our logo, our Wapu named Shippu, and our line of adorable stickers<\/li>
      5. Blogging<\/strong> a series of posts called “Explore Long Beach”<\/a> to introduce readers to our culture and local eateries<\/li>
      6. Combining<\/strong> experienced and newer Organizers into one team<\/li>
      7. Recruiting<\/strong> Speakers<\/a> and Volunteers<\/a> strategically and assertively, sometimes directly<\/li>
      8. Asking<\/strong> Sponsors<\/a> for exactly what we wanted outright<\/li>
      9. Listening<\/strong> to what Sponsors really wanted and adjusting our package benefits to fit their reasonable requests<\/li>
      10. Promoting<\/strong> a variety of Special Sponsorships to raise funds faster and offer more branding opportunities to Sponsors<\/li>
      11. Reserving<\/strong> venues for our Speaker\/Sponsor\/Volunteer Dinner, main event, and After Party where all spaces were fully wheelchair and scooter accessible<\/li>
      12. Prepping<\/strong> together in-person<\/li>
      13. Funding<\/strong> an Organizer Dinner the night before everything kicked off<\/li>
      14. Inviting<\/strong> all Micro-Sponsors to the Speaker\/Sponsor\/Volunteer Dinner<\/li>
      15. Sourcing<\/strong> locally-grown succulents and locally-crafted soap as Speaker Thank You gifts<\/li>
      16. Communicating<\/strong> with our team during the weekend at the main venue on walkie talkies<\/li>
      17. Splitting<\/strong> the tracks on Saturday between Users and Professionals, atypical but intuitive<\/li>
      18. Hiring<\/strong> a CART services team to write transcripts in real-time for both weekend attendees and future WordPress.tv<\/a> viewers<\/li>
      19. Honoring<\/strong> the environment by limiting our distribution of swag<\/li>
      20. Limiting<\/strong> free t-shirt giveaways to early bird ticket buyers<\/li>
      21. Opting<\/strong> for more expensive signage made from more reusable materials, and then donating the signs back to the printer<\/li>
      22. Donating<\/strong> our uneaten lunches to the Long Beach Rescue Mission<\/a><\/li>
      23. Working<\/strong> closely with our Mentor<\/a> to plan our Approved Budget<\/li>
      24. Shopping<\/strong> diligently for vendors we liked who were within budget<\/li>
      25. Padding<\/strong> our expenses throughout the planning process in order to account for unplanned expenses and stay under budget<\/li>
      26. Acknowledging<\/strong> when problems were happening and taking our time to understand them<\/li>
      27. Finding<\/strong> solutions to problems or admitting when problems were beyond fixing<\/li>
      28. Choosing<\/strong> to collaborate<\/a> over working in silos or in isolation<\/li>
      29. Voting<\/strong>, asking for feedback, and reaching consensus when decisions affected all of us<\/li>
      30. Confiding<\/strong> in our Mentor when planning or interpersonal difficulties arose<\/li>
      31. Recording<\/strong> all weekly meetings<\/a>, some special meetings, some Mentor meetings<\/a>, and our initial orientation with Central<\/a><\/li>
      32. Mapping<\/strong> out benchmarks in a General Calendar, Content Calendar, and Content Chart<\/a><\/li>
      33. Documenting<\/strong> details in transparent lists and charts, which helped us hold our small teams accountable and track data<\/li>
      34. Expressing<\/strong> dissent, dissapointment, and other not completely positive feedback in a straightforward way<\/li>
      35. Abandoning<\/strong> or overriding our own systems when we needed to<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n
        <\/div>\n\n\n\n
        Read Our List of
        16 Actions & Inactions We DON’T Recommend<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        50 Actions We’re Proud Of A lot changed from the earliest conceptual stages through the Pre-Planning Phase and Planning Phase – even up until the event weekend itself. We came to most of our biggest decisions through collaborative discussion – dissecting problems, brainstorming solutions, and experimenting with possibilities until we found a workable action. Here … Continue reading 50 Positives<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17001349,"featured_media":2864,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3804","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/PaUlkV-Zm","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/longbeach.wordcamp.org\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/longbeach.wordcamp.org\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/longbeach.wordcamp.org\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/longbeach.wordcamp.org\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17001349"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/longbeach.wordcamp.org\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3804"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/longbeach.wordcamp.org\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3804\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4018,"href":"https:\/\/longbeach.wordcamp.org\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3804\/revisions\/4018"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/longbeach.wordcamp.org\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/longbeach.wordcamp.org\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}