Voices of the Community
Voices of the Community is a series of small, informal, in-person gatherings of local WordPress and open source communities across North America.
Connecting the WordPress Community
Voices of the Community is an experiment in community connection, with five primary goals.
Connection
Strengthen the WordPress and open source community through in-person time together.
Expression
Provide a focused space to share perspectives and co-create a vision for the future.
Remuneration
Treat community organizing as labor, and pay for it.
Localization
Root each gathering in its own community to encourage diverse perspectives and experiences.
Action
Surface ideas and visions worth sharing, developing, and funding.
About the Events
Each event reflects its local community, with a few common components.
- A facilitator/emcee and/or a featured speaker or two share some brief thoughts on the topic.
- Toward the end of the event, participants are invited to briefly share their thoughts to the group.
- Attendees are invited to share their thoughts and opinions with the WPOCC during and after the event.
The thoughts, perspectives, and ideas that surface at each event will be collected and shared with the greater WPOCC community and at future events.
How It Works
Each event is hosted by members of the WPOCC in two paid roles: the organizer and the facilitator. The hosts and event production are supported by the WPOCC logistically and financially, as every organizer and facilitator is a paid WPOCC contractor.
- Organizer: Handles the venue, food, logistics, and guest list.
- Facilitator: Hosts the room, guides the conversation on the shared question, and closes the loop with attendees.
Interested in Hosting an Event?
Why Voices of the Community
- In our 2026 State of the Community survey, respondents said the same thing again and again: they want more meaningful, low-key, in-person connection.
- We believe that unpaid labor is a big driver of the burnout we’ve seen in our communities and we want to model paying community organizing for the open source community.
- Slack, group chats, social media, and issue threads are full of great ideas. We want to give the community an opportunity to take their connections a little further and make the time and space for the ideas that deserve deeper discussion.
- We believe that more connected community is more likely to show up. Voices of the Community is produced with the intention to support the WordPress ecosystem, including WordCamps, WordPress meetups, and the WordPress.org events plan.
Voices of the Community Events
Thursday, November 5
Voices of the Community, Eh?
Launch party for the Voices of the Community program
Vancouver, BC · November 5, 2026 · 7pm to 9pm