Write the Docs 2020 conferences going virtual¶
Hello everyone,
We hope that you’re holding up during these trying times. We are all stuck at home, but still thinking about our docs community :)
Due to the global events and travel restrictions, which are not expected to relax in the near future, we concluded that we must cancel our on-site Portland and Prague conferences this year. Even if the official travel and event restrictions will be relaxed by the scheduled dates, the safety of the community and everyone else comes first, so we are converting the conferences to online-only virtual events with an adjusted format.
The Portland virtual conference will be held in August, exact dates will be announced soon. The Prague virtual conference will be held in the Autumn, exact dates and Call for Proposals announcement will be announced in early summer.
Your Portland conference ticket¶
If you currently have a ticket to Write the Docs Portland, your options are:
- Pre-order a ticket to the online event for 25% and get a refund for the remaining 75% of your original ticket amount.
- Convert your existing ticket into a virtual ticket pass, valid for all of our online events until the end of 2021. We plan to move Portland & Prague online this year at least, and offer similar online events next year. Support the Write the Docs organization by helping us cover operating expenses for the next year and a half.
- Get a full refund of your original ticket amount on May 15th, 2020. This option will happen automatically if you don’t select either of the previous options.
Please fill in the ticket processing form to let us know which option you prefer.
We’ll be reaching out to all of our sponsors to talk about moving their sponsorship to our online event, and we are excited about offering new sponsorship benefits available thanks to the new format.
What format will the online event have?¶
We’re looking at ways to keep the spirit of our events in a virtual format, so that the event will act as a gathering place for the community.
- Writing Day, where the community works on projects and learns from each other. These will work well remotely.
- Unconference, where our community has discussions and shares ideas. We think our Slack network already approximates this pretty well, but we’ll be adding a little extra structure and moderation during the event to help keep the discussions productive and friendly.
- Presentations, where we share ideas, insights, and best practices. We’re investigating live and pre-recorded options, with curated and real-time Q&A with speakers and other experts.
- Job Fair, matching attendees to sponsors and jobs. We’ll be building on our Job Board, offering our sponsors the ability to showcase the work they’re doing and the roles they’re hiring for.
- Unfortunately, our Hike or Boat Ride can’t be done online, but we’d love it if you go out and enjoy a small bit of your local woods or water, at socially responsible distances, on our behalf, and share your pictures or videos with the community.
Let’s make the most out of the “new normal”¶
We are sad not to be able to have our upcoming events in person, but there are some great benefits to converting the events to an online format. The biggest benefit is accessibility to the event itself, since people who haven’t been able to travel to our events will be able to speak and attend the virtual events, making the events more accessible to everyone. The lower ticket price will also help more people from all walks of life attend the event.
We’re working hard on putting something in your calendar to get excited about, and we’re doing the same thing we always do, facilitating knowledge sharing and social connections within our community.
Stay tuned and take care of yourselves and your loved ones,
The Write the Docs Team
