WordFest 2021 – Standing Out Among Virtual Events

WordFest 2021 – Standing Out Among Virtual Events

Big Orange Heart has been working for more than nine months to bring a unique experience for people to gather at online. Opting for the term “Festival” over “Conference”, they are hoping to create an experience that reduces the cognitive load that some virtual events have required. They believe tech shouldn’t be the barrier to connect with a community, the WordPress community in this case.

Keep reading to learn more about WordFest Live 2021.

Why make it a festival?

Festival – noun – /ˈfes.tɪ.vəl/
A festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect of that community.

BOH’s goal for this event was for it to be a gathering of like-minded people, willing to share their knowledge and experiences with each other. As well as, they want to introduce elements of fun and celebration, this will come as the community gathers together. What better way to do that than through a “festival?” People worldwide are facing individual and collective challenges right now, so BOH is encouraging attendees to rally together, support one another, laugh, cry and generally be that wonderful WordPress community so many of us know and love.

How can I learn more about WordFest 2021?

WorldFest Live 2021 has a comprehensive site that allows users to sign up to attend the festival for free, or you can make a donation if you are in the position to do so. There already have over 2,000 attendees signed up! (Site visitors can also find out more about becoming a sponsor on the site.)

The Festival will feature 48 sessions, held over 24 hours, across four different stages. The schedule is available here.

The festival will have almost 50 speakers, and their information can be found here.

Why does BOH use events for support?

Big Orange Heart is a registered charity and relies on donations and support from the industry. They have tried a number of sponsorship models, with varying success and found that the ones that lend sponsorship to being directly beneficial for those purchasing it was the most sustainable.

This model enables companies to sponsor an event that they themselves can participate in and meet with their potential customer base. And, at the same time, they are supporting well-being and mental health for the remote working communities they serve, indirectly. BOH has found a true win-win situation.

How is WordFest Live 2021 being considerate towards its carbon footprint?

BOH has always had an awareness of its carbon footprint and has a true desire to do more to help reduce it. The introduction of WordFest Live 2021 and its additional demands on server capacity to deliver a truly global event, put them on a mission to invest some time to find a way to help offset this increase in carbon. They settled on a solution of using a service called Ecologi. You can visit their profile here.  At the time of publishing, they have off-set nearly three tons of CO2 with almost 100 trees planted.

Big Orange Heart on Ecologi

Visit WordFest Live 2021

Author

  • Robbie Adair

    Robbie started her career in corporate training until starting her own custom training and media company almost seventeen years ago. In 2010, she began doing classroom training for OSTraining while running Media A-Team. She is often presenting about various tech topics such as Joomla, Fabrik, Web Development, Social Media, and Augmented Reality. She loves seeing that "ah-ha" moment in peoples eyes in her sessions and workshops. She lives in Houston, Texas, but enjoys all the travel for client work and speaking gigs.

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