As I’ve announced on our Twitter, as well as noted on our registration page – as of last week, WordCamp Chicago is a sold out event! The venue we booked, the UBS Tower Michicgan Ballroom, has a max capacity of 200, so we had to cap our ticket sales at 200 and we, unfortunately, are not able to over book beyond that number.
I cannot begin to tally up the number of emails I’ve received from folks who didn’t get to register in time before the tickets sold out. As a result of that, I did call the organizers at the UBS Tower to find out if we could squeeze in more – – one more? 5 more..10? The answer was no. They have some pretty strict fire codes in downtown Chicago and we’re not allowed to bring in more than the maximum of 200.
While, on some level, I would like to apologize for not being able to accommodate more people this year – – I’m really pleased with the turn out and interest in the very first WordCamp Chicago event. We really appreciate everyone interest in a WordCamp hosted in the Windy City, though – and will most definitely keep this in mind for our planning efforts for next year.
For the people who have emailed in – please know that if there were a way for me to sneak in another person or two, I would do it in a heartbeat. It’s not that we don’t want you there – we just cannot support the numbers this year.
I have, however, been able to make connections between some people who registered early, but found they needed to cancel. These folks have been able to sell their tickets to people who didn’t make the registration deadline. At this time, I don’t know of anyone who has tickets up for grabs due to cancellation – but will keep my ears open over the next week and if I hear of any, I will surely let people know. We want as many people as possible to benefit from the great weekend we have planning in Chicago next week.
Thanks for your patience and understanding!
Hey
On one hand, I want to say congrats on the numbers and interest. On the other, something like this is unfortunate, a disappointment. I’d expect organizers to be prepared for situations like this, by always having a backup plan; in the event of unexpected changes (numbers) what other options do we have? These are questions you must consider and ask potential venues before agreeing to a contact. We’re talking about a big city like Chicago and WordPress blogging software. You could easily get 300 or 400 people, we all know how some folks are, because of time and money, they can’t sign up for things ahead of time.
I understand fire laws and what not, but I’m disappointed with WordPress organizers on this one. No hard feelings, and WordPress still rocks! 🙂
-Mig
Mig, your frustration is understandable. Because we had to put down a deposit on the room in order to reserve it, and we had no idea how many people would be registering – we had to go with something that was big enough and within our budget. We put out feelers before deciding on a venue and had about 80 people voice an interest in attending WordCamp. I’m glad we decided to go with a venue that can hold as many as 200!
Hope to see you next year!
I think that it is smart for organizers to start small, and that WordCamps should remain smaller rather than larger. That way when people can attend, they can meet and greet as many people as possible without getting overwhelmed or missing out on the chance to meet someone due to sheer numbers. I give huge props for you guys sticking to a 200 person event size. If I wanted a big conference, there are many other events for that.
Lisa & David,
Understandable, appreciate both responses. Maybe next time, when will you all visit Chicago again? Good point David, any event can be overwhelming, sizes doesn’t matter that much, small coffee shops and class rooms can feel overwhelming. I went to Coffee fest in chicago, now that was overwhelming! Not only because of the amount of people, plenty of other factors make a situation/event overwhelming. Cheers!
Best,
-Mig