This year’s Summer Camp was bound to be interesting even before it started. We changed the brand, added a new topic, moved to a new venue, and were curious and eager to see how our participants would respond to the transition. Well, it turns out we had no reason to worry. :)
Ivo and I have already told the story of the Summer Camp evolution. We’ve even heard a tale of the development of the Camp’s logo over the years written by Hrvoje T. Now it’s time to hear about Web Summer Camp 2016, first of its name, fifth in the line of summer camps!
#websc in numb3r5
- 5th Summer Camp
- over 130 participants from 21 countries
- 19 sponsors, supporters, and media partners
- 1 DebugMan Triathlon
- 8 companions
- 3 topics
- 23 workshops
- 27 speakers
- 7 Web Battle unconference speakers
- 100% companions have said they would like to come again and recommend our Companions track to others
- 99% of the participants would recommend coming to Web Summer Camp to others
- 4.29 was the average rate of the selected workshops and topics, and 4.64 the rate of Web Summer Camp overall
- virtual machine installation received an average rating of 4.36 - a considerable improvement in comparison with the previous year, something on which we've worked hard
- 92% said they can apply the information presented at the workshops at their work
- 44% were our returning participants
The brightest part, however, were not these numbers, but the comments and suggestions you left us in the questionnaire. Not to brag, but a lot of them went along these lines. ;)
"I LOVE WSC! simply perfect"
"You did a GREAT JOB :)"
"You're so f**king awesome!"
We are here for the community and have already started working on further improving our conference. Your feedback is an integral part of that process - thank you for sharing your thoughts!
#websc value
We are proud to be one of the rare talks-free conferences. Our Camp offers practical knowledge and first-hand experience - not the easiest, but definitely the most rewarding concept.
The Design topic has proven to be a welcome addition to our more technical tracks, opening the Camp to designers, project managers, content strategists, and any other web professionals interested in web solutions. Credit for that goes mostly to our expert speakers, their engaging workshops, and, as it should be, to the participants who enjoyed the workshops and actively took part in them.
Other topics had nice anniversaries this year. PHP topic, this year in 2 tracks as well as the last, celebrated its 3rd and eZ Publish topic its 5th year!
The after-workshops activities and extras served as relaxation points after a hard-working day. The news this year were the DebugMan game, developed by our summer interns Lora and Marko, evening tequila hangout in one of our favorite Rovinj places, La Concha restaurant, and the closing night raffle being held on the Red Island.
Your positive feedback regarding the game gladdened us and the students. And we have concluded that La Concha hangouts of any kind need to be moved to the final night so we can recuperate on the boat trip. :)
The best of all was seeing all of you hanging out together. Stepping out of your comfort zone is admittedly difficult, so kudos to everyone for using the Camp as an opportunity to network and mingle some more!
Let us not forget the alleviating factors that make these workshop-filled days fun and relaxing, too - the sea, the sun, the coast - in the alignment with our motto, learning & fun.
#websc companions
For years now we have had participants bringing their families with them and for the first time this year we managed to put together an organized track for the companions. This way the participants can take part in workshops while their companions discover the wonders of Istria and then together enjoy the evening Camp activities.
Your excellent reactions have already confirmed the Companion track for the next year! We hope to have even more companions in 2017 and are working on the program as we speak.
#websc behind the scenes
Staying in Rovinj proved to be the right decision and changing the venue made the organizers' lives a bit easier. :) Lone’s wifi was stable, halls commodious, and the overall impression wonderful. Introducing the early registrations and welcome drinks on the day before the official start of the Camp facilitated the getting-to-know-each-other part.
We have a lot to think about for the next year - what to change, how to change it, and how to improve the overall summer camp experience. Our work on Web Summer Camp 2017 started on September 5, wish us luck! :)
#websc impressions
Of course we’d say Web Summer Camp is the place to be. But there are others who think so as well. :) Here are some 2016 reviews that came in!
- On his interesting bike tour blog, our speaker Dan Leech wrote a part on his travel to Rovinj and Web Summer Camp.
- Bruno Škvorc of SitePoint, this year a speaker, wrote about the reasons you shouldn't miss Web Summer Camp.
- Our returning speaker David Buchmann of our silver sponsors Liip wrote a short summary of the PHP topic.
- Design speaker Marko Dugonjić of our bronze sponsor Creative Nights wrote about this brand-new Camp topic.
- Amphinicy Technologies also wrote about the Design topic they participated in.
- Our eZ Publish topic speaker David Christian Liedle of our gold sponsor eZ Systems wrote down his #websc impressions.
- Mia Biberović of our media partners Netokracija wrote two interesting articles on Kate Towsey's and Joe Leech’s Design workshops (in Croatian).
Once again, thank you all and see you in 2017!
