The biggest news this week was the cancellation of WordCamp Asia due to recent COVID-19 concerns. An official post on the conference site provides guidance for registration and travel refunds. 😷
Naoko Takano, one of the organizers, notes that the decision was sad, but at least the event has helped people connect. 1,500 participants were expected to attend.
The community has been showing its support. WordFence created a fund of $10,000 to assist with airline and hotel change fees. Yoast, GoDaddy, and ServMask all contributed $10,000 each to this fund as well.
Although many people were involved in this decision, ultimately it fell to Matt Mullenweg to make it. I can personally relate to the stress of having to cancel large conferences, and I think in this case it was justified. Matt said they’re exploring whether speakers can still give their presentations online, although the organizing team stated later that they were not planning an online event.
