WordCamp Asia is tentatively back on the schedule of in-person WordPress events with new dates: February 17-19, 2023, in Bangkok, Thailand. It will begin with a Contributor day, followed by two conference days.

Asia’s inaugural flagship WordCamp was originally scheduled for March 2020 but was the first international WordPress event to be cancelled due to the pandemic. It was cancelled just nine days before it was scheduled to happen, a difficult but necessary decision, despite all the hard work volunteers had invested. At that time, organizers hoped to push the event to the next year, but the pandemic forced it to be put on hold again.

The WordPress community in Asia is quite large and spans across a wide land area with many diverse cultures. Prior to the pandemic, Asia was home to 127 WordPress meetup chapters with 73,000 members across 23 countries. The region had hosted 137 WordCamps in 18 Asian countries and 52 cities.

WordCamp Asia organizers began preliminary planning in 2017, inspired by other successful regional camps. Five years later, they have once again opened the call for organizers. They are aiming to build a team of 15 local (Thai) organizers and 30-35 organizers from other parts of Asia. This group will be broken up into teams that will lead audio/visual tech, design, speakers, volunteers, and other practical aspects of event planning.

Prospective organizers must reside in Asia and have experience organizing meetups or WordCamps. They must also be willing to commit at least three hours per week for planning and meetings.

“Because the main venue will be the same place as originally planned, we will be able to reuse some work from 2020,” organizer Naoko Takano said.

“We will comply with any COVID-19 guidelines provided by the local government and WordPress Community Team (such as this one) to ensure the safety of the attendees.” If for some reason the event needs to be postponed again, organizers have a much more structured approach to managing this risk and making decisions.

After five years of planning and so many unavoidable delays, the persistence and resilience of WordCamp Asia’s organizers is admirable. The call to join their team is open until April 30, and selected organizers will be notified by mid-May. Follow @wordcampasia on Twitter for the latest updates or subscribe to the event’s website.