Word11Word11 – the resurrected version of what was supposed to be Wordcamp 2011 – is almost upon us. With the date drawing closer (August 27th) I would imagine that some people, including myself, may be having or have had something of a dilemma with regards to whether or not to go to it with the shadow of the problems that nixed it earlier this year looming over it. In April I posted my thoughts on what went down as the Wordcamp 2011 ship sank before it’s planned date of May14th. As a paying customer who had also referred a number of friends out of enthusiasm for the conference I (and many others) was perturbed by the lack of transparency shown by CG6, the company that shared the reigns of organizing with the WordPress Toronto Meetup group – who up till this year had looked after putting together Toronto Wordcamp events with the blessing of Wordcamp Central. After the events that cancelled “Wordcamp 2011″ the meetup group and WordPress Central pulled out of and CG6 renamed their conference to Word11, taken from the hashtag that was connected to the original conference.

After I posted the article it was picked up pretty heavily and although I tried to keep it as even-handed as possible, people were still a bit miffed that they had to find out that the conference had fallen through from me and Terry Smith rather than from CG6 themselves shortly before the original wordcamptoronto.com site was taken down.

So here we are about a week out from the now 100% CG6-organized “Word11” conference and I can see both sides of the fence. On one hand, what happened happened and I understand that at the time people were mad about it. Building and re-building trust is difficult but breaking it is all too easy. However, on the other hand, CG6 has

WordCamp

WordCamp is not involved in Word11

admirably decided to see this through and has taken steps to make Word11 happen “rain or shine” so to speak. Some disappointed people suggested that CG6 refund the money and walk away but I respect that CG6, in a show of character, offered a refund, finally addressed the issue head-on, and chose to re-plan the conference for a later date instead of dropping it.  This has no doubt gave them some breathing room to actually lock down a venue this time (The CSI Annex) and secure some sponsors and diverse speakers.

The itinerary is now up at the Word11 site and it’s interesting that the first session of the day is entitled “Building Trust with Social Media,” but to that whole trust issue I am inclined to give CG6 the benefit of the doubt as far as a second chance to prove they can handle this task. Currently it looks like they may just pull this thing off, although I don’t know how making this conference a 24-hour event will play out. Some friends of mine are presenting there and I respect them enough to give Word11 a second look. It was a smart move on the part of the Word11 committee to exhort community members to get involved in both the planning and the presentations.

Last time I asked you what you thought and this time I ask you the same. Please consider the facts and thoughts put forth above as you craft your reply.