WordCamp Kansas City is in its second year, and this year will feature 3 days of WordPress fun! Friday includes a Welcome Party and Charity Hackathon, after which participants are invited to participate in a local Art Crawl. Saturday and Sunday’s conference includes three tracks: Designer, Developer, and Publisher. When asked what kind of experience she hopes attendees will have at WCKC, lead organizer Josepha Haden said, “We like to keep everything relaxed and supportive. Our presenters all have a fairly high level of teaching skill to engage attendees and have always been very courteous. We strongly believe in asking questions bravely and frequently.”
Haden has been involved in the local WordPress community for about two years, and co-organizers Pippin Williamson and Jase Wilson have both been active in the Kansas City community for over a year. Josepha got interested in organizing a WordCamp in her community when she attended WordCamp Fayetteville and was inspired. She founded the meetup group (the two year anniversary of which occurs on the last day of this year’s WordCamp) and connected with more people in the community who were interested in getting involved.
Josepha took a few minutes out of her busy organizing schedule to tell us a little more about WordCamp Kansas City:
What have been the most challenging aspects, so far?
As sickeningly cheesy as this is, I don’t feel that we’ve had many challenges. Jase and Pippin are phenomenally driven, detail oriented, and willing to leap into the fray with me. We’ve yet to run into a problem that between the three of us couldn’t be managed.
What has been the most rewarding part, so far?
Hearing the feedback from our community. Our MeetUp group is so enthusiastic about this event, and they talk about it every chance they get as far as I can tell. To have a community building event actually build a community is extremely gratifying.
What are you the most excited about?
I’m really excited to see the progress that our repeat attendees have made. We keep up with a lot of them on social media channels and through the MeetUp, but for those that we haven’t heard from I’m hoping to hear some great success stories.
What is your favorite WordCamp story?
Last year one of our marquee boards was stolen during the night and taken on an adventure around Kansas City. I have to admit that at the time we panicked a little (we might have even called in Jane), but in retrospect it was pretty funny.
What makes your WordCamp unique?
Kansas City has an unusually rich WordPress community. We have people from many different points of view – arts organizations, sports teams, educators, and businesses ranging from start-ups to agencies – and each has some new way to use WordPress. We never come away saying that we didn’t learn something.
If you are anywhere near Kansas City on the first weekend of June, you should totally check out this homegrown WordCamp – tickets are still available! Please don’t steal their sign, though. ;)