WordCamp News

WordCamp Providence has set their date

This is the first WordCamp for Providence; the local meetup has been active since 2009, and they’re ready to hold their first large-scale event. WordCamp Providence will be held on October 27 at the University of Rhode Island’s Providence campus. The organizers will be posting a formal  call for speakers, sponsors, and volunteers very soon. Go Providence!

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Sao Paulo Call for Speakers ends July 27

Tomorrow WordCamp São Paulo‘s call for speakers will end. Have you submitted your session idea yet? If not, there’s still time! Propose your talk now through the form here: http://saopaulo.wp-brasil.org/proposta/

They’re accepting ideas for both workshops and presentations. The topic must be related to WordPress, and it’s best to indicate which of the three tracks it applies to: programming, design, or content.

What are you waiting for? WordCamp Sao Paulo wants YOU!

Categories WordCamps | 3 replies

WordCamp Close-Up: Sydney

WordCamp Sydney is this weekend, and has a really exciting schedule. Dee Teal, lead organizer, took some time out of her very busy schedule to tell us a little bit about WordCamp Sydney and her WordPress community. Dee also has a great talk on WordPress.tv on Getting Involved in the WordPress Community; you should check it out!

How long has your meetup been active? 

The Sydney WP meetup has been in the system since October 2010, but really only became well-established in July of 2011. Our membership list has just cracked 400 recently, and the uptake has been really growing consistently since early this year. It won’t be long before we’re looking for a bigger venue for our monthly gathering!

How did you and your team decide to try to organize a WordCamp?

We attended WordCamp Gold Coast in November 2011, or at least a few of us did and given that it was the most recent WordCamps have been in centres other than Sydney we felt like it was overdue to have one here. It was kind of a spontaneous decision but the team that gathered around it in those early days was awesome :) (still is) and the idea just took off.

What have been the most challenging aspects, so far?

Getting a venue took a lot longer and cost a lot more than we wanted. Trying to anticipate how many people would come and finding a place that was affordable and could accommodate what we anticipate will be a sizable (for us) crowd was a challenge.

What has been the most rewarding part, so far?

For me, it’s the team. They’re awesome. We’ve all got different strengths and seeing the guys use theirs with a common purpose to get this event off the ground has been fantastic. For me, the people thing is what it’s all about and so seeing WordCamp Sydney come together, so that we can bring more people together around WordPress, is a real kick.

What are you the most excited about? 

Hanging out and talking about WordPress and not having people look at me funny.

What kind of experience do you hope attendees will have at your WordCamp?

I hope the users will come away having learned how to better make WordPress work for them, I hope the developers will come away with new skills and new ideas for their next big theme or plugin. I hope everyone will take the opportunity to meet new people and make new connections!

What is your favorite WordCamp story?

Any story where someone has a great time a their first WordCamp and comes back for more… or goes home to organize a meetup or gets back into WordPress development after having put it down for a time (heard that a bit after WordCamp NZ).

What makes your WordCamp unique?

Have you been to Sydney? Have you seen The University of Sydney? it’s all just so BEAUTIFUL!

Categories Events, WordCamps | 3 replies

WordCamp Weekly Update: July 9, 2012

Are you ready for the Stupendous And Amazing Three WordCamps that are happening on July 14-15? Of course you are.

WordCamp Boston is one of the major events in the WordCamp calendar, and this year features three tracks stuffed with great programming for two full days. Does Boston love WordPress as much as it loves sports? Tough call, but if we’ll find out anywhere, it’ll be this weekend at Boston University.

WordCamp Columbus is *the* WP event in the great state of Ohio, hosted this year at Ohio State University. This year organizers have planned FOUR tracks of sessions: Beginners, Marketing, Power Users, and Developers. John James Jacoby, lead developer of BuddyPress and bbPress, will give the keynote address. Tickets are still available, so if you’re in the neighborhood, go!

Speaking of big deal events, WordCamp Edinburgh is a whole bunch of WordPress amazingness packed into three tracks plus happiness bar plus “random overflow room,” as it says on the schedule. If you’re likely to randomly overflow with love for WordPress this weekend, Surgeon’s Hall is the place to be.

Upcoming WordCamps:

What are you waiting for? You can buy tickets for these upcoming WordCamps right now:

These WordCamps don’t quite have tickets on sale yet, but have found a venue and announced their date!

Venue and/or Help Needed:

WordCamp organizing teams in these cities are still looking for the right space. If you have a great idea for a free or cheap WordCamp venue in any of the below locales, or are willing to lend a hand, email the organizers via the below links:

Call for organizers:

If you want to lead or join an organizing team, review the guidelines and fill out the application. Organizing a WordCamp is a lot of work, but it’s really rewarding.

 

Categories Events, WordCamp Central, WordCamps | 3 replies

WordCamp Weekly Update: June 14, 2012

WordCamp Curitiba is this weekend; only the third WordCamp to be held in Brazil! If you can’t make this one though, don’t despair, as WordCamp Sao Paulo just set their date for August 25! Get ready to rock some WP in Portuguese by checking out this great content from WordCamp Curitiba 2010.

Upcoming WordCamps:

What are you waiting for? You can buy tickets for these upcoming WordCamps right now:

These WordCamps don’t quite have tickets on sale yet, but have found a venue and announced their date!

Venue and/or Help Needed:

WordCamp organizing teams in these cities are still looking for the right space. If you have a great idea for a free or cheap WordCamp venue in any of the below locales, or are willing to lend a hand, email the organizers via the below links:

Call for organizers:

If you want to lead or join an organizing team, review the guidelines and fill out the application. Organizing a WordCamp is a lot of work, but it’s really rewarding.

Categories Events, Schedule, WordCamp Central, WordCamps | 3 replies

WordCamp Close-Up: Kansas City

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. ;)

Categories WordCamps | Comments are off for this post

WordCamp Weekly Update: May 16, 2012

Have you noticed how the schedule has been fleshing out nicely in the last weeks? It’s WordCamp season for sure.

This weekend, two cities known for their thriving tech communities will host WordCamps. Both events are sold out, but of course all the content will be available on WordPress.tv in a few weeks.

WordCamp Austin: A crack team of Texans has been laboring for months to bring their lucky attendees the very best WordCamp that Austin’s ever seen. This particular event really shows a lot of community involvement, which is always a recipe for a good camp. We have it on good authority that their t-shirts have been folded with care.

WordCamp Seattle: This event is being held in a museum, which surely means that the result will be a work of art. The speaker roster showcases the best of the Pacific Northwest, and it might just not rain all weekend – what more can you ask?

Upcoming WordCamps:

What are you waiting for? You can buy tickets for these upcoming WordCamps right now:

These WordCamps don’t quite have tickets on sale yet, but have found a venue and announced their date!

Venue and/or Help Needed:

WordCamp organizing teams in these cities are still looking for the right space. If you have a great idea for a free or cheap WordCamp venue in any of the below locales, or are willing to lend a hand, email the organizers via the below links:

Call for organizers:

If you want to lead or join an organizing team, review the guidelines and fill out the application. Organizing a WordCamp is a lot of work, but it’s really rewarding.

Categories Events, Schedule, WordCamp Central, WordCamps | Comments are off for this post

WordCamp NYC tickets go on sale

Heads up! WordCamp NYC has opened registration. Get those sweet $35 tickets while they last – they are good for two days of WordPress learning and geekery in the Big Apple.

If you want to just go the extra mile, buy an Individual Sponsor ticket for $75 and give even more to support WordCamp and the WordPress community.

Categories Events, WordCamps | 2 replies