WordCamp Vancouver is coming up on May 5. The organizers call it a developer focus, though I would probably amend that to be “professional” as there are also sessions about design, information architecture and content strategy, etc.
They recently lowered the ticket price to $40. They’ll be selling tickets for another 5 days, so if you’re a developer or WordPress professional in the Pacific Northwest (or would like to become one!), I highly recommend attending.
You may have noticed that WordCamp Atlanta 2011 is no longer listed on the schedule for May. The event has been postponed until Fall 2011, so that the Atlanta meetup group (one of the most vital and active in the US) can assume a more active role in organizing their community’s WordCamp alongside last year’s organizers.
The organizing team will be updating the site with more information as decisions get made. In the meantime, they are still evaluating venues (donated venues in downtown Atlanta welcome!), and accepting applications for speakers and sponsors. The very best way to get involved is to join the meetup group and attend the monthly meetups. Once a new date is finalized, we will list it on our schedule here. I, for one, am looking forward to seeing what they come up with for their program. There are so many talented WordPress users, developers, and designers in the greater Atlanta area that it just has to be amazing, right?
WordCamp Paris will be held May 14, 2011 at La Cantine in Paris. There will not be pre-planned speakers and sessions, but will be organized unconference/BarCamp-style at the event. Registration is free, thanks to the efforts of the organizers and sponsors.
A couple of months ago, I was contacted by a WordCamp Phoenix organizer about teaching a WordPress for Kids class. It was to be the first time that any WordCamp had created a class targeted specifically toward children, so I was in unmapped territory as I considered the different approaches I could take in presenting this information to a group of kids of varying ages and experience. I ran through different scenarios in my head and decided on the very simplified approach of baby-stepping them through setting up an account on WordPress.com and then proceeding to walk tab-by-tab down the dashboard.
There ended up being just over 20 kids in my class. They ranged in age from 7 to 15 and their experience with blogging and WordPress varied greatly. Most had never set up a site, but a handful showed up with sites already set up and underway. I saw a LEGO blog, a science blog and a cooking blog already full of content upon arrival and the kids were eager to show me what they already knew. That was really exciting and helped ease the others into the class. Continue reading
This weekend there will be two WordCamps: WordCamp Phoenix and WordCamp Indonesia.
WordCamp Phoenix has already started, spread out over five days with workshops all over the city, a GPL debate, an all-star cast of speakers, and a core contributor workshop on Sunday to help potential volunteer developers to the WordPress open source project ramp up and get involved. Keep your eyes on WordPress.tv after the event is over, as all the session videos will be posted there.
First things first: WordCamp San Francisco 2011, the official annual conference of the WordPress open source project, will be the weekend of August 12-14, with three days of sessions for publishers, bloggers, and developers at the Mission Bay Conference Center and another day or two of related events around town, including a core contributors summit and various mini-meetups. Save the date! We’ll be posting calls for speakers, sponsors, and volunteers on the WordCamp SF 2011 site over the coming weeks.
Second things second: Why am I announcing WordCamp SF as the official annual conference for the WordPress project instead of a WordCon — a la DrupalCon — like I proposed at last year’s WordCamp SF?
The organizers of WordCamp Orlando have postponed their 2011 event, previously scheduled for February 5, to ensure that it will be as awesome as last year. Due to some circumstances changing with speakers, etc, the organizers decided that rather than try to rush to reconfigure the event for the scheduled date, it would be the better part of valor to regroup and reschedule at a time when they can put on the kind of event they had planned. I applaud them for their dedication to their community, and for being realistic. As soon as they announce their new date, we will post it here.
There are two WordCamps happening the weekend of October 16: New York City and Richmond, VA.
WordCamp NYC still has plenty of tickets available, and will offer 5 tracks of content in addition to an unconference, a hackers room and a genius bar over the course of two days. Saturday runs 9am-6pm, and Sunday is 12-5pm. This is the third WordCamp NYC, and the 2nd organized by Steve Bruner and Jane Wells. Speakers are primarily from New York, though a few are traveling to the city just to speak at the event. In addition to the usual blogger, business and developer content tracks, NYC will also have a track dedicated to using WordPress in educational settings, with speakers from universities (like CUNY, Columbia, Vassar) using WordPress/BuddyPress for courses, student portfolios, digital commons sites and other uses. A number of core contributing developers to both WordPress and BuddyPress will be in attendance as well, working on getting in the last code patches for WordPress 3.1 before feature freeze goes into effect. WordCamp NYC should be a really fun time, so if you’re in the New York metro area, consider buying a ticket and attending yourself!
WordCamp Richmond is Saturday only, from 9am-3pm, and features a blogger track and a developer track. The sessions seem to have a decided business slant, so this will be a especially good event for people with small businesses looking to make the most of their sites and turn a profit. The speakers are mostly local here as well, so it should be a good chance to meet local practitioners.
There are more WordCamps coming up throughout autumn, so keep watching this space as new events get confirmed and added to the list.