Pressnomics – Not Just Another WordCamp
There is a diverse group of passionate and very successful entrepreneurs creating the products and services that drive the WordPress economy. PressNomics, however, is a 3 day event for these folks to collaborate, learn, and relax.
PressNomics is an awesome event that focuses on the commercial side of WordPress. The event is self-described as “The conference for those that power the WordPress Economy” and that statement couldn’t be more true. PressNomics is a who’s who of respected professionals and companies making a living from WordPress.
The idea of PressNomics is simple: Set the agenda and get the movers and shakers of the WordPress economy in the same physical place Bring in speakers that are willing to speak candidly and transparently in how they do business, mix in some sponsors to help pay the bills and some social time to breakdown the competitive barriers.
The WordPress platform supports a hugely successful commercial ecosystem. Commercial entities of all stripes serve the market of ~72 million WordPress powered websites with themes, plugins, hosting, and service based consulting. PressNomics aims to bring these companies and professionals together in an atmosphere of learning and collaboration.
Origin
PressNomics is a conference that was started by Joshua Strebel, CEO of Page.ly, in an effort to create a space where the economics of WordPress could be discussed by the “who’s who” of WordPress business owners and innovators.
“I want a place where I can learn something,” he said. “I want a conference where I’m there to learn, where I’m there get something out of it. As a business owner, how can I improve my business? What are the strategies that people are using that are successful in this space? What collaboration and partnership opportunities are out there? That’s sort of the aim of PressNomics in a nutshell: to be a conference for all these WordCamp speakers, where they can get something out of it.”
While he doesn’t want the conference to operate at a loss, he said that he is organizing the event because he likes the idea, and not strictly to profit from it. Strebel describes PressNomics as a “not-just-for-profit” event, and plans to set aside proceeds earned (beyond expenses) for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
“Old fashioned, paper invitations in the mail,” Strebel explained. “Hand addressed. We want to give it an air of exclusivity, that this is targeted at a very specific group of people.”
After all, the idea for PressNomics was inspired by some good old-fashioned Skype brainstorming over whiskey and “Josh-tinis” (ingredients: top-secret) about what Joshua and Dre would like to see develop in the WordPress community. While Dre was focused on WordCamp San Diego, Joshua stepped forward to make their vision a reality, and PressNomics was born.
Pressnomics, started in by Joshua Strebel of Page.ly is a conference dedicated to the business aspects of WordPress whether it be software as a service, commercial themes and plugins, or a development agency. The event is three days long where business owners can collaborate, relax, and learn valuable lessons from each other.
The whole objective of PressNomics is to make it clear that, with enough passion and hard work, anyone can succeed in this business.
Hatched as an idea to bring the engaging conference hallway conversation’s to center stage, PressNomics is the must attend event on the calendars of many.
Finally this event has purpose. Not just to leave attendees with new tools and connections to grow their business, but to give to a good cause. Each year the event organizers donate the lion’s share of proceeds to St Jude Children’s Research Hospital a great organization helping kids and their families facing tough medical battles.
Features
“There’s a certain energy in the air when you first walk into the room at PressNomics.
In my perspective, WordCamp’s are light and airy, like a high school reunion.
This time, we were amongst other entrepreneurs, marketers and founders of the most respected WordPress businesses. There were no hugs and rainbows, but an immediate feeling of “things” being set in motion. Ideas, collaboration, partnerships and strategies.
PressNomics is not all hugs and rainbows, it’s an environment that can act as a catalyst to spur innovation in the WordPress world.”
PressNomics is a conference similar to a WordCamp but focuses exclusively on the business of WordPress and the economy surrounding it.
PressNomics is a three-day event to relax, collaborate, and discuss the economics surrounding WordPress. Notable speakers in the past include Mark Jaquith, Cory Miller, and Mikkel Svane. Chris Lema and Matt Mederiosboth have great reviews of the event when they attended. It’s quickly become one of the premiere events outside of WordCamps.
PressNomics is the first conference focused on the WordPress economy and professionals running businesses within the community.
Comparison
- 1.WordCamps are always great networking and learning events, but Pressnomics took a completely different approach to the WordCamp model by focusing on WordPress businesses instead of WordPress users.
- 2.The WordPress community provides so many resources for working with WordPress, but learning how to build your business around WordPress is a much different thing. Many people see WordCamp as a great place to learn new tips or find new clients, why not expand this toward collaborating with the awesome companies already out there too?
- 3.While the summit was centered around building a better WordPress, Pressnomics was about building better WordPress businesses. However, the presentations were less about how to make money, and more about how to better collaborate, to improve our businesses, and create a better experience for customers and users.
- 4.Pressnomics is a densely packed WordPress conference attended by many of the top business leaders in the WordPress community. Of course, no WordPress event would be complete without a little fun and rambunctiousness, and Pressnomics did not disappoint.
- 5.tons of free time to connect, talk, and joke with the social glue that certain beverages provide.
“This was the energy I could feel resonating at the event. I love competition, it’s what drives my team and I every day. WordPress community in general tends to shy away from the competitive factor that surrounds us. Sure we’re all working for the greater good of the platform and spreading the adoption of this software — but at the end of the day we’re competing with one another.
You have competition. We have competition.
The difference at this event is, the competition is willing to share and start a dialogue with you.
Envato and Mojo sat side by side.
WPEngine walked the halls of a Page.ly event
Countless plugin, theme and service competitors shared ideas, pain points and aide for others.”
This is the positive side of competition.
“That’s what is unique to PressNomics and the WordPress business community at large. We acknowledge that at the end of the day we need to put food on the table, but it isn’t without helping our peers that will get us there.”
This was probably the most important element of the event.
“You would see a couple of people in the lobby chatting and showing screenshots huddled around a laptop. Around the corner it was groups of people standing in the snack room sharing their pain points and how they can help one another after the conference.
If awards could have been given out to the most conversation’s started, it would have gone to Shane of Modern Tribe. I saw him in more circles and groups peppered throughout the event.
The event sparked from hallway talks did not let me down and affirmed it was the real magic happening.”
PressNomics is, of course, not affiliated with or endorsed by the WordPress Foundation. It’s not a WordCamp; it will be the first major unofficial WordPress event in the USA.
Rather than offer multiple tracks the way a WordCamp event would (typically something like beginning user, advanced user, and developer) PressNomics will be a single-track event, with everyone attending every session in one big room.
When you put that together, I think you see why I think events like Pressnomics are critical. Because they bring the developers to the table that also want to run a business. Or are trying to. They may not want to grow to be more than a four person company, but that says nothing about their desire to generate profit.
They are great at being developers but recognize they need to go somewhere else to develop business chops (or find someone with those capabilities to help them).
They come to Pressnomics and find that in the sessions and in the hallways, business models, revenue creation, segmentation, attrition, lifetime value, and more are being discussed. Oh, those may not be the words they use, but they’re trying to solve the business problems they’re facing.
The target audience for PressNomics include WordPress theme and plugin shop owners, hosting companies, freelancers and agencies, and any WordPress companies doing annual sales above one million dollars. As the PressNomics website explains:
PressNomics aims to be a once year gathering of global WordPress professionals to learn, foster collaboration, and build new strategies for commercial success in the growing WordPress ecosystem.
