The First-ever LoopConf A Conference Catered to WordPress Developers
Over the past month or so, there’s been lots of hype surrounding LoopConf, a niche-Wordpress conference specifically for developers.
WordPress has quickly become the Web platform of choice for everything from personal blogs to huge corporate websites, and even TekRevue.
Now, the same WordPress experts who helped build and maintain TekRevue are holding the ultimate WordPress conference: LoopConf.
Whereas WordCamps tend to hit bloggers, beginners, businesses, developers, and designers, some have been talking about conferences that focus specifically on one to maybe two of these types of audiences.
So LoopConf comes around and basically does both: It provides a conference that’s a proof-of-concept for the idea of specialized conferences, and it shows us how the pricing of a conference affects the attendance.
LoopConf is a single track conference where a bulk of the content will consist of 30 minute sessions and 60 minute developer work shops. It gives developers an opportunity to dive deep into advanced engineering and development topics in a relaxed atmosphere surrounded by like-minded individuals.
Focused on advanced WordPress engineering and development topics, LoopConf has been the first ever WordPress developer conference organized by the International Conferences and Events ,ICE Australia. The conference aims to provide an opportunity for WordPress developers, regardless of their background, to come together to tackle more advanced engineering and development.
Brief introduction
LoopConf is a WordPress developer conference featuring over 30 educational developer sessions from WordPress lead developers as well as representatives from Google, Easy Digital Downloads and Wired. There were two days of sessions. Almost all of the talks were 25 minutes long, which means that there were a huge number of topics covered.
The Loopconf is a two-day, single-track conference with space for over 700 attendees.
The conference will include a pre-conference hackathon/workshop day on Wednesday the 6th of May, two full days of sessions on Thursday the 7th and Friday the 8th, a party on Thursday night, and both organized and unorganized social activities on Friday night and Saturday.
Speakers
If there was a seat occupied at LoopConf, it was likely filled with an expert WordPress developer. It was the type of event where you knew that just by being there, there’d be no way to avoid leveling up your WordPress development game. There were even some designers who made the trek to learn from the best-of-the-best.
Though it promises top-notch WordPress speakers, the like that one would often see at WordCamps, it is not a WordCamp. At any one given WordCamp you might have 2 or 3 of these highly sought-after speakers, but at LoopConf you get them all. It’s honestly quite an impressive list, and it’s not complete yet.
As far as the speakers are concerned, it’s an excellent line up. If you don’t know any of them personally, the odds that you know who they are via Twitter or their blogs or their work is high. And even if not, they are all people who are worth following. They are respectable, smart, and successful people within the WordPress economy.
Having information distilled over the course of the weekend from a group of people like this is going to be incredibly beneficial to all who are attending.
If you’ve ever heard any of them speak at a WordCamp, you know what I mean. This is going to be that, but amplified.
So, be prepared for three days of amazing sessions by speakers from around the world who are passionate about WordPress.
Naturally though, the speakers who are there are not just speaking and taking off. They’re going to be outside of their sessions mingling and chatting and those conversations alone will be amazing.
Andrew Nacin, lead developer of WordPress who has finished a talk at Loopconf, where he talked about a series of related WordPress security fixes that spanned two years, with the final fix included into WordPress core under the guise of Emoji support.
Andrew Nacin just spoke at Loopconf about the nature of a critical software bug.
YET you’ve heard from the experts, dive in to an entire day of hands-on workshops, with training and guidance on WordPress-based mobile development, site security, theme building, and plugin testing.
OF COURSE, it wouldn’t be a developer event without great food, parties, hacking challenges, and game night!
There was plenty of fun to be had in between sessions, after the sessions, at the afterparty, or on the strip (where all the touristy things are in Vegas).
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There are going to be topics that are geared toward enterprise level engineers, but we’ll also have sessions that are great for intermediate or self-taught WordPress developers who are looking to take that next step in their careers, Ryan Sullivan, event organizer indicated in an interview.
‘If you love to code, and love to code on the WordPress platform, this is going to be a great event for you to advance your skills.’
The idea for LoopConf came to life after Sullivan heard some friends mention the weren’t entirely sure who their audience was at a WordCamp: “I’ve talked to several presenters who had a tough time preparing content because it had to cater to such a wide array of individuals,” Sullivan said.
. . . I never would have even tried to do this event on my own, and was lucky to be approached by the organizers for ng-conf (an Angular dev conference) about doing something similar in the WordPress space, Sullivan said.
They had the experience and expertise to make it happen, so I talked to some people in the community and they all seemed to love the idea as well. Thus LoopConf was born.
This is a common issue at WordCamps: many sessions try to meet an impossible one-size-fits-all criteria, which often times is not only challenging for the presenter, but can be disappointing for some attendees as well.
Instead of targeting the overall WordPress community, LoopConf catered just to developers, ran on a much larger scale than any other event, and went deep under the hood of WordPress development.
As a WordPress-centric conference specifically for developers, LoopConf entered the niche space as a much-anticipated event that would allow like-minded developers from all walks of life to come together.
one of the goals of LoopConf is to help boost the reputation of WordPress in the eyes of the general Tech community. Having elite conferences like LoopConf can do that, it can attract businesses who see conferences like this as a valuable business expense to send their employees to. Further, getting all these people together in the same room for three days might just produce some really awesome ideas that can help push WordPress much further, especially considering how many Automatticians are on the speakers list.
“Conferences like LoopConf have the opportunity to curate valuable and educational events that can greatly advance the skills of its niche-attendees, without adhering to the strict guidelines of the WordPress foundation.”
“LoopConf is the self-proclaimed “Greatest conference ever created for WordPress developers” and from the crazy amount of talent, not only speaking but also attending, I have no doubts they will prove this point. ”
What makes LoopConf so unique, is that is is solely focused around developers. One get two full days of developer-centric knowledge and a full day of hands on workshops. And the most exciting part is that the people presenting are leaders in their fields and the topics they are covering are currently relevant and future forward.
“LoopConf was built from a desire to get top developers and engineers in the WordPress community talking about what's next for WordPress, and to showcase their amazing work. WordCamps are fantastic events, but the focus is too broad for most high level discussions and instruction. That's why we created LoopConf.”
“LoopConf is a premier Las Vegas tech conference made for developers, by developers.”
“LoopConf is one event you don’t want to miss if you’re involved, or thinking about becoming involved, with developing or supporting WordPress.”
Like PrestigeConf, LoopConf is not a WordCamp or associated with the WordPress foundation. Even though it’s an independent event, there is at least one trait similar to WordCamps. One of the rules to be a speaker is to embrace the open source spirit.
We want all of our speakers to show up with an attitude to give freely. This isn’t an opportunity to pitch your company, it’s the chance to share knowledge that you’ve picked up as you’ve perfected your craft.
Attention:
For everyone who is currently smashing their heads on their keyboards for missing this event, don’t fret! They will be live streaming each presentation!
Event organizer, Ryan Sullivan, says the plan is to “sell 600-700 tickets in two rounds”. “we’ll have an exclusive deal with the hotel for attendees to take advantage of. For those who can’t make it or would like to attend virtually, the event will be streamed live for free.”
You can watch all the LoopConf sessions on YouTube. But, if you attend in person next year, you’ll get cool free stuff, like a selfie stick, a portable phone charger, and a blue Nalgene bottle. Not to mention that you’ll have a chance to meet amazing WordPress developers, plugin creators, core gurus, and more.
WordPress is an amazing platform that is changing the Web, and the world, and LoopConf is the place you need to be if you want to take your WordPress skills to the next level.
