Welcome to WordCamp Asheville
WordCamp Asheville will be held Saturday, July 25 – Sunday, July 26. This year, WordCamp will take place at UNC Asheville’s Highsmith Student Union.
Like last year, there will be a separately ticketed PreCamp Beginner’s Day on Friday, July 24. PreCamp is a hands-on workshop for those new to WordPress.
About PreCamp
PreCamp: Beginner’s Day — Friday, July 24
PreCamp is a hands-on session for those new to WordPress. Unlike WordCamp (Sat & Sun), which focuses on presentations by various speakers, PreCamp (Fri) is a do-it-yourself day.
Are you new to WordPress (or know someone who is) and want some hands-on support in setting up your website? PreCamp is designed to take you from a blank slate to a fully functioning website before you walk out the door. We provide almost everything* you need to get started – including three months of hosting for your site thanks to the generous sponsorship of SiteGround.
If you’re a beginner who is wondering if this is the right place for you – the answer is YES! We have an amazing team of experienced WordPress users, designers and developers that have donated their time to make this an incredible learning experience for you that will definitely bring results. You’ll be guided through the steps needed to get your first website up and running. And we have enough facilitators to step in and provide some individual support if you get confused along the way.
Want to be one of the lucky 50 attendees? Make sure you’ve signed up for Email updates (subscribe on right-hand sidebar) and we’ll notify you when tickets go on sale.
We look forward to meeting you at PreCamp!
*you will need to bring a laptop with wireless internet and administrative access/password, any images and content you will want on your website, and a willingness to learn through hands-on experience (a great sense of humor and willingness to laugh while you learn is appreciated – but not required.)
When, Where and How Much
Friday July 24th 8:30am-3pm
Registration, Internet Connections and Access to Webhosting is from 8:30am-9am
Website Creation is from 9:00am-3pm (lunch provided)
Tickets are an amazingly low price of $60 and includes access to all WordCamp sessions on Saturday and Sunday (your facilitators charge way more than that per hour for their advice and you get it for free!; you get three months of hosting so you’ll have plenty of time to continue to enhance your website; you have support in implementing what you learn as you learn; and you’ll leave with not only a website but a growing list of resources to continue on your way.)
Details
Day of PreCamp:
- We’ll take you through:
?Initial settings and basic security measures (what you need to do first thing to ensure a clean site) - ?Getting content on your website – basic pages used on most websites (Home, About, Contact, etc.); your first Post, how to use Categories (vs Tags) to group similar content
- ?Theme Selection for the “look” you want, Sidebars and Widgets, and Social Media connections with your website
- ?Plugins to enhance your websites functionality and appearance
After PreCamp: - ?Attend WordCamp Sat-Sun July 25-26. At WordCamp you’ll be able to take your newly found expertise from PreCamp to new heights through engaging with fellow participants, listening to the speakers in four different Tracks and even get some of your personal questions answered at the Happiness Bar.
- ?Continue your learning with the resources you’ve been provided, join your local WordPress Meetup group, and most importantly – keep practicing and playing with your own website (experience is the best teacher)
If anyone has specific questions about PreCamp.
Location & Lodging
Highsmith Student Union
UNC Asheville
Asheville, NC 28804
Parking
Parking is free and requires that you register for a parking pass that covers you for the entire weekend (registration link will be emailed to attendees). You may park in lots P20-23 on Founder’s Drive off of W.T. Weaver Blvd. Please do not park on the main campus unless using handicapped parking.
By Car
UNC-Asheville is located on the north side of Asheville and is convenient to I-240.
By Plane
Direct flights are available to Asheville Regional Airport (AVL) from Atlanta, Charlotte, Chicago, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, Punta Gorda, Orlando, Tampa and West Palm Beach. Visit flyavl for more information and to search flights.
Schedule
Happiness Bar
The Asheville WordCamp Happiness Bar is a place for attendees, speakers, volunteers, & organizers to come together to talk about all things WordPress.
Are you:
- ?Stuck on an issue with your site?
- ?Excited about a talk you just watched & interested in learning more?
- ?Giving a talk, but don’t have enough Q&A time to field all the great audience questions?
- ?Looking for guidance on finding or installing a plugin?
- ?Confused about where to start with securing your site?
- ?Wondering how to customize your navigation menu?
- ?Building something & want to chat best-practices?
All are welcome, so, come on by! The Happiness Bar is a golden opportunity for discussion with, & advice / help from WordPress professionals.
The Happiness Bar will be open Saturday & Sunday with breaks for lunch. The location will be announced closer to the event date.
Some of the Speakers
Adam Silverstein
He started programming by learning assembly code on his Radio Shack color computer (with 4K!), started a software company from his college dorm. He embraced WordPress as his platform of choice, built sites for clients large and small, and eventually wound up as a Senior Web Engineer at leading WordPress agency 10up.
Carrie Dils
Hailing from Fort Worth, Texas, Carrie is a WordPress-loving freelance developer. She’s been helping businesses craft online identities since 1998 and enjoys creating sites that look great on the outside and work well on the inside. The daughter of an educator and computer scientist, Carrie is always about the business of learning more and teaching others as she goes. She blogs regularly about WordPress and the business of freelancing atcarriedils.com.
Dustin Meza
Dustin Meza is the Senior Manager of Customer Experience Operations at WP Engine. He has been in the hosting industry for 7 years and has been with WP Engine for 2 years. At WP Engine, Dustin oversees many aspects of the WordPress platform including WordPress upgrades for over 100,000 WordPress installs.
Jeff Bowen
Jeff is on the Data team at Automattic — currently working on user behavior analysis & features for WordPress.com users’ site stats. He’s a usability nerd and is always looking for ways to make the web a better place!
Kyle Evans
Kyle is a developer for Range, a design and development agency focused on WordPress. He can be found working from his apartment or local coffee shops in Birmingham, Alabama, or in different settings across the world. Kyle has been working and playing in web development since, creating solutions for a wide range of clients.
Laurel Scherer
Laurel makes up two-thirds of Status Forward, an Asheville/Raleigh based WordPress design and development agency.
Micah Wood
Micah is a consultant and web developer from Atlanta, GA who is committed to continuously improving his understanding of WordPress and sharing his insights with the greater WordPress community. He has worked on WordPress projects for brands like Dell, Orkin and Coca-Cola and is a Co-Organizer of the Atlanta WordPress Coder’s Guild and an Assistant Organizer of the WordPress Gwinnett meetup groups. Micah is an avid WordPress plugin developer and a frequent speaker at various WordCamps across the southeast.
Nick Romanos
Nick makes up two-thirds of Status Forward, an Asheville/Raleigh based WordPress design and development agency.
Pat Eason
Pat is a front-end developer with a focus in WordPress and Javascript: focusing on creating awesome user experiences both end-user and admin-user. Pat’s development experience started in a small political ad firm in WV, and currently resides in awesome Asheville, NC working with a web development shop for all sorts of things big and small.
Steve Mortiboy
Steve is the Sales and Support Manager at Semper Fi Web Design, a Durham-based WordPress development company that develops some of the most popular plugins for WordPress.
Steve is also co-organizer of the Raleigh WordPress Meetup group and of WordCamp Raleigh. He has been involved with the WordPress community for 6 years and has spoken at WordCamps and other conferences about WordPress.
Thomas Griffin
Thomas Griffin is the CTO and Partner at Awesome Motive and has built popular products such as OptinMonster, Soliloquy and Envira Gallery. He’s contributed to both WordPress Core and the Genesis Framework by StudioPress and is an active member of the WordPress community. His WordPress products have seen over 1 million total downloads and he loves to help people find success by using WordPress.
Why WordCamp?
Building a website can sometimes feel like you’re in a maze. It’s hard to see the way through with so many different paths to choose from, obstacles in the way, and decisions to make.
Those who create and use websites for a living have been through the maze before, and learned lessons along the way. WordCamps are a way of sharing these lessons with each other, so that everyone — from professional bloggers, designers, developers to business owners and beginners — has the tools and guidance they need to tackle challenges.
WordCamps also inspire and excite us to try new things. They provide a way to make friends, meet potential business partners, and connect with WordPress leaders from around the region. They bring together people of all skill sets and perspectives to solve problems and think of new possibilities.
WordCamp Asheville
WordCamp Asheville attracts bloggers, business owners, designers, developers, and hobbyists from Western North Carolina and beyond for a weekend of learning, connection, and fun. Now in our second year, WordCamp Asheville is centered around growing our knowledge of WordPress together and forging the connections that allow individuals and businesses to succeed. We want WordCamp to spark those ah-ha moments that take you and your website to the next level.
WordCamp Asheville is an extension of the local Asheville WordPress Meetup group. After attending WordCamp Atlanta , several of the Meetup group’s attendees came together and decided that Western North Carolina needed their own event. After much hard work and a lot of help, WordCamp Asheville was born.
Creating a website doesn’t have to feel like running a maze when we connect with each other and learn. Come join us for a weekend of inspiration at the end of July. Join WordCamp Asheville!
