WordCamp Brisbane-More Than U Think
Brief introduction
WordCamps are volunteer run, non-profit events that help participants to learn and share about all things WordPress.
In the words of WordCamp Central?
WordCamp is a conference that focuses on everything WordPress.
WordCamps are informal, community-organized events that are put together by WordPress users like you. Everyone from casual users to core developers participate, share ideas, and get to know each other.
WordCamp is a conference dedicated to all things WordPress. WordCamps are a really grass roots initiative, typically being organized and co-ordinated by users and developers from within the WordPress community and take place in locations all over world.
In Previous years there have been WordCamps in both Sydney and Melbourne, however this year Brisbane hosts its own event, which is the first in Queensland.
WordCamp Brisbane is run by a small group of local WordPress enthusiasts. WordCamp sponsors are key to providing operational funds so that ticket costs are affordable to the whole community.
The event which takes place on the 30th and 31st of May at Queensland University of Technology, Garden Point campus, in Brisbane CBD, involves all sorts of incredible topics suitable for everyone including users, designers, developers and business owners.
Organisers
Sofia Woods
Sofia is a designer, developer and UX consultant. She leads a small team of super smart digital folk over at her company Shortie Designs where she uses WordPress every day.
Lachlan MacPherson
Bronson Quick
Bronson was born and raised by a tribe of monkeys. These monkeys bestowed upon him great knowledge of code thus making Bronson a WordPress code monkey.
Ben Maden
Ben is the guy behind Matter Solutions a digital agency in South Bank and he’s been working with WordPress since (circa version 2.7). Ben founded and still helps organise the Brisbane Web Design meetup group which meets each month at The Edge
Dion Hulse
Dion is a Lead Developer on WordPress.org, and helping make WordCamp Brisbane happen.
Speakers
To have a wonderful WordCamp we need two important things, wonderful attendees (that’s the easy part) and fabulous speakers (the hard part)!
One of the great strengths of WordPress has always been the diversity of its user base, from software engineers and developers, all the way to content publishers and bloggers. WordCamp captures this in its diverse line up of speakers from all over the country, and attempts to cover the broad spectrum of WordPress applications.
Session Schedule
It is a two-day long event, the details are mentioned below:
Day 1, Saturday, May 30th:
The registration will begin the early morning at 8:30am, followed by which will be the welcome session starting at 9am.
Troy Dean will be the keynote speaker for this session, and will be discussing on how to create recurring revenue for your WordPress business.
The further sessions will be held at two different places.
Kindler Theatre:
Dan Petrovic will be the speaker for the first session in this room. He will be discussing some of the creative SEO tactics that help businesses to become famous online.
Followed by the morning break will be a presentation by Jen Jeavens, where she will be sharing the story of setting up an eCommerce store.
The next session is going to be absolutely interesting as Nicki Mckay will be sharing details about the setup of a digital magazine and the benefits once could receive.
Post-lunch Kate Duffy will be covering the evolution of tourism marketing and how WordPress blogs are making it easy.
Next will be a session focused for freelancers where Helena Denley will be helping out attendees to successfully move from dealing one-to-one client work to creating the first online course.
The last presentation at this room will be hosted by Ben Maden. He will be discussing the classic problem when clients complain of being not satisfied with a particular designer and developer when you know he/she is extremely good at work.
The Forum:
Meryl McCay will be sharing some of her personal favorite WordPress themes in the very first session at this room.
Next to this will be a presentation by Selina Power where she will be covering some of the best WordPress plugins that help to cut down the overall development time.
Peter Wilson will be conducting the next session where he will teach the audience to get the page speed score in 90’s.
Wil Brown is going to be the next to conduct a presentation. He will be talking about the basics of plugin development.
Next to this will be an introductory session on Chassis that allows for a solid development workflow.
The last session here will be conducted by Steven Cooper, where he will be speaking on how to integrate WordPress with external API’s.
At 4:40pm there will be combined closing remarks for all the attendees.
Followed by this will be an after-party which would start at 6pm and would continue till 10pm. The venue for this party is the Port Office Hotel.
Day 2, Sunday, May 31st:
The registrations will begin at 9, followed by a welcome session. Next to this, all the presentations will be conducted at two different places.
Kindler Theatre:
In the very first session, Dee Teal will be sharing some metrics so that freelancers can analyze that they are making most of it. It is going to be an absolutely interesting session.
Followed by this will be a presentation on how developers and designers can make WordPress websites more accessible.
In the next session, Lucy Bloomfield will help campers to improve the prototype workflow.
Jo Grey will be sharing three tips that will help web designers to get the right content from the client. This right content will help designers to create beautiful websites.
The next session will help campers to design and produce an engaging content. Tracey Porst will be the speaker for this session.
The last presentation in this room will be hosted by Warren Denley where he will share the secrets of successful e-mail marketing.
The Forum:
Kristen Symonds will be hosting the first session in this room, she will be sharing some very cool 15 things about WordPress.
Next to this will be a presentation by Ricky Blacker on how to tweak a WordPress theme.
After a 25-minute morning break, Jamie Madden will give a walkthrough on the basics of WP-CLI.
Ryan McCue will be conducting a presentation on the WordPress REST API.
Post-lunch Kel Santiago will explain the importance of contributing to WordPress community. She will also tell why it’s important for the growth of your business.
Anthony Hertin will be hosting the last session in this room. He will share details on how to build a membership site using WordPress.
At 3:45pm there will be a panel of experts who will be answering the question of all campers.
The camp will come to an official end with closing remarks at 4:45pm.
Buy tickets, meet WordPress lovers and build your network. It is a great event and you should not miss at any chance.
Highlights
- The event is open for people from all backgrounds and skill sets, those who work with WordPress in a professional capacity (both technical and non technical) to hobbyist and personal bloggers, to those who simply want to find out more about more about what WordPress is and what is can do for them.
- In addition to the talks there will a number of opportunities to socialize and meet users from the Brisbane WordPress community, newbies and veterans alike.
- Over 50 million people have chosen WordPress as the platform for their self-hosted blog. You can learn how to get the most out of the WordPress platform.
- An awesome lineup of speakers, including Selina Power, who once spoke at the Networx marketing event last year, podcaster and WordPress guru, Troy Dean, and Helena Denley, who is running a great looking session about running your first online course.
- Some very practical and varied sessions.
- It’s a great opportunity to find out about the latest developments and trends in blogging and WordPress. There’s nothing like a 2-day conference to get completely immersed in all this good stuff. There’s so much to be said for pressing the flesh and actually having conversations with top bloggers.
- Along similar lines, it is a great networking event and opportunity to meet and chat with professional bloggers and enthusiasts alike. At an event like this, even having just one conversation with the right person at the right time, can open up a whole new world of opportunities. It’s also comforting to hear other bloggers talking about their challenges – and more positively, how they overcame them.
- It’s only $50 for a ticket! This is not only great value but also indicative of the general willingness of the blogging community to share information.
Have not made the event but still want to connect with other WordPress users and professionals?
This group meets once a month in Brisbane around the Brisbane CBD and is open to everyone from all WordPress skill levels. You can find out more at:
