WordCamp is Over. What’s Next?

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WordCamp PDX 2015 is over and the story is just beginning.

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If you haven’t already, get involved with the local WordPress Community by joining the Portland WordPress Meetup group. You will be notified when events are added to the schedule. You can also ask questions of the members and get more involved.

There are currently four groups meeting in the Portland area.

  • Portland General WordPress Meetup: Held monthly, this meetup brings a speaker to the group to present on a WordPress topic. Open to all.
  • Portland Developer WordPress Meetup: Held monthly, this meetup is designed for intermediate to advanced WordPress users and developers, and features a topic to tickle your web programming fancy.
  • Vancouver WordPress Social Meetup: Held monthly in Vancouver, Washington, this is a social meetup where people bring their laptops and WordPress questions and get hands on help with their WordPress issues.
  • Beaverton WordPress Social Meetup: Like Vancouver, this is a hands-on help meetup that meets monthly in Beaverton, Oregon, to help WordPress users learn how to use WordPress better.

There are also WordPress meetups in Salem, and work is in process to get them going in Corvalis and Eugene. Would you like to start a local group in your area, just let the Portland WordPress Meetup group team know and we’ll help.

Need More WordCamp

Need a little more WordCamp? There is a WordCamp somewhere in the world almost every weekend of the year. Check out the list at WordCamp Central.

The first national event, WordCamp US, is in Philadelphia on December 4 through the weekend and there are over 2,000 people expected to attend. Tickets are going fast so get yours now. There are some people from Portland going, so maybe you can carpool or share a hotel. 😀

We are already wiping the powder sugar from the donuts off our faces and looking forward to WordCamp PDX 2016. If you want to get involved, join the WordPress Meetup Group in Portland to keep up with announcements and activities and be thinking ahead as to what you could present or how you might volunteer to make WordCamp PDX even better, though the bar was set high this year.

Speaker Videos and Presentation Notes

Check out the WordCamp Schedule on our site and look for the speaker you are interested in. We’re adding video links and presentation notes as fast as they are available.

You will find the videos on WordPress.tv as soon as they are up on the web.

Contributor to WordPress

WordPress isn’t developed by a bunch of people sitting in corporate cubes. It is maintained, supported, and developed by the WordPress Community, and that means you.

There are many ways to give back to WordPress. If you are a spelling and grammar cop on the web, you are wanted. If you are fluent in English and one or more languages, you’ve got a spot. If you know the ins and outs of customer service, support needs you. If you are an educator in WordPress, training wants you. If you can program a butterfly to fly around in a WordPress Theme, your programming skills are welcome.

Make WordPress is your first stop. Join one of the following groups based upon your skills.

And take this advice:

Thanks to Everyone for a Fantastic WordCamp PDX 2015

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WordCamp PDX 205 is over and it is a resounding success. Wow!

The entire WordCamp volunteer team wants to first thank you, the participant, because we do this for you. It takes a lot of people and a lot of work, but we are happy when you are happy, when you enjoy the diversity of speakers, the facility, food, and camaraderie we work so hard to engineer.

Thank you for showing up, for participating, for helping when help was needed, and for making this an amazing WordCamp for all.

We have a few more people and groups to thank, too.

Thanks to Our Sponsors

WordCamp tickets are lower than any other one day event with such top notch speakers. This is due in part thanks to the WordPress Foundation and tremendous efforts of the Make WordPress Community team.

Most of all, thanks and much appreciation to our generous sponsors that went above and beyond to ensure WordCamp PDX is affordable for all.

WordCamp Thank You Instagram Image by Scott Sakamoto for WordCamp Portland.

Special thanks from Scott Sakamoto

One more round of applause to all of our wonderful sponsors:

Also, special appreciation goes to Brian Kidd for letting us use his likeness in the WordCamp PDX 2015 stickers.

Continue reading Thanks to Everyone for a Fantastic WordCamp PDX 2015 →

Speakers: WordPress Economy: Marketing, Community Building, and the Business of WordPress

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This wouldn’t be a WordCamp without topics specific to learning how to use WordPress for content, design, and code. So far, we’ve covered a variety of speakers scheduled for WordCamp PDX 2015 including speakers on development topics and building non-profit sites. We’ve got some fantastic speakers who will take you on their own personal journey and offer tips and techniques to rock your WordPress site.

Community Building with WordPress

Luria PetrucciLuria Petrucci (aka Cali Lewis) is a leader in audio and video podcasting, Since 2005, she has worked with Samsung, Panasonic, Monster Cable, and others on video production, and developed several popular shows such as Geeks Life. She will be sharing Marketing Your WordPress Web Site with us in the afternoon, talking about how to use WordPress as a community and messaging platform to expand your reach. An expert in community building and social media, and marketing. She will show you how to do great things with WordPress and get people to your WordPress site for a greater impact.

A geek herself, she has long been the geek’s go-to person on modern technology and innovations. A long-time WordPress fan and WordCamp speaker, Luria has long been involved with WordPress and the WordPress Community, and just moved to Portland. We know she will help you share your passion with others on your WordPress site and learn how to build a community for yourself or clients. Continue reading Speakers: WordPress Economy: Marketing, Community Building, and the Business of WordPress →

Speakers: Building WordPress Sites for Non-Profits

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The theme of WordCamp PDX 2015 is about how WordPress is changing lives, a web publishing platform and tool used by 25% of the web. We are honored to have some amazing speakers talk about how WordPress is not just changing their lives, but changing the non-profit industry with the ease of web publishing and social media integration. To see when each are speaking, including those speaking on development topics, check out our schedule of events.

Designing and developing for the non-profit industry isn’t as easy as for a traditional business. While a traditional business site serves customers and the general public, a non-profit is often a community service funded by donations and grants, not income. Non-profits invest in causes not profits, often using as much income as possible directly for the cause and rarely for the website. Their websites are highly message-driven, directing people to the information they want and need, and their events and fundraising – often obeying idiosyncratic requirements set by the same donations and grant programs as well as the laws and standards for their industry dictating what they can and cannot do on the web.

Non-profit sites often have memberships or information available to subscribers. Some even require integration of databases to provide educational, research, and informational data within the WordPress site. The more information on a non-profit site, the more demand for usability testing, studies, and evaluations, designing and developing a needs-based site to serve the non-profit community.

Our speakers are well-versed and experienced in developing sites for a wide variety of non-profits. Whether or not you may ever work with a non-profit’s website, there is much for-profit sites can learn from the challenges and goals of non-profit sites in WordPress.

Designing and Developing WordPress Non-Profit Sites

Jocelyn Mozak PhotoJocelyn Mozak is the founder and owner of Mozak Design, and an Electrical Engineer turned web programmer and expert in developing non-profit sites in WordPress. She will be presenting “Helping Non-Profits Change The World With WordPress,” sharing stories and walking through the process and challenges of designing and developing non-profit websites with WordPress that transform the way their organizations work.

She will focus on online fundraising, membership systems, communication tools, video sharing, and a variety of WordPress Plugins and tools that help non-profits to harness WordPress to streamline their tasks, improve their fundraising experience, and keep their focus on their causes, thus continuing to change the world. Jocelyn says, “With WordPress, there is no limit to what they can do. We just need to show them the opportunities.”

Serving a Community with a WordPress Non-Profit Site

marc benzakeinMarc Benzakein will speak about “From Homeless to Hopeful,” on his work building community sites for the homeless and to help troubled children, many struggling after their families fell apart. Marc lives in Wisconsin and is Manager of Operations at ServerPress, which develops DestopServer, software for web design and development workflows.

His community work has changed the lives of many by using WordPress not only as a publishing platform but communication tool. We hope that you will learn about how WordPress can be used to change lives as well. Continue reading Speakers: Building WordPress Sites for Non-Profits →

Speakers: Developers Challenge Our WordPress Way of Thinking

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WordCamp PDX 2015 has an amazing round-up of speakers on the schedule. If you are a developer and determined to take WordPress to the next level under the hood and through the front end, here are some speakers that should be catching your eye on Saturday.

WordPress Themes

Alex MansfieldAlex Mansfield will be presenting on Building Extensible Themes With Hooks And Filters, ideal for the intermediate to advanced WordPress user and developer. Alex will take you to the middle ground in WordPress theme development using hooks and filters along with page template files to build a quick and easy framework for WordPress Themes, modified on a per-use basis for flexibility. With almost a decade of WordPress experience to share, bring plenty of questions and be ready to learn.

He warns that familiarity with WordPress Theme development and PHP are essential to be able to walk out of the talk with a smile on your face and future plans already in motion in your head.

WordPress Security

Ben Martin PhotoBen Martin is a Security Analyst and Remediation Lead at Sucuri. His presentation is Why Security Matters, guaranteed to shake up your thinking about an issue confronting all of us on the web today. He will be talking about the how and why WordPress sites are attacked and how to improve the security of your WordPress site. He spends his day playing with malware to make the Internet a safer place and helping others keep their sites safe.

Security isn’t something you can just wish away or assume happens to the other guys. Every site on the web is assaulted daily, and you are a click away from something nasty on the web, so get this talk on your schedule to feel a little safer when you walk home after WordCamp in the…dark. Continue reading Speakers: Developers Challenge Our WordPress Way of Thinking →

What You Need to Know for WordCamp PDX 2015

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WordCamp PDX will be here in less than 48 hours!

The following should answer all your questions about everything you need to know about attending WordCamp PDX 2015.

Where is it?

Eliot Center in downtown Portland, just off I-5 on the corner of SW Salmon and SW 13th Avenue. The address is:

1034 SW 13th Ave, Portland, OR 97205

The entrance is on Salmon Street.

When is it?

  • Date: Saturday, October 24, 2015, all day
  • Registration: 8:00AM
  • Conference Starts: 9:00AM
  • Lunch: approximately 1:00PM
  • End: approximately 6PM
  • After-Party: 6:30PM

For more details, see our Schedule of events and speakers.
Continue reading What You Need to Know for WordCamp PDX 2015 →

Contributor Day is a GO!

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Sunday, October 25th, from 9:30am until 4:00pm at DeskHub in NW Portland
Reserve your spot and RSVP now!

Contributor Day is a long honored tradition that follows WordCamps. Because of its open source nature, WordPress relies on constant love and attention from contributors the world over.

On Contributor Day, the local WordPress Community of developers and designers gather to help give back to WordPress by helping with the following:

  • Updating and adding to the WordPress Codex
  • Updating and helping with the WordPress Handbooks
  • Reviewing bug reports on Trac and helping to stomp them out
  • Reporting, reviewing, and stomping out bug reports discovered at WordCamp!
  • Taking time in the WordPress Support Forums to answer questions and find answers

You do not have to be a savvy developer or programmer to help us give back to WordPress! We need anyone who can write, research, and answer a question as well. All are welcome!

To participate in this free event, all you need is one of the following skills:

  • A willingness to help other WordPress users
  • Writing and research skills
  • An interest in helping out in the WordPress Support Forums
  • An interest in or familiarity with the WordPress Trac (bug tracking)
  • PHP, JavaScript, and WordPress programming familiarity

Join us for a day of giving back to WordPress!
Continue reading Contributor Day is a GO! →

Slight Logistics Change – Upstairs Track Now In Eliot Chapel

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Eliot-Center_3_OKHi all! Just a quick update for you, a “happy problem” of sorts — WordCamp Portland 2015 looks to be a rousing success and is SOLD OUT! So Yay! However, because of the size of our event, the Upstairs 2nd Floor Track has been moved downstairs to the Eliot Center Chapel, which is right down the east Eliot Hallway from Buchan Hall. Much easier to get to, and far more roomy for our purposes! The schedule and sessions pages for WordCamp Portland 2015 now reflect that. Looking forward to seeing all of you at the session this Saturday, October 24th at the Eliot Center — it’s going to be an impressive time!

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