Two More Great Additions to our Speaker Lineup

June 29, 2009 – 10:30 am

I’m excited to announce a couple more speakers for WordCamp Portland.

John Hawkins: Building a Plugin – It’s Easier Than You Think

photo of John HawkinsJohn Hawkins has worked in every aspect of the internet marketing field for over 15 years and is the Director of Online Marketing for Las Vegas-based PartnerWeekly.com. A WordPress evangelist, plugin hacker and self-proclaimed geek, John is the organizer of WordCamp:Las Vegas 2009. In his spare, time he blogs at JohnHawkinsUnrated.com, is an avid Twitterer, talks WordPress at a weekly Beer and Blog meetup, enjoys photography and spending time with his wife and two teenagers. John’s website, Twitter.

Garron Selliken: Geotagging and Mapping WordPress Content

photo of GarronGarron is a real estate agent turned web developer that became obsessed with interactive maps and now WordPress. His projects include complex and informative geotagging projects that use WordPress and BuddyPress as the infrastructure. To find out more, follow him on Twitter. Garron’s website, Twitter.

By Aaron | Posted in Announcements | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

Calling All Sponsors For WordCamPDX

June 23, 2009 – 12:34 pm

It’s getting about that time. Time to ramp up our efforts to secure sponsors for this years 2 day WordCamp Portland event! That’s right, not just one day but TWO days of pure WordPress magic. That means as a sponsor you actually get two days of love, thanks and appreciation from the 200-250+ attendees. In addition to the love and thanks we’ll properly link/logo you up on our site. We’ll also sing your praises on Twitter, Facebook and you may also swag us up during the event. After all, we do love swag.

What does it take to be a sponsor?

I’m glad you asked. Sponsorship can happen a number of ways. Of course, we’re most happy with plain old $$$ sponsors. After all, events like this don’t come together on their own. Sponsorship of the cash variety starts at $250. Then it steps up to $500, $1,000 or ? (Go crazy) Maybe you’d like to sponsor a specific item? Want to cover the tab for the morning coffee? Perhaps the t-shirts are more your style? Maybe you’d like to host lunch one of the days? We would be happy to work this out with you. Perhaps you have a service that makes sense for this type of event and you’d like to do an in-kind sponsorship. Shoot me a call at 360.260.3253 or email me.

When is WordCamp Portland?

WordCamp Portland is happening on September 19th & 20th, 2009 at WebTrends and will be attended by a wide variety of WordPress users and the tech community in and around the Portland area. I’d imagine we’ll also draw in travelers from outside the area as well. Being a sponsor is a great way to get your name and brand in front of all these people. Don’t delay on becoming a sponsor. The earlier you make it happen the earlier we can begin to sing your praise! Please get in touch with me with any questions or to sign up to be a sponsor!

By dalechumbley | Posted in Announcements | Tagged , , , | Comments (2)

Announcing the first WordCamp 2009 Speakers

June 15, 2009 – 10:00 am

I’m excited to announce the first group of speakers for WordCamp Portland 2009. We’ve got a great lineup of folks with expertise in a variety of areas. There will be other speakers announced prior to the event, along with all sorts of unconference sessions throughout the weekend. Stay tuned!

Micah Baldwin: Do Your Readers Trust You? Building Influence The Right Way

Micah BaldwinMicah is VP and Chief Evangelist for Lijit Networks, a Boulder, CO startup which provides publishers a robust search and stats tool. Lijit is Micah’s sixth startup, (having sold his last startup, Current Wisdom, in the beginning of 2007). A frequent speaker, you can read more about Micah’s philosophy of success through failure at his blog, Learn To Duck. Micah’s website, Twitter.

Jason Grigsby: Speed Up Wordpress. Make Readers Happy and Your Site Green

photo of Jason GrigsbyJason was one of the project leads on the Obama iPhone Application and helped design the user inferface for the Wall Street Journal’s Blackberry application. He founded and organizes Mobile Portland, a local mobile development user group. He has spent the last 11 years building web sites professionally before being bitten by the mobile bug prompting him to throw caution to the wind and start a new company (Cloud Four) focused on mobile and web development. Jason’s website, Twitter.

Scott Porad: LOLs, FAILs and Life at the Cheezburger Factory

photo of Scott PoradScott Porad is the Cheezburger Technology Officer of Pet Holdings, Inc., the company behind I Can Has Cheezburger? and Failblog.org. The Cheezburger Network is a collection of web sites where everyday millions of people share moments of joy through the humor and wonder of LOL. Previously, Scott focused on online retailing at drugstore.com, and online media and content management systems for ESPN.com at Paul Allen’s Starwave. Scott’s website, Twitter.

Tyler Sticka: WordPress-Powered Portfolios

photo of Tyler StickaTyler Sticka is a designer, artist, speaker and educator specializing in identity-driven new media. He has created web sites, branding, iconography and illustration for clients large and small since 2002. In addition to speaking at events like WebVisions and Refresh Portland, Tyler crafts experiences at McAfee Design Studio and teaches a web standards course at the Art Institute of Portland. His love for WordPress is only exceeded by his love for comic books and rock n’ roll. Tyler’s website, Twitter

Duane Storey: BraveNewBlog – Embracing the mobile frontier

photo of Duane StoreyDuane Storey is a Vancouver (BC) based blogger and the co-founder of BraveNewCode, a WordPress design and development company based in Canada. He has co-developed and open-sourced approximately ten WordPress plugins, including the WordTwit twitter plugin and the WPtouch iPhone theme for WordPress — both of which were recently announced as two of the top three WordPress plugins during WordCamp San Francisco. Duane’s website, Twitter

Additional speakers will be announced in the coming weeks; registration is expected to open in mid-July.

By Aaron | Posted in Announcements | Tagged , , , , | Comments (3)

Initial Call for WordCamp Portland Speakers

April 9, 2009 – 5:19 pm

While most of WordCamp Portland is still in the early planning stages, it’s not too early to think about some of the great speakers that we’ll feature this year. The entire two-day event will be a hybrid of conference and unconference, with several preannounced speakers throughout the weekend. Participants will also have the opportunity to create their own sessions on any topic.

We’re looking for a few knowledgeable folks to talk about WordPress and blogging (pretty much anything related is fair game). Themes, plugins, authoring, content, legal issues, RSS, voice, writing, database/server admin, you name it….

If you’re interested in speaking at WordCamp Portland (or have a suggestion of who we should recruit), send Aaron an email for more information.

By Aaron | Posted in Announcements | Comments (0)

Save the Date! WordCamp Portland September 19-20, 2009

March 19, 2009 – 6:30 pm

I’m excited to announce that WordCamp Portland 2009 will be held on September 19th and 20th at WebTrends (located in downtown Portland). More details to be announced soon; keep an eye on this website as we clean it up to get ready for this year’s event.

By Aaron | Posted in Announcements | Comments (1)

Presentation Links Roundup

September 28, 2008 – 6:39 pm

Many of the WordCamp Portland presenters referenced links, information, or slides which are shared online. Here’s a roundup of pointers to the presentation information, roughly in the order presented:

Betsy Richter – From Concept to Execution in Eight Days – links, slides, video, commandments.

Justin Kistner – WordPress Ecosystems – slides, notes, links

Chris O’Rourke – 10 Proven Plugins to Make Your Blog Pop – slides, links, video

Josh Bancroft – Tying Your Tubes: Integration with WordPress – slides, links

Kelly Guimont – Considerations When Choosing A Theme – video (Outline/notes to come)

Dane Hesseldahl – Extend Your Blog with Custom Plug-In Development – slides, source code

Eric Amundson – Design & Debug WordPress Themes Using Free Tools – super-detailed notes and links

Marshall Kirkpatrick – Feed Your Blog with RSS – slides of links

If there is any information which should be added to this list, leave a comment and I’ll update the post. I know that some folks were recording or streaming video, we’ll link that that if available as well.

By Aaron | Posted in Agenda, Elsewhere | Comments (2)

Thank YOU

September 27, 2008 – 8:08 pm

We’re wrapping things up here at WordCamp Portland, but I wanted to post a quick thank you to everyone. Thanks to our sponsors for providing cash and services that helped make this possible. A big thank you to all of our speakers, some of whom traveled quite a distance, for sharing their expertise and helping to facilitate a ton of great discussion.

Thanks to all of our attendees – hopefully you learned something, and we appreciate all of your knowledge that you’ve shared.

A special thanks to the all-volunteer staff including Betsy, Kelly, Chris, Reid, Paul, Cami, Bryan, and the others I forgot to name that helped out with registration, shirts, food, the website, a/v equipment, and numerous other tasks.

CubeSpace has been a great host; Eva and David and their staff have gone above and beyond to help with all sorts of logistics and details.

Posting content? Be sure to tag it wordcampdx. Look for a followup post (or few) pointing to photos/links from WordCamp.

Again, thanks to everyone for making this an awesome event for Portland and for WordPress.

By Aaron | Posted in Announcements | Comments (4)

Group Photos

September 27, 2008 – 10:13 am

By Reid Beels | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (1)

Social Media + WordCamp = Crazy Delicious

September 25, 2008 – 11:57 pm

If you are planning to be at WordCamp, and you want to talk about the (undoubtedly) awesome time you are having, and you want to show off to everyone who is NOT there that you ARE there, here’s how you do it:

You need one word. That word is: wordcampdx. Make note that it only has the ONE p in it. Think of it like the secret word, remember it and use it EVERYwhere. As a #hashtag, on Twitter if you are rocking the 140, on Flickr if you are taking photos of all the blogger type folks who are there, on Technorati if you are liveblogging things, and if you have anyplace else you are slapping a label on your content, please make sure that label is “wordcampdx” so we can find all the photos and blog posts and tweets and everything else our campers create.

And while we’re on the subject, here’s the official stance on media capturing: BRING IT. No really. Bring your camera and your other camera. Video camera, webcam, digital audio recorder, microphone for your iPod, mic for your laptop, we welcome them all. As of now we only have confirmed audio recordings for the big sessions, so if you have a video camera and you’re willing to record or loan it out for the day, let us know in the comments.

TIP: When you get your laptop and your charger or your iPhone or your EEEpc or whatever else you’re packing up to bring to WordCamp, make SURE you have a camera. And when you get there and we’re ready for Lorelle’s keynote address to start, make sure you have that camera handy. Why? Wait and see.

By Kelly | Posted in Announcements | Comments (0)

Things to Know Before You Go

September 23, 2008 – 9:45 pm

With WordCamp less than a week away, here are some things to know about the event:

  • CubeSpace is at 622 SE Grand Avenue. See the CubeSpace directions page for a map.
  • Doors will open at 8am, with the event beginning promptly at 8:30.
  • The official tag for the event is wordcampdx. There will be a post on this blog later this week about more details for tagging and recording the event.
  • We’ll have bagels and fruit available in the morning. And yes, coffee will be available as well.
  • Lunch and dinner are also provided
  • Bring your cameras! Take lots of pictures. Post them on your blog. Post them on Flickr. Tag them wordcampdx.
  • Those cameras? Have them ready for Lorelle’s keynote. That’s all I’m saying.

Feel free to leave a comment about any last-minute questions and we’ll respond and update this post.

By Aaron | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)