Category Archives: Announcements

Spread the WordCamp love!

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One of my favorite things about being involved in any WordCamp is the stories. It doesn’t matter where I go or who in the WordPress community I speak with, it seems everyone has a great story about their first WordCamp, their favorite WordCamp, the crazy WordCamp at which they met someone incredible. WordCamps help our community put faces to names and personalities to interactions. Each time I hear a story of why someone loves this WordCamp or that session there’s a part of me that wishes they would share it with the world.

Well now is your chance. We want to hear your great WordCamp stories. What you look forward to before showing up at the venue or signing into the live stream. What your first WordCamp was like. What your most recent WordCamp was like. We want to know what you love most about WordCamp! But we want you to keep it brief. Condense all your WordCamp love into a one minute video and share it with us so we can share it with the world.

We ask that you keep the video to around 1 minute, make sure it’s family friendly, and verify that you have the right to use any image or sound you feature. It’s that simple.

Submit your Why I love WordCamp video today!

Deadline for video submissions is Friday, November 13.

Introducing the WordCamp US speakers – Part 1

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After reviewing an almost overwhelming landslide of amazing speaker applications we’ve finally reached out to all those who have applied. We’re absolutely thrilled to start introducing you to the 80 spectacular speakers who will be gracing the stages of WordCamp US! Without further ado, let’s greet our first round of speakers.

LeAnn_KLeeAnn Kinney

LeeAnn is a front-end developer living in Philadelphia, PA. She is a web accessibility advocate, co-organizer of LadyHacks and ELA Conf as well as co-organizer and teacher for Girl Develop It Philly. In her spare time she loves to hike, bike, camp and travel as much as possible.

joe_dolsonJoe Dolson

Joe Dolson is an active contributor to the WordPress accessibility team, and provides ongoing support to the Theme Review team by performing accessibility audits on themes submitted for the accessibility-ready tag. He’s been developing for WordPress since 2007. Joe provides accessibility consulting, develops WordPress plug-ins, and builds bespoke WordPress web sites primarily for non-profit and disability service organizations. Joe also brews beer, practices Shotokan Karate, and plays classical violin.

hilary_fosdalHilary Fosdal

Hilary Fosdal is the owner of Red Phone Studio, a design and development company based in Chicago. She started building websites while working in the broadcast television industry. While still a news junkie, she loves to talk shop about all things digital. In her spare time, she seeks outdoor adventures that involve mostly hiking and running.

josh_koenigJosh Koenig

Josh Koenig is a Co-Founder and Head of Product for Pantheon, the website management platform for WordPress and Drupal. Pantheon provides the complete toolchain for developers using the leading open-source CMSs to build, launch, and run all their sites.

rich_robRich Robinkoff

Rich is a WordPress community advocate, WordCamp speaker/organizer and WordCamp Central Community Deputy. He teaches Web Development at a local community college, loves to travel and is addicted to coffee. He is learning to cope with Impostor Syndrome.

David_LDavid Laietta

David began building HTML websites in high school, breaking in programming classes as they appeared at his school. PHP came shortly after, with the mind blowing ability to make websites more than static entities. Later, early in 2008, David discovered WordPress and has been a proselytizer ever since. As lead organizer of WordCamp Orlando, David regularly speaks, mentors, teaches and trains on best practices with WordPress.

Kathryn_PKathryn Presner

Kathryn Presner thrives on helping people get the most out of WordPress. After a career designing and building websites for clients, she joined Automattic as a Happiness Engineer in 2012. She’s currently Theme Whisperer on the Theme Team, where she helps folks with customization, configuration, and troubleshooting. She enjoys spreading her passion for WordPress and encouraging new public speakers at WordCamps, Girl Geeks, Ladies Learning Code, and other grassroots events. Non-WordPress obsessions include vintage Pyrex mixing bowls and growing garlic.

Rami_aRami Abraham

Rami Abraham is a developer lead at WebDevStudios / Maintainn. He’s been building with WordPress since version 2.8, with a heavy focus in plugin development and javascript applications, as well as explorations with WebGL and game development. Prior to that, he worked in a few lead roles at traditional web agencies in the mid-Atlantic area of the US; with primary focuses being php, java, Objective-C, and javascript application development. He enjoys working with an unending variety of frameworks, SVG animation, and is part of the AffiliateWP.com support team. An organizer of WordPress Lancaster / WordCamp Lancaster, Rami attends and speaks at a variety of conferences, universities, and meetups. He has an affinity for user-focused topics, and sharing ideas about emerging technologies.

Joe_CJoe Casabona

Joe Casabona is a Front End Developer at Crowd Favorite and author of the book, Responsive Design with WordPress. He is also a Yankee fan, plays the drums, and enjoys a fine cigar from time to time. You can find him over at casabona.org or on Twitter at @jcasabona.

Rachel_BRachel Baker

Lead Engineer at thewirecutter.com and thesweethome.com. Lead Developer of the WP REST API plugin and WordPress Core contributor.

 

Aaron_JoAaron Jorbin

Aaron Jorbin is a polyhistoric man of the web. Currently Technical Architect on the Conde Nast Platform Team and a WordPress Core Committer, he works to improve developer happiness and is dedicated to making the internet usable and enjoyable by everyone. He tweets at @aaronjorbin and writes regularly at daily.jorb.in.

greg_brownGreg Brown

Greg is a Data Wrangler at Automattic on the WordPress.com Data Team. He helps organize the team, writes code, juggles servers, and occasionally inserts some machine learning and natural language processing into the mix.

Let’s get this on the schedule!

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While we work behind the scenes updating this and finalizing that we want to keep you all in the loop on the general where and when things are happening. You all know that WordCamp US is happening December 4-6 and the Community Summit is taking place December 2-3,  but now we’ll let you in on a few concrete details to make your planning a bit easier.

WordPress Community Summit

Date: December 2 & 3
When: Doors open at 8:30am and the event kicks off a 9am and runs through 5pm both days
Where: The Hub at Commerce Square – 2001 Market Street Suite 210, Philadelphia, PA 19103

WordCamp US 2015 Speaker Sessions

Date: December 4 & 5
When: Registration opens at 8am and the sessions begin at 9am and run through 6pm both days
Where: Pennsylvania Convention Center Broad Street Atrium Entrance – 1101 Arch Street, Philadelphia, PA

WordCamp US 2015 Official Afterparty

Date: December 5
When: 7pm, and don’t be late
Where: That’s a surprise, but we will say it’s an awesome all ages venue within walking distance of both the convention center and hotel!

WordCamp US 2015 Contributor Day

Date: December 6
When: Doors opens at 9am and the event runs 10am – 5pm
Where: Pennsylvania Convention Center Broad Street Atrium Entrance – 1101 Arch Street, Philadelphia, PA

 

Announcing the Kim Parsell Memorial Scholarship Winner: Anyssa Ferreira

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When the WordPress Foundation first envisioned a memorial scholarship to honor Kim Parsell, there was a deep interest in ensuring that Kim’s spirit, ethos and commitment to the WordPress community would be reflected in the recipients of the new award. We are delighted to announce that the winner of the inaugural Kim Parsell Memorship Scholarship is exactly the woman Kim would want to meet at WordCamp US. The 2015 recipient is Anyssa Ferreira; a Brazilian designer, feminist, and WordPress community activist.

About Anyssa Ferreira

anyssaIn 2013, Anyssa and her business partner decided to redesign their studio’s website. For help with WordPress, they turned to the official Brazilian WordPress forum and Facebook group. The generosity of that community to assist with their project encouraged Anyssa and her business partner to attend to WordCamp São Paulo in 2013 as micro sponsors. While attending that first WordCamp, Anyssa began to understand the nature of the WordPress community – and very much wanted to be a part of it.

The following year, Anyssa served as an organizer for WordCamp São Paulo 2014, and was responsible for the visual identity of the WordCamp and its website. She also presented a talk. As an organizer and a speaker, she was the only woman. From there, she began to work to encourage more women to join the WordPress community in Brazil.

Since then, Anyssa has played an active role in increasing the participation of women in the WordPress and tech communities in Brazil. She has spoken publicly on the importance and value of female involvement in both. She has worked to debunk the myth that women have no interest in WordPress and web development. She has explored why women were not participating, speaking personally with many female programmers, designers and other WordPress professionals about this important topic. She regularly invites women to attend her local WordPress meetup, and works to ensure that they feel welcome and wanted when they do attend.

Kim Parsell often spoke of how the WordPress community was an inviting and personable group. Kim also was eager for more women to feel safe and welcome at WordPress events and within the WordPress community as a whole. We are convinced that Kim would agree that Anyssa Ferreira is exactly the sort of woman and activist who should attend WordPress US.

2015 WordPress Community Summit Application

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The WordPress Community Summit is a two-day gathering of the people who most actively contribute to the WordPress project via its many contributor teams. This year it will take place on the two days preceding WordCamp US – Wednesday, December 2, 2015 and Thursday, December 3, 2015.

The WordPress Community Teams

Participants will span all the teams who work on the WordPress project itself: Core, Design, Mobile, Accessibility, Support, Polyglots, Documentation, Themes, Plugins, Community, Meta, Training, Flow and TV.

Summit Application Guidelines

In addition to active Community team members, seats are also available to folks who are heavily involved in the greater WordPress ecosystem but may not be on one of the contributor teams.

If you want to attend the Summit, please fill out a Sign-up Request.

Admission to the WordPress Community Summit will be dependent on the number of applicants and the space we have available.

Submit a Sign-up Request

 

The WordPress Contributor team icons

Book your room now!

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We’re excited to share the news that WordCamp US has secured a select number of rooms at The Sheraton Philadelphia Downtown.

A Top Hotel in a Fantastic Location

The Sheraton Philadelphia Downtown The hotel is within walking distance to all of the city’s major attractions, including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Love Park, the Franklin Institute, Barnes Foundation and is just two short blocks from the Convention Center.

We knew the WordPress community would be eager to stay near some of the best that Philly has to offer – and would want a hotel that provided some of the finer amenities and conveniences. The Sheraton Philadelphia Downtown hotel features an indoor swimming pool, a fitness room, and a Starbuck’s in the lobby! There is also a bar and restaurant located in the atrium of the hotel.

Booking Details

To book your stay, visit The Sheraton Philadelphia Downtown Hotel. You can also call the hotel directly at (215) 448-2000 or (888) 627-8178 and reference WordCamp US 2015. You will receive a discounted rate, a discounted parking rate, and free in room WiFi!

The discounted rates are $219 for single/double room, $239 for a triple and $259 for a quad.

Book Your Room Now

More tickets, more news!

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How about that first round of tickets? We really wanted to appease you early birds and let you buy tickets if you absolutely knew you would be attending WordCamp US. But we also wanted to make sure there were plenty of tickets to go around for those more cautious attendees who wanted to pour over speaker announcements and those of you waiting for Community Summit invites to go out.

We’ve learned our lesson. What do you want? TICKETS! When do you want them? Apparently you’d like them right now. We’re still holding a chunk of tickets in reserve for those folks waiting to hear about speaking, volunteering, or the Community Summit. We’ve also added a $250 microsponsorship ticket – Jawn. It’s for those of you who recognize that WordCamp US provides just as much value as any of those other big industry conferences and want to lend a little extra to support for a great event supporting an amazing community. Not from Philly? Not sure what jawn is? Well you should find out!

Next week will be full of news. We’ll have a hotel details and a booking code plus more info on the 2015 Community Summit. Want to make sure you’re the first to know? Subscribe to receive new posts and you’ll always have the latest WordCamp US info.

 

First round of tickets are gone, but don’t worry!

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“The tickets to WordCamp US are gone?!” you say with incredulity. “Surely not!”​

Correct, you are! ​More tickets will be released soon​ – and more still will be forthcoming after that. In fact, as we expect about 2,000 attendees (including attendees, speakers, volunteers, sponsors, organizers, and community members), you can rest assured that all sorts of tickets are still available.

Here’s our thinking: We wanted to give the early birds a chance to secure tickets while still leaving plenty of tickets for those who are still organizing their schedules.

We planned to hold the bulk of the tickets until we’ve unveiled our amazing speaker lineup, yet we now appreciate that there are more of you early birds out there than we first anticipated.

You can expect a second round of tickets to be ​released on Friday, September 11 at 2:00pm EST​.

 

 

2015 WordPress Community Summit Dates Announced

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We are excited to announce that the WordPress Community Summit will be held on December 2-3, 2015, in the days preceding WordCamp US. These dates were chosen based on the results from the proposed dates survey. The majority of respondents preferred that the Community Summit be held prior to the official start of WordCamp US.

An Amazing Space for Collaboration

The summit will be held at The Hub, a beautiful meeting space just a few blocks from the official WCUS Hotel at 2001 Market Street 2nd Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19103.

For the 2 day gathering, we will have an array of large, open spaces and intimate conference rooms.

HCS-Flex-1

About the WordPress Community Summit

The WordPress Community Summit is a smaller, invite-only event for active members and contributors on the many teams that work to improve WordPress: Core, Design, Mobile, Accessibility, Support, Polygots, Documentation, Themes, Plugins, Community, Meta, Training, Flow and TV .

Kim Parsell Memorial Scholarship

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Kim Parsell, a smiling woman with long gray hair in a pink WordCamp San Francisco volunteer t-shirt, standing outside among trees.

Kim Parsell at WordCamp San Francisco 2014. Photo by Drew Jaynes.

In January we announced a memorial scholarship to WordCamp US in honor of Kim Parsell, a valued and committed contributor to the WordPress project who had recently passed away. Now that the city and dates of WCUS have been determined, we are taking applications for the scholarship.

  • It is a scholarship for a woman contributor with financial need who has never attended WordCamp San Francisco before.
  • It will cover the ticket cost, flight, and lodging.
  • It will not cover things like taxis, meals outside the official event, or airport transportation.
  • One scholarship is awarded per year.
  • It is funded by the WordPress Foundation.
  • The application deadline is September 2, 2015.
  • A decision will be made by September 16, 2015, and applicants contacted.

Those who knew Kim were very aware that her experience at WordCamp San Francisco a few months before her death was huge for her, and that the travel assistance program made it possible. Kim was also passionate about efforts to recruit and recognize more women contributors in the project.

This specific scholarship in her memory is therefore limited only to applicants who fulfill all four requirements: a woman (this includes trans women), an active contributor to the WordPress open source project (through one of the contributor teams or as a local meetup/WordCamp organizer), someone with financial need, and someone who has never attended WordCamp San Francisco (the precursor to WCUS). There is more information on why we chose these conditions in the original announcement post.

Kim also had strong feelings about *older* women getting involved and being welcomed, but we didn’t include an age limit on the scholarship in case some years there weren’t people who fit all the criteria. That said, since this is the Kim Parsell scholarship, I’d like to especially encourage older women to apply — you are welcome here, and your experience is valued more than you may realize!

And before we get to the link to apply, I’d like to ask everyone reading this to take a moment to remember Kim, and to remember that it’s up to all of us to make people with different backgrounds feel welcome and included at events like these. Let’s do her proud.

Apply for the Kim Parsell Memorial Travel Scholarship