Hey everyone,

The past two WordPress events in BC have been great! A great turnout for each one of about 100 people, and everyone was really receptive to the topics, involved in the discussion, etc. The organizers in both events were really dedicated to the cause (if you can call it a cause!) and very helpful to the speakers and audience in my experience.

However I realize that we have a variety of folks here in BC with a variety of ways in which they approach WordPress. If I dare to group people (and I recognize there are shades of grey between each group), I would say we have newbies, hobby bloggers, career bloggers (people who make money from their blog directly), business bloggers (blogs associated with a business operation), website developers & graphic designers, and programmers (people who customize WP, make plugins and themes). It’s a little difficult to accomodate all of these audiences in one 3 hour event. However, I imagine we could accomplish this feat through a well-organized multi-session whole day or two day WordCamp.

So that’s something I’d like to work on, maybe with a group of other fellow WordPress enthusiasts. An event like this would provide great learning and networking opportunities for different audiences, while showcasing the power of WordPress as a blogging and CMS platform. At an event like this we could also discuss WordPress MU (multi user), which is a whole other (exciting) ballgame.

The location should be easy to reach for people coming from various cities across the Lower Mainland.

So … just thinking out loud. I welcome any comments from anyone.

stay in high spirits,

-k.s.

Hey Everyone,

So after the success of WordCamp Vancouver hosted at the Network Hub in Downtown Vancouver by Tazzu Networking Forums, somebody somewhere was thinking, “if Vancouver can pull this off, why not Langley?” Well if you missed out last time, or want to learn and network with fellow WordPress bloggers and developers, join us on July 16th for WordCamp Fraser Valley, hosted by BlueFur Web Hosting at the Cascades Casino in Langley. Like WordCamp Vancouver, this is a mini-version of WordCamps held in other major cities (spanning over a day or two), but it still promises to be a fun evening of learning and inspiration.

Here’s the shortlist of cool presenters: Dr. Raul Pacheco, Rebecca Bollwitt, John Chow, and Yours Truly. At WordPress Vancouver I presented on how to use WordPress as a CMS and create catalogues and mashups with the help of custom fields, and the feedback from the audience was great. However, I do think it was a little advanced for some of the blogging audience and so I’ve got a simpler (but still technical) presentation planned for WP Fraser Valley. I’ll be posting more details about my presentations in the coming weeks but in the meanwhile, click here to register for the event!-

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UPDATE

WordPress Fraser Valley was a success! You can read all about it at these links:

http://www.miss604.com/2008/07/wordcamp … eblog.html
http://www.johnchow.com/wordcamp-fraser-valley/
http://hummingbird604.com/2008/07/17/wo … aftermath/
http://www.thomasso.com/?p=738
http://sixty4media.com/2008/07/16/hangi … er-valley/
http://purpledragonfly.playaparadise.co … word-camp/
http://www.savings-naturally.com/wordpress/?p=168

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Photo: 4EverYoung

Hey Everyone,

I was honoured to have the opportunity to write a guest blog post on the Cre8ive Flow blog today, which is the blog of the Cre8asite Forums. I wrote a summary / roundup of the WordPress Camp in Vancouver, BC hosted by Tazzu at The Network Hub last Wednesday (April 30th).

Thanks to Elizabeth Able for connecting me to the opportunity and giving me advice on my post. Of course, an event roundup is dependent on the quality of the event itself and the WordPress Camp was a great success. Hopefully the post can give people some new insights and inspiration about blogging and content management.

You can check it out here: http://blog.cre8asite.net/archives/477

and Sphinn it here: http://sphinn.com/story/44714

stay in rising spirits :)

-k.s.

I just received an e-mail about Seattle SMX Advanced on June 3rd and 4th, and I have to say from the topics and presenters, it looks like a great event. I am considering it. However I’m also considering a new laptop. Hmm, budget constraints! We’ll see which gets priority.