Author Archives: David Bisset

Workshops Sold Out! Late Admission Tickets!

Although there are one or two tickets floating in our system now, WordCamp Miami workshops have sold out with about a week before the conference. Thank you to all of those who purchased tickets – and thank you to of course to volunteers and sponsors who made this possible.

Waitlist Now Open

A waitlist is up right now. There are a few cancelations before the event and when a spot opens up we will let waitlisters now in the order they entered their names on the list.

Late Admission Tickets

We currently have closed down general admission tickets and replaced them with late admission tickets for Saturday and Sunday (March 25th and 26th). Late admission tickets still give you FULL access to the weekend, just like a general admission ticket. You still get food as well. What’s missing from a late admission ticket? You might not get a t-shirt and swag. Late admission tickets are still a great value, and these usually go out very quickly which leads to a SELL OUT.

A waitlist is up right now. There are a few cancelations before the event and when a spot opens up we will let waitlisters now in the order they entered their names on the list.

Looking For WordCamp 2017 Organizers and Volunteers

We are in the midst of planning of our next WordCamp Miami for 2017. WordCamps are non-profit community events run by volunteers and supported by local and nationwide sponsors. It’s primary purposes are to educate the local community on WordPress and related web technologies, and to offer a great networking opportunity with web professionals.

This is our NINTH WordCamp. It’s hard to believe it’s been almost a decade since we started. We have not confirmed dates, but we are aiming for the general time as WordCamp Miami 2016 (which was February 19-21, 2016).

About 850 people attended the last WordCamp. We expect similar numbers for 2017. It takes a lot of work to organize such an event. And that’s where you come in.

We are looking for people to join the WCMIA Organization Team. Not just to help with making this even great and organized, but we want to make sure our team has a unified by DIVERSE voice. Minority voices are vital for any strong organization, especially one that serves South Florida.

Everyone is busy, but if you think you can spare a few hours helping out with organization, we would love to see you become part of the team. We would love to see past WordCamp Miami volunteers step up to help or become part of the organization team, but if you’ve been a frequent or a familiar face to any of our meetups that’s also great.

Right now, we are lacking in organizational help. So please spread the word. Our next meetup is September 1st in Davie (http://www.meetup.com/SF-WordPress-Users/events/233511138/) so please come by if you have any questions.

You can email us at miami@wordcamp.org or send us a note at https://2016.miami.wordcamp.org/contact/.

Thank you! See you soon at our next meetup!

Weekend & Beginner Workshop Tickets Sold Out

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Once again WordCamp Miami has sold out with about a week before the conference. Thank you to all of those who purchased tickets – and thank you to of course to volunteers and sponsors who made this possible.

Currently our late admission tickets for Saturday and Sunday (February 20th and 21st) are sold out in addition to the Beginner’s Workshop on February 19th. Tickets for BuddyCamp Miami and the freelancer’s workshops are still available.

A waitlist is up right now. There are a few cancelations before the event and when a spot opens up we will let waitlisters now in the order they entered their names on the list.

Sellout Alert: Less Than 40 Weekend Tickets Left!

There are less than 40 weekend tickets left for WordCamp Miami. Remember when we told you that we tend to sell out every year? Well, looks like that is happening again for 2016.

If you are planning on attending the entire weekend, then you need to pick up your Sat/Sun LATE ADMISSION ticket as soon as you can. Late admission tickets were posted a few days ago and while they include full admission to the event including food and other perks, a t-shirt and some swag aren’t guaranteed.

If you are planning on attending ONLY SUNDAY then pick up a “Learn JavaScript Deeply” ticket which covers only Sunday and it’s a slightly cheaper ticket.

We also have limited availability in our workshops – if you’re a developer then BuddyCamp Miami is where you want to be going. Beginner’s workshop and the freelancer’s workshops are nearing capacity too.

Once the tickets are gone, we’ll put up a waiting list and post that information on the site. We will also advice before the event if we are allowing tickets purchased at the door on Saturday (2/20) morning.

See you soon!

Details on Weekend Kid’s Activities

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WordCamp Miami is proud to be expanding for the first time its activities and sessions involving the next generation of WordPress users and developers. We have provided free tickets to kids ages 6 to 14, and they’ll get their own attendee bags when they register filled with their own swag and some special surprises.

In addition to that, here’s the highlights of our kid-related activities for the weekend:

WordPress Kid’s Workshop (Saturday, February 20th) – 10:00am to 3:00pm

Located in RB 120
For the 3rd year in a row WordCamp Miami is holding a WordPress beginner’s workshop for kids. The class will be led by Sandy Edwards, Kimberly Lipari, Michele Butcher, and Chris Christoff (all speakers or panelists at WCMIA this year). They will walk kids and their parents through the process of setting up a new WordPress.com account and how to get started blogging and publishing content to the Internet.

This class is geared towards 8-12 year olds, however, any age is welcome to attend (space permitting). Parents must be present for children under 13 and all attendees must bring a laptop or tablet. Children under the age of 18 can attend without charge with a paid adult (parent) ticket.


This is designed to be an interactive class, so participation and questions are welcomed and required. After the workshop, they can stay for the rest of the conference for refreshments and snacks… and also attend any other sessions. As far as exact room of this workshop – it will be near the other WordCamp Miami sessions at the same venue. We’ll have signs and volunteers to point you in the right direction.

Morning STEAM Workshop (Sunday, February 21st) – 9:45am to 11:45am

Located in CBC 140
STEAM stands for science, technology, engineering, art, and math. STEAM workshops are perfect for kids looking for a creative learning experience that’s also fun. We will have volunteers and experienced educators/teachers guiding this workshop, which will be centered around various craft and building projects. Children ages 6 to 14 are invited along with a parent or guardian, although older children and adults are invited as well! Kids will be able to take home the things they’ll be building in the workshop. Kids who attended the workshop on Saturday will be able to blog about their activities!

Afternoon STEAM Workshop (Sunday, February 21st) – 12:45pm to 3:45pm (RB 120)

Located in CBC 140
After a lunch break, we’ll have different activities planned for the children in the afternoon. Again, children ages 6 to 14 are invited along with a parent or guardian, although older children and adults are invited as well! Kids who attended the workshop on Saturday will be able to blog about their activities!

Kid’s Panel (Sunday, February 21st) – 3:45pm to 4:30pm

Located in RB 120
WordPress is as important to the next generation as the current one. We will be interviewing young people that either use WordPress or currently blog in general. We will be asking how they go about using WordPress or their blogging software, why they choose to blog and publish online, and what would make the experience better for them. If your child would like to be on the panel, PLEASE REACH OUT TO US ASAP.

ICE CREAM (Sunday, February 21st) – Around 2:30pm

We have treats both days for adults and children alike – but the nitrogen frozen ice cream on Sundays has become a tradition. Your kids will love it. Ice cream provided by Chill’n.

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Vote For Your WCMIA Ice Cream Flavor!

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Thanks to our sponsors and our friends at Chilln Ice Cream, we are proud to bring back the nitrogen-flavored ice cream for Sunday (February 21st) for the fourth year in a row. And just like last year time we want your input and vote for your favorite flavor.

Take a few seconds and fill out the survey below (or share the link with others).

When you come to WordCamp Miami, you’ll find out which flavor(s) won. 🙂

 

Final Round of WordCamp Speakers Announced

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This is it! WordCamp Miami is happy to announce our final wave of approved and confirmed speakers.

Zac Gordon

Zac Gordon is currently preparing the JavaScript for WordPress Master Course. Previously, Zac taught WordPress for Treehouse, the online technology school. Zac has years of experience teaching WordPress and JavaScript at the high school and college level. In addition to teaching, Zac also runs Web Hosting for Students.

Michelle Marin

Michelle Marin is a web designer / front-end developer who graduated from the University of South Florida with a BFA in Fine Art – concentration in Graphic Design and Iron Yard where she completed the Front-End Engineering program. Originally from Orlando, she now lives in Tampa creating online brands for entrepreneurs and businesses.

Nizar Khalife Iglesias

Nizar Khalife Iglesias is the Lead Instructor at Ironhack Miami and has been a Web developer for over 8 years. He teaches people what coding is and how to code. Nizar also writes software for the server, command-line and browser, usually in his preferred language: JavaScript. He loves learning and speaking about code and tries to stay active in developer meetups in South Florida. Aside from that, Nizar is from Puerto Rico and enjoys video games, film and cookies.

Ben Stoffel-Rosales

Ben is a Midwest dude with a Westcoast lifestyle. After graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with degrees in Journalism, Spanish and Rhetoric, he took a wrong turn somewhere and found himself in San Francisco working at a technology company. He works with awesome WordPress and Drupal agencies, and also codes very mediocrely in Ruby, JavaScript, PHP, and more. Talk to him about open source, travel, beer, or books.

Patrick Rauland

Patrick is a web enthusiast and loves sharing all sorts of content online. He writes tutorials for WooCommerce, tutorials how to paint toy soldiers (yes for real), and has taught a number of online courses and even written a book. He’s the Product Manager for #WooCommerce at @Automattic, poly, and the guy who makes crazy sound effects.

Marc Gratch

“Marc Gratch is an independent WordPress consultant, developer and WordPress evangelist. Marc attributes everything he knows about code to the WordPress community, with his initial foray into WordPress ( version 2.8 give or take a point release) he did not know how to code. Today he builds custom themes and plugins for clients, works with plugin authors on premium extensions, contributes to plugins in the repo and co-organizes his local WordPress meetup.

When Marc isn’t doing WordPress things, he is (most often) chasing around his toddler wrangling dogs, going to school, and spending time with his family.”

Ptah Dunbar

Ptah Dunbar is a core contributor of WordPress, BuddyPress, bbPress and founder of WP Dev Agency, a WordPress development consultancy. Since 2006, Ptah has been involved in the WordPress eco-system creating themes, plugins, providing WordPress training, pioneering new development best practices and speaking at several WordCamps across the States. He is best known for his work contributing in WordPress and for developments in JavaScript and application frameworks.

Eighth Round of WordCamp Speakers Announced

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WordCamp Miami is happy to announce our eighth wave of approved and confirmed speakers for WordCamp Miami 2016.

Karim Marucchi

Karim Marucchi is the CEO of Crowd Favorite and Chairman of The VeloMedia Group. In the past 20 years, his career path has encompassed a variety of opportunities including founding startups, working for large web agencies and taking companies public. This wealth of experience in taking digital teams across the globe has provided Karim with the necessary foundation and institutional knowledge in leading Crowd Favorite into the growing multinational organization it has become today.

Jim Gilbert

Jim Gilbert has been a leader in the social media space since 2008. His presentations have been seen by thousands of marketers. He speaks each year at The Direct Marketing Association annual conference, Social Media Day, Social Media Week and many colleges and universities. His presentation slides have viewed over 90,000 times. When Jim speaks, he gives it all away! His energy is infectious and his delivery style is thoughtful, entertaining and loaded with powerful takeaways. Jim is CEO of Gilbert Direct Marketing, WorldWide – a digital, direct marketing agency here in South Florida. Follow him on Twitter @gilbertdirect

Karla Campos

Karla Campos is the CEO of Social Media Sass a company specializing in digital marketing training and education. Social Media Sass has trained individuals in topics like WordPress, Joomla, social media, crowdfunding, blogging, content marketing, and SEO to name a few. Karla is a speaker, the winner of a Small Business Influencer award for 2013. Karla has been featured on Entrepreneur.com, T51, NBC6, Social Media Today, and the Sun Sentinel. Karla is the author of Social Media Fame.On her spare time Karla likes to build websites for her startup ideas and writes for different blogs. Karla holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Technical Management.

Adrian Cardenas

Cuban born Adrian Cardenas spent 8 months in a refugee camp prior to arriving in the U.S. as a child. Though self-taught, he has partially earned degrees in Computer Science and Computational Math, which he strives to finish one day. He has been a PHP developer for 6 years and a Systems Administrator for several before that. He is currently making awesome things for Linio.com. Over the years, Adrian has developed several WordPress sites, both single and multi, many of them interfacing with other systems such as MediaWiki & custom solutions. While at ServerGrove, a previous, employer, he witnessed several hundred WordPress installations and some of the “gotchas” that developers can face.

Ibis Arrastia

Ibis is an out-of-the-box thinker with more than two decades of software development experience, with an emphasis in eCommerce and web development. Her work experience includes extensive work in web development, user interface, eCommerce user experience and conversion optimization, product configurators, web optimization, web integrations, payment integrations, mobile websites, internationalization, and database design and optimization. As a Miami native and someone that has worked for many of South Florida’s major technology companies, Ibis is passionate about putting Miami on the map in terms of technology, and seeing her city becoming a major tech hub.

As the Miami Chapter Leader for the nationwide non-profit, Girl Develop It, Ibis volunteers her time to inspire women to see the greatness within them and mentor them as they start a career or transition into a career in computer science. She is most determined to make a difference in the lives of women in Miami, lead a movement to grow the numbers of local women in IT, and play an active role in increasing the Miami software development workforce.

Chris Christoff

Chris works on the core team at Easy Digital Downloads. When he’s not working on fixing WordPress core bugs ,he’s also a student at the University of Florida.

Binod Purushothaman

Binod Purushothaman is the director of product and technology at SiteLock. Binod heads SiteLock’s product development team, using his extensive knowledge from developing several technology startups in the energy, manufacturing and finance sectors in India and the United States.

Logan Kipp

As lead security analyst, Logan Kipp provides SiteLock’s Partners and Support Services Division with information and training on emerging technologies and threats, as well as providing operational oversight. Logan has seven years experience in the website hosting and security technology field, working previously for GoDaddy.com. Logan is an advocate for strong encryption and works with local organizations to promote security awareness.

Seventh Round of WordCamp Speakers Announced

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WordCamp Miami is happy to announce our seventh wave of approved and confirmed speakers for WordCamp Miami 2016.

Andrew Norcross

Andrew (or Norcross, as most know him) is the founder and lead developer of Reaktiv Studios, an agency focused on solving complex problems with killer WordPress solutions. After quite a few years in the finance industry, Norcross switched to coding and hasn’t looked back. He’s got skin in both the service game — Reaktiv Studios is a WordPress VIP Featured Partner, helping top-tier clients with their WordPress development— and the product game, with Reaktiv’s flagship plugin, Design Palette Pro, continually being developed and supported. An organizer for WordCamp Tampa, Norcross loves to keep giving back to the WordPress community with free plugins, education talks at conferences, and core contribution to WordPress. Norcross lives in Tampa, Florida with his amazing wife, three kids, and rescue dogs that believe they’re humans.

Jose Pimienta

Jose L Pimienta is a developer and designer focusing on front-end technologies. He was born and raised Cuba, where he saw the web for the first time in 2005. He loves music, design and engineering. He is currently building brands and products at Alpis (@alpisdesign)

Frank Corso

Frank has been working with WordPress since 2009 and is the founder and CEO of My Local Webstop where he develops Quiz And Survey Master, the highest rated quiz and survey plugin in the WordPress.org repository. He is an organizer of the Gainesville WordPress Meetup and the lead organizer of this year’s WordCamp Jacksonville.

In his spare time, he is the host of The WP Report which is a podcast about improving your WordPress site. He loves to blog about WordPress, Marketing, and Business and has spoken at various conferences including WordCamp Tampa, WordCamp Orlando, and WordCamp Raleigh. Above all else, he enjoys spending time with his wife and daughter in Starke, FL.

Mark Jaquith

Mark Jaquith has been working with and contributing to WordPress since 2004. He is one of the lead developers of the WordPress core and offers freelance WordPress consulting services through Covered Web Services with a focus on scaling, security, and custom functionality. Mark likes patches that have more red than green, and his favorite WordPress features are the ones that you’re not even aware of. He eagerly looks forward to shooting down your feature suggestions with, “No, but it would make a great plugin!”

Bruno Cunha

Bruno Cunha is a self-taught front-end developer working at EarlyShares, where he helps build platforms for crowdfunding commercial real estate. A Miami native, Bruno likes contributing to the local tech community – most recently, he gave a talk for the Miami Ruby Brigade on JavaScript for Rails Developers, as well as a two-part talk for the Front-End Developers of Miami on mob programming using TDD and JavaScript. He loves building modern and performant interfaces and happily welcomes any challengers to a battle in Super Smash Bros.

Rachel Carden

Rachel Carden is a web developer and designer for the University of Alabama and founder of WPCampus, a community and conference focused on using WordPress in the world of higher education. When she’s not using WordPress to help build the world of higher ed web, she’s a theme and plugin developer who enjoys promoting the importance of accessibility and working to encourage collaboration and professional development as a conference and meetup organizer. Rachel lives in Tuscaloosa, Alabama but you can find her on Twitter, GitHub, and bamadesigner.com.

Bill Gadless

Bill Gadless is President and Co-Founder of emagine (www.emagine.com). After dropping out of college and dabbling in web design at the dawn of the industry (1996), Bill co-founded emagine along with Brett Cohen with zero dollars in their pockets and nothing but drive and a love for the web. On their own proprietary CMS, emagine started doing websites for anyone who needed one with budgets of $500 – $1,000. Today, under Bill’s Sales & Marketing leadership and Brett’s Technical leadership, emagine is a 50-person WordPress-based Digital Agency with close to 2,000 websites under their belt in their focus sectors: Healthcare, High-Tech and B2B. Bill blogs regularly and speaks at WordCamps across the U.S.

Kimberly Lipari

Kimberly Lipari is Co-Founder and Director of Operations for valet.io, formerly WP Valet. Valet started life as the original support company and has evolved into a full service agency that provides full Development, Design, and Site Management. Kimberly has written for WP Elevation, presented a webinar, and spoken at various WordCamps about team and client interactions. She was recently featured in an Online Summit called ‘Tracking the Dream Team Code’, helping business owners build the best teams possible. In her downtime Kimberly is usually managing her circus of three kiddos. She cooks and listens to audiobooks for therapy and loves any excuse to get outside and do something fun. She lives just outside of New Orleans, Louisiana.

Grab Your Tickets Soon To Get A T-Shirt And Swag!

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Everyone loves a t-shirt. WordCamp Miami shirts are so stylish that they are frequently worn at other conferences and WordCamps. But you need to get a ticket early enough for us to request the right shirt sizes/amounts to our t-shirt people.

You need to grab a weekend ticket by Jan 31st in order to guarantee yourself a 2016 WordCamp Miami shirt…

But, wait – there’s more!

We will be putting something special in all the attendee bags for those people who also grab their tickets by the deadline.

So don’t wait, or you’ll lose out!

2016.miami.wordcamp.org/tickets

Business Panels Announced

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WordCamp Miami has had a business track for a number of years, which has been aimed to help people trying to start a business (particularly WordPress) or helping people who currently have a business increase their profits and productivity.

This year is no different and we’re proud to have three panels in our Sunday February 21st business track. Make sure to check out our schedule for the latest on who is going to be speaking and when. Here’s a summary of our panels:

Is It Time To Diversify Beyond WordPress?

Panelists on this panel, who are deeply involved in the WordPress ecosystem in various ways, will have an honest conversation on how they feel about WordPress’s growth, and their thoughts about the changes that are coming over the horizon. They will share their feeling about the WordPress theme and plugin market in addition to providing insight as members of WordPress agencies. Do they have plans on expanding outside of WordPress in the future? Is there a right time to do this, and what are the right conditions for anyone to give this consideration?

How To Scale Your Business

This panel is mostly panelists offering the most practical suggestions from their own experiences (less story telling, and more “this is how this applied to me and can apply to others also”). Suggestions and talk doesn’t have to be WordPress specific but feel free to note how a WordPress business is unique is any aspects. Suggestions can also cover recurring revenues or client strategies.

Growing From Freelancing/Small Teams To Big Companies

Panelists tell their story and then answer questions about how they transitioned, along with offering tips to the audience. Some panelists have gone from freelance to agency life, others have gone from one or two man shops to building their own legit business.

Sixth Round of WordCamp Speakers Announced

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WordCamp Miami is happy to announce the sixth wave of approved and confirmed speakers for WordCamp Miami 2016.

Michele Butcher

Michele Butcher is the lead WordPress Security Specialist for WP Security Lock and the newest Support Engineer for Yoast. She is from Carbondale, Illinois which is at the other end of the state from Chicago and has much better scenery. Michele is also the lead organizer of the Southern Illinois WordPress Meetup and teaches beginners and Intermediate WordPress for John A Logan College.

Cliff Seal

Cliff is a Lead UX Engineer at Pardot, a Salesforce company—a leader in B2B marketing automation — where he is the resident WordPress developer. He’s the co-founder multiple profitable side projects, such as Evermore and TuneDig. He co-organizes amUX, a morning meetup focused for local UXers. He’s an accomplished speaker who’s given talks around the world. He’s also been developing with WordPress for many years, contributes back into the community, and participates in WordCamps.

Cliff lives with his wife, April, in Atlanta, where he can be found at a concert, cycling around the city, or playing guitar.

Free Rosas

Free started her digital journey in high school when she was introduced to HTML. Even then, she had an inkling about the massive impact of social media, and soon began creating her own MySpace themes. In the years since, she has continued to gain experience as a Web Producer, Web Developer and Social Media Specialist, or as she calls it, “The Voice”. But don’t get the wrong idea. Coworkers describe Free as a brilliant yet modest team player. In her down time, she enjoys spending time with her daughter, sampling new beers, redesigning logos, and attempting to keep up with local tech meetups.

Nancy Richmond

Dr Nancy Richmond is a professor and leading speaker in social media, personal branding and marketing. Her passion is to empower and train leaders in effectively leveraging social media for their careers and business. She teaches social media classes for the College of Business and is the co-founder of the Social Media Association at Florida International University.

Dr. Richmond has worked with leading universities including MIT, Harvard University, Florida International University and Northeastern University. Nancy has a passion for social media with over 80,000+ followers on Twitter, 5,000+ connections on LinkedIn and 7,000+ followers on Instagram. Nancy’s most recent project and research #LeadersGetSocial explores how leaders can use social media to succeed in their careers and organizations.

Anthony Miyazaki

Dr. Anthony Miyazaki leads the Department of Marketing in the College of Business at Florida International University and directs the Master of Science in Marketing program. Over the past several years, he has worked with his team of faculty and administrative staff to reinvent processes so that they are sensible, effective, and efficient by (1) combining innovation with analytics, (2) developing synergies between employees’ professional brands and the organization’s brands, and (3) enhancing the social media influence of his team members. He teaches Digital Marketing, Marketing Strategy, and Marketing Management at both graduate and undergraduate levels, as well as an undergraduate Marketing Yourself (Personal Branding) course.

Christina Siegler

With a degree in Broadcast Communications from Florida Atlantic University, Christina began her career as a video editor. After moving back home to Orlando, she applied her visual and story telling skills and knack for planning to project management. Her career as a Project Manager began in the technology industry, working with the biggest college sports entities to rebrand and revitalize their web properties and mobile applications. Christina became a certified Scrum Master while using Scrum Methodology to launch the PAC-12 Conference website. Most recently, Christina served as a Project Manager at Lightmaker USA, where she focused on building new properties and servicing maintenance clients. Currently, Christina works at 10up, a fully distributed agency working with 10+ clients/projects. Christina applies her intense work ethic to provide a fun and rewarding working environment for her team and clients.

Nicole Perpillant

Nicole Perpillant is the COO at Design Theory LLC. She’s been working with WordPress since 2010 and focuses on social media integration. In her other life she’s a certified eDiscovery Practitioner and Data Technologist for a Fortune 500 company. Her 13 year career spans Engineering, Quality Management, and Information Security. Twitter: @DT_Nicole

Carl Alexander

Carl Alexander is a PHP developer from Montreal, Canada. He has a website where he publishes articles on a regular basis. It’s his way to help the community with these hard-to-learn topics. It’s also why he’s excited to speak at WordCamp Miami. It’s another way for him to help out.

Besides that, he’s been a WordPress Montréal organizer since 2010. He also helps organize other WordPress events during the year. You can find him on Twitter and GitHub.

Kids Invited To WordCamp Miami

Kids Invited To WordCamp Miami

WordCamps have always been community events and family-friendly. Young ones have always been welcome at WordCamp Miami – in fact, we started our beginner’s workshop JUST for kids and young teens in 2014. This year, we are encouraging parents and guardians to bring their kids to WordCamp Miami! Parents and guardians can now grab a ticket for their children ages 6 to 14 on the ticket page. We are finalizing plans and some surprises now. Here’s what you can expect: zoe_2

– On Saturday and Sunday registered kids ages 6 to 14 can get their own “Child Theme” version of an attendee bag. It will hold some nice surprises – including a WordCamp Miami coloring book (the coloring book is so great we’re sure some adults will want one for themselves!)
– On Sunday, we will have a “Kid’s Workshop” in the morning devoted to teaching children w/ their parents how to safely and securely publish content on the web with WordPress (we will update this page with a link to more information on this workshop shortly).
– Sunday afternoon children are welcome to join us for ice cream (and not just ANY ice cream – nitrogen frozen ice cream, just like last year).
– Sunday after lunch we will be hosting a crafts/STEAM workshop. It’s going to be educational, fun, and creative!
– At the end of Sunday, children and parents (along with the rest of our attendees) will be invited to hear our first kid’s panel (the mention of the kids’ panel is currently on our official schedule). If your child blogs with WordPress and would like to talk about it, then please nominate them to be a part of the panel.

We aim to provide more information prior to the event about the above (and possibly other plans). Please stay tuned and looking forward to seeing you next month!

Disclaimer: We are not providing daycare services at this time. Parents or legal guardians must accompany their children at all times and are responsible for providing alternate snacks/meals if they so choose. Bringing children under the age of 6 is permitted although we ask you to be conscious and courteous of your fellow attendees, especially during sessions.

Welcome Back To A Special Sponsor: SiteGround

SiteGround has been a long-time supporter of WordCamp Miami and we proud to have them back in 2016. Make sure to visit their booth at the event to learn more about their services.


SiteGround

SiteGround, with over 11 years in the business, provides managed WordPress hosting that does not miss a thing! Their servers, available in 4 different data centers across the world, are optimized for ultimate WordPress speed and security and they provide many goodies for the WordPress fans – automatic updates for the core WordPress and its plugins, WordPress SuperCacher for ultimate speed acceleration, staging tool for the coders and unique WordPress autoinstaller for the starting users – all crafted in-house by the SiteGround team. And still they do not forget the importance of the good old standard hosting features like the domain name registration, the email service, control panel and the reasonable pricing. They also have a support team that is not only available 24/7 by phone, chat and ticketing, but consists of WordPress enthusiasts who will help you with specific WordPress issues. SiteGround has been actively involved with the community speaking, supporting and attending various WordCamps around the world and by sponsoring WordCamp Miami, they want to further contribute to the amazing WordPress community.

Fifth Round of WordCamp Speakers Announced

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WordCamp Miami is happy to announce the fifth wave of approved and confirmed speakers for WordCamp Miami 2016.

Pascal Depuhl

Pascal Depuhl is a visual content creator at Photography by Depuhl, a Miami based production company. He’s been capturing still images for over 25 years and even though he got into video only 5 years ago, you’ll find his award winning and mind changing videos on National Geographic, Netflix, the BBC and many of his clients websites. It’s common to find him in the mountains of Afghanistan or the jungles of South America and it’s just as common to walk away from one of his short documentary style films with your mind blown.

Marc Benzakein

“Marc Benzakein has been working online since the mid 90s, starting as a Network Administrator for a small, independent ISP in Southern California and has been involved in almost all aspects of technology. In 2009, he started developing in WordPress, first for his own purposes and then for clients. In early 2013, he got involved with ServerPress, LLC, makers of DesktopServer, a local development tool created for WordPress designers and developers.

Marc lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin with his wife, Jessica and a gaggle of children currently ranging in age from a few months to 13 years old.”

Patrick Alexander

Patrick Alexander is the CEO and founder of WPBICO, an all in one WordPress solutions company specializing in covering all the website needs from bloggers, small businesses to corporations. An avid WordPress enthusiast and lover of all things tech, Patrick has devoted himself to the tech industry for over 15 years gaining extensive experience in Programming, Web Development, System Administration and Technician; and a resume with related positions in the U.S Air Force, Florida International University and several Internet Start Ups.

Rocío Valdivia

Rocío Valdivia is a Spanish Computer Engineer in love with Open Source, technology, travelling and personal challenges. She enjoys working every day as a Community Wrangler at WordCamp Central for Automattic. Rocío has experience as a WordPress & BuddyPress consultant and specialist developer since 2009.

Part of the Spanish translation team at GlotPress, and Spanish WordPress and BuddyPress forums administrator. Co-organiser of WordCamp Sevilla and WordCamp Europe 2015 and 2016, and co-author of “WordPress para Dummies” (2012). Lecturer at conferences and seminars. Find Rocío on Twitter: @rociovaldi.

Alex Oliveira

As a hands on leader of multiple successful companies, Brazilian-born and South Florida-raised Alex Oliveira has helped clients advance their businesses and brands by building and executing interactive marketing campaigns for over 15 years.
With a heavy emphasis on Lead Gen, Alex has created a name for himself as a well-respected marketing technologist and entrepreneur. From small to Mid-sized companies to non-profits and Fortune 500 brands like Ford and Allstate, Alex enjoys a diverse portfolio of clientele.
Alex’s other passions include adventuring with his wife and 3 kids, giving back to the local community and having his morning coffee with a side of NPR.

Steven Alig

Steven Alig spends his days planning applications and web projects with WordPress. He has been developing and designing websites since 1997. In 2004 he started his own agency. South Florida Web Studio has changed and adapted many times over the years since its inception and it continues to deliver quality web projects for a variety of clients. Since 2010 WordPress is the exclusive platform of choice for Steven and his agency.
He is a community volunteer serving on various Web advisory committees for Broward College and Broward Schools, as well as an organizer for Creative Mornings Fort Lauderdale, and WordCamp Miami. Steven also coaches soccer for both his daughters’ recreational league teams.

Jean Felisme

Jean Felisme has been a builder of things on the web for 10 plus years, as a freelancer and entrepreneur. He fell into WordPress back in 2008 and has never looked back. Now, he is a co-founder of RateMyBarber.com and a teacher of web development skills to students of all ages.

Father of two sugar filled girls and husband of a very forgiving wife. Best friend to the Stewmister, Miniature Schnauzer, that always has his back. He is also a big Football fan and music lover.

Shayla Price

Shayla Price creates and promotes content. She lives at the intersection of digital marketing, technology and social responsibility. Originally from Louisiana, Shayla lives in the Fort Lauderdale area. Connect with her on Twitter: @shaylaprice

Workshop & Weekend Schedule Is Up!

IT’S HAPPENING! It’s the moment that many have been waiting for and we are proud to announce that our schedule is now live on our site. Over 65 speakers and 3 days of tracks, workshops, panels, and lightning talks:

http://2016.miami.wordcamp.org/schedule

This schedule covers our workshops and the full weekend. The schedule is still in “beta” which means we are adding some final speakers and the schedule might be tweaked slightly.

Highlights include:

  • Our three workshops on February 19th: Developers/BuddyCamp, Beginner’s Workshop, and our new Freelancers Workshop.
  • Our “How To” Track on Saturday includes many topics our local community have been requesting. This plus the “Content & Design” track is perfect for WordPress users, designers, content creators, and marketers.
  • Developers track includes great talks, including speakers from the local PHP community.
  • Business track on Sunday is targeted toward business professional and we will be announcing our business panels and panelists shortly. Some special guests will be showing up!
  • Developers will be happy to learn we’ve devoted Sunday to “Learning JavaScript Deeply”. Not only are we bringing in experts in the WordPress community, but also adding speakers from the JS community.
  • Our kid’s panel on Sunday, which follows a full-day of activities planned for young ones, will be our first and we are still looking for nominations for <18yr old men/women to join.
  • Don’t forget that your ticket covers lunch, swag, and snacks (including our famous ice cream on Sunday).

Check out our speaker page too for details on those coming to Miami:

http://2016.miami.wordcamp.org/speakers