WordCamp Phoenix 2013

We are in the home stretch. Tomorrow is the last day of Phoenix WordCamp 2013, so let's make the most of it. 

Tickets
A hard copy ticket is not needed for entry into WordCamp. If you attended Friday or Saturday, don’t forget to bring your namebadge for entry into the event.

Location
Sunday sessions will be held at Gangplank. For parking directions, click here, and see the map below.  

WordCamp for Kids
Please arrive to WordCamp for kids about 15 minutes early to allow for setup.  Each child should have either a laptop or an iPad/tablet that connects by wifi to the internet.  The children will be creating their very own website during class using the WordPress.com platform.  Parents are welcome and encouraged to attend and assist their child if needed. WordPress is an incredibly powerful web publishing tool and as parents, we applaud you for taking the time to help your child learn this very useful tool.  

We would also like to share a resource from the great guys over at iThemes.com.  They have created an ebook called, "Kids Creating Stuff Online".  Check it out and encourage your child to continue their WordPress knowledge.  Who knows, they may be presenting at WordCamp Phoenix in a couple of years!

Sunday WordCamp
Have you ever noticed at conferences how many people want to hang out and speak with the presenter, but they are rushed out of the room in preparation for the next session?  Yeah, we've seen that too.  You will not see that happen at Sunday WordCamp.  Our Sunday presenters will share a 25 minute presentation and then will be assigned a conference room where they can continue the discussion in a small group format.  No more wishing you had been able to ask that question.  You will have time to engage in a small group with these fantastic speakers and learn even more from them.  

Sunday Agenda

*A detailed schedule can be found here.  

8:30 am
Registration for WordCamp for Kids 

9:00 am
WordCamp for Kids Begins

11:30 am
Registration begins for Sunday WordCamp

12:00 pm
Sunday Sessions Begin

5:00 pm
WordCamp concludes

WordCamp is in full swing and boy are we having fun!  Here is more information to help as you prepare for WordCamp on Saturday.  

Tickets and Registration
A hard copy ticket is not needed for entry into WordCamp. If you attended Friday, don't forget to bring your namebadge for entry into the Saturday event.  All Saturday classes will be held at Chandler Center for the Arts.  Please see the map below for parking details.  

Staying Connected
We are happy to report that Wifi will be available at the Chandler Center for the Arts.  While we expect 600+ in attendance, our friends at the City of Chandler are assisting with a broadband boost so that we all can stay connected.  Remember that if you are tweeting about the event, make sure to use the hashtag #wcphx. It is a fun way to follow the conversation.  

Pub Crawl and After-party
The after-party will be held at Chandler City Hall (as noted on the map below).  We would like to encourage everyone to pub crawl through downtown Chandler and make your way to Chandler City Hall by around 6:00 pm.  There, we will have free drinks, appetizers and lot's of great fun.  Leave your inhibitions at the door and let loose.  The after-party is where memories are made at WordCamp.  The official after-party will end at 10:00 pm, but the party doesn't have to stop there.  Enjoy the various downtown Chandler bars and restaurants available.  We do ask that you be safe and make sure that there is a designated driver if you must drive home from the event. 

Saturday Agenda

A full Saturday schedule is also available on our website. 

8:00 am Registration

• Chandler Center for the Arts

9:00 am

• WordCamp Opening Ceremonies Kicks off WordCamp

5:30 pm

• WordCamp Day 2 Concludes and the party starts.  Make your way to the after-party.

6:00 pm – 10:00

• After-party at Chandler City Hall

So you’ve had a full day of WordPress code poetry. Now what? After party, that’s what! It’s an invaluable opportunity to continue the conversation with people you’ve met during the day, chat with WordCamp organizers, presenters, and sponsors, and network with fellow WordPress code poets. Mozy on down to Chandler City Hall, but don’t hesitate to stop at one of the establishments participating in the WordCamp Pub Crawl, who are offering some great deals.

But save some room. We will open Chandler City Hall doors at 5:30pm and continue till 10:00pm, serving heavy hor d’oeuvres with options for meat lovers, vegans, vegetarians, and those avoiding gluten. You can’t please everyone all the time, but we’re sure going to try. An open bar will be serving beer, wine, and a selection of mixed drinks.

We are happy to feature three popular local businesses: Floridinos, Ranch Market, and Baiz Market. Pros Ranch Market is an award-winning retail grocery with an in-store restaurant that serves authentic home-style Hispanic dishes and beautifully prepared fruit and vegetable trays. Baiz is a New Times award winning Middle Eastern market that prepares fresh pita and hummus daily. Floridino’s is a local favorite, an Italian restaurant that serves the “largest calzones” that would be the envy of Ben Wyatt.

And we’re going to keep the party going with casinos featuring Black Jack tables and a Roulette Wheel. Stop by and speak with our sponsor Scott Bentley from The Social Chimp, who’ll be snapping shots of you and your friends at the photo booth. Make sure to visit the 2nd floor Mezannine room and request your favorite song from DJ Trey.

All-in-all it’s a great way to end the day, catch up with your friends, and meet new fellow WordPressers. Don’t miss it!

Norse is excited for the opportunity to support WordCamp Phoenix this year and connect with the community of more than 600 WordPress developers, users, and aficionados!  For those of you who don’t know Norse, we live, breath, and sleep security. Our live threat intelligence and e-commerce fraud prevention solutions are used every day by thousands of online merchants to stop credit card fraud.

At WordCamp we’ll be showing IPVenger, our new web security plug-in. IPVenger utilizes our patent-pending live threat intelligence to protect WordPress blogs and sites from hacker attacks, bot-nets, spam-bots, and zero hour threats. It also provides advanced website traffic analytics that provide insight into which threats are being directed at your site, where they’re coming from, and tools to easily and effectively manage those threats. Check out our web video for a quick overview of the technology behind IPVenger. http://ipviking.com/#/video/

IPVenger is in our “early access” program till the end of Jan, but so far the WordPress community feedback has been fantastic; “With IPVenger’s quick and painless configuration, we had it up and protecting our website from spammers and hackers within minutes. The intuitive user interface made it especially easy to navigate and the rich feature set is specifically designed for WordPress sites.  IPVenger is an invaluable security solution for any WordPress site.” – Ed Morrissey, Chief Creative Officer at Integrity

If you’d like to see what types of threats are visiting your site, come by and see us at WordCamp or Install IPVenger by going to ipvenger.com/signup!  Put in promo code IPADPHOENIX to be entered to WIN an iPad Mini!

If you’d like to meet our team this weekend, email Luke Weber at lw@norse-corp.com or Beau Roberts at br@norse-corp.com.

WP Engine is rolling into town this weekend, and we’re pumped about getting to hang out with you all. WP Engine is rolling into town with Ben Metcalfe, Chris Lauzon, and Mark Kelnar, all of whom have years of WordPress and development experience, so please come find one of us and bring questions about your sites. We love to participate in the Community, so regardless of whether you’re brand new to WordPress, or you’ve got a dozen git repos of custom code written, we’d love to chat about WordPress and how you can make your site run better, be more secure, and how to optimize your code if that’s what you’re into!

WP Engine eats, sleeps, and dreams WordPress.  Using our fast, secure, and cutting-edge technology, we provide the most mature Managed WordPress hosting platform to tens of thousands of top domains globally, such as HTC, Foursquare, VMWare, Atlassian, Bonnaroo, and Soundcloud.  WP Engine is also incredibly active in the WordPress community: we’ve sponsored and attended more than 20 WordCamps in 2012, and will continue on in 2013.  As part of our platform, WP Engine offers guaranteed hacker-proof security, and top-flight developer features, all hosted on infrastructure ready to scale. For support, WP Engine hires WordPress experts to troubleshoot problems, and get your websites running smoothly again. We’re here to help make WordPress the best solution for websites and apps, because we believe in the power of open-source and the Community. Come see what you’ve been missing!

WP Engine is grateful to the WordCamp Phoenix Organizers for all their hard work putting the event together, and is proud to support local WordPress Communities. We are excited to meet you and learn about what you’ve built in WordPress, as well as also offer all the attendees a free account for life on WP Engine.

VeloMedia is a micro-multinational of distributed offices specializing in technical web development using WordPress. What does that even mean? Put simply, we have diverse talent across the globe under a single combined workflow and project management umbrella. VeloMedia provides both regional and international scalability that allows for an array of vantage points to best serve our clients’ needs. We partner with full-service agencies and PR firms, to provide digital production for internal marketing and IT departments of major brands. You come up with the blueprint and we build your story.

We’re always looking to interface with top WordPress talent. We know that with the right minds and hard work, the WordPress core is limitless. We’ll see you at WordCamp Phoenix.

Want a chance to network and continue the conversation with people you just met in your class? Whether you were able to attend the Friday classes or not, don’t miss this opportunity to mix with other WordPress enthusiast bloggers, developers, and of course…designers!

We’ll be serving up some light appetizers, non-alcoholic beverages, and featuring the award-winning Black Box wines. WordCamp is fun and forward-thinking and we thought it would be great to introduce the latest rage – quality boxed wines that are making wine connoisseurs take note. You can read more in this New York Times article.

Tim Hilcove from the Weekly Wine Journal has gracioiusly offered to bring a few bottles from his personal collection. Don’t lose an opportunity to talk to Tim and get his expert advice.

The Wine and Design event is at Gangplank from 5pm to 7pm. We’d like you to get a good night’s rest before all the Saturday goodness, but if you’re not quite ready to go home make sure to visit one of the wonderful restaurants, wine bars, and micro-breweries in nearby downtown Chandler.

Important Information For People Attending the Event

After many months of planning and preparation, it’s finally here. WordCamp Phoenix begins tomorrow. Thank you so much for your attendance at this event. We are so excited about everything we have in store for you and we want to give you some important details about the event.

Tickets
Your name badge will be waiting for you at registration, a hard copy ticket is not needed for entry into WordCamp. A limited number of walk-in tickets are still available for each day and the full weekend.

Location
Friday classes will be held at various locations in Downtown Chandler, not at the Chandler Center for the Arts. WP101 and 201 will be held at the Community Center, WP301 will be held at the library and WP401 will be held at Gangplank.

Registration
There will be two different locations for registration.

• WP101, 201 and 301 registration will be held in front of the community center. Park in the parking areas noted below and proceed to the Community Center. The community center is the blue building on the map located just north of the parking garage marked “Parking for 101 and 201.”
• WP 401 – Registration and the event will be held at Gangplank. Park in the parking garage and proceed west across AZ Avenue to Gangplank. For more details, refer to the Gangplank Parking Map.

WP201
The WP 201 class is full and we continue to get requests for this class. Due to the high demand, we will begin a waiting list for the class at registration on Friday at 7:00 am. If attendees have not arrived to WP201 by Friday morning at 8:15, we will begin to release the seats to the people on the top of the waiting list. If you are in 201 and want to make sure to keep your spot, please make sure to arrive before 8:15.

Friday Agenda
7:00am Registration

8:00 am Classes Begin

11:45 am Break for lunch
Attendees can choose from a variety of restaurants in Downtown Chandler. Attendees all have access to a “Key to the DC”. This allows you to show your name badge and get discounts at a select number of restaurants and shops in Downtown Chandler. Check out your “Key to the DC”.
5:00 pm Classes End

5:00 – 7:00 pm Wine and Design
The Wine and Design event will be held at Gangplank. Gangplank is located just west of the parking garage labeled “Parking for 401”. Detailed Gangplank Parking Directions can be found here.
Thank you so much for coming and being a part of WordCamp Phoenix 2013. We hope you have a fabulous day. If you are also attending on Saturday, look for another email tomorrow with specific information on the Saturday events.

*Note – Both parking garages have accessible parking spaces.

If you missed the boat on grabbing your ticket to WordCamp Phoenix, you have another shot. We have a limited number of walk-in tickets available for certain classes on Friday and for the full weekend. To secure your WordCamp ticket, come to registration on Friday to purchase your ticket.

Friday Class Locations
Friday classes will be held at various locations in Downtown Chandler, not at the Chandler Center for the Arts. (See map below)

• WP101 and 201 will be held at the Community Center at 125 E. Commonwealth Avenue.
• WP301 will be held at the library at 22 S. Delaware Street
• WP401 will be held at Gangplank at 260 S. Arizona Ave.

Registration
There will be two different locations for registration.
WP101, 201 and 301 registration will be held in front of the community center. Park in the parking areas noted below and proceed to the Community Center marked with an X on the map.
WP 401 – Registration and the event will be held at Gangplank. Park in the parking garage and proceed west across AZ Avenue to the X indicating Gangplank.

WP201
The WP 201 class is full and we continue to get requests for this class. Due to the high demand, we will begin a waiting list for the class at registration on Friday at 7:00 am. If attendees have not arrived to WP201 by Friday morning at 8:15, we will begin to release the seats to the people on the top of the waiting list. If you are in 201 and want to make sure to keep your spot, please make sure to arrive before 8:15.

Presentation by: Mark Kelnar

Technical Architect, WP Engine

I’m excited to be coming to meet with you all in Phoenix this year! WordCamps are always a blast, and this year I’m particularly excited because I’m on a mission to make version control usage common in the WordPress Community. By the end of 2013, I want developers to feel guilty when they aren’t using version control on their WordPress projects.

My presentation is going to be a technical one that covers how to get started with GIT, a version control system that we use every day at WP Engine. As a developer, I’ve been using version control for years, and GIT is one of the best open-source software solutions for version control.

My presentation will cover setting GIT up for WordPress, how to use github.com to keep track of your projects and collaborate with a team of developers. By the end of the talk, you’ll be familiar with how dozens of files can change on a projec without losing a moment’s sleep.

Using GIT means that peer comments can be discussed, code can be changed and updated, and there will be transparency through the entire process. Then, when all the code is blessed, hopefully unit tested, the code can be merged in with the primary code base. We’ll talk about branching and merging code.

The team I work on peer reviews all of my code changes before they are merged in with the production site. GIT lets us keep one another accountable!

We’ll talk about all this and more, so if you’ve ever wondered about adding GIT or version control to WordPress, but didn’t know where to start, this talk is for you. It’s going to be a bit technical, so if you’re still new to WordPress or to development, you may want to do a bit of research ahead of time because I want to make sure the advanced developers who haven’t used GIT yet walk away with useful information.

All questions will be welcome and encouraged. The more people who attend, the more people we can introduce to version control this year. The goal is to win over your hearts and minds so that you love version control with your entire being, and that you ask it into your WordPress site. Maybe just one site at first, but hopefully all of them soon after.

Of course, there are some people who don’t use version control.

Imagine with me for a moment, a mythical code development world where developers never missed a semi colon, the code compiled the first time, every time, features never had to change, the developer next to you never overwrote any of your changes, and your clients always had an huge budget. All requirements were provided upfront and no one wanted you to work on more than one project at a time. And you worked on a team that could read each others minds. And unicorns. Unicorns brought you an amazing cup of coffee first thing every morning.

If that’s what your day to day looks like, then I’m pretty sure I’ve never worked with you on the same project. And you probably live on a rainbow and ride a dragon named Augustus Ceasar to work.

And you also never need to use Version Control because your project happens perfectly every single time.

The rest of us sometimes forget that semicolon, and make syntax errors every now and then. Your code takes a few iterations, and it sure would be nice for others to be able to look at your code changes. That would help. Quite a lot. Right?

Version control solves a lot of these problems. The code problems, anyways. I’m fresh out of Unicorns AND Dragons.

Version control with GIT provides a place you can store your code to keep it safe, to see when changes happened, to let others see that you’re making changes, and to sleep safely at night knowing there will be no surprises.

GIT will come into your life, riding on a Dragon named Marcus Brutus, and a few additional tools to make building things easier and more efficient. And we’ll cover it all in my WordCamp Phoenix talk. At the end, there will be a command line call, and you’ll know if you’re ready to ask source control into your site.