Changes To Beginner’s Workshop For 2016

Every year WordCamp Miami offers one of the best ways in South Florida to get up-to-speed on WordPress – our beginner’s workshops. We wanted to take a few minutes to let you know some some changes this year. In the past, we have offered TWO beginner’s workshops (one during WordCamp Miami and one that happens in Broward County a few weeks prior). This year we have decided to only offer ONE BEGINNER’S WORKSHOP. This workshop is the one that happens during WordCamp Miami – so the date you should mark off in your calendar is February 19th if you want to attend the beginner’s workshop in Miami before WordCamp Miami weekend.

Again to summarize:
– We are not going to have a beginner’s workshop in Broward County this time. WordPress Meetup group might offer something AFTER WordCamp Miami, so you will need to make sure you have joined the WordPress Meetup Group for updates on that.
– The Beginner’s Workshop on February 19th, 2016 is still a go, just like past years.

Tickets for the February 19th beginner’s workshop will be onsale soon, so keep watching the website or follow us on Twitter.

Early Bird Tickets Now Available!

Right now we are offering EARLY BIRD TICKETS. These tickets are weekend tickets you can purchase in advance before we announce confirmed speakers. We automatically enter early bird attendees for a prize to be given away at the end of the event on Sunday February 21st 2016.

Our workshop tickets for Friday February 19th 2016 will be released soon. You don’t have to wait for these tickets to purchase your weekend tickets. Currently we are not offering student or teacher discounts for early bird tickets. If you are selected as a speaker, we will refund your ticket.

Click here to buy your weekend tickets!

Speaker Submission Deadline Extended

Originally our speaker submission deadline was the 20th of this month. Enough people wanted the weekend to work on their ideas… and since it’s a holiday in the United States next week (Thanksgiving) we decided to extend the deadline slightly to midnight on Thanksgiving Day (November 26th). We aren’t expecting many to be submitting that day (at least those in the United States) but now you have a little bit more time to submit to us OR recommend someone and nudge them to enter a submission as well.

Sponsor Perk: Video Booth

WordCamp Miami 2016 is looking to draw 700-800 attendees and we couldn’t support the event and that crowd without help of sponsors. We REALLY appreciate sponsors… and try whenever we can to provide fair perks to those who contribute to the event.

So we are proud to be working with a local video company – Photography by Depuhl – to be able to provide an interesting perk for our Gold and Silver level sponsors. If you physically are coming to the event, we would love to create a unique WCMIA-themed promotional video for you!

Last year we offered the chance for small businesses and individuals to talk about themselves and turned those stories into videos. Check them out – we have amazing people featured there!

We are bringing back the video booth this year but because it was so popular last year, we want to make sure our Gold and Silver level sponsors have the guaranteed chance to talk about themselves and promote themselves. We will record a unique PROFESSIONAL QUALITY WordCamp Miami video featuring you and the company, and then you are free to use that in your promotions. You will be free to talk about your company, it’s promotions, and what message you want to get out to attendees at WordCamp Miami.

While we are going to be offering the video booth to the general audience, availability will be limited… and we will be making the sponsor videos more enhanced compared to any general videos that might be done. In addition, WordCamp Miami will be showcasing these videos exclusively – especially in future events. So you can live on after the conference has ended!

If you interested in becoming a sponsor, please reach out to us soon as possible since some sponsor levels will sell out.

“Show Us Your Swag” Ticket Giveaway

If you are planning on attending WordCamp Miami in February 19th-21st and want a chance to grab a free weekend ticket (worth around $35) BEFORE THEY EVEN GO ON SALE… here’s your chance!

We are awarding a single WordCamp Miami “weekend ticket” (a ticket that is good for Saturday February 20th and Sunday February 21st). Here’s the rules:

You need to take a photo of yourself holding or wearing WordCamp Miami or WordCamp swag. You could be wearing a shirt, showing off a sticker on yourself, or be creative. If the swag is of a sponsor of WordCamp Miami, that’s ok too as long as the photo was taken during WordCamp Miami.
YOU MUST BE IN THE PHOTO (even if it’s just your head, arm, etc.).
It doesn’t have to be WordCamp Miami swag – any WordPress swag will do – but because this is a ticket for WORDCAMP MIAMI don’t be that person that wears ANOTHER WordCamp’s swag. I mean, come on.
Tweet your photo with the hashtag #wcmia.
In addition to tweeting your photo, you need to RETWEET this tweet from @wordcampmiami so we can spread the word about the giveaway.https://twitter.com/wordcampmiami/status/657608414273667076
Winner will be selected randomly by the WordCamp Miami planning committee.
Tweet must be published by midnight November ~~2nd~~ 6th. We will notify the winner and then announce the winner by November 8th. Winner will be sent a code that allows you to get your ticket when we release the first batch of tickets.
You can tweet and submit as many photos as you want, as long as it’s different swag in each entry.
To keep things fair, past and current WordCamp Miami organizers can’t enter.
This is a family friendly contest, so keep it rated near the G or PG level please.
Winner must be ok with us using the photo for promotional purposes (all these means is that can we put your photo up on a slide during the opening remarks).

Don’t Have Swag? No Problem!

If you’re bummed that you don’t have ANY WordPress or WordCamp Miami swag, no worries. Take a creative photo of yourself with the WordCamp Miami website on your phone or desktop browser. Print out our logo and use that! Be creative!

Special Invite to Drupal and Joomla Shops

WordCamps draw those interested in WordPress, but they also strive to be welcome places for ANY developer of any platform to learn more on open-source and web related technologies. Open source projects shouldn’t harshly separate open source developers, regardless if they use WordPress or not. Matt Mullenweg lead by example and accepted an invite to speak at the Joomla! World Conference in 2013.

Speakers

Last year WordCamp Miami had one of our first “non-WP CMS” speakers: Jason Nickerson give a talk on How Joomla and WordPress Influence Each Other. This year we would love to see speaker submissions from other non-WP communities that our attendees would appreciate and relate to. So while you might not want to talk about Drupal development, there are other possible subjects and topics to cover.

Click here to read more about speaker submissions and how to submit.

Attendees

We are extending an official invite to any dedicated Drupal and/or Joomla developers to come to WordCamp Miami and be a part of South Florida’s open source community. Not only are we making an official invite, but we have several (read: very limited quantity) of free and/or discounted tickets to any developers or developer shops that work in Drupal and/or Joomla.

So if you are not a WordPress developer, but work with another open-source solution like Drupal or Joomla, please contact miami@wordcamp.org. Again to qualify for a complimentary ticket, you’ll need to prove you are a part of an agency or you are an established contributor to Drupal or Joomla.. We will review entries on a case by case basis.

But no matter what you develop in – then we would love to have you at one of the biggest local web conferences in Miami and one of the largest WordCamps in the United States.

Slack Channel Update: #Lodging Channel Added

WordCamp Miami has already attracted a large out-of-town crowd with past attendees coming from all over the United States, Canada, Europe, South America (Brazil and Columbia especially), the Caribbean (Jamaica and Porto Rico especially), Asia, and even South Africa. With WordCamp Miami 2016’s dates announced, people are planning ahead.

While we have recommended hotels close to the venue on the site currently, we are working on investigating any special offers. Some attendees are able to make their own arrangements via hotel sites and AirB&B. We wanted to make communication of possible deals or offers as easy as possible to other attendees, so we have added a #lodging channel to our Slack team.

In case you haven’t used Slack, it’s an easy to use chat room. Over 70 people have already joined it to get updates and ask questions about the event. Now there’s a dedicated “channel” just for those looking for lodging deals or to learn about groups grabbing an AirB&B. We hope this channel becomes useful to our attendees.

If you aren’t in our Slack team yet, enter your email address here. You’ll get an invite that will allow you to join. Slack can be used in your web browser or via a desktop and mobile app. Learn more about Slack here.

Even if you don’t need lodging help, join our Slack channel to get to know some of the attendees before the conference!

Announcing BuddyCamp Miami 2016!

BuddyCamp Miami has been happening for THREE years. Attendance has grown every year, and we’re happy the community has supported the longest running BuddyPress event. Lead organizers of BuddyPress even call Miami the unofficial home of BuddyCamps (are we misquoting? probably). Please check out BuddyCamp Miami videos on wordpress.tv from our last WordCamp Miami.

Photo of me from my #BuddyCamp presentation earlier today at Florida International University #WordCamp #Miami #WCM… pic.twitter.com/RCD7AN77yW

— Brian Messenlehner (@bmess) May 30, 2015

https://twitter.com/JJJ/status/422454571365969920

BuddyCamp Miami getting underway at @FIU #wcmia pic.twitter.com/ynXIwhUhc8

— Shawn Hooper (he/him) (@ShawnHooper) May 29, 2015

So let’s do it again.

What Is A BuddyCamp?

BuddyCamp is a mini-conference (a conference inside a conference – almost inception-like) that focuses on the BuddyPress and bbPress plugins. This unique conference focuses on how you can use these plugins as you use WordPress to build sites for you or your clients.

As of now, the schedule follows a traditional WordCamp format, with beginner sessions along with designer / developer presentations. Key people and contributors will be speaking, answering questions, and hanging out.

Looking For Speakers

Are you be interested in being a presenter at BuddyCamp? Perhaps you’re a BuddyPress developer or if you want to show off your BuddyPress site? Send in your applications as you would any other WordCamp Miami speaker presentation (and note it’s a presentation for BuddyCamp).

General speaker details are available on our speaker submission page. Deadline for submissions is November 26th, 2015 – same as our other speaker applications.

Many details are being worked out, so the sooner you submit your speaker application the better we can plan.

What is the date for BuddyCamp Miami 2016?

The date has not 100% in stone – but right now it’s been set for Feb 19th, 2016 (a Friday) which fits with past years where we have had the event prior to WordCamp Miami’s weekend.

Be a BuddyCamp sponsor!

BuddyCamp, is a not-for-profit, community organized event that relies on the generosity of the community to bring it to life. If you’re interested in directly supporting BuddyCamp Miami, please see our sponsors page.

Tickets coming soon!

Watch this site for ticket announcements in the upcoming days. You can also follow us on Twitter at @wordcampmiami and @buddycampmia for more details.

Please spread the word, and we look forward to seeing many of you at the fourth BuddyCamp in Miami!

Thanks,
The BuddyCamp Miami planning team

Call For Speakers! Woot!

With our dates officially announced (Feb 19-21, 2016), we are opening up our call for speakers. ~~All the information you need to know – including the link to submit a speaker proposal – is located here.~~ SUBMISSIONS HAS BEEN CLOSED

Our deadline is Midnight EST on Monday November 21st, 2015.

But before you rush to submit, keep reading…

We are making some changes to some tracks and workshops, and introducing new formats for sessions. Please read the submissions page carefully. Also read this insight into what our themes and goals are for WCMIA this year.

Also when submitting proposals: please assume at this time you will have 30 minutes for your session, plus some brief time to answer questions. Also assume your talk will be recorded, so you will have to sign a media release before giving your presentation.

Returning Speakers? Great. New Speakers? Even better.

We welcome back anyone who has attended and spoken at WordCamp Miami in the past – repeat speakers welcome! On the other hand, we are looking especially for those who might not have spoken at WordCamp Miami before – or perhaps those wanting to make WordCamp Miami their first speaking conference!

No Time To Waste – Submit Your Application

Because our event is happening in February, our window for speaker submissions closes before a major holiday near the end – Thanksgiving on Nov. 26th, 2015. (for those in the United States). Our advice is don’t wait until the last minute – submit your applications before approaching that week of Thanksgiving. Our plans are to start announce speakers right after the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

WordCamp Miami 2016: Getting Personal

I’m not really sure when the phrase “This Time It’s Personal” truly caught on, although it could have started with this movie. Nevertheless, the kind of personal we’ll be talking about isn’t like that.

Throughout the last seven WordCamps (yes seven) in Miami, we have done quite a bit and tried alot of things. Some ideas were born and weren’t revisited – other times idea blossomed into full tracks (see last year’s “How To” track) and firm traditions (we’ve been doing speaker cards for a number of years). We covered an abundance of information and knowledge in the sessions from great speakers. And while we aren’t planning on changing that aspect in our eighth WordCamp… there is something we wanted to focus on as much as possible as we build the event happening in February.

WordPress is about people – more than blog posts, more than code.

What does that mean for WCMIA 2016?

While we are busy focusing on what knowledge, tips, and code that is shared with 800 attendees we don’t want to lose focus on those in the WordPress community that make that knowledge and presenting that knowledge possible. Everyone in the WordPress community has a story to share – from the personal to the professional – that can be just as instructive and inspiring (or even more so) then strictly sharing code.

To that end: in addition to our usual buffet of WordPress knowledge we’ll be setting aside some special times for “fireside chats”, one-on-one interviews, and focused network events.

Getting Outside The WordPress Bubble

We have been slowly searching and finding great speakers from outside the usual “WordPress bubble” and we will continue to make this one of our goals this year. A recent successful example was Jason Nickerson’s talk at our last WordCamp on how Jommla and WordPress influence each other. And as always WordCamp Miami is open to developers and users of other popular CMS.

Hallway Track

This year we are making a concentrated effort to offer an “unofficial unconference” experience in a particular location at the venue. Will this be the location of some of our “fireside chats” and the sharing of personal experiences? Stay tuned to our site updates to learn more as we get closer (and also feel free to join us on our own Slack channel).

BuddyCamp Miami

As many of you might know BuddyCamp is a conference devoted to the BuddyPress plugin (and related plugins and technologies). BuddyCamp Miami 2016 is in the planning stages as we reach out to various key contributors and speakers. We will announce more information as it becomes available.

WordPress: The Next Generation

Our WordCamp for Kids for the past two years were HUGE successes. Except it back this year based on demand, and we are also investigating other ways to include young ones. One of our biggest goals at WCMIA is diversity – and diversity includes young people. They are the next generation of bloggers, developers, and coders.

Because the children ARE the future of WordPress we are hoping to have more than ONE particular event devoted to kids and young ones. What we got planned currently is going to knock your socks off!

What Else?

We have alot in the works including our new Instagram account, a weekend video booth, entertainment (possibly a game show?) at our after-party, new contests and giveaways, different flavors of ice cream, and maybe even a red carpet (ok, that last one might be a joke… maybe). You’ll just have to keep following our updates to learn more!