Many hands make light work…thank you all

There are quite literally hundreds of people to thank for the fun and success of WordCamp LAX this past weekend. It takes so much work to pull a WordCamp together, and we were only able to do so because of all the help we had pulling it off, both on stage and behind the scenes.

First, thank you to every single person who attended WordCamp LAX. If you hadn’t bought tickets, supported us, and shown up, our event never would have happened. Thank you for being a part of it, thank you for making new friends and connections, thank you for getting inspired to start new projects, thank you for sharing your experiences with family and friends.

Thank you to Cami Kaos and Andrea Middleton for their patience, support, help, and advice. These two do an amazing job of coordinating the efforts of local WordCamp teams the world over.

Thank you to each and every one of our sponsors, who not only provided the budget to make WordCamp possible, but who also provide help, support, useful products and services, and a sense of community.

Huge, huge thanks going out to all of our volunteers who rocked WordCamp like it was their jobs. Thank you for making sure registration ran smoothly, Happiness Bar patrons were helped, rooms were monitored, talks were recorded to video, speakers were kept on schedule, chairs were folded and unfolded, trash was cleaned up, and an endless assortment of boring, thankless tasks were tackled with enthusiasm and pride.

Thank you to our speakers, who not only volunteered the time they spent preparing and giving their talks, but many of whom also paid their own travel and hotel expenses in order to be at our Camp. Thank you for being generous with your time and with your invaluable knowledge.

Big thanks to our volunteer organizers, who took whole pieces of WordCamp LAX off our plates and made them even better than we ever could have. Thanks to Steve Zehngut for organizing the Business Workshop, Chris Ford for organizing the Design Workshop, Gregg Franklin for teaching the Beginner Workshop, Grace Park for organizing the speaker dinner, and Sé Reed for organizing a pretty epic after party.

Thank you to Greg Douglas for designing signage, schedules, stickers, tshirts, bags, and our web site.

And I’d like to personally send a big thank you to my fellow co-organizers, Alex Vasquez, Nathan Tyler, and Ryan Cowles – not just for helping to get things organized, but also for setting aside sleep and personal lives to make it all happen and for keeping a sense of humor even when things were going all wrong. It was a real slice, but let’s never run around in lawn sprinklers with all the tshirts again, k?

I know that for many of you, WordCamp LAX was your very first WordCamp. I hope you learned why we all love our community so much and are so proud to be part of it. Don’t forget that we stay connected throughout the year at meetups, in online groups, and with coworking sessions. Stay connected by getting involved in the community.

Now, who’s up for helping plan 2015?

Selfies, Prizes, and the WCLAX AfterParty

Yay! #wclax is upon us! I certainly don’t want to rush things and talk about after the conference when it’s just getting started. Nonetheless, as the official WCLAX 2014 AfterParty Planner, I must confess I’ve been thinking about the endgame for months.

And I don’t mean that metaphorically. I’m super excited to announce the WordCamp Los Angeles Selfie Scavenger Hunt (aka WCLAX SSH), which is not only a game, but a game with prizes!

This year we decided to get the AfterParty started early, so the Qualifying Round of the Selfie Scavenger Hunt takes place all day Saturday, during WCLAX!

To play, simply post the indicated selfies to Twitter. Everyone who posts the first six selfie pics and their respective hashtags to Twitter by the close of WordCamp LAX Saturday Sessions will win a FREE YEAR of Shared Hosting from awesome AfterParty sponsor SiteGround. The first 5 people to complete the Qualifying Round will also get a Bonus Prize from SiteGround!

The Final Round (aka the Grand Prize-winning Round!) takes place at the AfterParty itself. Complete the Qualifying Round, then come to the party to post your final selfie and you’ll be entered into a drawing to win one of FIVE Grand Prizes!

WCLAX SSH Grand Prizes

  • one iPad Air!
  • two iPad minis!
  • two pairs of Sennheiser PRO headphones!

Please see the WCLAX Selfie Scavenger Hunt Official Instructions included below for selfie and hashtag details!

Now, we all know not everyone is gonna wanna be selfie-ing and hashtagging all day, so I’m thinking the odds of you winning one of the Grand Prizes are pretty good. And hey, you’re going to come to the AfterParty anyway, right?

Because when you do there will be a nacho bar, sliders, bleu cheese fries (!!) and a drink waiting for you. Gratis.

The WordCamp LAX AfterParty is at Los Angeles Brewing Company right down the street from Blankspaces DTLA, where Sunday’s sessions are being held. The AfterParty is free and open for all WCLAX attendees, but because it’s LA, you’ll have to pay for parking (your best bet is the lot around the corner at 8th and Spring).

WordCamp LAX AfterParty
Who: WCLAX attendees
Why: Free food, drinks and chilling
When: Sat, Sept 6, 6-8pm
Where: Los Angeles Brewing Company
750 S. Broadway
Los Angeles, CA 90014

At 8pm sharp we will do the Grand Prize drawing! Yes, you must be present to win!

BTW, in addition to the Grand Prize giveaway and food and drinks, there will be a photobooth from the rad folks at SnapYourself.

Oh, and mini-cupcakes. Of course.

Anyway, like I said … no need to focus on WordCamp LAX being over just yet. Enjoy it! And remember, at the end there’s a mini-cupcake with your name on it* waiting for you.

*mini-cupcake not actually inscribed with your name

WCLAX Selfie Scavenger Hunt Official Instructions

QUALIFYING ROUND
1. Take the first six #wclax #ssh selfies
2. Post pics to Twitter using the specified hashtags
3. Win a FREE YEAR of SiteGround Shared Hosting!
*bonus prizes to first 5 people to complete this round!

FINAL ROUND
1. Complete the Qualifying Round
2. Come to the WCLAX AfterParty (it’s free!)
3. Post selfie #ssh7 by 7:30pm to be entered into the GRAND PRIZE drawing at 8pm!

THE SELFIES

QUALIFYING ROUND
#wclax #ssh1
you and your WCLAX badge

#wclax #ssh2
you and another WCLAX attendee

#wclax #ssh3
you and a WCLAX speaker

#wclax #ssh4
you and a WCLAX volunteer

#wclax #ssh5
you and a WCLAX newbie

#wclax #ssh6
you and a SiteGround team member

FINAL ROUND
#wclax #ssh7
you at the WCLAX AfterParty!

wclax_afterpartyflyer_web

Don’t get lost!

Are you worried about getting lost at WordCamp Los Angeles? Fear no more! We just added a couple of maps to the Location page, so you can navigate with confidence!

Parking (Friday and Saturday)

All attendees can park in Parking Lot 5 at CSULA on Friday and Saturday. It is the large green area at the top of the map. You can also download a campus map here.

Friday

Friday Registration will be at King Hall (red marker). Follow the red path on the map from the parking lot. There will also be signs along the way to point you in the right direction.

Saturday

Saturday checkin will be outside of the Golden Eagle Ballroom (yellow marker). Follow the yellow path on the map from the parking lot. Then, take the elevator up to the third floor. Again, there will be signs along the way to point you in the right direction.

Sunday

Blankspaces DTLA is located at 529 S Broadway, but the entrance is on Lindley Pl (which runs parallel to Broadway). Parking will be limited, but there is a parking lot that accepts credit/debit cards on Main St. next to the theatre building between 5th and 6th.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to let us know. We’re here to help!

WordCamp Swag

Just a couple more days and we’ll all be at WordCamp LAX, learning some stuffs and meeting some peeps! But we were too excited to keep some stuff under wraps until then.

Check out our super awesome tshirts!

Women's tshirt

Women’s tshirt

Men's tshirt

Men’s tshirt

For the women, we picked out this flowy tshirt that is soooo soft – and flattering on, like, everyone. And the guys get this super awesome ringer T so they can pretend it’s 1978, but in a good way.

We’ll also have bags for you guys!

Canvas zipper totes!

Canvas zipper totes!

Our local shops here in LA have stopped providing shopping bags, so you can never have too many totes around. Plus, this one is totes cool!

Huge thanks going to to Mr. Greg Douglas of Premium Interactive for designing our swag (and everything else associated with WCLAX14). Let him know how much you appreciate his work when you see him at WordCamp – he’s such a rock star, he’s speaking TWICE.

And huge thanks going out to AG Silkscreen, who is printing these bags and tshirts for us. We’re thrilled to be able to support such an awesome local business. No machine printing in this shop! Every single shirt and bag is being silkscreened by hand the old-fashioned way. We think that makes them something extra special.

See you in a couple of days!

Attending Contribution Sunday?

We’re trying to get a quick headcount for Sunday, please fill out this form if you’re planning to attend on Sunday:

If you’re not planning to attend, you should! No matter what your experience level, you can help WordPress improve. More details about Contribution Sunday here:
https://2014.la.wordcamp.org/participate-in-contribution-day/
https://2014.la.wordcamp.org/schedule/contribution-sunday/

Sponsor Spotlight: iThemes

Welcome to your final Sponsor Spotlight before WordCamp LA drops like an unwelcome hot tamale on your lap, Children of the Corn!

Today, we’re going to talk about this company that you all have heard of. They’re called iThemes. Look, you know em’ and so do I. Do I need to sit here and tell you about how cool they are? I know a number of folks who have been members for years. I should know, I’m one of them. To this day I still pay for their plugin membership club. Backupbuddy alone is worth the price of admission. While I use other tools to smoothly migrate DBs from point a to point b, Backupbuddy is still the only WP Plugin I trust to actually backup a site on a regularly scheduled interval. I do this for all my staging sites. True story. iThemes Security is rock solid as well and their devs actively, perhaps even ferociously, support the essential plugin. Quality and simplicity is what comes first over there and you see it in the product design. Have you played with Exchange yet?

The plugin marketplace is maturing which has created positive changes in the WordPress Ecosystem for product developers and a lot of that has to do with all the good stuff the folks at iThemes have been doing and, most importantly, what they give back to the community, whether it’s their online offerings over at WebDesign.com or simply the invaluable free resources they put together. Others have taken copious notes over there.

I don’t give them my  money because I like them, because, I mean, they’re all great folks doing great things. They don’t just make products, they’re involved in the community, giving back and going above and beyond. Ask far and ask wide and I challenge you to find one person that says company founder, Corey Miller, is the kind of guy to start a bar fight or rain destruction down upon a small town. Spoiler alert, you won’t find such a person… And even if you did, it’s probably not someone you’d want to spend any time with… and they probably smell like moldy cheese and sweat socks. Pass!

So join me in giving a rousing thank you to the good folks over at iThemes for helping make WordCamp LA possible and possibly the World’s most awesome WordCamp, nay, the UNIVERSE’S most awesome WordCamp!!!

Thanks guys!

Sponsor Spotlight: CHRS Interactive

CHRS Interactive is a Los Angeles based WordPress development agency. They do it all from the creative to the technical to the marketing. They can dream it, build it and get the word about it. This is a team you want on your side when you’re out there looking for the right team with the right tools to market your solutions to the web.

CHRS is the right size to still be agile and creative while being able to solve a variety of problems for business from small shops to large, high-complex operations that require custom development know-how. Best of all, they speak WordPress. If you need help, they’re the right team for the job.

Let’s take a moment and say “thanks” to the folks over at CHRS Interactive for helping WordCamp LA become a “cool thing” in our tech community. Big thank you CHRS Interactive. You all rock!

Sponsor Spotlight: Soflyy

Man, the sponsor spotlights just keep comin’ don’t they? =)

Today, I’m going to tell you about a company whose name you may not know so well, but they make some stuff that is absolutely mind-bending. Yes, MIND-BENDING!

I’d like to introduce you all to a little company called Soflyy. Sure, you could go “Google” them and that would tell you what you needed to know. But I’d like to sit you all around the campfire, people. Soflyy isn’t just a company. They make a couple of bad-ass products which, unless you’re living under SOOOOO many heavy rocks, you’ve most definitely heard of.

Their most recent offering is a service called KnowMyRankings.  What is it? It’s a nifty service that does one thing well. Tell you where your site ranks today  with Google and where it ranked previously for the keywords that matter most to you. Keyword rankings affect how many people visit your site. KMR is a simple, easy-to-use, tool that you can use to track keyword rankings movement. Obviously you can do this for your own site properties, or, optionally, you can create a ‘White Label’ report for your clients. Oh and they have a nifty WordPress Plugin, too: http://wordpress.org/plugins/google-rank-tracker/

Right there I could end this post. But I’m not done. Because Soflyy is behind another little tool. Maybe you’ve used it before. It’s a lil’ somethin’ called WP ALL IMPORT, the Swiss Army Knife of Import tools. WP All Import can import files from xml feeds or from csv files into your WordPress powered sites. You can import standard blogs and posts; you can also create affiliate stores, or update store inventories for your WooCommerce powered ecommerce store. The plugin is SO deep, that you literally get to pick exactly how YOU want to imported data to appear and where. There’s also add-ons for WooCommerce, Advanced Custom Fields and more. I’ve transferred content from one CMS to another with the tool. It’s truly one of the best thought-out plugins out there and has been indispensable to me and my work. Oh, one other cool thing, is that you can use xpath to filter on the content you’re importing so you get only the data you actually want. Amazing!

Let’s thank the good folks at Soflyy for helping WordCamp LA and making it happen.

You folks are awesome!!!