PressJam – Date Announcement and Call for Signups!

Alrighty, you heard us talk about it at WordCamp Melbourne 2013… and we’ve been beavering away behind the scenes to get the basics happening.. Now we’ve got a venue and a date and we want YOU!

Head over to the website at http://wpaustralia.org/pressjam for all the details where you can apply to be a participant, or, if you have a good cause who could use our help, sign up to have a site built for your organisation!

We’re looking for sponsors too… so head over to the site for all the relevant details.

Looking forward to jamming with you!!

Glenn and Dee

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The Videos

Here, by popular demand are the videos as they get filtered through the upload process and review process! Thanks for your Patience!

Joe Ortenzi: Inclusive Design

Mikey de Wildt : How to Survive People discovering your Plugin

The link to the whole page can be found here http://wordpress.tv/event/wordcamp-melbourne-2013/

Also, the slides are up on Speaker Deck as well!! https://speakerdeck.com/wpaustralia

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Picture Postage

Can you believe it? Nearly a week since WordCamp Melbourne 2013. It’s been a bit quiet at WCMelbourne HQ, simply as we’re taking some time to breathe!! We’ll post some follow up thoughts in the next couple of days; in the meantime… here are some follow up pictures!!

Thanks to all who attended… spoke… or helped out… Here are some cool shots and there are more if you click through to see the whole gallery. Anthony seems to have caught all of us at one time or another!! And feel free to tag images and download and use them as you will. (But please give credit both to Anthony and WordCamp Melbourne #wcmelb, thanks)

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It’s a SELL OUT

Ok, I have to tell you I’m so proud to be part of Australia’s first ever SELL OUT WordCamp!

We appear to have filled up 300 seats and with a week to spare. THANK YOU to all of you who have purchased your tickets already!! We’re so looking forward to seeing you on Saturday!

If you are now feeling really deflated that you’ve missed out… don’t lose heart. There may be a few up our sleeve so please head over and sign up to the waiting list [updated: Sorry! You guys are just too enthusiastic!! We’ve closed the wait list, we’ll be in touch with those on the list in the next couple of days.]

Until then, See you on Saturday!!

Dee (and the gang)

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Spreading the Word(Camp)

So, WordCamp is 4 weeks away and between now and then we’re going to be focusing on getting the word out and making sure every possible person who might want to go to WordCamp Melbourne has the chance to come along!

This means you’ll see a few more blog posts, regular newsletters on Mondays – (are you signed up to the mailing list??) and there’ll be a whole lot of tweeting going on.

We’d like to give you the opportunity to get involved in helping us by retweeting our cheeky tweets, sharing our newsletters and blog posts and sharing the stuff that will start appearing on our facebook page… this event is for you, and will be even better if your friends also catch the WordPress bug… so tell them about it!! This event is one of the best places to go where all those around you are as crazy for tech, open source, and blogging as you are…

So we’re starting this campaign with one we also did for WordCamp Sydney… We want YOU to be a WordCamp Badger!!

wordcampbadgerWe have a couple of very cool swag and promo packs to give away to a couple of lucky badgers… and if you don’t have a badge on your site or blog you won’t be in the running… so, if you are registered to come to WordCamp Melbourne, or are a speaker or sponsor grab a badge, stick it on your site, take a screenshot of your badge in all its glory and post that photo to our facebook page… and if you want, post a link to your site as well. We’ll update our Badger Album and you’ll be in the draw!! Go on, what are you waiting for? Here’s where to see a few of our badges already… why not add your name to the list!

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Developer and High Tech Stream

Doug Millen_Wordcamp 2012-3Well, it wasn’t enough that we pulled together a great lineup for the Users and Bloggers, we wanted to look after our extraordinary developers too… for they are the ones who keep making more WordPress! Take a bow, people, take a bow!

Here’s what’s on the table for you at WordCamp Melbourne… and now that you know, get a ticket!

Lanyrd_logoIf you want to add the schedule via Lanyrd or track the event you can find the listing here.

Saturday April 27th – (High Tech)

8:00 am 9:00 am Registration
9:00 am 9:20 am Welcome
9:20 am 9:45 am Keynote
9:50 am 10:30 am 101 Ways to Elevate Yourself and Demand Higher Fees – Troy Dean
10:30 am 11:10 am Managing a Web Design Project – from Start to Finish – Lachlan MacPherson
11:10 am 11:45 am WordCamp Bingo & Morning Tea
11:45 am 12:25 pm Ten Ways to Screw up With Google and 10 Ways to Fix it – Dan Petrovic
12:30 pm 1:10 pm A Blank Canvas, WooThemes Canvas as a Theme Framework – Sofia Wood
1:15 pm 2:00 pm Lunch
2:00 pm 2:40 pm WordPress Performance Tuning – Gary Pendergast
2:45 pm 3:25 pm Working with Massive WordPress sites, Clients and Enterprise – Ben May
3:30 pm 3:55 pm Afternoon Tea
4:00 pm 4:50 pm Lightning talks

Sunday April 28th – (High Tech)

10:00 am 10:30 am Ask Anything
10:35 am 11:15 am My WP Development WorkFlow – Bronson Quick
11:20 am 12:00 pm WordPress and Git – Amelia Smith
12:00 pm 12:45 pm Lunch
12:45 pm 1:25 pm How to Survive People Discovering your Plugin – Michael De Wildt
1:30 pm 2:10 pm Mobile First Development and Design for WordPress – James Banks
2:15 pm 2:55pm Photoshop Best Practice for WordPress – Blaz Robar
3:00 pm 3:20 pm Afternoon Tea
3:20 pm 4:00 pm Introducing MasterPress – Travis Hensgen
4:05 pm 4:45 pm Inclusive Design for WordPress – Joe Ortenzi
4:45 pm 5:00 pm Farewell, prizes, giveaways etc
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WC Melbourne’s Blogger and User Stream

Doug Millen_Wordcamp 2012-6One of the challenges that goes hand in hand with organizing an event like WordCamp Melbourne is getting a list of people, and subjects up on the stage that appeals to two very different sections of the WordPress using public.

On one hand have the nerdy tech stream where people are interested in how to do nerdier, techier things with WordPress or their business, and on the other there are the people who use WordPress for their websites and blogs. This section of the community are less inclined to want to know how the engine works (or how to make it faster/better/stronger), they just want to drive the thing in the best most efficient way possible.

In organizing the speaker list for WCMelb we really wanted to look after the users and bloggers this time around. We have the tech stream pretty well catered for every year with a group of talented geeks who love to talk about what they’re doing with WordPress, but I feel a little like we’ve struggled to connect with those who want to build better blogs!!

In other years I’ve been to blogger conferences where we have great times connecting with each other and telling stories but we don’t really look after helping people with some of the technical aspects of owning a blog or a website. I really feel like WordCamp is uniquely placed to be able to cross some of those boundaries.

So, without further ado, we wanted to outline the program for the low-tech or user/blogger stream below to give people who may not have considered coming before, an opportunity to start getting excited about coming to WordCamp! If you’re a blogger, site owner or site admin who wants to know more about WordPress and connect with other people in a fun and low pressure environment, without feeling like everyone around you is a nerd I really hope you’ll see some value in the line up below and book your ticket here!

We, the WCMelb team, are pretty proud of it.

Lanyrd_logoIf you want to add the schedule via Lanyrd or track the event you can find the listing here.

Saturday April 27th – Room 1 (Low Tech)

8:00 am 9:00 am Registration
9:00 am 9:20 am Welcome
9:20 am 9:45 am Keynote
9:50 am 10:30 am WordPress 101 – Warren Denley
10:30 am 11:10 am Sexy WordPress – How to Choose the Right Theme – Glenn Todd & Debbie Symons
11:10 am 11:45 am WordCamp Bingo & Morning Tea
11:45 am 12:25 pm Hackers Ahoy! Batten Down the Hatches – Michael McKinnon
12:30 pm 1:10 pm Recognizing the Cycles of Blogging (or notes on dealing with the Slough of Despond) – Narelle Hanratty
1:15 pm 2:00 pm Lunch
2:00 pm 2:40 pm How to write for an Online Audience – Vikki Maver
2:45 pm 3:25 pm Actionable Analytics – Stephen Cronin
3:30 pm 3:55 pm Afternoon Tea
4:00 pm 4:50 pm Lightning talks

Sunday April 28th – Room 1 (Low Tech)

10:00 am 10:30 am Ask Anything
10:35 am 11:15 am How WordPress is Empowering Diversity – John McKenna
11:20 am 12:00 pm Know Enough to be Dangerous (demystifying how to tweak your site) – Jordan Gilman
12:00 pm 12:45 pm Lunch
12:45 pm 1:25 pm WordPress and Video SEO – David Jenyns
1:30 pm 2:10 pm Dis [content] – a Panel on Blog Content – Kylie Gusset + 2 others
2:15 pm 2:55pm Beating Spam on your blog or Site – Vlad Lasky
3:00 pm 3:20 pm Afternoon Tea
3:20 pm 4:00 pm Getting Started with WooCommerce – Anthony Hortin
4:05 pm 4:45 pm Sack your Developer – 9 1/2 Free WordPress Plugins to Keep you Sane While Blogging – Phil Steinke
4:45 pm 5:00 pm Farewell, prizes, giveaways etc

** Please understand this schedule is subject to change as the event develops and unforeseen circumstances arise.

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Announcing WordCamp Melbourne 2013

We are thrilled to announce that WordCamp Melbourne has been confirmed for April 27-28th 2013 at RMIT, right in the heart of the beautiful city of Melbourne.

WordCamp is a conference for WordPress enthusiasts, designers, developers, or anyone who is using WordPress for business or pleasure. We will have a range of speakers covering a broad series of topics, showing the incredible variety of uses for WordPress, from content management, blogging to e-commerce, community building, and beyond.

If you’re interested in speaking at WordCamp Melbourne submit your proposal here: If you’d like to find out about being a sponsor indicate your interest here.

Ticket sales will be available in the coming weeks, but to stay up to date with all the news and info you should follow us on twitter at @wcmelb or join our mailing list below – you can also follow our hashtag #wcmelb on twitter if you’re so inclined. We’re also on Facebook or sign up to the mailing list via the form below!

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