WordCamp Seattle Recaps!

Everyone seems to agree the 2017 WordCamp was the best ever! Below are some highlights from sponsors and attendees. We’d also love YOUR input if you haven’t already completed the post-event survey you may still do so. If you want to be involved in planning this year’s WordCamp you can indicate that on the survey or email us. To be sure you’re always in the know about what’s going on in the community be sure to sign up for our year-round mailing list at the bottom of our website.

WordCamp Seattle 2017 – The Emerald City Event

What Was Your Favorite Part of WordCamp Seattle 2017?

Seattle WordCamp 2017

Why You Should Attend WordCamp if You’re a Blogger

WordCamp Seattle – The Good and Bad

WordCamp Seattle 2017 Memory Dump

WordCamp Seattle: Seeing my first snow of the year and living through the time change

WordCamp is a Playground for WordPress People

Back Again For WordCamp Seattle – 2017

WordCamp Seattle 2017: A Journey Across Continents – Recap

Seattle to Rochester – A Panel and A Keynote

 

Thank you to our Bronze and Community Sponsors

As the sponsor wrangler for WordCamp Seattle 2017, I’m amazed at the generosity of companies and individuals that are supporting WordCamp Seattle financially and with in-kind donations.

All sponsors make a difference so here’s a big thank you and shout out to our Bronze, Community, and In-Kind sponsors – without them, our wonderful WordCamp wouldn’t be the same.

When you get a chance, please thank these sponsors for their generous contributions to WordCamp Seattle.

Bronze Sponsors

Theo Chocolate
Theo Chocolate

StickerGiant
www.stickergiant.com

Meet the Sponsor: 10up

10up10up has been a strong supporter of the WordPress Community in Seattle (and around the world) and we’re so grateful they have returned in 2017 to be our sole Silver Sponsor.

Please make sure you say thanks. Give them a shout on Twitter at @10up.

About 10up

10up is a full-service digital agency focused on content management with a passionate team of 120+ full-time strategists, designers and engineers working around the globe. 10up makes content management simple with its premier web design & development consulting services, by contributing thousands of hours and dollars every year to open platforms like WordPress, and by providing tools and products that make web publishing a cinch.

10up works with diverse clients, including household brands like ESPN, Microsoft, TechCrunch, Time Inc, and AARP. From beautiful pixels to beautiful code, the 10up team constantly improves things around them, applying their passions to clients’ projects and goals. Whether you’re looking to hire a first-class team of web experts or want to become a part of that team, get in touch. To learn more visit: 10up.com.

Meet the Sponsor: Plesk

Plesk

Plesk is another company that is a returning sponsor at WordCamp Seattle and we’re thrilled to have them back.

In years past, I’ve had the pleasure to consult with the Plesk team on their WordPress Toolkit and it’s an impressive amazing platform that makes it easy for hosts and server owners to create, manage, optimize, and secure multiple WordPress sites through one simple interface.

Please visit their booth and thank the Plesk team for their support of the WordPress Community and WordCamp Seattle. 

And give them a shout-out on Twitter: @Plesk.

Learn why Plesk is so involved in  WordCamps and the WordPress Community in this video interview with Carole Olinger, WordPress Community Manager at Plesk.

More About Plesk

Plesk is a leading WebOps platform and hosting control panel to build, secure and run websites, applications and hosting businesses. Plesk’s WordPress Toolkit gives you all you need to automate staging / cloning / sync and many security tools as well as mass-management for WordPress.

Available in more than 32 languages across 140 countries in the world. 50% of the top 100 worldwide service providers, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, GoogleCloud and AlibabaCloud are partnering with Plesk today.

Plesk is managing and securing more than 382.000 servers, automating 11M+ websites, with currently 1M Plesk WordPress Toolkit installations and at least 16M mailboxes.

Meet the Sponsor: Avalara

Avalara

Avalara is a returning sponsor of WordCamp Seattle and we’re so happy to have their support.

You know what they say – two things are inevitable: death and taxes.  Avalara takes the pain out of tax calculation, collection, and filing for e-commerce store owners worldwide through intelligent automation.

Fun fact: Avalara was founded locally and their first office was on Bainbridge Island, but their world headquarters is now in downtown Seattle.

If you are a store-owner, builder, or developer that deals with e-commerce, stop by Avalara’s booth and have a chat. I guarantee they can make your life easier.

Also, give Avalara a thank you shout on Twitter: @Avalara

Learn why Avalara sponsors WordCamps and participates in the WordPress Community in this video interview with Whitney Williams, Partner Marketing Manager at Avalara.

More About Avalara

Avalara helps WooCommerce and WordPress businesses achieve compliance with transactional taxes, including sales and use, VAT, excise, communications, and other tax types.

The company delivers comprehensive, automated, cloud-based solutions that are designed to be fast, accurate, and easy to use.

Avalara’s Compliance Cloud™ platform helps customers manage complicated and burdensome tax compliance obligations imposed by state, local, and other taxing authorities throughout the world. 

Meet the Sponsor: Pressable

Pressable

Big thanks to Pressable for their Gold sponsorship of WordCamp Seattle.

Please stop by their booth and thank them on Twitter: @pressable.

About Pressable

Pressable’s managed WordPress hosting enables businesses and developers to deliver remarkable online experiences. With premium features like CDN, staging, Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates, Jetpack Premium, cloning, backups and unlimited storage included at no additional cost, Pressable is Where WordPress Works Best.

Pressable was founded in May 2010 in sunny San Antonio, Texas with the goal of creating a scalable, secure and performant WordPress hosting platform that users could trust to deliver remarkable online experiences.

Today, organizations of all sizes, from startups to Fortune 1000 companies, rely on Pressable to share branded content and deliver engaging online shopping experiences with millions of users worldwide.

 

Meet the Sponsor: Pantheon

Pantheon Website Management Platform

Pantheon is returning as a Gold sponsor of WordCamp Seattle this year and we’re so grateful to have their continued support.

If you’re not familiar with Pantheon, they are a host with a unique setup that focuses on fast, solid hosting, combined with professional developer tools and workflows. Did I mention that Pantheon offers free accounts for developers?

Go check out Pantheon’s booth and get a demo; you won’t be sorry.

Tweet your thanks to Pantheon: @getpantheon.

More About Pantheon

Pantheon puts the power of the Internet in the hands of developers and DevOps teams, delivering rock solid hosting along with the most complete platform for professional website creation. We’ve built the world’s best website management platform—one that gives web teams all of the developer tools, hosting, scaling, performance, workflow, and automation they need to build the best websites in the world. Pantheon powers 150,000 websites, serving billions of page views per month.

For more information, visit www.pantheon.io.

Countdown to the Contributor Track: Sunday 10–4

As Andrea Middleton shared with us during the keynote, there are tons of ways to participate and grow in the WordPress community! To help you get ready to chip in, we chatted with contributor track organizer (and WordCamp Sponsor Wrangler!) Eric Amundson about what it is and how to join in the fun!

“Contributing is a wonderful way to learn WordPress, no matter your skill level, and to expand your network of WordPress peeps.”

“Contributor Track” runs all day long in Room 2. We want to make sure you know what that is and how to get involved.

Countdown to the Contributor Track: Sunday 10–4

WCSEA: Who will be in the contributor track, and what type of things will you be doing?

ERIC: People of all sorts and all skill levels!

The Contributor Track is meant to help you find a fun way to use the skills you already have to make WordPress better. It’s a helpful and non-judgemental environment where you can get started alongside other folks that want to help you. Everyone that shows up makes a difference.

The WordPress contributor teams work on lots of fantastic stuff including (but not limited to):

  • Working on WordPress Core (WordPress itself)
  • Reviewing and writing documentation
  • Adding subtitles to videos or translating videos
  • Helping answer questions on the support forums
  • Organizing Community activities like WordCamps and Meetups
  • Accessibility and usability testing
  • Translating WordPress into other languages.

A full list of the current contributor teams is available at make.wordpress.org.

WCSEA: I see the Contributor Track runs all day long Sunday. Do people have to attend the whole time?

ERIC: No, certainly not. You’re welcome to join at any time. Helpful Humans will be waiting to help get you started contributing when you’re ready.

WordCamp Seattle has an outstanding roster of speakers this year, and we don’t want you to miss a session that you’re excited about, so come and go as your schedule permits.

WCSEA: I’m not good at coding. Should I still come to the contributor track?

ERIC: Yes, definitely. Coding is not a requirement. In fact, most of the contributor teams rarely ever code.

The basic requirements are that you are willing to help, you have a computer, and you show up.

WCSEA: You run a monthly contributor meetup in Seattle. (Thank you!) Can you share a story of someone who came and made their first contribution?

ERIC: I can’t tell you how many times people have shown up at a Contributor meetup and said: “I don’t know enough to contribute to WordPress, but I’m hoping to be able to someday.”

These folks are awesome because:

  1. They showed up, and that’s often the hardest part.
  2. They’re willing, even though they may not think themselves capable.

In a few short minutes, we can show anyone meaningful ways to participate. Seriously, everyone can help if you’re willing to donate some time.

A local contributor, Lisa, showed up at a monthly Contributor Meetup looking for something to do, but not certain she had the skills. We helped her get started subtitling videos on WordPress.tv. She had fun, learned a bunch, and had the satisfaction of giving back. Lisa has gone on to contribute in many other ways and we’re so thankful for her help.

Subtitling videos is an enjoyable and educational way for a new contributor to get started because you can watch a video on a topic of interest and by adding subtitles, you’re learning while making the video more accessible to others.

Note: subtitling requires headphones too.

WCSEA: Any last thoughts? What’s your best pitch for why to come?

ERIC: For me, contributing back to WordPress is important because WordPress is a key part of how I make my living.

I don’t pay for WordPress, but I reap the benefits of this wonderful web platform every day. I get these benefits because other folks showed up and contributed their time too. This is a community I want to be part of.

Contributing is a wonderful way to learn WordPress, no matter your skill level, and to expand your network of WordPress peeps.

So, come find me in the Contributor Track [Sunday Room 2, 10am – 4pm]; I’ll be hard to miss—the bald white dude flying around the room in a propeller beanie—so wave me down and say “hi.”


Thanks to Eric for leading the contributor track! We hope you’ll stop in and help out!

Meet the Sponsor: SiteLock

SiteLock

Big thanks to SiteLock, a returning Gold Sponsor for WordCamp Seattle 2017.

SiteLock’s “The District” is a site dedicated to WordPress security. They have lots of useful information and you can check out their security services.

Please stop by SiteLock’s booth and learn a bit more about web security and optimization.

Then, give them a shout-out on Twitter: @wpdistrict.

Learn more about why SiteLock sponsors WordCamps and participates in the WordPress Community in this video interview with Adam Warner, Open Source Community Manager.

More About SiteLock

Currently protecting more than one million WordPress sites, SiteLock delivers a patented 360-degree website security solution to find, fix and prevent malware and other threats from affecting websites and their visitors. Services include automatic malware scanning and removal, an advanced web application firewall, static application security testing, PCI compliance and website acceleration powered by a global CDN. SiteLock offers phone, email and chat support, 24/7/365. With SiteLock, you can focus on what’s most important—your business, your passion, your word.

 

Meet the Sponsor: GoDaddy Pro

GoDaddy Pro

Just about everyone has heard of GoDaddy but have you heard of GoDaddy Pro?

WordCamp Seattle is the perfect time to learn more since GoDaddy is returning as a Gold Sponsor this year. We’re so appreciative of GoDaddy’s support.

Mosey on over to GoDaddy Pro’s booth and chat with their enthusiastic team who are all dedicated to empowering developers so they can better serve customers.

Tweet your thanks to the GoDaddy Pro team: @godaddy

Learn why GoDaddy is so involved in the WordPress Community and  WordCamps in this video interview with Isaac Irvine, Social and Community Manager at GoDaddy.

More about GoDaddy Pro

GoDaddy Pro is a free membership program for web developers, designers & agencies. It offers exclusive tools to help onboard, manage and maintain multiple clients and their sites fast and easy. With GoDaddy Pro tools, you can easily shop for your client, monitor their sites, and manage their products from a single dashboard. Additionally, your membership includes advanced 24/7 technical support and rewards for recommending GoDaddy to your clients.

You can use GoDaddy Pro with all of GoDaddy’s newly refreshed hosting products, including Managed WordPress, cPanel shared hosting, our brand new cloud product, and our virtual and dedicated solutions.

And, always get the best price on GoDaddy products with your “30% off list price” member benefit.

Learn more about GoDaddy Pro.

WordCamp Seattle 2017 is over. Check out the next edition!