Program
New York City’s 2009 WordCamp is going to be two full days of WordPress-related sessions, announcements and fun. Here’s an overview of what we have in store for you. You can also check out the Speakers page to see who’ll be leading the sessions. Links on the right lead to individual session descriptions and the schedule grid.
More details will be announced daily, so sign up for email updates or follow us on Twitter.
SATURDAY: A full day of presentations, workshops and demos related to WordPress. There will be eight (8) tracks running at once (plus unconference sessions), so you can choose the topics that appeal to you. Whether you are a beginner or an advanced user, a blogger or a developer, we’ll have something for you. Including a t-shirt. And lunch.
- Newbie – Bring your laptop and we’ll get you a WordPress blog set up before lunch on Saturday.
- Blogger – Learn about cool WP features you might be missing, plugins, themes, creating content, etc.
- CMS User – Get to know the plugins and themes and strategies that make it easy to run a large-scale non-blog web site using WordPress. Case studies galore.
- Beginning Developer – Know HTML/CSS/JavaScript and ready to take the plunge into WP development? Learn how to write your first plugin, customize themes, contribute to core, etc.
- Advanced Developer – Sessions will be dedicated to more in-depth topics like plugin unit testing, security issues, etc.
- Education – Academic users will discuss issues unique to using WP in academic environments (like CUNY!)
- BuddyPress/MU – Looking for a new challenge? BuddyPress is the new black.
- Open Source Community – How can our community be more welcoming, productive, and enjoyable?
- Hacker Room – Just want to code? A special room will be set up just for people to work on core patches for bugs to version 2.9. Trusted core developers will be on hand to provide guidance as needed.
View full list of Saturday sessions.
SUNDAY: In the morning, Saturday session attendees will have a chance to network and participate in various discussion sessions, then will break for lunch at 11:30. Lunch will be on your own in the city. After lunch, attendees will go to Mason Hall Auditorium for the afternoon program:
- Project WordCamp – Theme and plugin competition judging by a panel of WordPress luminaries.
- Ignite Sessions – Get a “Best of WordCamp NYC” experience with some of the more popular presenters from Saturday doing abbreviated versions (5 minutes, 20 slides) of their earlier talks.
- WordPress 2.9 Preview – Get a firsthand look at the changes coming in version 2.9, which will be close to release at this time.
- Q & A with Matt Mullenweg – Co-founder and project lead of WordPress will talk about the vision for WordPress moving forward and take questions from the audience.
We’re selling two types of tickets to cover all the bases.
- Full Pass: This ticket entitles the holder to entry for all sessions on Saturday and Sunday, including Mason Hall. You’ll also get a T-shirt, and lunch on Saturday.
- Mini Pass: So you love WordPress but you can’t commit to a full weekend. Why not buy a Mini Pass? This ticket entitles you ONLY to entry for the Sunday afternoon program in Mason Hall beginning at 1pm. This includes the Q&A with Matt Mullenweg. We’ll give you a T-shirt, but you should eat before you come.
So what are you waiting for?!? Go buy your ticket!
Oh, wait! We almost forgot. Bringing all this together is crazy expensive. If WordPress helps you do your job, forms part of your business, or just plain makes you super happy every day, please consider becoming an individual ($250) or consultant ($500) sponsor. These tickets will get you full pass access and goodies, plus a little publicity and public thanks.
If you have a small business, agency, or larger company and would be able to sponsor on a higher level, please visit our Sponsors page for more info before you register, as sponsors at these levels will be registered separately.
How can we begin to facilitate lateral communication among those of us who want to participate in the “Unconference” sessions? I am wondering how many people attending WordCamp are interested in the Music industry. Could someone create an area where people can begin to let each other know about topics that interest them?
@Ron Suarez: We’ll put up a page for people to start talking about unconference sessions the week before the event, but there will also be session proposals at the event itself…otherwise they’d just be regular conference sessions, not *unconference* sessions.
I may have missed it but would you share the approximate hours the official program should run each day (start to end). It would help in making plans for after-hours. Thanks!
9-6, with registration on Saturday opening at 8am.
I’m looking for a hands-on class in beginning theme development. I’ve found a lot of good tutorials online, but would really appreciate a face-to-face, “What did I do here?” session.
I paid for ticket, now how do I print it, or all I need is my e-mail?
Just your email. When you arrive at registration, there will be tables set up alphabetically by last name. Just tell them who you are, we’ll look you up, give you the stuff you’ll need, and off you go.
Hi Jane:
Great news about Media Temple for Newbies, but I need your help. I’d signed up my husband as a Newbie, but he now won’t be able to come – so I’m going to need to cancel his registration. I don’t want to prevent someone else from getting this spot.
How do I cancel a ticket reservation? Somehow missed seeing this.
Thanks, Beverly
I am a Blogger user, but I am someday, hopefully sooner than later, planning to move my blog to WordPress. I think I can benefit by attending this event. Maybe I’ll register…
Thanks for the info,
Arie Rich
http://www.kmpblog.com
Will there be a demonstration of MAMP / WAMP installs and transferring to the web? That would be fantastic!
thanks!
@Karen: If you’d like to see something that isn’t on the regular program, we will have several rooms available for unconference sessions, so you will be able to propose additional topics there.
Will the newbie session focus on setting up a blog on wordpress.org?
@Linda: Yes. Media Temple will help everyone in teh Newbie track set up a hosting account, and we’ll use their 1-click install of WordPress.org software.
I wish I could have come there. I will wait for another Wordcamp in Dallas.
Fantastic, I have been trying to convince some people that WordPress can be used as a full blown content management system and could save our agency a lot of time on smaller scale sites. Your CMS session would be ammunition I need….with case studies too! I am excited.
Is there any pricing for just Saturday? I can’t attend Sunday so the mini session doesn’t work for me.
For the Saturday sessions you would need to buy a full pass, since that’s the bullk of the expense of the event (tshirt, lunch, 50+ speakers). Sunday is just unconference, some session recaps, and Matt’s Q&A.
Is it possible to change your track if another one seems more appropriate? I’m down as a newbie, but I think beginning developer may be a better description.
Thanks!
@Ann Morris: Do you want to withdraw from the Newbie track? If so, I can change it for you.
Would you? Reading over the program, it seems beginning developer would be much more suitable. Thank you so much!
I’m a newbie to WordPress but am interested in learning about cool WP features. Will some of this be included in the newbie track?
Jane,
I’d like to sign up – I’m coming for myself but I’ll also be writing an article for the newspaper I write for – The Independent – can I sit in on sessions that aren’t on a specific track or does my registration & badge with my particular track mean I can only attend sessions for that specific track? The interest for the story is mostly in blogging & newbies, and MU. But not sure yet. Thanks!
Hi There,
I signed up for WordPress camp last week and I wanted to attend the Newbie Track but didn’t know you had to additionally sign up for that. What do I do?
re: UNCONFERENCE, on October 26, 2009 – @jane said: @We’ll put up a page for people to start talking about unconference sessions the week before the event
It’d be nice to at least have a blank page up soon, so we can have a little lateral communication about “interests” for unconference sessions. It would also be nice to know if their are any time slots for just unconference sessions or if unconference sessions compete with the great lineup of speakers.
I am looking for anybody working with musicians or music labels who wants to talk about using WordPress and BuddyPress in the music industry.
[…] we’d love to meet as many of our customers as time permits. Although we’ll likely be in some of the sessions, we also have plans to man the genius bar and work on some WordPress core patches in the hacker […]
How do I sign-up to attend a particular track at the event?
I’m interested in attending the “Blogger” track.
Am going to be doing the CMS track – do I need to bring a laptop?
Shouldn’t need one… CMS track is mostly presentations, not workshops. Plus, we won’t have much juice in terms of wifi, so you’ll be better off focusing on the face to face interactions. Don’t worry about taking notes… we’ll have videos of each session posted at wordpress.tv shortly after the event.
Click on Sign Up Now button at top of this site, and when you are registering, it will ask you which sessions you want to attend. Just pick “Blogger.”
Jane, sorry to be a pest but does the same go for “Beginning Developer”?
There doesn’t seem to be much discussion of the Unconference. I’ve gone to Camps before so I know how they work, but so far I only see two sessions suggested. This makes me wonder whether it is worth the time to come in for the morning since I don’t know if anyone is showing up. It was surprising to not even see the Unconference mentioned in the program yesterday.