Remember when you went to summer camp and your mom had a list of things to pack? We have our own list but we promise we won’t send it to your mom. We thought we’d give you a few suggestions on how to make sure you’re ready for a great WordCamp Fayetteville experience. Continue reading (Updated) Preparing for WordCamp Fayetteville 2015 (including what you need to do now) →

This year’s WordCamp Fayetteville lists itself as a three-day event, which might worry newcomers with tight schedules. WordCamp really is just Saturday — Aug. 1 this year — three morning and three afternoon sessions with a long lunch in between.

Friday? It’s a party in the evening. Sunday? That’s the “jam,” a few hours where you bring in questions about your website for one-on-one with Saturday’s instructors. And in-between is our traditional after-party early Saturday evening.

All are included in the $35 registration fee. (That is, outside of ponying up for your own adult beverages Friday and Saturday nights.) Here’s some details.

Friday night

For a couple of hours or so starting at 6 p.m. Friday, July 31, will be a reception at Mermaids restaurant, 2217 N. College Ave. (U.S. 71B) in Fayetteville. WordCampers will enjoy heavy hors d’oeuvres in a private room, with a cash bar. Expect some great seafood offerings, with some greener options for vegetarians, at Mermaids.

Mermaids has lots of free parking.

Saturday night

After a full day braiding lanyards and canoeing — oops, novices learn WordPress basics while business managers, communicators and coders and designers learn the latest to optimize their websites — we’ll leave campus for downtown where something of a luau awaits.

Hawaiian Brian’s, a half-block off the Square at 25 E. Center St.,  is offering WordCampers “Hawaiian Style Cooking” plus a few surprises. Besides a genuine Tiki bar, the restaurant’s spacious new location offers “giant Jenga style blocks and other games.” Street parking is free around the Square at this hour. Fun!

Sunday morning

Starting at 11 a.m. Sunday, we WordCampers are invited to grab a local coffee or tea on the drive and join the Jam Session. It will be at the New Design School, 217 E. Dickson St. in the noteworthy Roberta Fulbright Building, renovated by architect Marlon Blackwell. There’s plenty of on-site parking in the rear.

WordCamp 2015 instructors and veterans of previous WordCamps will be on hand to answer questions about website issues one on one.

What’s it like? Clue: Previous names for the gathering include “guru gallery” and “WordPress wizards.” Campers who just want to hang out with their new friends and continue conversations also should feel welcome as well.

What’s a better way of saying this? If you stop over midday Sunday, you just might get the best advice you were needing all weekend and plug it into your site right then and see if it works.

Our keynote speaker, Josepha Haden Chomphosy, was given a goal by Automattic when they sent her to WordCamp Brisbane in Australia: she had to meet 30 new people. She met that goal.

You don’t have to set goals for WordCamp. You can come just for fun and look on the experience as an adventure.

But if you like to have goals, here are some ideas to get you started:

• Meet new people. It doesn’t have to be 30 new people, but challenge yourself to make some new connections.
• Find the right person. Looking to hire someone? Hoping to be hired? Need a strategic partner or a gym buddy? WordCamp is a great place to find the right WordPress partner.
• Learn some new things. I always write a blog post about 10 things I learned at WordCamp, so that’s a goal for me. (Click through that link for some special treats.)
• Find the answers to some questions. The WP101 4:00 session is a question and answer time and the Sunday Jam Session is a great place to get questions answered, but you can get answers all along the way, too.
• Learn what you don’t know. No matter what your background or training, there’s somebody at WordCamp who knows things you don’t know. WordCamp can start you off in a brand new direction.
• Share your knowledge. Not only is there someone who knows something you don’t know, but there are also people who don’t know everything you know. You will have an opportunity to help someone, so be prepared to take that opportunity.
• Get refreshed and inspired. If you sometimes get burned out with blogging or disenchanted with development, WordCamp can be your annual restart.
• Develop a new goal for yourself or your company. It’s easy to get settled in. You can come away from WordCamp with a new personal challenge for yourself.

Do you have goals for WordCamp Fayetteville 2015?

WordCamp Fayetteville will keep you busy with parties on Friday and Saturday nights, sessions all day Saturday, and a Sunday Jam Session.

If you come in early or stay on for an extra day or two, though, you should not miss Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, a world-class museum in Bentonville, about a half hour north of Fayetteville.

The architecture is stunning, there is a fine and varied collection of American art work from colonial times to the present, and the restaurant at the museum is an excellent place to enjoy a gourmet lunch.

Current exhibitions include Andy Warhol’s nature photos, which you probably haven’t seen before.

There’s a beautiful sculpture walk as well.

You can see all the artworks in half an hour, if you want to stop off quickly on your way to or from WordCamp, but there are beautiful walks on the grounds, including the short and easy Art Trail as well as longer trails that connect with Downtown Bentonville and the Compton Gardens.

When I get to a new town, my first impulse is to find a good place to walk. If that’s on your list for downtime during WordCamp Fayetteville, you’re in luck.

Fayetteville has a wonderful system of trails connecting with an almost-complete walking or biking tour up to Bentonville. Take the Virtual Tour to get a complete picture, with a map and everything.

Or read on for a few highlights.

If you want to get a real hiking feeling without leaving town, head to Lake Fayetteville. You’ll find an entrance just off of Zion Road — turn east off of College Ave. by the Northwest Arkansas Mall and park at the Veterans Memorial Park.

Want to see more of the town on your walk?

Consider the Scull Creek Trail, which is wheelchair accessible, or the Mud Creek Trail. Click through the links to get maps. Both of these fully-paved trails give you a good view of the town, and they’re connected. Start with Mud Creek off of Old Missouri Road, continue on to Scull Creek, and then take the Frisco Trail, and you can get in 7.6 miles before you join us on Friday night at Mermaids.

Do you want some physical challenge beyond just getting in the steps? Consider the Mt. Sequoyah Woods Trail. This trail is popular for mountain bikes, but you’ll often have it to yourself. Expect to do a bit of climbing along the way.It’s only a mile from downtown, but you’ll definitely feel like you’ve had a walk in the woods.

The 6th annual WordCamp Fayetteville conference will take place on Saturday, August 1, 2015. This year’s conference will be my first WordCamp experience! Many WordPress designers, developers and users get together to share their knowledge and experience. I will have the opportunity to meet WordPress users and developers who, at different skill levels, are also trying to figure things out. It will be reassuring to know that I am doing certain things well while also challenging myself to learn more complex tasks.

In 2009, I started a blog using the WordPress.com platform and learned about choosing themes and how to do basic customization. I began to watch video tutorials covering WordPress topics and practiced my newly-learned skills. In 2013, I decided to learn more about self-hosting and the WordPress.org platform. Since then, I have created a few self-hosted web sites while still maintaining my original WordPress.com web site.

While viewing WordCamp TV videos, I have often wished to be a member of the audience instead of being an online viewer in my home office. Earlier this year, I looked on the WordCamp Central web site to search for a conference in my state and was pleased to discover WordCamp Fayetteville. I look forward to attending my first WordCamp in beautiful Northwest Arkansas!