Category Archives: General information

Press release: WordCamp Fayetteville entering its 8th year

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We sent this press release to local and state media Thursday afternoon. Please help spread the word! 

For more information:
Monica Foster
Organizer, WordCamp Fayetteville 2017
Ben Pollock
WordCamp Fayetteville Publicity Chair
2017.fayetteville.wordcamp.org

For Immediate Release
June 29, 2017

WordCamp Fayetteville Set for Late July

Quick Look: WordCamp Fayetteville will be July 22 at the University of Arkansas, with opportunities the Friday before and Sunday after for collaboration and networking. The day-long workshop is designed to help people at all levels of knowledge build low-cost websites for themselves, nonprofits and businesses using the content management system WordPress. Admission is $25 and includes a light breakfast, snacks and box lunch, Saturday evening after-party then informal tutoring Sunday morning. Registering in advance is recommended: Tickets and secure payment are at 2017.fayetteville.wordcamp.org.

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FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Want to gain skills in website building, whether you’re an absolute beginner or a coding geek seeking the latest? The eighth-annual WordCamp Fayetteville will be July 22, with workshops throughout that Saturday at the Donald W. Reynolds Center for Enterprise Development on the University of Arkansas campus. Friday evening, Saturday evening and Sunday morning will feature networking and tutoring events held elsewhere in Fayetteville.

The key conference day is Saturday, July 22, at the Reynolds Center, in the Sam M. Walton College of Business. Tickets are $25, which is a reduction from previous years. Students can receive a $5 discount on the website and they will be required to show their student ID upon check-in on Saturday. The conference fills quickly most years and T-shirt availability diminishes for those who register last minute so early registration is strongly encouraged at the event website, 2017.fayetteville.wordcamp.org.

The low-cost ticket provides benefits throughout the weekend including:

  • An informal Friday evening gathering, details to be announced
  • A full day of sessions on Saturday
  • Continental breakfast Saturday morning
  • Box lunch Saturday
  • After-party at the Chancellor Hotel on Saturday evening
  • Tutoring and work session Sunday morning at the offices of Community Venture Foundation and Startup Junkie Consulting
  • A T-shirt for early registrants.

This year’s WordCamp Fayetteville includes four tracks with sessions that focus on beginners, small business needs, digital designers and code developers. All sessions focus on using WordPress, the popular free and open-source content management system.

Session topics for this year’s WordCamp Fayetteville include “Promote and Grow with Social Media,” “Graphic Design Tips and Tricks,” “Strong Imagery,” and “How to Generate New Blog Ideas and Keep Track of Them.” Some programs offer unexpected but sensible advice, including “Stop Wasting Time, Stop Blogging.” In “Website as Virtual Assistant,” three WordPress tools help business owners respond to email, schedule meetings and process payments.

The keynote speaker for WordCamp Fayetteville will be Shane Purnell, founder of Platform Giant. He will challenge participants to answer this question, “When I Leave WordCamp 2017, What Did I Learn, Who Did I Meet, How Will I Be Different?”

A number of regular session presenters are regional experts in their given fields. This year’s Arkansas-based experts include Haley Allgood, David Bernstein, Rebecca Haden, Eric Huber, Rachel Korpella, Ben Pollock, Brandee Segraves, Micah Sparrow, Jamie Smith and Katharine Trauger.

Specialists coming in from around the country include developer Wolf Bishop, Aaron D. Campbell of WordPress, Josepha Haden Chomphosy of WordPress parent Automattic, web designer Alisha McFarland, developer Dave Navarro Jr., Konstantin Obenland of Automattic, search engine strategist Travis Pflanz, Danny Santoro with WooCommerce and developer George Spake.

Longtime area web designer Monica Foster is the lead organizer for WordCamp Fayetteville.

About WordCamp

WordCamps are locally run conferences held in many cities across the world year-round to teach and celebrate the WordPress platform and related community. Fayetteville’s is the only one in Arkansas. All are supported by the nonprofit WordPress Foundation as well as by area and national sponsors.

WordCamps are designed for new and experienced users of WordPress, the world’s most popular content management system. Users gather to learn about WordPress, which powers more than 75 million websites. WordCamps are designed for all levels of users from beginners to developers. WordCamp organizers and presenters are volunteers.

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10 Reasons Business Owners Belong at WordCamp

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Business owners of Northwest Arkansas, are you thinking that you don’t belong at WordCamp? Are you imagining that this is a tech conference that won’t be useful for you?

Think again.

Here are 10 reasons to get your ticket for WordCamp Fayetteville 2017.

  1. You’ll be able to make an informed decision about the best content management system for your business website. We think it’s WordPress, but you may have a different impression. A day with the Wordcampers will help you decide with confidence.
  2. You’ll get some inspiration from entrepreneurs, marketers, and other businesspeople.
  3. If you have a WordPress website, you’ll get a better grasp of what it can do and how you can use it.
  4. If you want more control over your website, you’ll learn how you can have that. Just figuring out where everything is can be half the challenge.
  5. You may also learn that you don’t want more control. That’s okay, too.
  6. You can learn how to make your website more secure. You can share that information with your web team.
  7. You can learn about legal issues you may face when you use influencer marketing. You can also learn what that is.
  8. You can learn some best practices for websites in SEO, design, and content.
  9. You can learn how to track and measure your website’s success.
  10. You might want to make a blog or podcast of your own some day, outside of your business.

WordCamp is a great networking opportunity, and a fun and accepting place to learn. Join us!

5 Ways to Prepare for WordCamp

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You don’t really have to prepare for WordCamp. You can just show up. Get to the Reynold’s Center on the U of A campus around 8:00 a.m. on Saturday, July 22nd. Friendly people will help you register, there’ll be coffee, and you can just prowl around and find a session that interests you. Meet new people, have fun at the parties, and get back to work refreshed on Monday.

If that’s not your style, here are some things you can do to get ready:

  1. Get business cards, stickers, or other small items with your name, logo and contact information. Put them where you’ll be able to find them quickly. When you meet people, you’ll want to be able to exchange info easily.
  2. Sharpen up your elevator pitch. There are actual elevators at the Reynold’s Center, so you’ll want to be ready when someone asks, “So, what do you do with WordPress?” Something simple like, “I build custom plugins” or “I’m converting my town’s 19th century newspapers into blog posts to create a lasting record of our history” will get the conversation off to a good start.
  3. Figure out how you’ll collect and store information. The slides from the talks will be posted, but you’ll need a way to record the things you particularly want to remember, as well as your thoughts. WordCamp can give you overwhelming amounts of information, so capturing it all for later use is a good plan. Maybe tweeting with hashtag #WCFay will be enough, or maybe you’ll be bringing your hand-tooled leather notebook and vintage fountain pen.
  4. Charge your phone, your laptop, your tablet, and anything else you’re bringing along. Bring a charger, too. With your electronic devices all ready and comfy, think about your own comfort, too. Bring a water bottle, a jacket if you tend to get cold in conference spaces, a snack if you have special needs or preferences.
  5. Get your mind ready. If you have specific questions you know you’ll want to ask, check out the speaker bios and see who might be able to answer that question. If you’re an introvert, set yourself a goal of talking to 10 new people and get psyched up to do it. Take a tour of your website and think about the skills that will take you to the next step. Knowing what you want to learn or develop can help you focus on that learning at WordCamp. Even if there are no specific sessions planned on that topic, there are bound to be people you can learn from.