WordCamp Utah was on Saturday and nothing exploded, so were calling it a success! Another round of applause for our sponsors that helped make it possible:
And a big thank you for everyone that came to the event. Our estimated attendance was 135 people. This number might be a little bit low, it’s our best estimate at this point.
With the big day having come and gone, I’ve been thinking about what thinks went well and what I might have done differently. The scheduled probably should have just included 10 (15?) minute breaks between each session. Balancing between developer desires and user desires was still a big issue, going with multiple tracks would have helped that I think.
On the plus side doing things through EventBrite and Paypal was good. Lunch worked out well (I really wanted to make sure no one felt like they didn’t get enough food), especially having it served by the folks doing the catering (The Smokehouse). Having key specific things handled by volunteers, like registration (thanks Clint, Sheri & Shauna!) was a huge help.
What about you? If you were at WordCamp Utah what did you think went well and what could be improved upon?
One more sponsor for WordCamp Utah: Twelve Horses. A big thank you to Steve and company.
Reminder that WordCamp Utah is less than 2 weeks away. If you are planning on going and haven’t signed up yet now is the time to do it. This will make it a lot easier to get an accurate head count for lunch and t-shirts.
Bluehost is the latest sponsor of WordCamp Utah. On top of that they’ll have some of their staff attending the conference as well. This is a great opportunity for you to talk face to face with the folks at Bluehost.
Details for the WordCamp Utah Schedule are now up:
Saturday 27 September 2008
9:25 AM Registration
10 AM WordPress 2.7 and Beyond - Matt Mullenweg
11 AM WordPress As A CMS - Richard Miller
12 AM Lunch
1 PM Good vs. Great Design - Cameron Moll
2 PM Podcasting - Thom Allen
3 PM SEO Tips For Your Blog - Ash Buckles
4 PM Writing WordPress Plugins - Alex King
I’m also happy to announce a new sponsor, Alex King’s Crowd Favorite. Thanks Alex!
Registration for WordCamp Utah is now open! The cost is $20 and includes the lunch and the uber official WordCamp Utah 2008 t-shirt.
Final schedule for the speakers is nearly complete, they include: Matt Mullenweg, Richard Miller, Cameron Moll, Thom Allen, Ash Buckles and Alex King.
Space is limited so the time to sign-up is now.
Quick reminder that we’ll be meeting Thursday (tomorrow) night to start plans for a WordCamp in Utah. If you are interested in helping out and making this happen then now is the time to step up. Details for Thursday night’s meeting are on the Upcoming event page.
Recently I’ve been talking with a few people about the idea of a WordCamp ( WordPress conference ) in the Salt Lake City, Utah area. This isn’t something that one person can do alone though, so I’m putting out the call for help and feed back. If you are interested in helping make this happen we’ll be getting together for a planning meeting:
Applebee's in Draper
105 E 12300 S
Draper, Utah 84020
Thursday 10 April 2008 @ 6:30pm
Upcoming Event Page
One of the reasons we chose that Applebee’s location is because they have free WiFi, so feel free to bring your laptops.
In addition to people helping, I want to hear from Utah WordPress users about what they’d like to see in a WordCamp. Any thoughts on potential locations (in the greater SLC area), sponsors, topics and speakers? If you are interested in presenting let me know. And if you are interested in sponsoring WordCamp Utah, then I really, really want you to contact me :-)
First order of business is to lock in a date and location, so that everyone can make plans.
Also, a big thanks to Thom Allen for being willing to get involved and push me to get moving on this.