Many hands make light work…thank you all

There are quite literally hundreds of people to thank for the fun and success of WordCamp LAX this past weekend. It takes so much work to pull a WordCamp together, and we were only able to do so because of all the help we had pulling it off, both on stage and behind the scenes.

First, thank you to every single person who attended WordCamp LAX. If you hadn’t bought tickets, supported us, and shown up, our event never would have happened. Thank you for being a part of it, thank you for making new friends and connections, thank you for getting inspired to start new projects, thank you for sharing your experiences with family and friends.

Thank you to Cami Kaos and Andrea Middleton for their patience, support, help, and advice. These two do an amazing job of coordinating the efforts of local WordCamp teams the world over.

Thank you to each and every one of our sponsors, who not only provided the budget to make WordCamp possible, but who also provide help, support, useful products and services, and a sense of community.

Huge, huge thanks going out to all of our volunteers who rocked WordCamp like it was their jobs. Thank you for making sure registration ran smoothly, Happiness Bar patrons were helped, rooms were monitored, talks were recorded to video, speakers were kept on schedule, chairs were folded and unfolded, trash was cleaned up, and an endless assortment of boring, thankless tasks were tackled with enthusiasm and pride.

Thank you to our speakers, who not only volunteered the time they spent preparing and giving their talks, but many of whom also paid their own travel and hotel expenses in order to be at our Camp. Thank you for being generous with your time and with your invaluable knowledge.

Big thanks to our volunteer organizers, who took whole pieces of WordCamp LAX off our plates and made them even better than we ever could have. Thanks to Steve Zehngut for organizing the Business Workshop, Chris Ford for organizing the Design Workshop, Gregg Franklin for teaching the Beginner Workshop, Grace Park for organizing the speaker dinner, and Sé Reed for organizing a pretty epic after party.

Thank you to Greg Douglas for designing signage, schedules, stickers, tshirts, bags, and our web site.

And I’d like to personally send a big thank you to my fellow co-organizers, Alex Vasquez, Nathan Tyler, and Ryan Cowles – not just for helping to get things organized, but also for setting aside sleep and personal lives to make it all happen and for keeping a sense of humor even when things were going all wrong. It was a real slice, but let’s never run around in lawn sprinklers with all the tshirts again, k?

I know that for many of you, WordCamp LAX was your very first WordCamp. I hope you learned why we all love our community so much and are so proud to be part of it. Don’t forget that we stay connected throughout the year at meetups, in online groups, and with coworking sessions. Stay connected by getting involved in the community.

Now, who’s up for helping plan 2015?

Selfies, Prizes, and the WCLAX AfterParty

Yay! #wclax is upon us! I certainly don’t want to rush things and talk about after the conference when it’s just getting started. Nonetheless, as the official WCLAX 2014 AfterParty Planner, I must confess I’ve been thinking about the endgame for months.

And I don’t mean that metaphorically. I’m super excited to announce the WordCamp Los Angeles Selfie Scavenger Hunt (aka WCLAX SSH), which is not only a game, but a game with prizes!

This year we decided to get the AfterParty started early, so the Qualifying Round of the Selfie Scavenger Hunt takes place all day Saturday, during WCLAX!

To play, simply post the indicated selfies to Twitter. Everyone who posts the first six selfie pics and their respective hashtags to Twitter by the close of WordCamp LAX Saturday Sessions will win a FREE YEAR of Shared Hosting from awesome AfterParty sponsor SiteGround. The first 5 people to complete the Qualifying Round will also get a Bonus Prize from SiteGround!

The Final Round (aka the Grand Prize-winning Round!) takes place at the AfterParty itself. Complete the Qualifying Round, then come to the party to post your final selfie and you’ll be entered into a drawing to win one of FIVE Grand Prizes!

WCLAX SSH Grand Prizes

  • one iPad Air!
  • two iPad minis!
  • two pairs of Sennheiser PRO headphones!

Please see the WCLAX Selfie Scavenger Hunt Official Instructions included below for selfie and hashtag details!

Now, we all know not everyone is gonna wanna be selfie-ing and hashtagging all day, so I’m thinking the odds of you winning one of the Grand Prizes are pretty good. And hey, you’re going to come to the AfterParty anyway, right?

Because when you do there will be a nacho bar, sliders, bleu cheese fries (!!) and a drink waiting for you. Gratis.

The WordCamp LAX AfterParty is at Los Angeles Brewing Company right down the street from Blankspaces DTLA, where Sunday’s sessions are being held. The AfterParty is free and open for all WCLAX attendees, but because it’s LA, you’ll have to pay for parking (your best bet is the lot around the corner at 8th and Spring).

WordCamp LAX AfterParty
Who: WCLAX attendees
Why: Free food, drinks and chilling
When: Sat, Sept 6, 6-8pm
Where: Los Angeles Brewing Company
750 S. Broadway
Los Angeles, CA 90014

At 8pm sharp we will do the Grand Prize drawing! Yes, you must be present to win!

BTW, in addition to the Grand Prize giveaway and food and drinks, there will be a photobooth from the rad folks at SnapYourself.

Oh, and mini-cupcakes. Of course.

Anyway, like I said … no need to focus on WordCamp LAX being over just yet. Enjoy it! And remember, at the end there’s a mini-cupcake with your name on it* waiting for you.

*mini-cupcake not actually inscribed with your name

WCLAX Selfie Scavenger Hunt Official Instructions

QUALIFYING ROUND
1. Take the first six #wclax #ssh selfies
2. Post pics to Twitter using the specified hashtags
3. Win a FREE YEAR of SiteGround Shared Hosting!
*bonus prizes to first 5 people to complete this round!

FINAL ROUND
1. Complete the Qualifying Round
2. Come to the WCLAX AfterParty (it’s free!)
3. Post selfie #ssh7 by 7:30pm to be entered into the GRAND PRIZE drawing at 8pm!

THE SELFIES

QUALIFYING ROUND
#wclax #ssh1
you and your WCLAX badge

#wclax #ssh2
you and another WCLAX attendee

#wclax #ssh3
you and a WCLAX speaker

#wclax #ssh4
you and a WCLAX volunteer

#wclax #ssh5
you and a WCLAX newbie

#wclax #ssh6
you and a SiteGround team member

FINAL ROUND
#wclax #ssh7
you at the WCLAX AfterParty!

wclax_afterpartyflyer_web

Don’t get lost!

Are you worried about getting lost at WordCamp Los Angeles? Fear no more! We just added a couple of maps to the Location page, so you can navigate with confidence!

Parking (Friday and Saturday)

All attendees can park in Parking Lot 5 at CSULA on Friday and Saturday. It is the large green area at the top of the map. You can also download a campus map here.

Friday

Friday Registration will be at King Hall (red marker). Follow the red path on the map from the parking lot. There will also be signs along the way to point you in the right direction.

Saturday

Saturday checkin will be outside of the Golden Eagle Ballroom (yellow marker). Follow the yellow path on the map from the parking lot. Then, take the elevator up to the third floor. Again, there will be signs along the way to point you in the right direction.

Sunday

Blankspaces DTLA is located at 529 S Broadway, but the entrance is on Lindley Pl (which runs parallel to Broadway). Parking will be limited, but there is a parking lot that accepts credit/debit cards on Main St. next to the theatre building between 5th and 6th.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to let us know. We’re here to help!

WordCamp Swag

Just a couple more days and we’ll all be at WordCamp LAX, learning some stuffs and meeting some peeps! But we were too excited to keep some stuff under wraps until then.

Check out our super awesome tshirts!

Women's tshirt

Women’s tshirt

Men's tshirt

Men’s tshirt

For the women, we picked out this flowy tshirt that is soooo soft – and flattering on, like, everyone. And the guys get this super awesome ringer T so they can pretend it’s 1978, but in a good way.

We’ll also have bags for you guys!

Canvas zipper totes!

Canvas zipper totes!

Our local shops here in LA have stopped providing shopping bags, so you can never have too many totes around. Plus, this one is totes cool!

Huge thanks going to to Mr. Greg Douglas of Premium Interactive for designing our swag (and everything else associated with WCLAX14). Let him know how much you appreciate his work when you see him at WordCamp – he’s such a rock star, he’s speaking TWICE.

And huge thanks going out to AG Silkscreen, who is printing these bags and tshirts for us. We’re thrilled to be able to support such an awesome local business. No machine printing in this shop! Every single shirt and bag is being silkscreened by hand the old-fashioned way. We think that makes them something extra special.

See you in a couple of days!

Attending Contribution Sunday?

We’re trying to get a quick headcount for Sunday, please fill out this form if you’re planning to attend on Sunday:

If you’re not planning to attend, you should! No matter what your experience level, you can help WordPress improve. More details about Contribution Sunday here:
https://2014.la.wordcamp.org/participate-in-contribution-day/
https://2014.la.wordcamp.org/schedule/contribution-sunday/

Participate in Contribution Day

We’re excited about Contribution Day on Sunday where we all pitch in to give back to WordPress. After all, it’s done so much for us! And don’t be fooled for one minute thinking that only developers can contribute! There are so many ways to give back to WordPress and the community that it will make your head spin. So we hope that no matter who you are, and what your experience with WordPress is, that you’ll consider pitching in and helping move things forward.

Whether you’re a designer, developer, systems or support specialist, or writer, there’s a way for you to contribute:

  • If you’re a programmer, contribute code directly to core*
  • Write or update WordPress documentation
  • Design wireframes for new features (or ones you think could be improved)
  • Help out with your knowledge of accessibility or other relevant standards
  • Answer questions on the WordPress.org forums
  • Work on the wordpress.org website itself, including the plugin and theme repositories

People who come to Contributor Day will be 1000% focused on contributing to or learning to contribute to the WordPress project — although we have fun, this is a working event. If you’ve been looking for an opening to add your contribution to WordPress, this is the perfect opportunity!

* CODE CONTRIBUTORS

If you’re planning on helping out with WordPress core code (writing patches, testing bugs on trunk, etc), then you’ll need to get set up with a few things. To save time on the day, we strongly recommend that you set WordPress up locally on your laptop. You’ll need to install a local web server and check out a copy of WordPress from Subversion. Hint: Using Desktop Server (from our sponsor SeverPress) makes the first part really easy

Confirm Your T-Shirt Size and Friday Workshop Selections

It’s time for us to finalize our t-shirt order for WCLAX, so please log in and make sure you’ve correctly indicated your T-Shirt preference. Log in and change that radio button now or forever hold your peace.

We’re also trying to get a final headcount for Friday Workshops, so please make sure that’s also correct. If you aren’t able to attend Friday, please let us know!

If you already purchased your ticket, a link was sent to your email. If you haven’t purchased a ticket yet, get yours now!

The Happiness Bar

Do you need some help with your WordPress site? Are you looking for some advice about working with clients? Is your cat constantly stomping around driving you crazy? If so, make sure to stop by the Happiness Bar at WCLAX!

WordPress experts will be hanging out at the Happiness Bar all day Saturday, ready to answer your questions. So, whether you are just getting started with WordPress, or if you’re a seasoned vet looking to exchange ideas, you’ll be able to find some help!

The Happiness Bar will be located outside of the ballrooms, right next to the sponsor and registration tables. Be sure to stop by and get your daily dose of Happiness!

We got your website badges right here!

So, you’re coming to WordCamp LAX. (You are, right?) Or you’re speaking or sponsoring and you’ve earned our undying gratitude.

Well, surely you want to tell the whole world about that, right?

What better way to do that then to display one of our premium, first-class website badges on your own site or social media profile? These badges were hand-crafted by hissing cockroaches in Timbuktu. Just kidding! They were designed by our illustrious WCLAX designer, Greg Douglas, just for YOU and they’re available in two sizes!

Just take a look at how spiffy they are!

WCLA14_badge-attend-125 WCLA14_badge-speak-125 WCLA14_badge-sponsor-125

You can get the different sizes of badges and even copy some code to get you going over on our Website Badges page. So head on over there and let everyone know about WCLAX!

This week’s upcoming WordPress meetups

Hey, we all know that the WordPress community is like super stupendously amazing. But did you know that you don’t have to wait for that once-a-year WordCamp to hang out?

We have lots of WordPress Meetup Groups throughout Southern California, so there’s sure to be one in your neck of the woods, beach, desert, or mountains. Check ’em out over on our Community Page.

This week we’ve got:

  • OC WordPress Design Meetup happening Monday, August 4th. WordCamp LAX speaker Joseph Karr O’Connor, perhaps better known in the WP Community as ‘Accessible Joe’ will be speaking on accessible design.
  • Inland Empire WordPress Meetup will be on Tuesday, August 5th. If you’ve been out to that one before, note that they’ve got a new location this month, and haven’t decided on a topic just yet, but it’s sure to be a good time hanging out and learning something new with WP peeps.
  • Los Angeles WordPress 101 will be meeting up that same night, on Tuesday, August 5th to talk about plugin best practices. This group is just for those who are just getting started with WordPress and need a little extra help getting things figured out.
  • Advanced WordPress (San Diego) is hosting a summer hackathon at Thought House. If you’re in the mood to code, collaborate, and create be sure to RSVP to join them.

Holy smokes! That’s all happening within the next 7 days!

Our local WordPress community is something really extra special, so don’t hesitate to jump in and get involved with one of your local WordPress meetup groups. You don’t have to wait until WordCamp!