My WordCamp Experience

written by Ella Pader

In the beginning of June I had the opportunity to attend WordCamp Asheville and PreCamp! I learned how to use WordPress and met all kinds of great people. Here’s the rundown of my WordCamp experience.

PreCamp is a day of learning how to use WordPress and understanding how it works. This was perfect for me because my only encounter with the program had been to make blog posts – that were to promote the event! I had actually been volunteered to do these by my dad who taught me himself how to create a blog post. Making blog posts had been straight forward: enter the desired text and media, then publish. PreCamp taught me the rest of the basics and now I’m working on a blog.

Ella’s dad James Pader in the Happiness Bar at #WCAVL 2017.

WordCamp began the day after PreCamp. A lot of knowledge about WordPress was dealt out and I was able to get a hold on quite a bit of it. There were six talks I attended that day about all things WP. There were talks about increasing website speed, how to monetize your site, how to read Analytics, and so on. During lunch I got to talk to some of the friendliest people too! There was also a booth that had a virtual reality set for everyone to use and I of course took advantage of that. At the end of the day, there was a fun party for everyone to get to know each other better.

The third and final day of WordCamp was just as fun and instructional as the previous two! Six more talks and it was concluded for the year. In addition to absorbing even more info about how to better build a website with WordPress I conducted some business! It was sad to see it go but great knowing that I took so much back with me.

***Author Bio: Ella Pader is 14 years old and lives in Western North Carolina. She is exploring all of her future career options.

Spotlight on Our Sponsors – JB Media Group, LLC

JB Media

Meet Adrianne Gordon of JB Media Group

Every year we share information about our local sponsors. These companies make WordCamp Asheville possible. Today we want to introduce one of our local Bronze Sponsors JB Media Group and let Adrianne share their story with us and explain why they love WordPress and why they feel it’s important to be a part of WordCamp.

Q. What do you do at JB Media Group?
A. I am Director of Business Operations.

Q. Why do you do it? What is your mission?
A. We increase the reach and impact of mission-driven companies and organizations in our community and across the globe. Our creative digital marketing strategies, content, and campaigns help you achieve your goals so we can build a better world together.

Q. Why is WordPress important to you? Why do you love it?
A. The WordPress platform is a great fit for so many of our clients to connect with their customers and communities. We love the collaboration and innovation within the WordPress community!

Q. What products and services do you offer?
A. We support business and organizations locally and nationally through digital marketing and training services. Our focus is on strategic and creative content development and distribution including blogging, SEO, social media, and online advertising.

Q.Why do you support WordCamp? What do you hope attendees gain from participating? What suggestions, inspirations, or message do you have to share with attendees in Asheville?
A. We support WordCamp because we believe continuous education is critical to stay ahead of the frequent changes in technology and marketing. From business owners managing their own site to developers, WordCamp provides helpful tips, a great network, and new ideas.

Q. How can people learn more about what you do?
A. Find us on social media at:
Facebook.com/JBMedia
Twitter.com/JBMediaGroupLLC
Visit our website, JBMediaGroupLLC.com, where you can subscribe to our newsletter and read our blog.

Spotlight on Our Sponsors – A2 Hosting

A2 Hosting

Meet Ashley Maurer of A2 Hosting

Every year we share information about our sponsors. These companies make WordCamps across the nation and in our region possible. Today we want to introduce one of our Silver Sponsors A2 Hosting and let Ashley share their story with us and explain why they love WordPress and why they feel it’s important to be a part of WordCamp.

Q. What do you do at A2 Hosting?
A. I am the Marketing Coordinator.

Q. Why do you do it? What is your mission?
A. We love what we do and enjoy making customers happy! Our focus here at A2 Hosting is to be the web hosting provider that we would want to use ourselves. That means fast servers, reliable performance, amazing support and being 100% honest.

Q. Why is WordPress important to you? Why do you love it?
A. We are 100% committed to the success of our customers. WordPress is a powerful, easy to use, secure and reliable tool and when setup on a well configured, highly sophisticated hosting platform such as what we have developed at A2 Hosting, it gives small businesses a huge advantage. We also love the amazing community that surrounds WordPress and enjoy being a part of it. Events like this give us an opportunity to meet our customers face-to-face, hear their stories and answer their questions.

Q. What products and services do you offer?
A. We have a full range of products including Shared Hosting, Reseller Hosting, Cloud Hosting, VPS Hosting and Dedicated Hosting, which means our customers can grow with us throughout the entire lifecycle of their website. Our most popular product line for WordPress users is our Shared Hosting, as it comes with WordPress pre-installed. Another great feature is our A2 Optimized plugin, which auto-configures your site with the best performance and security settings. We also provide free account migration, so there is no need to worry about the hassle of switching hosts. Our Guru Crew can handle the whole thing for you!

Q. Who are your ideal customers and clients?
A. As a high performance web host, our services are geared towards website owners who are looking for speed. Our high performance SwiftServer platform and SwiftServer SSDs are optimized to give you the best performance possible- so whether you run a low traffic, brand new blog or own a large and popular business site, we’ve got you covered!

Q.Why do you support WordCamp? What do you hope attendees gain from participating? What suggestions, inspirations, or message do you have to share with attendees in Asheville?
A. We support WordCamps because they play a critical role in sustaining and growing this vibrant open source community. WordCamp organizers, volunteers, speakers and sponsors alike are effectively the welcoming committee for new, enthusiastic users of the WordPress platform. We greatly appreciate how impactful it can be for beginners to meet and get help from more experienced users in person at events and we want to be a part of that. As for inspiring attendees, we want to remind everyone that absolutely every other person in attendance has some challenge they are facing and to not be afraid to open up about whatever yours may be. Don’t be afraid to ask even the simplest questions. Take advantage of resources like the Happiness Bar and talk with the sponsors- we’re all here to help!

Q. How can people learn more about what you do? [bold]
A. Find us on social media at:
Facebook.com/A2WebHosting
Twitter.com/A2Hosting
Visit our website, a2hosting.com, where you can subscribe to our newsletter and read our blog.

Everything You Need to Know about Attending #WCAVL

It’s almost time for Wordcamp Asheville!

Here are some reminders and important information for Saturday morning arrival:

Please Note – Roads blocked early Saturday due to Race

The Asheville half marathon runners will be racing through campus early Saturday morning. If you arrive earlier than 8:15am you may be stuck by blocked roads.
Please enter from the Biltmore Road/Mission Hospital entrance. These roads will open up sooner than the Amboy Road/Meadow Road entrance to campus.

8:15am Saturday – Registration
The registration desk is located directly inside the conference center. Give your name at the desk and you’ll be given your badge and t-shirt. You can also grab a printed schedule of sessions for the weekend. ***A breakfasty snack will be available during this time, so grab some food and that all-important cup of coffee!

9am Saturday – Keynote & Announcements
Make sure you arrive in time to hear Jodi Rhoden give the keynote at 9am. We’ll also make some important announcements about the weekend.

Location
The Mission Health/A-B Tech Conference Center is located at the AB Tech Campus on 340 Victoria Road, Asheville, North Carolina 28801. Please park in the deck directly next to the conference center. When you enter the conference center you will see our registration desk and be directed to the large auditorium for the keynote. View detailed directions and a campus map »

Schedule
Review the upcoming schedule and decide who you want to check out this weekend. Make sure you follow the speakers you love on Twitter and let us know who you think was the best this year!

FAQs
Do you have questions? Read our FAQs to find out the basics. Don’t hesitate to reach out to our communications team on social media over the weekend on Facebook and Twitter or walk on down to the registration desk and one of our lovely volunteers will assist.

What to Bring

  • Your photo ID if you wish to imbibe at the after party
  • Your business card / contact information for connecting with your fellow campers
  • A water bottle/coffee mug (let’s save some trees!)
  • Optional: a fully charged laptop/tablet, or pen and paper for note taking
  • Your super hero game face!

The After Party
WHEN: Saturday 5:30-7:00pm
WHERE: The Wedge at Foundation, 5 Foundry St.
REMEMBER: All attendees to the party must wear their badge
WHAT: Networking, snacks provided, beer available for purchase

Spotlight on Our Sponsors – Give

Give - Democratizing Generosity

Meet Jason Knill, CoFounder of Give

Every year we share information about our sponsors. These companies make WordCamps across the nation and in our region possible. Today we want to introduce one of our Silver Sponsors Give and let Jason Knill share their story with us and explain why they love WordPress and how they are helping nonprofit organizations and fundraising teams use WordPress more effectively.

Q. What do you do at Give?
A. I am CoFounder and in charge of Finance and Marketing

Q. Why do you do it? What is your mission?
A. Our mission at Give is to Democratize Generosity and bring a voice to the voiceless. It would be also nice to create an organization that can employee thousands of people, around the world.

Q. Why is WordPress important to you? Why do you love it?
A. WordPress is a path to freedom, success, community, personal growth and self-awareness. It is so much more than a tool-because the folks in our community care about really changing stuff-to improve everyone’s daily life. ..oh, and I can create a post and featured image without code skills.

Q. What products and services do you offer?
A. At GiveWP we built a donation plugin. We also have several other plugins at our parent company, WordImpress including a Maps plugin, a series of Reviews plugins and a Woo add-on too. We are a pure-play plugin shop…who likes to play.

Q. Who are your ideal customers and clients?
A. An ideal client is someone who can listen and be listened to. I’m open to talking to anyone who needs help or advice, but we mostly work with nonprofits, web agencies, political organization, government and educational institutions.

Q.Why do you support WordCamp? What do you hope attendees gain from participating? What suggestions, inspirations, or message do you have to share with attendees in Asheville?
A. WordCamp is where our people are at. It’s totally natural to go where your people go. Plus, I like Craft Beer and I hear Asheville is the place to be, so I’m using my WordPress skills to travel around and meet new people

Q. How can people learn more about what you do?
A. Find us on social media at:
Facebook.com/WPGive
Twitter.com/JasonPKnill
Check out our blog at GiveWP.com and at WordImpress.com. Feel free to always troll me on Twitter or even LinkedIn, but I’m more of a meet in person kinda person than a meet online kinda person.

Spotlight on Our Sponsors – Big Boom Design

Big Boom Design

 

Meet Boomer from Big Boom Design

Every year we share information about our sponsors. These companies make WordCamps across the nation and in our region possible. Today we want to introduce one of our local Silver Sponsors Big Boom Design and let owner Boomer Sassmann share their story with us and explain how they use WordPress and contribute to the Asheville community.

Q. What do you do at Big Boom Design? 
A. I am the owner.

Q. Why do you do it? What is your mission?
A. My goal is to help simplify the internet for businesses and general users of the web.

Q. Why is WordPress important to you? Why do you love it? 
A. WordPress has changed my life and the life of all of our employees and clients. It serves as a gateway to free speech on the internet.

Q. What products and services do you offer?
A. We provide educational web design and internet consulting services.

Q. Who are your ideal customers and clients?
A. We primarily work with non-profits, associations, tourism agencies and sustainably minded companies.

Q.Why do you support WordCamp? What do you hope attendees gain from participating? What suggestions, inspirations, or message do you have to share with attendees in Asheville? 
A. I support WordCamp because the internet is a community and WordCamp is the physical gathering of that community. I hope that attendees will connect, laugh, learn, and get further inspired by this amazing platform. WordPress really can change your life, even if you’re not a total nerd.

Q. How can people learn more about what you do?
A. Find us on social media at:
Facebook.com/BigBoomDesign
Twitter.com/BigBoomDesign
Instagram/BigBoomDesign
Or visit our website www.bigboomdesign.com

Ticket Sales for 2017 have closed

Many thanks to all who registered and have tickets for our 2017 WordCamp. We look forward to seeing you soon!

Registration for 2017 has closed; and we do not accept walk-up registrations during WordCamp.

For those who missed out on tickets – please sign up for our mail list so you will be notified when 2018 tickets are up for sale.  And then sign up early so you don’t miss out!  Even though our tickets are non-refundable – you can transfer them to another person if you find you are no longer able to attend.  See our FAQ page for more details.

Spotlight on Our Sponsors – Status Forward

Status Forward

Meet Laurel from Status Forward

Every year we share information about our sponsors. These companies make WordCamps across the nation and in our region possible. Today we want to introduce one of our local Silver Sponsors Status Forward and let website developer Laurel Scherer share their story with us and explain how they use WordPress and contribute to the Asheville community.

Q. What do you do at Status Forward?
A.
I am the Lead Developer

Q. Why do you do it? What is your mission?
A.
We help build forward thinking brands and innovative websites that help our clients stand out from the crowd, attract desired clientele, and get real results.

Q. Why is WordPress important to you? Why do you love it?
A.
WordPress is the foundation for all of our website design/development. We love it because it allows us to be flexible and it allows our clients to easily manage their own content.

Q. What products and services do you offer?
A.
We provide creative services like visual brand identity development, website design/development, and graphic design.

Q. Who are your ideal customers and clients?
A. Our team loves to work with organizations and entrepreneurs interested and ready to move their brand forward through an effective visual identity and web presence.

Q.Why do you support WordCamp? What do you hope attendees gain from participating? What suggestions, inspirations, or message do you have to share with attendees in Asheville?
A.
WordCamp is a terrific opportunity for everyone in the WordPress community to come together and support one another.

Q. How can people learn more about what you do?
A.
Find us on social media at:

Or visit our website www.statusforward.com

Spotlight on Our Sponsors – SiteLock

Meet Adam from SiteLock

Every year we share information about our sponsors. These companies make WordCamps across the nation and in our region possible. Today we want to introduce our Bronze Sponsor SiteLock and let WordPress Community Evangelist Adam Warber share their story with us and explain how they use WordPress and contribute to the open source community.

Q. What do you do at SiteLock?
A.
I am a WordPress Community Evangelist for SiteLock

Q. Why do you do it? What is your mission?
A.
To create a safer internet for all users by protecting every business and website from malware and hacking attempts.

Q. Why is WordPress important to you? Why do you love it?
A.
Adam discovered WordPress in 2005 when looking for a faster way to update his hand-written HTML websites. WordPress spoke to him visually and it’s been by his side ever since. Having been involved in the community for so long, it’s safe to say that most (if not all) of my closest friends are in this same community. I am constantly evangelizing the use of WordPress to people I meet because I believe in the mission of democratizing publishing, so it just makes sense to work in the community I love.

Q. What products and services do you offer?
A.
We are the only provider to offer complete, cloud-based website protection that finds and automatically fixes threats, prevents future attacks, accelerates website speed, and meets PCI compliance standards — all with 24/7 U.S. based phone support.

Our products include:

Daily or Continuous Malware Scanning and Removal: SiteLock® SMART™ (Secure Malware Alert and Removal Tool) is a technologically advanced product with an acute ability to find and automatically remove malware found on your website. This helps prevent search engine blacklisting, which means keeping your website online and your business running. SiteLock SMART also performs web app scanning, which checks for vulnerabilities like XSS or SQLi, and so much more.

SiteLock911: Is your site infected with malware? SiteLock911 does for your website what anti-virus software and clean-up tools do for your PC. The difference is that malware on your website can affect more people and computers than a virus on a single PC. Yet PC anti-virus programs are almost taken for granted, and website security and malware removal is unfortunately often deferred until there is a problem. SiteLock thoroughly trains our team of security experts to find and remove website malware, just like automatic clean-up tools do for PCs.

TrueShield Web Application Firewall (WAF): A web application firewall (WAF) is the ultimate layer of protection for your website. TrueShield Web Application Firewall protects websites from malicious traffic and blocks harmful requests. Our advanced technology identifies backdoor files and blocks access to them immediately. The setup process is fast and seamless via a simple change.

TrueSpeed CDN: Website speed performance plays a huge role in generating a positive customer experience — which ultimately leads to higher revenue and increased customer loyalty. SiteLock advanced Content Delivery Network (CDN) greatly increases your website speed, while also using significantly less bandwidth.

TrueCode: TrueCode Static Application Security Testing (SAST) is our deepest source code analysis. Also known as “white-box” testing, TrueCode finds common vulnerabilities by analyzing 100% of the source code of your applications without actually executing them, and adds a unique and critical layer of security by protecting your web apps — where 92% of all vulnerabilities reside.

PCI Compliance: If your business accepts credit cards, you need to be PCI Compliant. The SiteLock® PCI compliance program is the fastest and easiest way to meet these requirements for companies who accept credit card payments. Avoid fines from your processor and reduce risk of fraud for your customers.

Q. Why do you support WordCamp? What do you hope attendees gain from participating? What suggestions, inspirations, or message do you have to share with attendees in Asheville?
A.
Over 27 percent of websites are powered by WordPress. At SiteLock, our number one goal is to create a better and safer Internet for all users. We are extremely proud and thankful for the opportunity to fulfill this mission by participating in the WordPress community and supporting many WordPress initiatives.

As an example, we recognized the need for dedicated WordPress evangelists, who could make WordPress community development their full-time job. Logan Kipp and Adam Warner have taken on this role with a passion, and continue to foster partnerships and ongoing education within the community.

If you haven’t already met them, Logan and Adam are the ones attending and speaking on behalf of SiteLock at various WordCamps throughout the year. They play a huge role in helping us determine how our products and services can make a greater impact in the community. Our message in Asheville will be the importance of securing your business and those of your clients, but also just as important, your personal security online.

Q. How can people learn more about what you do?
A.
Find us on social media at Facebookcom/SiteLock or Twitter.com/SiteLock. You can alos visit our website at www.Sitelock.com.

 

Spotlight on Our Sponsors – WPML

 

Meet Andrés from WPML

Every year we share information about our sponsors. These companies make WordCamps across the nation and in our region possible. Today we want to introduce our Bronze Sponsor WPML, a product of OnTheGoSystems. WMPL supporter and Community leader Andrés Cifuentes shares their story with us and explains how they use WordPress and contribute to the open source community.

Q. What do you do at WPML? 
A. I’m a WPML supporter and Community leader. I work at OnTheGoSystems, the team behind Toolset and WPML, the WordPress Multilingual Plugin.

Q. Why do you do it? What is your mission? 
A. My mission is to coordinate, promote and lead our participation in WordCamps and WordPress Meetups. We are a 100% remote team and all our members are around the world, so it gives us a lot of opportunities to interact with amazing and different kind of WordPress communities. There could be weekends with 2 or 3 WordCamps simultaneously, so we need to join our efforts in order to have the best possible experience.

Q. Why is WordPress important to you? Why do you love it? 
A. WordPress is our living way, it is not only our passion but it also we are a WordPress company. Furthermore, personally talking, WordPress community has made me evolved in a professional way and also as a person. My best friends are part of WordPress community and a lot of my current decisions, like where I live, are the result of being part of this amazing community.

Q. What products and services do you offer? 
A. We have two main products:
First, WPML – The WordPress Multilingual Plugin. Every time you think about WordPress multilingual, you associate it immediately to WPML. Why? Because WPML make it possible to have your WordPress site ready to provide content in different languages quickly and easily. WPML has evolved until becoming the most complete tool to translate your WordPress site. Nowadays, you not only are able to have a site completely translatable, but also you can count on local or external translators to provide the best content for your users. If you are thinking about running a multilingual e-commerce site, WooCommerce Multilingual along with WPML will make your life sweet.Now, we also offer Toolset – the easiest way to add custom types to WordPress sites. With all this experience and the great team built around WPML, we decided to create Toolset. Idea was to leverage on Custom Types to build websites that were easy to manage and maintain. That’s precisely what Toolset does, you can add custom types to the WordPress admin and front-end, using any theme and without writing PHP. For making this possible we have created:

  • Types: Create your custom post types, taxonomies, and custom fields. All from within the WordPress GUI and with no coding!
  • Views : Easily display custom post types and fields. Display and sort your content for listings and inventory. Add custom searches to allow visitor to filter your contents and find exactly what they are looking for.
  • Layouts: Design entire WordPress sites using a drag-and-drop interface.
  • CRED: Allow others to edit and add full scale WordPress content using front-end forms. No need to force clients to edit content from the WordPress admin – allow them to use your customized CRED form right from the site. Additionally, allow user registration from the front-end.

Q. Who are your ideal customers? What kind of companies and businesses should contact you for services or products? 
A. Every WordPress user or every person or company thinking about using WordPress are our ideal clients. With globalization and e-commerce becoming a norm, you would need a tool like WPML or Toolset in order to get the job done and bring an amazing experience to your users.

Q. Why do you support WordCamp? What do you hope attendees gain from participating? What suggestions, inspirations, or message do you have to share with attendees in Asheville? 
A. WordCamps are a great opportunity to meet new people from the WordPress community, interact, share and learn from them. It’s a great chance for networking, making connections and friends. WordCamps are vital for making WordPress bigger and better, that’s why we encourage all our OTGSians to attend to a WordCamp every time that is possible.

Q. How can people learn more about what you do?
A. Please visit our main page https://www.onthegosystems.com/, or https://wpml.org/ if you want more information about WPML and https://wp-types.com/ for Toolset. You can also find us on social media at
Facebook.com/WPMLcms
Twitter.com/wpml