It’s that time again, folks! Another WordCamp is rounding the corner, and this time, it’s a biggie! WordCamp Los Angeles 2015 is coming up September 26th – 27th and you guessed it–we’ll be there!
Although I find it hard to believe that any of our regular readers are unfamiliar with WordCamp (come on, now!), for those of you that are completely green: WordCamps are events held all over the world where WordPress nerds unite to share their skills, insights, and learn a whole lot from a bunch of other smarties.
Our cool kids Brianna and Ryan will be there, as will Scott Bolinger from AppPresser, so make sure you say hi.
If you’re gonna be at WordCamp LA, here’s what you won’t want to miss:
Saturday, September 26th
2:50 PM – Selling WordPress Products – Scott Bolinger
Scott has been selling WordPress products for 5 years, starting with premium WordPress themes.
He now has a plugin business (AppPresser) and a SaaS product. Learn what has and hasn’t worked for him, and where the WordPress product economy is today. If you are interested in selling products, this talk is for you.
Sunday, September 27th
9:50 AM – Bursting at the Themes – Sé Reed
Themes shape the entire WordPress experience, and there are seemingly endless options to choose from. But with all these options, how do you know which theme is the best for you? This talk will explore the vast spectrum of WordPress’ themedom, from the simplest default themes to the most involved custom creation, including theme option panels, theme repositories and marketplaces, and which types of themes are best for which purposes. Sé will also cover the must-haves (and the red flags) to look for when choosing your next theme, when you should (or shouldn’t) build a custom theme, and how to structure your site so you can go from theme to theme without losing your content (or your mind).
2:00 PM – Rich Pins, Twitter Cards and Facebook: How to Super-Charge Your Social Media Strategy with WordPress – Brianna Privett
Social media is now the primary engine of traffic on the web, and if you aren’t creating posts that can be easily shared, it’s likely they aren’t being seen. This session will cover how to use Open Graph tags to shape how your content is viewed on Pinterest, Twitter, and Facebook and take advantage of new features like Pinterest’s Buy Pins for products and apps. If you make something beautiful, people will share it. Learn how to easily craft flexible posts that look good everywhere.
4:30 PM – Sustainable WordPress – Glenn Zucman
WordPress is one of the largest and most successful projects in Open Source history. An incredible collection of developers, perhaps including you, have built, maintained, and expanded a robust and powerful platform that should be with us for a long time to come. WordPress as a platform seems like a real sustainability success story.
In this talk, Glenn will discuss:
- Look at long-term sustainability issues for a WordPress blog
- List best practices for sustainable WordPress websites
- Describe solutions for individuals
- Describe solutions and business opportunities for hosting providers
- Survey how other Web2.0 platforms are approaching these issues, eg: Google’s “”Inactive Account Manager”” or Facebook’s “”Memorialization Request””
WordPress and other Web2.0 platforms have been spectacular at opening up new communication possibilities. As relatively new tools, less thought has been given to the sustainability of individual websites. Now is a great time to start addressing these issues. While we still have time.
Session descriptions pulled from the WCLA website (with some slight edits for length)
You can check out the rest of the schedule here. Make sure to grab one of our folks and say hello! If you can’t attend, but like to follow along, be sure to follow @WordCampLAX for updates, and of course, you can always peruse the hashtag #WCLAX.