Author: Mikel King

20+yr Technology Leader, Public Speaker, Columnist, USCG Veteran, Brewer of beer, Coffee Evangelist. Currently the Sr WordPress Dev at Reader's Digest Association for RD.com He is an author at JAFDIP BSD News BitRebels Huffington Post Connections: Twitter: @MikelKing GitHub LinkedIn xbox1gamer-tag: MikelKing

Fin

WordCamp NYC 2016 Retrospective

However, I believe that this year’s WordCamp NYC shall leave an indelible mark in the memories of ALL who attended and possibly on the WordCamp space as a whole.

wcnyc-after-party-at-un

Some of the highlights worth noting are the 12167 page views on this site for the weekend and fact that we achieve a sustained trending on Twitter.

no2-wcnyc-trend

We had over 150 contributor day registrations which is a feat that I have been told rivals the size of some WordCamps. However WordCamp NYC is not all about developers and designers. We have a strong user and administrator community as evident from the attendance on Saturday and Sunday during the regular sessions.

We as a community came together and bonded over WordPress and nearly the entire New York Open Source community. We worked with the other participating conferences like PyGotham and React and Angular and shared in the after party where ALL attendees had a chance to rub elbows, network and share in the camaraderie of open source software.

We even had a surprise lightning session presented by Andrew Nacin at the end of Sunday just prior to closing remarks.

Therefore as my term comes to an end, I look back on this WordCamp and contemplate all that has been achieved. The last three years with WordCamp NYC, prove that #WCNYC can be more than a biennial event and I would like to once again say thank you to everyone in the community; organizers, volunteers, speakers, sponsors, central mentors, the team at open camps, the United Nations and of course all of the attendees, for making this a truly outstanding event.

wcnyc-tks-2016

As we used to say in the Coast Guard;

Fair Winds and Following Seas

 

Here yee, here yee

WordCamp NYC is just around the corner!  We want you to be a happy camper, so read on to make sure you have all of the information you need to have a blast at WordCamp.

Before you leave for WordCamp

Please ensure that you and your team have purchased your tickets for the main event, and have completely filled out ALL contact information as well as your Gravatar email address.

The window for purchasing WordCamp NYC 2016 tickets closes on Tuesday morning so that we can process the badges.  If you purchase your ticket after that we won;t have a presonalized badge for you.   Without the appropriate information you may experience difficulty passing through the United Nations security and accessing the facility.

On a related note, because WordCamp NYC is going to be at the United Nations this year (cool, right?) you’ll want to show up a little earlier than usual due to the extra security.  Absolutely, definitely, 100% refer to their security guidelines – http://visit.un.org/content/security

If you have any questions about the security policy, reach out to the UN directly – http://visit.un.org/content/contact-us

Getting to WordCamp

The first thing you’ll need to do is pick up your badge at First Avenue between 45th and 46th Street.  As a result of the UN requirements for security passes, we’ve had to allow extra time to get through security and have made several adjustments to the schedule. Please ensure that you have reviewed the online version: https://2016.nyc.wordcamp.org/schedule/

So arrive EARLY!  Plan on 30 minutes to get through Security.  We are doing our best to make the process as simple as possible.  Bring a photo ID and look for WCNYC Volunteers on the plaza at First Avenue and 45th Street.  We’ll be obvious, get in line and we’ll set you up to get through security.  You will need to put your bag (and yourself) through security, but it’s no worse than any airport.

The United Nations Headquarters is located in the heart of New York City on 1st Avenue between 42nd and 48th Street. This 18-acre site has been declared international territory and belongs to the 193 Member States of the United Nations.

https://www.google.com/maps/@40.7507482,-73.9706132,17z

By subway:

Numbers 4, 5, 6, 7, or S trains to Grand Central Station; walk east on 42nd Street to 1st Avenue

By bus:

M15, M42.

By car:

Private parking garages are available from East 45th Street to East 49th Streets, between 1st and 2nd Avenues

Taxis and ride services:

New York has an abundance of taxis or you can use a ride sharing app, such as Uber or Lyft, to get a ride with your phone

At WordCamp

Friday, 7/15 is Contributor Day!  This free event goes from 10AM to 5PM EST.  Join other WordPress enthusiasts and get involved!

The main event goes from Saturday, 7/16 to Sunday, 7/17. Registration Opens at 8:00 am and Security will allow folks to enter at 8:30 am.   Opening remarks start in the User Track room shortly thereafter.  Check https://2016.nyc.wordcamp.org/schedule/ for latest details.

Both days will be packed with sessions for WordPress users of all technical backgrounds.  Check out the schedule to see which presentations you won’t want to miss – https://2016.nyc.wordcamp.org/schedule/

After Party

We are also super happy to announce that in the spirit of OpenCamps we will be having the After-Party at the UN and will be having a joint event with the PyGotham Camp.  Meet and mingle with members of the WordPress and Python Communities.  To help us manage the food and beverage, we would like to ask that you fill out the below form if you plan on attending.  As always, your ticket to the After Party is your badge, so filling out the form is not required, but it will really help us out if you do.  Please go to this Form and let us know that you will be there.  Again, your WCNYC Badge is your ticket in, the form will just help us out with the logistics.

Follow us on Twitter @WordCampNYC and use the official hashtag #WCNYC when tweeting about how awesome WordCamp is!

Announcing the WCNYC Site Badge

Would you like to adorn your website with a badge that tells everyone you know that you are going to WordCamp NYC 2016?

Would you like to share something on Facebook to show all of your friends that you are an avid WordPress supporter?

Maybe you’d like to tweet it out form atop the highest mountain?

Lucky for you we have just the answer. Simply insert the preformatted code block in to your WordPress side in a text widget and you’ll be good to go.

attending-wcnyc-box-logo

<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2016.nyc.wordcamp.org/tickets/"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1514" src="https://2016.nyc.wordcamp.org/files/2016/07/attending-wcnyc-box-logo.png" alt="attending-wcnyc-box-logo" width="335" height="258" /></a></p>

It’s really this simple. Go to Appearance->Widgets add a new text widget to the sidebar where you would like the badge to appear and past in the code like so:

text-widget-example

Save the widget without a title because well it look’s silly hovering over the badge and you are done!

Of course it you would just like to tweet it out or share it on Facebook, GooglePlus or LinkedIn then please use this URL:

http://j.konex.us/wcnyc-a-badge

Thanks and happy sharing!

PS: When you have a moment please tweet out:

I want my #WCNYC!

Counting down to WCNYC 2016

We are less than two weeks away from this awesome event!

Are you excited yet?

Have you bought your tickets yet? Use this link to the ticket window.

Tickets

Remember to include your gravatar email address when registering your ticket and please complete ALL of the contact details. The venue is requiring us to validate each ticket to an individual. The UN security team may do spot checks of ID and WordCamp attendee passes when entering the facility.

Announcing the session schedule

The WCNYC 2016 team, after completing a year’s worth of planning in only four months, is pleased to announce:

The complete session schedule for WordCamp NYC 2016 here =>

https://2016.nyc.wordcamp.org/schedule/

In addition we have added feature not offered in previous years a subscribable iCal version of the schedule complete with alerts.

Now is the time to jump down off the fence.

Purchase your tickets before they sell out!

 

Announcing The 2016 Speakers lineup

The response to the call for speakers has been overwhelming as we received far more submissions that we are able to accept this year. The entire team would like to thank EVERYONE for taking the time to craft a submission and not making our job any easier.

More hours, and deliberation went into reviewing every proposal submitted than we care to admit. However we feel the extra work was worth the achievement of a well balanced program with something for EVERYONE.

Head on over to the speakers page to review the entire list of speakers here:

https://2016.nyc.wordcamp.org/speakers/

And remember to pickup your tickets to this amazing event. We are sure that you will not want to miss a single moment.

attend-wcnyc
https://2016.nyc.wordcamp.org/tickets/

Also follow us on twitter for up to the moment news.

Interview of Josepha Haden regarding WCNYC 2015

Interview of Josepha Haden discussing her experience speaking at WordCamp NYC 2015 with Winstina Hughes.

Q: Do you see a value to presenting at conferences?

A: I encourage everyone to try public speaking. Those with serious phobias, of course, shouldn’t be expected to, but if you’re nervous or a little unsure, it’s a good experience and is a great skill to have. Not every presentation needs to be world-changing, or raising awareness. Even if you’re presenting to a client, it’s still a chance to hone that skill.

Q: What advice would you give someone who is thinking about submitting a proposal?

A: Be brave and submit it. If you’ve got all the information and you’re passionate about it, then you have most of what you need to give a talk.

Q: What might make a proposal stand out?

A: I always make sure that my proposal is more than a single sentence. Most talks I give had a lot of research that went into the subject before I even started pulling together a presentation. If the conference organizer can tell that I am excited, the subject of my talk is clear, and that I’m ready to share that interesting information, I think that can really make your submissions stand out.

Q: Is there anything about WordCamps that are different from other conferences you’ve been to?

A: People at WordCamps are really welcoming. There is a lot of communication with organizers ahead of time and people strike up conversations with you during the day. You don’t feel out of place when you’re there.

Q: What about WordCamp NYC inspired you to submit a proposal with us?

A: Each year, when I was looking at their schedule, it was always a really well-chosen and thoughtful schedule of speakers. It was really an honor to be chosen!

Josepha Haden

josepha-haden
Josepha Haden

Josepha comes from a long line of writers and was raised to be a life-long learner. She has a passion for language and storycrafting, a skill she practices on starsandthemoon.com. Josepha has over a decade of experience using SEO, data analysis, and content marketing to bring success and visibility to clients all over the world. Since 2010 she’s been working in her hometown of Kansas City to increase digital literacy and get more women in technology. Josepha works at Automattic as a community organizer for the WordPress open source project .

Speaker profile: chanthaboune

Twitter: josephahaden

WordCamp NYC is over. Check out the next edition!