WordCamp Milwaukee 2014 has been organized by local volunteers who love WordPress, and the same basic format has been used to develop similar events in other areas. Every WordCamp is assisted by the WordPress Foundation, and they are a nonprofit organization that was created with the intention of helping WordPress move forward with its mission of democratizing publishing via their open-source project. In other words, anyone who already loves WordPress or wants to learn how to use it can receive assistance by attending one of these events due to the presence of skilled volunteers and the WordPress Foundation.

What Can I Expect from WordCamp?

Although each WordCamp event varies slightly due to the specific people involved, there are many similarities between each of these gatherings. For example, WordCamp Chicago 2013 featured more than 50 diverse speakers, including one of the founding developers of WordPress. Attendees were able to listen to each of the speakers discussed many relevant topics during panels such as The Zen of Freelancing and WordPress Business Owners. There were also several informative discussions about everything from SEO to content strategy. Each of the three days of WordCamp Chicago were packed with educational tracks, and this enabled people of all skill and interest levels to receive invaluable information that can help them get more out of WordPress.

What Do Volunteers Do?

Volunteers are a critical component of each WordCamp, and they are utilized in a wide variety of different ways based on their availability and technical skills. For example, WordPress and video gurus help keep the event running smoothly by assisting with panels and answering questions. Each event also has a high need for more basic assistance such as working at the registration desk, setting up and cleaning up. Attendees who are interested in volunteering should sign up immediately before each available spot is filled. It is important to note that volunteering is one of the absolute best ways to ensure that each WordCamp will be successful enough to be repeated in the future. After all, without enough help, it is impossible to put on events of this nature.

What Have Been the Top Perks of Attending Previous WordCamps?

Having the opportunity to attend panels and educational tracks is definitely one of the main highlights of each WordCamp, but this is not the only positive benefit that attracts people to these events. In fact, many attendees actually prefer the fact that attending WordCamp helps them connect with a large group of like-minded people. Therefore, each previous WordCamp has provided attendees with the ability to network with each other, and the lunch break that is built into each day is the perfect time to socialize and meet new potential business connections. Additionally, most attendees stay in the local area, and this opens up the option to network with people after hours at nearby restaurants and other establishments.

We hope to see you at THIS YEAR’S event!

Scott O.

The organizers of WordCamp Milwaukee use WordPress as the technology platform on which we build business websites.  We do not use our own proprietary content managements because we believe strongly in the use of open source technology. As a modern web developer, designers and marketers, it’s a big part of who we are and how we do business.

It’s Easy to Use

WordPress will give you the ability to update the various pages of your websites, such as news items, case studies, FAQs and any other types of content on your website. One of the reasons the WordCamp organizers chose to develop websites on the WordPress platform is because of how easy WordPress makes it for us to teach our clients how to manage their own websites.

On average, it takes us only a few hours to get our clients fully trained on how to keep their website content up-to-date. Of course, if there are any new features desired after launching a website,  it easy to program additional functionality. From our experience, our clients have been pleased with the flexibility and power of WordPress and rarely have to rely on us for help in maintaining their websites.

It’s Free to Use

In addition to the freedom from licensing costs and restrictions, with WordPress, you get full access to the source code. This means that any changes can be made without reliance on any one particular web developer. There are thousands of web design companies across the world who know how to develop websites using WordPress, so you would not be limited to working with just one company who only understands how to work with their own proprietary code.

It’s Well Supported

Some web development companies talk about “custom code” or using their own “in-house CMS.” We strongly recommend staying aways from these types of “closed source” proprietary solutions in order to avoid vendor lock-in where only one specific company has the ability to host the website or to address security vulnerabilities as they arise.

Based on these principles, we standardized on using WordPress as our content management system of choice. It is a popular open source platform that millions of business websites, large and small, rely on every day.

It’s Continually Improved

By using WordPress, a developer can build your site quickly and can easily add additional features at any time.  Another reason we chose WordPress is because it is constantly being updated and maintained. WordPress has developers all over the world contributing to its continual improvement. It is already a great system and it’s getting even better every day.

We hope you will come to experience it for yourself at this year’s WordCamp Milwaukee! Tickets are on sale today.

Enjoy!
Scott Offord
Co-organizer
WordCamp MKE