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Introducing a new Wapuu

In 2011, Kazuko Kaneuchi designed a cute little critter for WordPress Japan and Wapuu is now the official mascot character of WordPress.

It’s distributed under the GPLv2 or later and can be modified by anyone to add regional flair or personality. This means that a new Wapuu design can be considered a ‘forked version’ of the original Wapuu as a symbol of the larger WordPress community. Since its introduction, it has taken the WordCamp scene by storm!

We decided it was time Calgary had our own version of Wapuu. So please, allow me to introduce you to (drum roll please!):

White Hat Wapuu!

White Hat Wapuu

Call for Volunteers

Meet other passionate WordPress community members, build connections and friendships that will last years while helping make WordCamp Calgary 2017 happen.

Why Volunteer?

The WordPress community is driven by volunteers, and WordCamp Calgary 2017 is no different. Your volunteer involvement has a positive impact on the success of WordCamp. We want to engage your passion, knowledge and commitment in the most meaningful way possible. Volunteers will receive free admission to the event and the satisfaction of participating in another successful WordCamp. You need to be able to volunteer for either setup and the pre-lunch sessions, or tear down and the post-lunch sessions.

Have we motivated you to volunteer yet? If not, tell us how you would like to share your time and experience, and we are happy to discuss opportunities to incorporate your skills in making this WordCamp Calgary 2017 event even more successful.

Sign up to volunteer

By signing up to volunteer you are offering your time and effort to help make WordCamp a great event. There is no guarantee we can give you a certain volunteer task or duty; however, we’ll do our best to match you with the task or duty that best fits your skills, schedule and interests. We look forward to having you as a part of the volunteer team!

Would you prefer the morning or afternoon shift?(required)

Want to Speak, But Not Sure What to Talk About?

There is an old saying that more people fear public speaking, than they fear death.  So for those folks, I suppose the classic nightmare where you’re speaking naked in front of a classroom of your high school peers would be pretty traumatic…

Luckily, speaking at WordCamp Calgary is a much different experience. First, we let you keep your clothes on… in fact we insist. Also, the lunch is a lot better and your peers aren’t jerks!

Even still, people tell us that they are nervous about speaking at WordCamp. They’re worried that they might choose a topic that nobody will come to.

So, the good news is that we actually know what the burning questions inside our local WordPress community are.

For a little insight into what our community wants to know, we turned to our trusty photographer, Reg Tiangha’s Flickr account for clues…

For several years now, we have had our “Wall of Questions” return in one form or another at WordCamp YYC.  It was a chance to post anonymous sticky notes under such provocative banners as…

  • What do you hate about WordPress?
  • What do you want to know about WordPress?
  • When will WordPress become self-aware and democratize robot slavery?

Here’s what our community of WordPress users are asking…

  • How do you create and use a child theme?
    Tell us what your best practices are for managing your theme and functions changes.
  • How do you run WordPress on a local machine and push it to a host?
    There’s more options than ever – tell us how you chose your favourite way to work locally.
  • How do you start learning JavaScript – what language, and how does it relate to WordPress?
    Matt Mullenweg wants us to learn JavaScript bigly… I mean deeply.  So, what does that really mean?
  • How do you manage recurring memberships with WordPress?
    Can it be done with API’s, and CPT’s. If you know WTF that means, that could be a good talk too.
  • “Can you send a newsletter with WordPress?”
    Is this a great idea, or a ticking time bomb? I don’t know! You tell me.
  • How do I move my WordPress site to SSL?
    Now that everyone is terrified about the new Google updates, how do we convert over to SSL?

This is just a list of ideas.  We encourage you to speak about topics which you can build a compelling narrative around.  This usually involves solving a problem and explaining how you did it, what you learned and what you might do differently next time.  Remember, all speakers must abide by our speaker guidelines, which are posted on the speaker application page.

If you have a topic you’d like to see covered in a talk at WordCamp YYC, please tweet us your idea @WordCampYYC!

 

Call for Speakers – Deadline March 18

WordCamp Calgary 2017 is still accepting speaker applications. We are currently looking for speakers who want to share their knowledge with fellow WordPressers. We want you to be a part of it! If you’ve ever even vaguely thought it would be fun to speak at a WordCamp about something of interest to the community, why not apply to speak?

Here are a few ideas to keep in mind when sending us a description of your amazing talk:

Nothing’s too small, but some topics are too big: You should plan to be able to deliver your talk in about 30-40 minutes with time for questions.

Describe your audience and your talk: You should be able to describe what type of WordPress user will benefit from your talk. Are you talking to devs? Bloggers? Both? Also, please summarize what you’re planning to say in one medium-sized paragraph. It makes it easier for us to review. Thanks 🙂

Don’t be sketchy: have a look at the agreement among WordCamp organizers, speakers, sponsors and volunteers. It’s all common sense, but good to keep in mind.

The deadline to submit proposals is Midnight MT on March 18.

We are looking for a great and diverse speaker submission pool. Both new and experienced WordCamp speakers are welcome to apply, although we prefer you have some experience presenting to a group (such as giving a talk at a local Meetup). If you’d like to propose multiple topics, please submit the form multiple times, once for each topic.

Add WordCamp Calgary to your calendar and we hope you will apply to speak!

Apply to Speak at WordCamp YYC

Deadline: March 18, 2017

Before submitting your speaker proposal, please log in to WordCamp.org using your WordPress.org account*.

If you don’t have an account, please create one.

* This is your account for the official WordPress.org website, rather than your personal WordPress site.

Tickets on sale

WordCamp Calgary tickets are now on sale!

Buy Tickets

Tickets are $25 and you get a ton of value: we’ll have 12 talks split into 3 tracks, a delicious lunch provided by Fort Calgary, and let’s not forget the afterparty where you’ll get your first drink on us!

Check with your local meetup group for early bird discount codes (limited availability)

Don’t wait, procrastinators! This event will sell out!

Welcome to WordCamp Calgary

We’re happy to announce that WordCamp Calgary is officially on the calendar!

WordCamp Calgary will be May 27, 2017 at Fort Calgary.

Subscribe using the form in the sidebar to stay up to date on the most recent news. We’ll be keeping you posted on all the details over the coming months, including speaker submissions, ticket sales and more!

WordCamp Calgary is over. Check out the next edition!