Back in May this year we announced that WordCamp Cape Town 2012 was going ahead. Planning the event whilst keeping up with our day to day responsibilities was always going to be a challenge. Together with Inkfish Design Studio we created an event and a website that we are proud of. It was totally worth every minute of the effort.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2LdHwuNJHU
Community, Speakers and Sponsors
The event is a result of the great enthusiasm and passion for WordPress shown by the community – WordPress people are some of the most avid supporters out there. Thanks for buying the tickets and spending the day with us. Thanks too for all the feedback, and if you gave up your day to help out, thanks for volunteering! 330 Campers attended this year and the event grew to double the size compared to last year.
Speakers don’t necessarily get asked to speak but gladly volunteer their time, keen to share their knowledge about WordPress. The floor is open to anyone who knows a thing or two about using WordPress effectively. Thanks to all the WordPress gurus who pitched in this year, for taking the time and sharing your expert knowledge with us all.
To secure the event we needed to pursue sponsorship actively, and we were thrilled to find that many sponsors were very willing to help. A big thank you to all the WordCamp sponsors, especially the platinum sponsors: PriceCheck, RSAWEB, e-magination InfoSolutions, Clickatell and FNB in association with PayPal and Elance for their generous contributions.
WordCamp Content
Humanities
When we received initial topic outlines, it was apparent this year’s focus was centred around the WordPress user. Memeburn featured this article on our behalf. The article generated a lot of publicity for the event. What became evident is that there is a lot of people interested in using WordPress as a business tool.
The event didn’t disappoint, the focus remained firmly on the WordPress user. Notable highlights were Fred Roed’s talk about the importance of cause in your business and an inspiring panel discussion. It shared invaluable knowledge from the experiences of notable SA start-ups. In that spirit, WordCamp allowed other businesses a 3-minute platform to pitch their business. Thanks to Clickatell, Blink Tower and Device Lab who took advantage of the opportunity.
Technical
The hard core developer crowd could not or should not be left wanting. After all, those that collaborate on the WordPress core or build products for it are what makes WordPress great. A case in point is the WordPress plugin industry that is revolutionizing all sorts of possibilities. There are innumerable ways to optimise your site and the tools available are of exceptional quality. Companies are providing services of incredible value for WordPress . Whether they are theme houses, hosting companies or security specialists, WordPress has matured and is driving a growing web industry.
A Day in the Gardens
Set in picturesque Kirstenbosch Gardens the Old Mutual Conference Centre was plenty big enough and prepared for everything we needed. Thanks to FNB again, there is such a thing as a free lunch, but who knew it would be so delicious. At the end of the day, Butlers Pizza handled the dinner shift. The pizza was so tasty, we might have set a record for the time it took to devour. And to wash it down, LightSpeed supplied refreshing craft beer, and Super Single Vineyards also made an impression with some lovely wines that we can highly recommend. And to Sir Juice, a huge thanks for the very tasty and healthy drinks and keeping us hydrated throughout the day.
We took a little time after the event to relax the frenetic pace we had been keeping up for weeks, and turned our full attention back to our work projects. The feedback from people we know and those we had just met at the event has been positive. We are glad to hear that you are happy with what the day delivered. Every WordCamp should leave a legacy and the video, audio and photography captured on the day delivers exactly that. We hope it keeps sparking creativity and ingenuity in this and the next generation of WordPress users. Thanks to Goosebump Productions for the professional film and Greg Hillyard for the photography.
