WordCamp Savannah 2010

I’ve gotten a number of emails over the past couple of weeks from people who are interested in coming to WordCamp Savannah, but wonder if they’ll be able to keep up with the presentations because though they are thinking of using WordPress, they haven’t started yet. Since there are probably a fair number of people in this situation in Savannah, we’ve put together a full-day. pre-event workshop on Friday, August 20, 2010, to help these people ramp up. Since not everyone needs this, it will be ticketed as a separate event, but thanks to the generous sponsorship on Automattic, the company behind wordpress.com, it’s super affordable, and comes with some freebies.

Each workshop attendee will be walked through the setup of a site on wordpress.com and will learn about different content types, how to customize their site using themes and widgets, and how to use the features built into WordPress. You’ll also pick up tips on better blogging, SEO, building an audience, and integrating media into your site. By the end of the day you’ll have your own wordpress.com site with a customized design, and will have the vocabulary you need to understand the sessions over the rest of the weekend. Did I mention that the workshop instructors will include Happiness Engineers from wordpress.com? You’ll be getting information straight from the source, and will meet the people who provide wordpress.com’s famous 24/7 free support.

I’ve seen workshops like this go for $250 or more; you can get ours for only $30, and it will come with a free 1-year CSS upgrade (a $15 value) to enable your site design customizations during the workshop. If you have any questions about the workshop, leave a comment on this post and we will answer it here. Note: this workshop is a separate ticket from the rest of WordCamp weekend, so if you want to attend the weekend sessions as well (and you should, it will be awesome!), you’ll need to buy a ticket for the workshop *and* a regular WordCamp ticket. Trust me, it’ll be worth it.

The workshop will go from 9am to 5pm, and will be held at the SCAD River Club.

Step right up and get in the ground floor to sponsor the first ever WordCamp Savannah! We’ve got sponsorship opportunities for every budget, and hope to rack up the best collection of local and internet sponsors we possibly can to cover the costs of what we’re expecting to be an amazing community event. What will that amazing event be like, you ask?

• We’re expecting around 200 attendees, but can admit up to 500 if demand is high.
• We’ll be offering workshops for new WordPress users, sessions for current users and developers, and workshops for more advanced techniques.
• We’ll have a Genius Bar where WordPress experts will help people fix problems with their sites or figure out how to achieve new ideas.
• Food. Drink. Afterparty.
• Local WordPress practitioners as well as visiting speakers will provide a well-rounded program.
• Video coverage of the event will provide more exposure after the fact on WordPress.tv.

Since we all know it can take a while to get things organized, we’d like to confirm our sponsors by July 10, and get final payments processed by July 31 to ensure that we can cover our costs.

Note: Sponsors from within the WordPress “industry” should be aware that we will be adhering to WordCamp sponsorship guidelines and will only accept sponsors that are neither actively violating the WordPress license nor promoting businesses that are.

Become a sponsor now!