A little while ago we told you how a few of our Cape Town team members have been getting involved in the local WordPress community, with the year’s events ultimately culminating in WordCamp Cape Town 2013. Well, that event was just over a week ago and it was an undoubtedly huge success.
We had over 350 local WordPress users unite, hungry to learn more about WordPress and what they can do with it. With 10 sessions covering a variety of topics – all centred around the theme of ‘The Business of WordPress’ – there was a lot for everyone to take on board. We imported three speakers from USA – Chris Lema, Brian Krogsgard and our very own Maria Scarpello – and the rest were all from sunny South Africa. This brought a bit more variety to the day that everyone definitely appreciated.
We heard about what it’s like to work and travel fulltime with WordPress, how a local individual built a millions-strong audience, monetizing your site by going niche, how to protect against lost profits, how a community was transformed through WordPress and a host of other topics. Every session was well received and the local community engaged with the speakers and with each other throughout the day.
One of the most beneficial aspects of any WordCamp is the opportunity to meet and network with the rest of the community and it was encouraging to see people connecting and discussing all things WordPress. A number of people made specific connections that they had been wanting to make for a while and they were able to use WordCamp as a way to start conversations that were long overdue – this is what the community and WordCamp is all about.
On top of that, our MCs for the day deserve a special mention – without the comedic talents of Derick Watts & the Sunday Blues pulling the whole day along we probably wouldn’t have run everything on time and we definitely would not have been so thoroughly entertained.
Our expert film crew recorded every session and the videos will be online soon, but for now here’s a quick teaser as to how the day went and what everyone thought of it:
On behalf of myself and the rest of the organising team – thank you to the entire community for getting involved and jumping on the opportunities that WordCamp provides. On top of that, we as WooThemes loved being there to meet all of you and we’re so glad that we could make a few great connections with some of our valued customers. Also a big thank you to all of the other sponsors for making sure the day was a huge success!
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Great job all involved organizing the event. Heard so many good things.
Will always regret not making this one. Next time!