WordCamp: What you need to know on the day

With WordCamp this weekend, here’s some handy tips you’ll need to know:

Schedule

  • Registration is @ 8:30am and the event will commence @ 9am sharp!
  • The speakers schedule and happiness bar schedule show the times that speakers and happiness volunteers are available over the course of the weekend

Getting there

Coming from South:

Coming from North:

  • Take the Robina Parkway exit (The 2nd Robina Town Centre exit)
  • Turn Right at the 2nd Roundabout
  • Follow the Bond University signs,
  • Map: http://g.co/maps/ssb9d

Coming from the Coastal areas (Via Gold Coast Hwy): http://g.co/maps/5ckfq

Once you’ve reached Bond University

  1. You’ll enter via 2 large roundabouts drive straight through the first
  2. Turn right at the 2nd (This is the Bus Drop off zone as well)
  3. Coming up on the right after 100m is a (well hidden to some) turn off
  4. It’s requested that you park in the 2nd parking lot here (PG3) as this is the closest to the venue, and is reserved for Events usage. (If it’s full, please just park in the vicinity, being a weekend there should be plenty of parking)

PLEASE NOTE: The Google Maps satellite imagery is out of date, There’s no signs of construction work to give you a reference point!

Parking

Please park in PG3 (or vicinity) parking lot.

Train / Bus

For those of you catching Public Transport (good on you!) there’s 2 bus routes which service Bond University, 748 (Robina) & 750 (Broadbeach/Main Beach), be sure that you’re looking at the weekend schedules. It’s suggested that you aim to arrive at Bond University at 8.30 if you’re arriving by bus, as the next bus arrives at 9.10, which is when the days schedule is starting!

Once you’ve arrived at Bond university, you’re only be a short walk away from the venue. To the right of the main entrance there’s a smaller shaded path heading into the uni along one side (not along the road!) which will take you to the venue (which is inside the second set of buildings you arrive at, just follow the signs to the “Cerum Theatre”. If you’re not sure of where you are, have a look for a directions sign, there are plenty, and most people you come across will be able to give you directions if need be!

If you’re staying at a hotel which has organised a bus for transport, please check with the hotel as to the departure times of your bus.

Taxi

Gold Coast Cabs: http://www.gccabs.com.au/ 131 008

Bond University is a well known location in the area, Your Cab driver should have no problems with finding the venue, Once you’re at the venue, Just follow the on-foot directions above for public transport.

Map of the venue

http://www.bond.edu.au/about-bond/campus-map/index.htm

Wifi

There’s Wifi available on the day, but it never hurts to supply your own, so please bring your own 3G wireless adapter if you have one!

We’ve arranged for there to be wireless available on the day (What would a Blogging conference be without internet access?), however, we’d ask that if you have access to a 3G connection, that you please bring it along to lighten the load on the wireless. We’ll have limited bandwidth unfortunately due to the number of you coming so every user counts! The Wireless Network and Pass-phrase will be available when you arrive (Ask at registration if you’re not sure!)

Didn’t get your ticket in time?

Don’t worry, Walk-in Tickets ARE available at the door, $50/day, Just show up (But be early and bring the correct change please!)

Early Bird Shirts

For those of you who have ordered a shirt, They’ll be available for pickup in the morning during registration. If you haven’t pre-ordered one, we have very limited number of extras available on a first-come first-serve basis, however, those who have pre-ordered will get priority.

If you’re not at registration in time, flag down one of the Organisers during morning tea and we’ll fix you up.

Food

We’ve arranged for morning tea and lunch to be provided on the Saturday and lunch and afternoon tea on the Sunday (Check the schedule for the options)

Morning Coffees

If you’d like your morning coffee, this will be available for purchase in the registration foyer on both mornings. If you’ve got special dietary requirements (and have noted on your ticket) we’ll be accommodating you. Check with one of the organisers on the day if you’re unsure of the deal.

After Party!

We’re all heading to Hotel CBD immediately after WordCamp on Saturday for a few beverages and some networking. Sunday speakers be careful how many beers you have because we need you in great form on Sunday…Saturday speakers, please drink away and be merry and all attendees can drink away to their hearts content! 🙂

Map: http://g.co/maps/6uhwk

Posted in Announcements, Venue | Tagged | 1 Comment

Some more last minute Mini Sponsors

Thanks to Vroom Vroom Vroom, Student Flights and Dejan SEO for coming on Board with Mini Sponsorship Tickets:

VroomVroomVroom.com.au is an innovative website idea, comparing the prices of car rentals for web users. This save customers valuable time, replacing numerous phone calls with a few simple clicks on the internet. VroomVroomVroom is the leading web site offering this kind of service in Australia and continues to progress in making the car rental process more transparent, nationwide.

StudentFlights.com.au is a website geared towards budget travellers. With customers such as students, backpackers and under 25 year olds; the site remains relevant to a younger, more internet savvy and price conscious customers.

Dejan SEO is pleased to be able to give back to WordCamp by securing these three internet businesses to as mini sponsors.

Freenet Antennas came to our rescue to help out with getting Wireless access for the weekend, without them, we’d have had more Wireless problems over the weekend than we had!

Posted in Announcements | Comments Off on Some more last minute Mini Sponsors

More Mini Sponsors

Some more mini sponsors, Flight Centre, The Events Centre, Dejan SEO & 123SEO

As you probably already know, WordPress is the leading content management system in use on the web today. Dejan SEO consistently uses WordPress when managing clients’ web pages, finding it’s user friendly attributes an advantage when collaborating with clients. Dejan SEO, always keeping on top of the latest in WordPress, also utilises a broad range of Word Press plugins, even creating several WordPress plugins of their own, with more to come in the future. Dejan Petrovic, founder of Dejan SEO will be making a presentation for the Gold Coast weekend.

123 SEO is a sister brand of Dejan SEO, focusing on providing SEO services to smaller businesses. Realising a neglect of specialised services for small businesses in Australia at a time when such businesses should be focusing on internet marketing more than ever, 123 SEO was created to fill the gap, helping to help small businesses fulfil their potential.

Dejan SEO and 123 SEO are happy to sponsor the WordCamp Gold Coast weekend, being thoroughly impressed with the speakers and topics alike.

Flight Centre Australia’s website is and continues to be one of the strongest online booking agents for flights and holidays in the Australian market. Having a massive online presence, it is usually a web surfers’ first port of call when seeking out the latest flight deals and packages.

Flight Centre is proud to be involved with WordCamp, noting its significant influence on the Word Press community.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted in Announcements, Sponsor | 1 Comment

Thanks to our Mini Sponsors

A special thank you to our mini sponsors. We want to thank them for coming on board to help make WordCamp possible:

EscapeTravel.com.au is a provider of package holidays, cruise holidays and more. Having a strong online presence, their website delivers an experience that is pleasant for people seeking the cruises and flights on the web.

GetPrice.com.au is a free online service that serves to compare prices of products across Australia. Done in an independent fashion, without corporate influence of product placement, the site helps consumers determine the correct product for them and the cheapest way to obtain it.

CompareCourses.com.au was set up to give prospective students a chance to learn about courses they may want to do in the future in a way that let’s them peruse the many options available. Giving web searches a comparison between different TAFE institutes, Universities and online modes of delivering study, people wanting to start study are well informed of their choices before making a decision.

YourLocalMovers.com.au is a removalist service that has taken the initiative to handpick their staff members and hire them full-time, rather than using sub contractors. This unique quality makes them a rarity in the industry, actually offering staff reliable in house jobs and, making the business solid and passing on the reliability to customers.

Dejan SEO has enlisted the help of the above sites, who are long term business partners of Dejan SEO, as sponsors of the Word Camp Gold Coast event.

TheEventsCentre.com.au  was built and officially opened in 1980 by the former Landsborough Shire Council. In December 1999 Caloundra City Council set up a task-force to investigate the concept of the Caloundra Cultural Centre being transformed into a not for profit, separate legal entity, for the purpose of managing the Centre on Council’s behalf.

Posted in Announcements, Sponsor | Comments Off on Thanks to our Mini Sponsors

Sponsor: BigCommerce

We are very excited to announce another sponsor, BigCommerce, who has graciously helped us make WordCamp Gold Coast even better.

BigCommercer is an e-commerce platform that lets you setup your own online store. It also has over 25 built-in marketing tools to attract traffic and drive orders, such as the ability to sell on Facebook, list your products on eBay, rank in the search engines, push your products to Google Products and much, much more

BigCommerce makes it easy to setup your own professional online store – no coding or design experience required. Using our built-in marketing tools, you can also drive lots of traffic to your new online store from places like Facebook, Google, Yahoo, eBay, Shopzilla, iPhones, iPads and more.

BigCommerce have been in business since 2009 and have two offices – one in Austin, Texas and one in Sydney, Australia. They serve over 20,000 clients in over 65 countries and they are passionate about e-commerce and what it means to business owners.

Make sure you check out the BigCommerce website. If you have a blog with WordPress then why not compliment it with your own online store, powered by BigCommerce?

BigCommerce is currently hiring talented software engineers in their Surry Hills office in Sydney. Go to http://www.bigcomerce.com/careers.php if you’re interested!

Posted in Announcements, Sponsor | Comments Off on Sponsor: BigCommerce

Speaker: Andy Henderson – SEO For WordPress Workshop

Andy Henderson

Andy Henderson

Andy Henderson has been involved with the web since the mid 1990s (yes, they even had search engines way back then), has run his own Web Consulting agency for the last 10 years, (specialising in Search Engine Optimisation for 8 years) and has been using WordPress for the last 6 years – so is very well qualified to present Sunday’s SEO for WordPress Workshop.

More recently Andy has co-founded a training organisation called In a Day – which focuses on Hands on Training Workshops – (with a BIG emphasis on Hands On), where students don’t just learn how to do stuff.. they actually do it – and at the end of the day have actually achieved something.

Their flagship workshop – Website In a Day – (which is ONLY possible because of WordPress), guides students through the process of Domain registration, Hosting setup, WordPress installation, Theme selection and customisation, and Content creation – so at the end of the day, they have a fully functioning website , that they have created themselves. Graduates also have the skills and experience to be able to continue improving and maintaining the sites themselves.

In a Day also offer WordPress Training/ Consulting, SEO, Marketing, and other courses aimed at dragging guiding small businesses into the world of the web.

The SEO for WordPress Workshop will include sections on SEO Friendly themes, and “must have” SEO Plugins (and how to configure them properly), but also includes tips, tricks and tactics for using standard WordPress functionality to maximise your online exposure.

The workshop topics include:

  •          SEO Fundamentals
  •          WordPress Out of the Box
  •          Basic Configuration
  •          SEO Friendly Themes
  •          SEO Plugins (of course)
  •          SEO Content Strategies
Posted in Announcements, Speakers | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Speaker: Andy Henderson – SEO For WordPress Workshop

Sponsor: GetShopped.org

We’re less than a week away from WordCamp Gold Coast 2011 and we have yet another fabulous sponsor to announce! Please welcome aboard GetShopped.org, who make the wonderful WP e-Commerce  plugin!

WP e-Commerce was the first WordPress e-Commerce Plugin to embrace Custom Post Types, making it the perfect choice for WordPress developers and theme creators alike! Continue reading Sponsor: GetShopped.org

Posted in Announcements, Sponsor | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Sponsor: GetShopped.org

Speaker: Timothy Ferguson, Running an Online Bookclub with WordPress

Timothy Ferguson

Timothy Ferguson

The wonderful thing about WordPress is that there are an infinite number of ways that the software can be used on the internet. WordCamp Gold Coast 2011 already has a number of amazing uses of the software ranging from: capturing memories right through to running a business based around WordPress!

One usage of WordPress that I’d never considered before is using WordPress to manage and online bookclub! Timothy Ferguson is one of the maintainers of the Gold Coast Library WordPress site gcbooks.wordpress.com. The Gold Coast Library setup their online book club as their staff training platform for Web 2.0 and are using WordPress as part of their new Online Branch strategy in 2012! Timothy and his team have also trained people on how to set up blogs and post on a regular basis.

Timothy has been an IT trainer with various library systems for fifteen years. In his session he’ll share experiences about building communities of readers online. Timothy even uses WordPress for his own freelance writing, (19 non-vanity published books so far) at timothyferguson.wordpress.com.

Posted in Announcements, Speakers | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Speaker: Timothy Ferguson, Running an Online Bookclub with WordPress

Speaker: John Ford – How Automattic Works Across 20 Countries With 95 Employees

John Ford

John Ford

We’re very lucky to have another international speaker on our fabulous lineup for WordCamp Gold Coast 2011! John Ford can’t get enough of Australia so he’s back again from North Carolina, USA (via Budapest). John works for Automattic on VaultPress which is an invaluable WordPress plugin that provides real-time backups and security scanning of your WordPress site.

Automattic are a distributed company with employees all around the world. Running a distributed company is a rather unusual concept for anyone who isn’t running a business that revolves around technology and the internet. Automattic explain the way they work briefly on their website:

Everyone works from their own home or office, and we’re spread out all over the world — California, Texas, New York, Canada, Ireland, Japan, Bulgaria, Australia, and more. We track about 70% of our projects on P2-themed WordPress.com blogs, 25% on private IRC channels, and the rest on Skype or AIM. Because of the geographic variance, we’re active pretty much 24/7. You’ll set your own hours — what’s important is what gets done, not when or where it got done.

John will be giving us an insiders look into ‘How Things Work At Automattic’ and he’s summed up his talk as follows:

There are a number of benefits and challenges in a distributed work environment. At Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com, nearly 100 employees interact on a daily basis while living all around the world. The heart of the operation is fueled by constant communication and open source tools that help build awesome products. We’ll look at how the Automatticians work on a day-to-day basis, the tools they use, and ways to collaborate on projects when you’re not in the same location as your colleagues.

I know this is a session that I can’t wait to participate in as I’m a director in a WordPress based web design firm and I’ve always wondered how challenging it would be to manage a team of developers in remote locations.


You can follow John on Twitter. You should also follow WordCamp Gold Coast on Twitter.

Posted in Announcements, Speakers | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Speaker: John Ford – How Automattic Works Across 20 Countries With 95 Employees

Speaker: Dan Petrovic – Google, Angry Panda & WordPress

Dan Petrovic

Dan Petrovic

Before you begin reading this in detail, take a moment and follow these steps:

  1. Open a new tab in your browser
  2. Go to Google
  3. Type in ‘SEO’
  4. Scroll down just a fraction and notice where DejanSEO is placed for ‘SEO

Based on that quick task you have verified results that Dan Petrovic is one of Australia’s most creative and leading SEO specialists. Dan is completely obsessed with search engine optimisation and all things that relate to Google’s wonderful algorithm, so much so that it only takes a trip to his office at Brisbane Technology Park to see the equations scribbled in whiteboard marker on the office walls! This is either the work of a genius…or a crazed madmen! I’d definitely say it’s a mix of 95% of the former and 5% of the latter.

Dans’ team at DEJAN SEO has consultants in Australia and Europe who all collaborate to deliver results for all kinds of businesses, from all over the world. Dan prefers an open and transparent approach to his work, choosing to involve clients at every step of their SEO campaign, which is why he is a known and trusted entity when it comes to SEO.

We asked Dan a few questions in the lead up to his talk which he has kindly answered below:

You’ve been working with SEO ever since your university days, what was it that caught your interest about search engines and their ranking algorithms? Continue reading Speaker: Dan Petrovic – Google, Angry Panda & WordPress

Posted in Announcements, Speakers | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment