Experience WordCamp Cape Town 2011

Some 20 renowned speakers will take to the stage when WordCamp Cape Town 2011 kicks off on the 15th of September.

WordCamps are community-organised conferences, where discussions take place surrounding the blogging platform, WordPress. This will be Cape Town’s second WordCamp to date.

The conference is popular for allowing users to share ideas, learn about the challenges associated with WordPress and participate in its development. WordPress founder, Matt Mullenweg organised the first WordCamp in San Francisco in 2006. He was also in attendance at the Cape Town event last year.

WordPress evolves to meet the demands of the user, with the upcoming version 3.3 rumoured to include an admin area which works across all platforms, as well as the possible revamp of the media management system. WordCamp is one of the first places that the WordPress user can expect to hear these updates from, with last years conference producing many answers to burning WordPress questions

WordCamp Cape Town 2011 has two tracks of workshops and talks. The tech and development track, and the publisher track. Bloggers and content managers will appreciate the development track, while those interested in the interface, plugins and the various technical aspects associated with WordPress should stick to the tech track, although the organisers of the event assure that all speakers are highly engaging. Speakers include:

• Ashley Shaw, who will be hosting a session on the scaling of WordPress.
• Dan Milward, owner of Instinct Development will be speaking about the e-Commerce plugin and the Open Source community.
• Jess Green, an avid WordPress user who will focus on how to build content for WordPress sites.
• Oluniyi D. Ajao, one of Africa’s leading bloggers and manager of Web4Africa.
• Fred Roed, CEO of World Wide Creative. Roed will be hosting a session on placing the community aspect into a marketing strategy.

Wordcamp is about creating and fostering new relationships according to the website, and a “fun experience where you can geek out for a day or two with other people just as obsessed with WordPress”. There is place for close to twenty speakers, with Q&A sessions following each presentation.

The organisers of WordCamp Cape Town 2011 are striving to make this the biggest WordCamp South Africa has ever seen. Visit the official site for further information.