Thanks for Another Great WordCamp Lancaster

Thank you for joining us at WordCamp Lancaster 2017. We had a blast! This community will never tire of learning, catching up with friends, or forging new bonds. These moments were captured in photos thanks to Doug Stuart.

Our event would not be possible without you or our generous sponsors. Thank you, and thanks to BoldGrid, WooCommerce, JetPack, BlueHost, GoDaddy, RedX Web Design, WPML.org, Dreamhost, SiteGround, Paid Memberships Pro, SiteLock, and Pantheon.

You can be the first to find out about future WordPress events in Lancaster by joining our WordPress Lancaster Meetup.

Sponsor: BoldGrid

BoldGrid is a website builder powered by WordPress. It is a free set of WordPress plugins, themes, and other content that allows site creation and management similar to non-WordPress website builders. By placing WordPress more in line with DIY site builder solutions on the market, our mission is not only to make WordPress more accessible and easy for beginners to utilize, but also automate and streamline typical WordPress tasks to provide a fast, creator-friendly platform that even web professionals will appreciate.

Experience WordPress as a website builder, including: free pre-built themes, drag and drop editing, integrated image banks, simplified photo editing, built-in staging, automated backups, and so much more.

BoldGrid will have you creating professional looking WordPress sites in minutes!

Generous sponsors like BoldGrid make WordCamps like ours accessible to anyone who wishes to attend.

Sponsor: WooCommerce

37% of all online stores are powered by WooCommerce. Built on WordPress, WooCommerce is a fully customizable, open source eCommerce solution.

Whether you’re selling a few handcrafted items to a niche market, taking an existing business online, or going global with an enterprise level eCommerce business – WooCommerce will get you set up and selling fast and scale securely as you grow. Plus your content will be forever yours and customizable down to the finest button color.

Developed and supported by a distributed team, WooCommerce is powered by Automattic, the creators of WordPress.com.

We are thrilled to have WooCommerce as a sponsor for WordCamp Lancaster 2017!

Sponsor: Jetpack

Jetpack is a free WordPress plugin that simplifies managing your sites. This single plugin enables Photon (a global CDN for images), uptime monitoring, brute force protection, traffic-boosting tools, single sign on, multiple-site management, and automatic or bulk plugin updates. Additionally Jetpack includes several features that help you customize the look and feel of your site without installing other tools. More information can be found at jetpack.com.

Without sponsors like Jetpack, the price of your ticket would be much greater than $20. Thank you, Jetpack.

Things To Do In Lancaster on Friday

When I wrote about the hotels where you should consider staying during WordCamp a few weeks ago, I suggested that you might consider coming to Lancaster on Friday instead of Saturday morning. Allow me to expand on that thought, because there are a lot of reasons you should visit Lancaster City and especially this Friday, March 3rd. Here are a few.

It’s First Friday

Lancaster celebrates its culture and commerce on the first Friday of each month. This means art galleries and shops stay open late, special events and plates are prepared, and the community and tourists alike explore the city.

Peep this list of First Friday Events. A number of these events, but by no means all, take place on Gallery Row.

Photo by Lindsay Lazarski/WHYY

Gallery Row is the first and second blocks of North Prince Street and the center of Lancaster’s art scene. In addition to some of the city’s galleries, these blocks are home to the Fulton Theater and The Ware Center.

Central Market until 4pm

Lancaster Central Market, our country’s oldest farmer’s market, is a required stop at the center of our city for any foodie touring the area. More than 60 vendors sell local and imported foodstuffs to 3,000 visitors each week. In 2013, Central Market was named one of the world’s 10 best fresh markets by CNN. The market opens at 6am on Friday and Saturday, and the closing times are early at 4pm on Friday and 2pm on Saturday.

Photo by Ann Witmer/PennLive

Foods and Drinks

Lancaster County has a rich restaurant and craft beer scene. Recently, local restaurant Ma(i)son received high praise from Alton Brown, the host of the Food Network’s Good Eats. Last year, four Lancaster County breweries won medals at the World Beer Cup. One of those breweries, Lancaster Brewing Company, is just minutes down the street from our venue.

Local restaurants, like Federal Taphouse & Hunger N Thirst, are making their names on their craft beer collections. The former boasts 100 taps and the latter maintains a tap list and bottle shop full of rarities.

We even have a vegan restaurant with an impressive tap list in Root on Walnut Street. Last time I was there, they had a St. Boniface Oatmeal Stout on tap, which was the first time I had seen that beer available outside Ephrata, the town 15 miles to the north where it is brewed.

Rice and Noodles is a fantastic Vietnamese restaurant that was opened by a family that relocated to Lancaster after being forced to evacuate New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. After all of their restaurants were heavily damaged in the storm, they sought refuge with a relative who lived here. Their restaurant just north of the city limits has been so successful that they’ve opened a second location downtown on Gallery Row called Sprout.

Chicken wing connoisseurs need not venture too far from our venue to find Rumplebrewskin’s, perhaps the best wing joint even locals have never heard of. With 5o flavors of wings on the menu, the hottest variety I have tried was only their third hottest, Wicked Chili, and there is no way I could have finished a full order of them. I recently heard a rumor that the famous crab cake recipe belonging to the owner of Hall’s Cafe, the bar that previously occupied this space, was included in the sale but is only prepared on First Fridays.

Lancaster Awaits

There are gems to be found almost anywhere you look in this city, and it would be a shame if you didn’t experience some of our treasures during your trip to WordCamp. Try us! Join us this weekend to celebrate WordPress in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

 

Sponsor: Bluehost

Bluehost has been a WordPress partner since 2005 and powers over 1 million WordPress sites worldwide. Their objective is to help customers, whether novice or pro, create a thriving online presence at an affordable price. With a team of in-house tech experts available 24/7, Bluehost dedicates time and resources to providing the best support and services in the industry. Join millions of other site owners and see what Bluehost can do for you and your online presence.

Generous sponsors like Bluehost allow us to offer low ticket prices to WordCamp Lancaster, and for that, we are grateful.

Meet the Organizers

WordCamp Lancaster 2017 is less than two week away! It’s a good time to introduce the team that’s putting things together. There are hundreds of WordCamps every year, each one organized by local WordPress enthusiasts and Lancaster is no exception. We’ll all be labelled with special lanyards, along with all volunteers, and are available to assist with any question or issues during the conference.

Corey Salzano, Co-Organizer

Corey is a full-stack developer at Friday Systems Inc, and an avid promoter of local events, including the Lititz Craft Beer Fest. In the off chance you catch him away from his computer, Corey can be found playing hockey, grilling, or laying down some sick bass lines.

Corey is also a lover of the mighty capybara; often spending countless hours perfecting the ancient craft of origami to match their noble likeness.

“I feel that nearly all of their features look to be unfortunately-sized, and that makes them adorable.”

 

Jonathan Ober, Co-Organizer

Jonathan is a seasoned web designer and developer, working out of the Leaf Collective right here in Lancaster.  He dreams of owning a tiny house and touring both the United States and the world someday.

Another animal enthusiast, Jonathan is a lover of sugar gliders and has been known to outshine even the worlds top-most veterinarians when it comes to trivia regarding their habits.

“I have no idea what a sugar glider is.”

 

Dustin Leer, Co-Organizer

Dustin is designer and developer in Lancaster. He’s designed countless components of WordCamp Lancaster, including every Wapuu we have!

Dustin’s animal of choice is the mysterious pygmy marmoset.

“The pygmy marmoset is so tiny. So adorbs.”

 

Lauren Pittenger, Co-Organizer

Lauren works as a designer and front end developer at a boutique consultancy, LBDesign. Her hobbies are wheel throwing, painting and reading. Her true passion is cat photography, specifically her own. However, if your cat asks nicely, she will probably photograph it as well.

Continuing the animal loving trend, Lauren is particularly fond of the Okapi. She may one day photograph them too.

“I really love their zebra legs. Really, that’s the only part of the zebra you need.”

 

Andrew Adcock, Co-Organizer

Andrew is a Senior Developer at Unleashed Technologies, focusing on WordPress, Drupal, Symfony, Node, and Laravel projects. He was an organizer for the 2016 WordCamp Baltimore, and joins Lancaster as a co-organizer in 2017.

Andrew is an amateur keytar-ist, Krav Maga spectator, and PHP enthusiast. He can be found playing music to stray cats in the Baltimore region, working on various open source projects for Symfony, and watching the television show Sliders.

Andrew’s animal of choice is the bear. He finds their hugs particularly soothing.

“They’re all just teddy bears, really. Even those grizzlies.”

 

Rami Abraham, Lead Organizer

This years Lead Organizer, Rami, is a developer and musician, and probably some other things.

Rami has an affinity for the Star-nosed mole. He plans on using them for surviving the apocalypse in a flooded earth scenario, which he predicts has a 27% probability of occurring given present data.

“I greatly appreciate the Star-nosed Mole’s ability to smell underwater.”

The roster of organizers at a WordCamp can vary from year to year, and we wouldn’t be where we are today without the dedication and service of these selfless, wonderful people:

  • George Stephanis, Organizer Emeritus

  • Mary Waldman, Organizer Emeritus

  • Austin Ginder, Organizer Emeritus

  • Bri Piccari, Organizer Emeritus

A special thank you to our incredible team of volunteers, the backbone of the conference. Look for a post introducing them coming soon!

Have any questions or comments for the organizers? Contact Us!

Get Involved

WordCamp Lancaster 2017 is coming up fast. There are just a few short weeks left until the big day and we could use your help! WordPress is all about community and helping one another and we could use a hand. We are looking for a couple more volunteers to help us out and make sure things run smoothly.

Fill out the form here and let us know what you are interested in.

Did we mention, if you are selected as a volunteer, you also get free admission? What have you got to lose?

Keynote speaker: Dr. Nazli Hardy

We’re incredibly excited to share details about the keynote speaker and her session! The session will be taking place at 4pm on the day of the conference, prior to closing remarks.

Community is what makes open-source technology like WordPress work. It’s critical to security, market success, and growth of the technology itself.

Our 2017 speaker coordinator, Charlie Reisinger, has invited Dr. Nazli Hardy to tell her incredible story, and share those insights with us to close the day.

Dr. Nazli Hardy

Dr. Nazli Hardy – Associate Professor of Computer Science, Millersville University. Chair, Women in Science, Math & Technology Conference, Millersville University.

The Upside of Obstacles: Lessons Learned from Three Continents

As a girl born to a tin-roofed home, in Bangladesh, the road to earning a degree in Chemical Engineering, an MBA, and PhD in Computer Science, took me through unexpected paths, and taught me life-defining lessons about diversity, inclusion, and community.

Dr. Nazli Hardy is an Associate Professor of Computer Science and the Chair of the Women in Science, Math & Technology Conference at Millersville University. Her areas of interests are Computer Networks, Biodiversity Informatics, and Women in STEM fields. She was born in Bangladesh, brought up in Zimbabwe, and earned her undergraduate and graduate degrees in New York. She likes dark chocolate, warm weather, dance music, and reading British mysteries. She is opinionated about world affairs and human rights, and has been blogging since 2005. Her world revolves around her husband and their two children, with whom she loves to travel, near and far.

The keynote session occurs from 4-5pm, and is followed by pre-party remarks.

Second round of speakers announced!

We’re very excited to announce our second batch of speakers! Speakers are announced as confirmations are received from each speaker. We’ll have more announcements soon regarding our keynote speaker, followed by the conference schedule. Without further ado, the second batch of speakers, and their sessions!

WordCamp Lancaster, PA is over. Check out the next edition!