Category: News

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The Lancaster Science Factory! 🎉

The Lancaster Science Factory is a hands-on, interactive technology and science center one mile from our venue on the same street. We are thrilled to celebrate WordPress and our community at this museum, and we have been eagerly looking forward to this announcement.

We hope that you will join us for a day of learning and inspiration at WordCamp Lancaster 2017. Tickets are on sale now!

If your WordCamp weekend will be longer than a day trip, Lancaster welcomes you with a unique array of rooms to accommodate your stay.

Near the Venue & in Downtown Lancaster

Lancaster, Pennsylvania is a friendly, vibrant, and walkable city with deep roots in American history. Today, Lancaster is home to thriving theater and arts scenes, hundreds of casual and fine dining restaurants, five museums, and many attractive events.

Guests staying at the Lancaster Marriott at Penn Square will rest at our city’s center and wake up across the street from Lancaster Central Market, the oldest farmer’s market in the country. The best reason to stay Friday night may be because Central Market is not open on Sunday mornings.

The Lancaster Arts Hotel is a boutique hotel of just five floors, filled with contemporary art, and built in a 19th century tobacco warehouse. Today, the hotel is a smoke-free building that also houses a restaurant.

The Hotel Lancaster is two blocks north of the square and was designed for business travelers from top to bottom.

The closest rooms to our wonderful venue, the IU13 Conference and Training Center, are just down the street at the Cork Factory Hotel. Unfortunately, we have been told that they are booked for the weekend of March 4th.

Outside City Limits & Amenities Galore

The Eden Resort has two restaurants situated in an amenity-rich, relaxing environment for guests. The Eden is also home to a gorgeous wedding venue and sits adjacent to route 30, providing perhaps the best access to our areas highways.

Outside City Limits & Near Tourist Attractions

A few miles east of Lancaster on Route 30, a bustling shopping district attracts so many tourists that hotels are built faster than mapping services can create listings for them. Tanger & Rockvale outlet shopping centers, the (closed for the winter) Dutch Wonderland children’s amusement park, and Amish shops & villages are key drivers behind the nearly two billion dollars that are spent by tourists in Lancaster County each year. Choosing a hotel on route 30 near this business district will mean competitive rates and traffic with access to hundreds of retail stores and restaurants.

Join us on March 4th! Plan your stay and check out our advice for travel: Getting In and Around Lancaster.