WordCamp, a community – based conference that teaches the fundamentals of WordPress, will be at the Dayton Convention Center on March 20 and 21.
WordCamps are laid back conferences held all over the world, and are organized by community members.
WordCamp Dayton was held at Wright State University last year after organizers Nathan Driver and Brian Retterer saw the need for the conference to come to Dayton. Around 150 people attended the conference last year, and they expect that nearly 300 will attend this year.
“It’s not a typical conference, it’s a community based event,” said Driver, a Sinclair marketing graduate.
Giving back to the community was the motivation behind their efforts to start WordCamp Dayton. Driver expressed that he felt Sinclair also shares an interest in giving back.
“Sinclair just felt different, – I’m from Dayton, and It feels like I want to give back. It’s a community school in it’s purest form,” Driver said.
“This year we’re trying to focus more on students,” Driver said.
WordPress is a content management system that powers approximately 23 percent of the Internet today.
“WordPress, people think it’s just a blog, but a lot of fortune 500 companies use it, a lot of small businesses use it, even educational institutions use it as well for learning tools.” Driver said.
Driver, who now works for WDTN-TV as digital director, stressed the usefulness of WordPress.
“Basically you think it, it can be done using WordPress in one facet or another,” Driver said.
The two day conference hosts 24 speakers from all over the country including professionals from many different fields who have found use for WordPress in their business. Speakers include photographers, podcasters, editors, branding coaches, small business owners and more.
“WordPress is great, not just for small business owners, developers, or marketers, but it’s great for students to get their foot in the door,” Driver said. “I don’t like to use the term networking, but it’s great to pick people’s brains.”
Driver and Retterer worked with Computer Information Systems Professor Mohamed Ali and his class. Ali’s class developed websites for local businesses as a part of their capstone.
WordCamp Dayton has a track for any level of WordPress user, from beginners to power user. Retterer, who works with the local Real Art Design Group, wanted to stress that anyone can become a WordPress user.
“Friday is the one on one where we start from knowing absolutely nothing about WordPress and we kind of move up,” Retterer said.
Attendees can learn how to use WordPress in many different ways and how to incorporate photography and social media.
“I’ve been to a lot of conferences where it’s a lot of ‘here’s my card, let’s do business.’ It’s very cheesy,” Driver said. “It’s not ‘I’m sitting in a classroom listening to a professor talk to me for 45 minutes about the same thing.’ It’s getting one – on – one.”
Driver said this conference was not like normal conferences, and that students get the opportunity to talk about strategy, the market of apps used with WordPress and learn from other users in a relaxed environment.
“You don’t need to be a developer or power user, you can go in knowing nothing and come out with a wealth of knowledge,” Driver said.
Matt Sells
Executive Editor