Final Announcements & Reminders

Happy Friday WordCampers!

We can't wait for this weekend to get underway! Welcome to everyone traveling into Phoenix or Arizona!

Important Times & Addresses

Saturday: Opens at 8:00 am, starts at 9:00 am, sessions end at 5:00 pm, M+M is 5 – 7:00pm, our party is 7:00 – 11:00pm.

Sunday: Opens at 9:30 am, starts at 10:00, event ends shortly before 5:00 pm.

Galvanize Phoenix: 515 E Grant St. Phoenix, 85004 (between 5th & 7th streets)
Phoenix Convention Center West: 111 N 3rd St, Room 301A Phoenix Arizona 85004
Phoenix Public Market Café: 14 E Pierce Street, 85004 (between Central Ave. & 1st Street)

Food Truck Lineup

Saturday

  • Hummus Express – Scratch-made savory gyros and healthy, creative and fresh veggie offerings.
  • Paradise Melts – Gourmet Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
  • Boca Taco Truck – Mexican food truck serving tacos, burritos, nachos and taquitos. Well-known for their baja-style seafood tacos.

Sunday

  • What's Fresh – Organic salads, sandwiches and wraps served with chips + drink.
  • The Great Pho King Food Truck – Asian Fusion Cuisine
  • Boomers Gourmet Cheesesteaks & Sandwiches – Fresh meats served on bread baked fresh daily.

Have questions? Looking to connect with others? Want great local food and bar recommendations? Join Slack!

You can post using #wcphx and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for updates this week and WordCamp weekend!

Remember the WordCamp Phoenix Code of Conduct applies at all venues and events. Let’s have a great camp! 

The WordCamp Phoenix Team

We Know It’s Halloween Weekend: Costumes Welcome & Encouraged In The Evening

Don't think it's escaped us that we're dangerously/delightfully close to Halloween with this year's camp 🎃!

If you have a great costume we want to see it! It's completely optional to dress up — we expect some folks won't, but you won't be alone if you do and we hope you get in the spirit 😎

That said, we do have two sensible rules related to costumes:

  1. If you reckon the average school principal would be upset, please leave it at home. This is a diverse, multigenerational event.
  2. We respectfully ask swords, daggers, guns and objects resembling weapons be left at home or large, oversized costumes due to the layout of our party venue. 

Please reach out if you have any questions!

An Brief #dtphx Neighborhood Food & Drink Guide

Phoenix is quickly becoming a foodie’s city, with inviting and delighting dining experiences popping up all over Downtown and Greater Phoenix!

We thought we’d point out some great places in the neighborhood near hotels and venues so you can see Phoenix like a local. If you’re looking for specific recommendations try posting in Slack and feel free to reach out!

Great Local Coffee & Breakfast

Awesome Local Bars + Restaurants

For more, check out Downtown Phoenix, Inc.’s Food + Drink Guide.

WordCamp Phoenix Updates: Eventbrite Registration, Schedule and Reminders

Here’s a few updates and tips to get the most out of WordCamp Weekend!

Method + Madness Eventbrite Registration Code

Sorry for the confusion! Turns out there’s a registration code you’ll need to register on Eventbrite to get into AIGA’s Method + Madness reception free with your badge on Saturday (the first of two evening events — our party is after).

check email for code
RSVP for M+M Saturday Reception

Planning for Phoenix Weather

We always add a disclaimer that even in late October Phoenix is hot with temperatures in the mid-to-high 80s without cloud cover. Please remember to drink plenty of water, particularly if you are walking around Downtown.

Parking and Transit, Downtown Hotels

Roughly 100 parking spaces will be available at Galvanize on a first-come, first-serve basis. In the streets surrounding there are garages, surface lots and street parking. We also highly recommend Valley METRO’s free Park-and-Ride stations and GRID bikes (there’s a station across from Galvanize).

For those staying in Downtown Phoenix, on a nice day Galvanize is a 15-20 minute walk from most hotels so we recommend finding walking or ride share buddies.

Schedule

The schedule is available online, on large printed banners around Galvanize and sheets at Registration.

Registration starts at 8 a.m. Saturday morning (no need to print anything) with the first session starting at 9 a.m. and wrapping at 5 p.m. The first party (Method + Madness Reception) with AIGA Arizona runs from 5:00-7:00 p.m. and the WordCamp Phoenix party runs 7:00-11:00 p.m.

Note on Sunday Registration begins at 9:30 a.m. with the first session at 10:00 a.m. and wrapping up shortly before 5:00 p.m.

Get In Touch / Join the Slack Community

Have questions? Looking to connect with others? Want great local food and bar recommendations? Join Slack!

Slack is where all our speakers, volunteers, organizers and many attendees can be found! Connect with the community, ask questions, get announcements during the event and more.

You can post using #wcphx and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for updates this week and WordCamp weekend!

This week or during the event please reach out on our contact form, DM our social media ccounts or find one of our organizers if you have concerns or other questions.

 

Meet Our Sponsors: Bluehost

Some years our WordCamp has a theme, but this year is all about celebrating Phoenix — our thriving tech community and our entrepreneurial, collaborative spirit! Our sponsors are financial partners who make our nonprofit event affordable and feasible, but they’re also our partners in community education and in many cases are members of our local community.

Bluehost is a longtime WordPress.org Preferred Host and recently relocated their headquarters to Tempe, Ariz. Powering over two million websites worldwide, their world-class hosting comes with powerful features and knowledgeable 24/7 support. Bluehost’s new Cloud Sites product offers cutting-edge, fast, simple and secure cloud hosting that is truly effortless and intuitive.

If you’ve been to previous WordCamp Phoenix’s or other WordCamp’s, you know Bluehost’s community outreach team are both members of a deeply-knowledgeable WordPress support team and an eager band of retro gamers who will make sure you’re getting the most from your Bluehost account while challenging you to a round of Rainbow Road or Mele. Bluehost has also started hosting the Arizona WordPress Group’s largest monthly meetup in Tempe.

Hosting a website should always be fun. It should be about more business, more viewers, more community — Bluehost’s long commitment to fostering open source software like WordPress and the community that builds it means they can provide unparalleled, informed support and great resources for their customers to focus on the fun.

We’re grateful for Bluehost’s longtime support of WordCamp Phoenix, but this year in particular we’d like to say welcome them to town and thank them for all the awesome ways they’re supporting WordPress in Phoenix!

Register for AIGA Arizona Method + Maddness After Party

If you haven’t heard, we’ve teamed up with our friends at AIGA Arizona to bring creative professionals together after our first day of sessions!

Hang onto your event badge after Saturday’s closing remarks and head over to the Phoenix Convention Center a few blocks north of Galvanize at 111 N 3rd Street for the M+M 2017 Saturday Reception hosted by AIGA Arizona from 5:00-7:00 PM.  Admission is free for WordCamp Phoenix attendees, however, you must RSVP on their Eventbrite using the code in your email.

RSVP for M+M Saturday Reception

At 7:00, the WordCamp Phoenix after party starts up at Phoenix Public Market Café at 14 E Pierce Street! Come  and enjoy locally sourced, scratch-made appetizers and drinks. A WordCamp Phoenix or M+M badge will be needed to get into the Café — no RSVP needed.

Meet Our Sponsors: BoldGrid

Some years our WordCamp has a theme, but this year is all about celebrating Phoenix — our thriving tech community and our entrepreneurial, collaborative spirit! Our sponsors are financial partners who make our nonprofit event affordable and feasible, but they’re also our partners in education and keeping our community strong.

BoldGrid is an intuitive WordPress-powered drag-and-drop site builder that empowers beginners and professionals to produce stunning websites. BoldGrid offers a powerful, free GPL-plugin without support, as well as premium support on their official hosts.

Starting out with BoldGrid is easy with their powerful customization tools that help generate, fast, responsive and SEO-optimized websites. Use tools like their page builder, staging plugin, image gallery and backup plugin to build, test and display your content with confidence.

Not only can you have confidence in your website today, but for the months and years to come thanks to premium, high-touch support. BoldGrid partners with WordPress hosts to offer premium support, sponsors community WordCamps throughout the global community and helps improve WordPress Core. If your business or project takes off and needs to grow, BoldGrid will help refer customers to trusted agency partners that know BoldGrid.

We’re incredibly grateful for BoldGrid’s continued support in Phoenix and the greater community! Thanks for helping keep our community strong.

Learn more about BoldGrid.

Meet Our Sponsors: WooCommerce

Some years our WordCamp has a theme, but this year is all about celebrating Phoenix — our thriving tech community and our entrepreneurial, collaborative spirit! Our sponsors are financial partners who make our nonprofit event affordable and feasible, but they’re also our partners in education and keeping our community strong.

WooCommerce is the most popular e-commerce platform on the web. With nearly 17 million downloads, it powers over 37 percent of all online stores using open-source software to empower business owners to own their data and customize their online storefront.

Founded in 2008, WooCommerce’s team of WooNinjas are spread across 19 countries, providing top-notch support, building an extensive suite of plugins to integrate with popular shipping, payment and business services. The highly active project has great test coverage, documentation and tools for developers to dive into painless, secure and robust payments.

We’re so thankful WooCommerce is supporting WordCamp Phoenix again this year!

VIDEO: Welcome to WooCommerce

Learn more about WooCommerce.

Meet Our Sponsors: eCreations

Some years our WordCamp has a theme, but this year is all about celebrating Phoenix — our thriving tech community and our entrepreneurial, collaborative spirit! Our sponsors are financial partners who make our nonprofit event affordable and feasible, but they’re also our partners in community education and in many cases are members of our local community.

With over 20 years as a full-service marketing and web development agency with offices in Phoenix and Flagstaff, eCreations is a premiere Arizona WordPress agency specializing in WooCommerce solutions. Their full-service team works deeply with clients on SEO, email marketing, as well as custom web applications and web hosting. Prior eCreations clients include large Arizona publishers, popular Phoenix-area restaurants, renowned technology companies and Arizona businesses and government clients.

A certified Google Partner and the only WooCommerce-certified experts in Arizona, eCreations has provided clients in every industry with world-class solutions from their talented team here in Arizona. Beyond their professional work, they’ve been great neighbors to the Arizona community, sponsoring City of Phoenix events, working with local nonprofits and underprivileged populations.

We’re thrilled to welcome eCreations to WordCamp Phoenix family as sponsors of this year’s event.

Learn more about eCreations.

Two Afterparties: Joining Forces with Phoenix Design Week!

We’re excited to announce we’re partnering with AIGA’s Phoenix Design Week for a night of digital creators and entrepreneurs to meet in Downtown Phoenix!

While WordCamp Phoenix takes over Galvanize for the weekend, AIGA has great design sessions going on just a few blocks north at the Phoenix Convention Center. We’re both throwing parties afterwards… so we decided to invite each other!

How It Works

TL;DR: Both event badges will get you into both parties!

As WordCamp Phoenix wraps up Saturday, all attendees can head towards the Phoenix Convention Center and show their badge to get into the AIGA party, which runs 5:30 pm to 7:00. The Phoenix Design Week party wraps up just as the WordCamp Phoenix party kicks off!

A few blocks north at Phoenix Public Market our party kicks off at 7:00-11:00 PM, so invite your new AIGA friends and come enjoy an included alcoholic beverage and appetizers at Phoenix Public Market.

Bonus: It’s Halloween Weekend! Come dressed up in your favorite costume! We’re going to have a blast!