Thank you, thank you, thank you to our generous sponsors!

We’ve been recouping, debriefing, and basking in the afterglow of a wonderfully successful event. I trust that the sponsor teams are well rested and following through with the leads they gathered. Every time I looked up everyone’s booth was swarming with attendees.

More than 1,500 people attended WCUS this year. Live streaming of the event was available to 2,200 more attendees. Through the generous support of 55 sponsors, WCUS 2018 was able to:

  • present 37 sessions delivered by insightful, knowledgeable, and forward-thinking speakers.
  • serve lunch two days to attendees with 17 different food preferences in an allergen-free environment.
  • host two social events, one to celebrate the large force of volunteers and the other to play at the stupendous Adventure Science Center.
  • provide t-shirts, coasters, and stickers to each attendee in addition to Wapuu pins for the volunteers and a token of gratitude for the speakers.
  • transform an empty ballroom into an energetic and vibrant space for sponsors, all the swag you could carry, snacks, and bottomless cups of coffee.

On behalf of the Organizer Team, we applaud your investment of manpower, travel, and direct financial contribution in support of the WordPress Project and WCUS 2018. We look forward to seeing you in St. Louis on November 1, 2019.

Let People On Twitter Know You’re at WordCamp US

Photo of a Twitter search for WCUS
A list of Twitter users that include #WCUS in their name
Here are a few more options found in the wild.

WordCamp US is right around the corner. Can you believe it? You’ve packed all of your essentials. You’ve dressed warmly for the chilly weather. And you’ve thought about what you want to do for Contributor Day. You’re ready!

All that’s left is letting everyone know that you’re here! A common trend when attending a conference or event is to update your Twitter display name to include a note about where you are. I changed mine to “David Needham @ #WCUS Nashville“, but feel free to do your own thing.

There are a few good reasons for this. First, when someone searches for “WCUS” on Twitter (like this screenshot to the right), they’ll find your name. This will also help your friends see where you are. If they’re also at WCUS, they can be on the lookout for you.

Not sure how to edit your display name?

Feel free to follow these step-by-step directions:

A screenshot of @davidneedham's Twitter profile
1. Visit your Twitter profile.
A screenshot of editing @davidneedham's Twitter profile
2. Click on the big “Edit profile” button to the right.
A screenshot of amending @davidneedham's display name on his Twitter profile
3. Amend your display name below your profile photo and click the “Save changes” button.

A screenshot of @davidneedham's Twitter profile with the new display name

And that’s it. We look forward to seeing you this week!

WordCamp US is About to Begin: FAQ and Important Tips

WordCamp US is about to begin: FAQ and Important Tips

WordCamp US kicks off in Nashville tomorrow and we want everyone to be ready. Here are some updates regarding our venue and ways to make your trip easier and more enjoyable.

Early Badge Pick-Up

You can pick up your badge early at the Westin Nashville. Look for the WP bat signal and turn left!

If you are in town early, and you would like to pick up your badge on Thursday, December 6th, we will have a table set up in the lobby of the Westin Nashville Hotel at 807 Clark Pl, from 2:30 pm – 5:30 pm. When you see the WordPress logo in the fountain, take a left and go behind the Guitar Wall. Continue reading “WordCamp US is About to Begin: FAQ and Important Tips”

Events Happening During Contributor Day

Anthony Burchell helping people at the Happiness Bar at WordCamp US 2015 #wcus Photo by Sheri Bigelow, licensed cc-by-nc.

In addition to joining our contributor day teams, there will be three fantastic events available to attendees during Contributor Day this year.

Accessibility Hack-a-Thon

A Hack-a-Thon will be led by Deque Systems and organized together with the WordPress Accessibility team.

Dylan Barrell and Stephen Mathieson from Deque Systems will be joining the accessibility team and WP core developers during contributor day. They will be working together to set up automated accessibility testing for WordPress.  The plan is to create a framework for testing and example test for themes (specific Twenty Nineteen) and also generate a list of tests to write.

If there is time, they will also set up a framework for Gutenberg and core to test accessibility.

For everyone who is interested in accessibility in WordPress, this is the chance to help. If you would like to join, drop by the accessibility table during Contributor Day.

Progressive Web Apps

Weston Ruter and Google have been working on a project aimed at integrating the Service Workers API (#36995) and Web App Manifests (#43328) into WordPress core, as well as expanding core support for HTTPS (#28521). Right now this effort is been advanced under the umbrella of a Progressive Web Apps  feature plugin. Now that WordPress 5.0 is going live, the team wants to start the formal feature-as-plugin process.

They will be at Contributor Day discussing the current status of the PWA feature plugin and a road map for the work ahead. If you are interested in learning more about this and to contribute to the project, please join them during Contributor Day.

For more information, check out their post on PWA at Contributor Day on Make WordPress Core.

Lighthouse WordPress Localized Advice Pack

Lighthouse is an open-source, automated tool for improving the quality of web pages. When you provide Lighthouse with a URL to evaluate (public or requiring authentication), it runs a series of audits against the page for performance, accessibility, progressive web app capabilities, and more. It will generate a report on its findings and how to improve the pages. 

We are considering the development of a project called WordPress-localized Advice Packs for Lighthouse, with the goal of providing WordPress-specific guidance using Lighthouse. With it, WordPress developers and site owners will get the results from Lighthouse audits tailored to the realities of the WordPress platform. 

This project is to be maintained by the WordPress community, working together with the Chrome and Lighthouse teams at Google. The WordPress community is best positioned to make sure that the Lighthouse WordPress Localized Advice Pack is accurate, up to date, and satisfies the needs of the community as a whole due to the communities standards already set into place.

They will be at Contributor Day at the support table. If you are interested in learning more about this Lighthouse Audits and wanting to contribute to the project, we would love you to join the conversation. 

For more information check out their post on WordPress – localized Lighthouse Audits

WP Rig at WordCamp US

WP Rig is a modern starter theme that focuses on accessibility, best practices, and performance. It puts progressive web technologies at the hands of theme developers, taking care of the heavy lifting so theme developers can focus on what’s most important – designing beautiful and user-friendly WordPress themes. At the same time, WP Rig is all about customizability: It works well out of the box, but you can dive in deeper and tweak its behavior if you prefer.

There will be a dedicated table within the Themes Team at Contributor Day. They plan to provide introductions to the starter theme’s features and workflow, and then discuss about its current status.  If you are interested in learning more about WP Rig and shaping it for the future of WordPress theme development, please join the WP Rig table Sunday. 

If you would like to take a look at the code before Sunday please see their Git repo

For more information check out their post WP Rig at WCUS Contributor Day


Are you planning to join us on Contributor Day? Let us know what team you’re planning to join.

Still need a ticket? There are several still available. Purchase a ticket today!!

 

Sponsor Spotlight: WP Engine

We would like to thank WP Engine for being a Platinum Sponsor. Our sponsors make it possible to continue bringing these educational, community-supporting, and entertaining conferences to cities and towns all over the world. The support of sponsors like WP Engine allow us to keep ticket prices low so the event is accessible to all. Sponsors like these give back to the free and open source WordPress project through their awesome support of the WordPress Community and WordCamps. Continue reading “Sponsor Spotlight: WP Engine”

Watching the Livestream

All the sessions at WordCamp US will be livestreamed, so if you won’t be in Nashville, you can still join the fun!

How to watch

First, get your livestream ticket.

Then, visit the Livestream Attendee Test page to make sure you’ll have a smooth and enjoyable experience when the stream starts.

Once you’re ready, the main livestream page links to each of the available streams. Enter the email you used to register for your ticket to gain access to the content.

Have a question?

If you need help, head to the livestream support page.

Captions

All of the streams will have captions embedded.