Category Archives: News

Why WordCamp Scranton is Important

News

Friend and Sponsor Colin Devroe wrote a great post today about Why WordCamp Scranton is Important for our area.

Careers can be started and bolstered at WordCamps. I’ve heard many stories of people attending WordCamps for the first time and that being the starting point of them changing careers and becoming WordPress developers or designers. A WordPress developer or designer is capable of earning $80,000 or more per year and are in high demand. There are not that many jobs the Scranton area that can promise that.

I will say that I deeply appreciate WNEP’s coverage, understand why they do things the way they do (it was explicitly explained to me), and couldn’t be happier with the way it turned out. We are nearly sold out thanks to them!

Colin makes some incredible points about the technology scene in our area and everyone involved is hoping this will help bring that community closer together! We are really looking forward to a great event.

WordCamp Scranton is this Weekend (with Contributor Day)!

News, Sessions, ,

We can’t believe WordCamp Scranton is just a few days away, but it is! This week we will be thanking all of our sponsors, but first we wanted to get some things settled.

First, did you get your tickets yet? We still have a bunch left, but they are going fast!

Second, if you haven’t heard, Matt Mullenweg will be there answering your questions! Thanks Matt!

The schedule is now posted. Registration starts at 8am with our keynote speaker, Zach LeBar, going on at 8:45am. This is bound to be a great talk, so don’t miss it! Matt will be closing out the day.

The after party is at Backyard Alehouse at 7pm. There will be some food and a cash bar. It’s going to be a blast!

Finally, some new news! We are going to have a Contributor Day at Coalwork on Sunday July 19th! It will start at 9:30am and go as long as everyone can stay! There will be coffee, wifi, and maybe some food. If you’ve been working on something or what to finally contribute to WordPress Core, that’s the day to do it!

Matt Mullenweg will Host a Town Hall Q&A at WordCamp Scranton!

News, speakers, , ,

We have a big announcement today: Matt Mullenweg will be closing out WordCamp Scranton with a Town Hall Q&A!

Matt is the founding developer of WordPress and the CEO of Automattic. He hosts regular Town Hall-style meetings within the company, where employees have the opportunity to ask him anything. To get an idea of the format and how his session will work, you can see the Q&A he did for WordCamp Europe.

We could not be more excited and humbled that Matt would take time out of his busy schedule to come out and christen the first WordCamp Scranton by answering any questions the NEPA WordPress community might have. We are truly looking forward to a fantastic event!

After Party at Backyard Ale House

News, ,

After a long day of WordPress learning, you’re going to want to unwind little – or maybe continue the conversation. Well, you’ll have a chance to do both at the WordCamp Scranton after party!

We are happy to announce that the after party will be held at Backyard Ale House. Located on Scranton’s courthouse square, Backyard boasts great food, an excellent selection of beer, and a patio! Could you ask for more?

Light fare will be provided, as well as a cash bar.

BackyardAleHouse

Tell People You’re Going to WordCamp Scranton!

News,

We’ve created a few badges for you to let people know where you’ll be on July 18th!

wc-volunteer-badge

<a href="https://2015.scranton.wordcamp.org/"><img src="https://2015.scranton.wordcamp.org/files/2015/06/wc-volunteer-badge.jpg" alt="wc-volunteer-badge" width="300" height="254" /></a>

wc-sponsor-badge

<a href="https://2015.scranton.wordcamp.org/"><img src="https://2015.scranton.wordcamp.org/files/2015/06/wc-sponsor-badge.jpg" alt="wc-sponsor-badge" width="300" height="254" /></a>

wc-speaker-badge

<a href="https://2015.scranton.wordcamp.org/"><img src="https://2015.scranton.wordcamp.org/files/2015/06/wc-speaker-badge.jpg" alt="wc-speaker-badge" width="300" height="254" /></a>

wc-attendee-badge

<a href="https://2015.scranton.wordcamp.org/"><img src="https://2015.scranton.wordcamp.org/files/2015/06/wc-attendee-badge.jpg" alt="wc-attendee-badge" width="300" height="254" /></a>

What the Fork Truck will Provide Lunch at WordCamp Scranton

News,

WordCamps are a jam-packed day of learnin’, networkin’, talkin’, and WordPressin’. Because of that, we want to make sure all of the attendees are well-fed so they have all the energy they need! Since our venue would require folks to get in a car and drive to get lunch, we decided to bring lunch to them.

10629313_811786875547257_8516975118259813472_o

We are happy to announce that the What the Fork Truck will be providing lunch to our attendees from 11:30am – 1:30pm!

Not only do they have a wide range of delicious food to choose from (I recommend the pork tacos), but they also ranked #2 in Kelly and Michael’s Truckin’ Amazing Cook Off!

You can check them out on their website…we can’t wait to have them at the event!

Get to Know Your Organizers: Joe Casabona

News, The More You Know, , ,

2015-06-19 15.44.36-1

1) What do you do for a living?

I’m a Front End Developer at Crowd Favorite, where we do enterprise-level development specializing in WordPress. I generally do things like theme and plugin development using HTML, Sass/CSS, Javascript, and PHP. I work with our Backend Developers to make super cool things!

2) How did you get into WordPress?

My freshman year of college (2003-04), my friend Steve Mekosh introduced me to this new blogging platform called WordPress. I checked it out and really liked. From there I started to play around with it, implementing it on my own blog first then doing some pilot programs with freelance clients I had. Around 2006-2007 I really started to push WordPress as a service since it was maturing, transforming from a blogging platform to a CMS. Now, it’s my go-to solution 🙂

3) What’s a great experience you had at a WordCamp?

Perhaps my most memorable experience is WordCamp Chicago 2014. Not only was there a great crowd at my talk and the conference in general, but Saturday I got to hang out with some really really great people, many of whom I now get to work with on a daily basis, including Chris and Karim! It was an incredibly fun night and the whole conference was a blast.

4) What are your non-WordPress, non-Computer related hobbies?

When I’m not in front of a computer, I like to spend time with my incredible fiancee Erin (pictured), play the drums, travel a bit, and I smoke cigars from time to time. I’m also a very big Star Wars and Disney fan; since my brother works at Disney World, I take a lot of opportunities to visit him 😉

5) If you could be any fictional character, who would you be and why?

Luckily the last question informs this one. I think I would be Obi-Wan Kenobi. He’s wise, a great fighter, strong with the Force. Oh and he’s a Jedi! What more could you want?

Sessions Announced!

News, Sessions

Now that our lineup is sured up (did you see Rami Abraham is also speaking now?), it’s time to announce the sessions and schedule! While we are finalizing the schedule now (announcing later this week), we have posted the sessions here. We have a great line up – everything from getting started to doing some crazy thing! Here’s a short list:

  • Coming Back to WordPress (Keynote!)
  • New Users: Make WordPress Your Friend!
  • WordPress Upgrades: Ready, Set, Go!
  • Birthing a Child Theme
  • Developing locally with ServerPress
  • WP3D: Using WordPress to power 3D environments

…and a bunch more! We couldn’t be more excited for the day. You can see and read about all of the sessions here.

So…did you get your ticket yet 🙂

Announcing the Second Half of our Speakers!

News, ,

On Monday we announced the first half our of speaker lineup. Here’s the second half, including our keynote speaker!

…and our Keynote Speaker, Zach LeBar (@zachlebar), who will talk about how he briefly left WordPress, but is back! We know it will make for a great way to start off our day.

You can read about all of our speakers on the Speaker page. Sessions and Schedule are coming soon- get your tickets today!