I’ll be attending WordCamp Portsmouth UK this year and can’t wait!
I have presented at every WordCampUK conference since 2008 but this year I have something a-little different planned with a presentation titled ‘Design a custom theme in 1 hour’. Call me crazy (or very confident in the Wonderflux theme framework!) – this is certainly right up there with my most ambitious presentations!
Obviously I’ll be taking a few shortcuts – effectively condensing down what can be months of work into 1 hour and skipping the normal processes that are involved when I work through a client project like client consultation, market research, creative development, site-mapping ect. I’ll be cutting in at the point where this is basically all signed-off and I’m ready to build, concentrating on the core theme build, layout and widgetisation. It’s going to be an exciting opportunity to demonstrate just how flexible Wonderflux is as a theme building framework.
I am always wary of live code demonstrations, as pretty much every time I’ve done one (or watched one) things have not necessarily always gone to plan. Although preparations have begun, I’m hoping that it goes smoothly and the crowd doesn’t give me a too rough ride – they are usually a pretty friendly bunch, but I’ll have a load of backup code ready to copy and paste if required, just in-case;)
I’ll also be participating in the ‘Site Doctors’ session, which is an open questions and (hopefully!) answers session for people that want quick consultation on anything to do with WordPress, coding, creative – pretty-much anything online! This year I’ll be joined by Nick Garner – Expert SEO consultant and Paul Gibbs – a lead developer on BuddyPress. It’s always a vibrant session that generates a-lot of ongoing discussions over the course of the conference and something I have enjoyed participating in the past.
It’s upto a small group of volunteers to organise the conference each year, of which I am proud to be a part of (and have been since 2008). It’s interesting to see how we have evolved as a group and each year we get a bit better at organising the event! There is always things we can do better, but this year has seen a rise in attendees to our highest figures yet, along with a great mix of sponsors – without which we would not be able to run the conference and offer tickets so cheaply. I also coded and built the entire conference website for this year (on Wonderflux of course!), working with some great creative design from Jonathan Harris who is also on the committee and has worked tirelessly across a range of material this year.
There are currently just a few days left to get your tickets – priced at just £45 for the whole weekend it is the best value tech conference that I am aware of – and one of the biggest. With 2 full days of multi-track presentations and group sessions it’s a conference that any UK based WordPress developer can’t afford to miss – see you there!