Marco Tabini: Keynote address. Marco Tabini comes from the PHP World as the owner and editor of PHP|Architect magazine. As an outsider to the world of WordPress but an insider to the world of PHP Core, he will challenge our assumptions and give us thoughts to chew on.

Jane Wells: Keynote interview. I will be interviewing Jane Wells, the director of user experience for the WordPress project on the future of WordPress, philosophies behind design and development, and other experiences in the WordPress world that are of interest to the greater community.

Geoff Livingston: Blogging and Non-profits: How does building movements differ from selling products online? Nonprofit blogging has its own unique challenges.

Marty Martin: WordPress and SEO: Setting your WordPress blog up for search engine optimization, including available plugins, search methodology all from a WordPress perspective.

Matthew Dybwad: Using WordPress for Activism/Action-based Campaigns: Running an online activism or action-based campaign using WordPress.

Lisa Sabin-Wilson: Introduction to BuddyPress: Using the popular social network plugin to create your own community.

Scott Kingsley Clark: WordPress as a CMS: Utilizing custom post types and taxonomies and popular plugins to turn WordPress into more than just blog software.

Andrew Nacin: WordPress’ under-utilized APIs: Exploring the world of APIs that plugins can utilize but often are forgotten or hidden.

V. Scott Ellis: Strategies for Taxonomies: Exploring the use of taxonomies and organization of content for strategic growth purposes.

Jacob Goldman: Customizing Administration: Reducing noise and clutter and enhancing branding and functionality in the WordPress Admin.

Brad Williams: Securing WordPress: Brad brings his experience hardening WordPress in his examination of best practices and recommendations.

To me, the Keynote is an important slot. It’s not your average speaking slot. The Keynote should come from outside the community. The speaker should have fresh perspective and different insight that challenges our thinking and provides insight into growing opportunities.

I met Marco through the PHP community. He first came on my radar back in 2002 when I downloaded a free PDF version of PHP|architect, the authoritative magazine for serious PHP developers. Through mutual connections and friends, and with a maturation of my own growth as a WordPress and PHP developer, I became more connected with Marco. He is the perfect person to come to the WordPress community, from the greater PHP community, and bring us fresh insight. To be clear, this is not a technical session. It is a Keynote that applies to everyone who will attend the event.

He is the CEO of PHP|architect (the PHP magazine), Blue Parabola (a professional services company) and organizer of TEK-X (A PHP conference).

Over a year later, we are back to announce our next event to be held in Baltimore at Johns Hopkins University. Mark your calendar for September 11, 2010 (it’s a Saturday) and plan to join us as we host over 200 attendees, two tracks and the inclusion of a true unconference, an unprecedented approach to WordCamp.

Welcome to the new WordCamp Mid-Atlantic event site powered by, of course, WordPress. You’ll notice quickly that this is not a traditional site design. We engaged Whitmoyer, a DC-based user experience studio, to provide the experience. What we have, as a result, is a single page site that “zooms” to where it needs to be.

The blog section itself, where many attendees will go to find information about the event, is powered by a set of interactive Previous/Next buttons below the post. And of course, the sponsor bar along the bottom highlights our wonderful sponsors. (Did you know you can be a sponsor too?

So that’s it. Let me know if there are any problems.

Brewer’s Art is located at 1106 N. Charles St and any cabbie in town should know where to find it.

Everyone who has registered will be getting one and the folks over at Mingle360 wanted to have you all check out the video about the MingleStick and how to get familiar before you show up.

Looking forward to seeing you all there !

There are a few constants to WordCamp though. Take some of the advice below to make your WordCamp experience the best it can be!

Business Cards

We have a fantastic sponsor, Mingle360 who will be working the event, and bringing us electronic business card exchange. As an alternate to the Mingle Stick, however, consider bringing business cards. You never know who you’re going to run into and more than once, I’ve met people at a WordCamp that became a client, friend or partner much later on. If you don’t have business cards, go to Vistaprint.com to get cards overnighted. For a quicker, cheaper (and less professional, yet still effective) solution, make a run to your closest Kinkos.

Also, humorous cards usually stick out in peoples minds. :)

Don’t Stick to the Sessions

The sessions are going to be extremely valuable, and we’ve got some great speakers coming in to speak in both the advanced and user tracks. However, if we don’t cover something you are looking for, start your own session! Grab three or four people, and huddle together for a talk about your topic of interest. Go grab a coffee or some grub and connect with people! This is your event. IF you don’t get what you want, vote with your feet!

Take Advantage of Lunch

University of Baltimore is ideally located in the Mount Royal section of Baltimore. Within walking distance are a number of places to get food or a drink.

• University of Baltimore Student Center (Coffee Bar on 1st Floor/Café on 2nd): 21 W. Mount Royal Ave
• Starbucks – Mount Royal Ave and N. Charles St.
• Jay’s Deli – 1309 N. Charles St.
• Viccino’s Bistro – 1315 N. Charles St
• Oriole Pizza and Subs – 1305 N. Charles St
• Chewy on Charles – 1212 N. Charles St
• Brewer’s Art – 1106 N. Charles St
• Owl Bar – 1 E. Chase St

View WordCamp Mid-Atlantic in a larger map

Help People. Spread the Karma

WordCamp is extremely good at facilitating connections. One of the prime ways you can help is to lend your expertise and assistance (free of charge) to those in the community needing some help. Whether it’s FTP, or making a quick mod to a theme, your assistance will return to you down the road. Karma always wins.

Following the lead of WordCamp San Francisco 2008, we will have a “genius bar” in the Atrium. If you need help with a WordPress problem, look for those willing to provide their expertise their. Likewise, if you want to help, make yourself available at the genius bar.

Get There Early

Doors open at 8am. We start promptly at 8:30 with opening remarks. Anil Dash takes the stage for the first keynote at 9am. You’ll still need to register, and you might want to grab coffee. Leave yourself time. If you’re driving in, traffic should be light and on street parking will be free since it is a Saturday (trust, yet verify – check the signs!).

Tweet, Share, Blog, Shoot, Tag

Many people cannot make this event but they will be following the action vicariously. If you’re on Twitter, tweet the event up! Post your Flickr photos. Blog. The only thing we ask is that you share with the community, so everyone can enjoy it. Please license your content Creative Commons, Attribution, Non-commercial or similar community-based licensing. Tag your content #wordcampmidatl so we can find it later!

All around, come and expect to enjoy yourself, learn something, and make new connections. On behalf of the organizers and sponsors, we thank you for making this event possible. You are the biggest sponsor of all because without you, there would be no WordCamp!

Amplify.com is a very cool new way to share what your reading and give a little commentary on it at the same time.  I am totally into this new service and have created several “Clogs” of my own.  Clogging is a way to clip what you are reading to a blog .. thus a clog.  Others can join in to contribute to your clog for really cool group clogs as well.

Eric who is CEO of the company also found Clipmarks.com, which is a large part of the Amplify Clog technology.  Why I was particularly happy to get Eric and his team on board was there “non standard” use of WordPress.  They use WordPress MU as part of their backend and I thought it would be good to have them involved to meet other WordPress folks and give a little insight as to other ways in which WordPress can be used to build a world class site.

Thanks again to Eric and all of our other awesome sponsors.

7:30am-8:30am

Registration

8:30am-9am

WordCamp Mid-Atlantic Opening -Aaron Brazell [Aud]

9am-10am

Keynote – Anil Dash [Aud]

10am-10:45am

• Blog Draft Day: Making it Into the Big Leagues – Aaron Brazell [Aud]
• Thesis Theme Developer Hacks – Brad Williams [BC-143]

11am-11:45am

• Being a Balanced Blogger – Jared Goralnick [Aud]
• WordPress SEO – Sri Nagubandi and John Shehata [BC-143]

12 noon-1:20pm

Lunch (on your own)

1:30pm-2:25pm

• Photoblogging – Marc Benton [Aud]
• WordPress Caching – Brandon Savage [BC-143]

2:30pm-3:25pm

• Blogging in Government – Understanding the Landscape – Andrea Baker [Aud]
• Twitter, Friendfeed and Social Tools – Extending the blog beyond the blog – Dan Zarrella [BC-143]

3:30pm-4:30pm

Keynote – Mark Jaquith [Aud]

4:30pm-5pm

Closing – Aaron Brazell

There will be an after party at a local establishment after the event. The venue will be announced before the closing keynote so you’ll have to stick around!

Ethan Griffin, who founded Groove in 2007 has been great in seeking us out to help us put on a great local tech event.  Groove Commerce is

…a full service eCommerce and Lead Generation design, development, and consulting firm. Our goal is to bridge the gap between marketing and technology and deliver a user-friendly, high converting product to each one of our clients. In order to ensure a successful partnership between us and our clients, we make close communication a top priority – our customer service is personal, plainspoken, and always available.

Groove’s full services include eCommerce website design, lead generation web site design, pay per click (PPC) management, search engine optimization (SEO), eCommerce site analysis, conversion consulting, email marketing, and hosting & maintenance.

We are so excited as we get closer to May 16th and are looking forward to seeing all of you there !