WordCamp Grand Rapids posts downtown

WordCamp Grand Rapids posts downtown

The WordPress platform powers 18 percent of the world’s websites, including blogs.

Hello, WordPress fans.

WordCamp, a global conference that focuses on everything WordPress, a web publishing platform, will hold its second annual Grand Rapids event this weekend, organized by WordCamp Grand Rapids.

WordCamp

The event will be this Saturday and Sunday at DeVos Center at Grand Valley State University’s Pew Campus, at 401 Fulton St. W, Grand Rapids.

Thirty-two WordPress speakers will be coming in from all over the country and locally to speak at the event, said event coordinator Brian Richards.

All of the sessions will be recorded and made available online http://WordPress.tv in the weeks following the event, he said.

The event will address four separate categories: content publishing, business development, web design and programming.

“No matter how you use WordPress, or how much you know about it, there is likely something at WCGR that will pique your interest or teach you more,” Richards said.

The first WordCamp took place in San Francisco about 8 years ago, and they event has since spread to other cities.

“I really enjoy connecting with all the different people who speak and attend and hearing about both how they use WordPress and how it has affected their lives,” Richards said.

“I've not been to, nor heard of, another conference that can bring together such key figureheads of a market — and the people on the furthest fringe of that market — in such a fun and casual way, for such a low cost to everyone,” added Richards.

WordCamp costs roughly $10,000 to host, with most of the cost for the venue, food and printing. Almost all of the event’s costs are covered by 19 sponsors.

WordPress

WordPress, a free, open-source platform, powers more than 18 percent of the websites, including blogs, on the planet, Richards said.

Richards said in the last decade, WordPress has grown tremendously, because it is a community-driven software project, not controlled by any single person or company.

Registration

Tickets for the event cost $20 and include access for both days, a T-shirt and other fun schwag.

More than 150 people plan to attend.