WordCamp Boston 2016 Recap

WordCampBos2016

Photo courtesy of Wayne Kurtzman

WordCamp Boston – 7 years and going strong! We are fortunate to have such a great community of WordPressers, such a great history of awesome WordCamps in Boston, Rhode Island and Maine, and dedicated organizers since 2010.

All the continued success would not be possible without the great team of organizers and volunteers for 2016. Our 2016 organizers: Tom Beach, Moira Ashleigh, Mel Choyce, Kelly Dwan, K.Adam White, John Eckman, Jim Reevior, Duane Mitchell, Steve Word all contributed, showed their strengths, time and devotion to #WCBOS.

The WordPress community in the North East is strong and growing. Our attendance this year was strong, we are getting closer to our 600+ that we had a few years ago. The amount of submissions for speaking was impressive, we just wish we had room for more. Our thanks go out to the speakers that donated their time and shared their expertise, and a big thanks to those that submitted and didn’t get chosen. Hope you will all apply next year!

Our goal this year was to have a wide variety of tracks and to make our camp Accessible as possible. Hopefully we touched everyone with our schedule: Higher Ed, WordPress 101, Users, Designers, Developers, and a Contributors Day [whew, just thinking about all of that makes me excited to see the videos of the sessions I missed!]

This was our first year with Communication Access Realtime Tranlation or CART services, a big thank you Norma and White Coat Captioning, and Stanley, Amanda and Stacey for the great technical transcripts – everyone enjoys seeing the accurate live captioning.

And a great big thanks to all our sponsors, because without your support, we could not do any of the things we did over the weekend – The location- at Boston University, CART Services, Happiness Bar support, Awesome Swag, After party, Contributors Day, lunch, snacks and of course…COFFEE!!

The IS&T APPLICATIONS department at Boston University supported WordCamp Boston this year helping us secure the location and helping us get together a higher ed track.

Looking forward to a bigger and better 2017 WordCamp Boston.

Our videos have all been submitted to WordPress.tv  some of them are up already – look for them all of them to be up shortly. Slides can be found here.

 

 

Getting to WordCamp Boston 2016

George Sherman Union
775 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02215

The venue is accessible via the MBTA Green Line “B” Branch at the “BU Central” stop. We encourage you to take public transportation if possible. For information about the T, including accessibility of stations, visit the MBTA website.

If you are driving, parking will be available but not free. Attendees can park in the Granby lot or the the Warren Towers lot at BU. This is about a 5 minute walk to the venue. There are Red Sox games both Sat and Sun, which does affect parking prices. The daily rate is $12, but goes up to $30 during Red Sox times.

Check our location page for more info.

Sessions for WordPress Users and Writers

Of course one of the best things about WordPress is to use your site! So if you are a user or writer we have scheduled a complete track of sessions all day Sunday. You can just park yourself in the Metcalf Small Ballroom for 5 great sessions designed for you.

Of course if there are other areas of WordPress you want to learn about, there are 5 other tracks you can go to over the weekend! You can see the full schedule here.

Sessions for Business and Entrepreneurs

If you are a business owner or entrepreneur we have scheduled a complete track of sessions all day Sunday. You can just park yourself in the Conference Auditorium for 6 great sessions designed for you.

Of course if there are other areas of WordPress you want to learn about, there are 5 other tracks you can go to over the weekend! You can see the full schedule here.

WordPress Beginner Sessions

If you are new to WordPress we have several sessions scheduled just for you. Start your Saturday in the East Balcony for 3 great beginner sessions. Then in the afternoon you can go to some great designer sessions to learn how to make your site look great.

Picture This: Working with Images in WordPressElizabeth B. Thomsen

The Frustration with Website SecurityKrystle Herbrandson

WordPress Upgrade Anxiety No More: 5 Steps to Having a No Surprise UpgradeDustin Meza

If you need more help or individual attention you can take advantage of the Happiness Bar. Of course if there are other areas of WordPress you want to learn about, there are 5 other tracks you can go to over the weekend! You can see the full schedule here.

Higher Education Track at WordCamp Boston 2016

This year we’ve added a strong offering of sessions for Higher Education using WordPress. Starting at 11:40 with a great Panel discussion on WP in Higher Education, you can just hang out the rest of the day in the East Balcony room for 5 great sessions.

Of course if there are other areas of WordPress you want to learn about, there are 5 other tracks you can go to over the weekend! You can see the full schedule here.