Well, WordCamp North Canton has come and gone. It was a beautiful sunny day to go camping. Attendees arrived early and even thought we had a minor hiccup with the doors being locked, the camp counselors worked like a well-oiled machine to make things happen, get everyone registered and on their way to a full day or WordPress.

The rest of the day went off without a hitch. Except for that small power outage we had during the afternoon sessions and the sound in the main hall being a little off and one of the video cameras dying but hey… what’s a little drama at camp right. “This one time, at WordCamp.”

WordCamp North Canton was also declared a Zero Waste Event. With a 98% diversion rate, we made WordCamp history which is incredibly cool. We challenge all WordCamps to keep the environment in mind when planning their events.

Thank you to all that attended, all the generous sponsors but most importantly the camp counselors. Each and every one of them went above and beyond expectations. No one will be able to pull together a better crew than we had at WordCamp North Canton.

Okay Campers. With WordCamp North Canton only two short days away… here’s what you can look forward to on Saturday! If you haven’t gotten a ticket, you still have time. But not that much time, so don’t wait.

Okay… WordCamp North Canton will have not one, but two cool guys from Automattic co-presenting a session on JetPack. You know JetPack right? It’s that bundle of goodness that comes with your self-hosted WordPress site. You’ll definitely want to sit in on this session… Justin Shreve and Beau Lebens will with walking and talking you through all things JetPack. it’s worth the price of admission alone!

Hey WordCampers! Here is the official speaker lineup and sessions.

Registration 7:30 – 8
Opening Remarks 8-830

SESSIONS 8:30-9:30
Angie Bergmann – So you’ve just started with WordPress
If you just started with WordPress, Angie will walk you through some basic tips and terminology of WordPress so you can navigate it like a pro.

Andreas Johansson –  WordPress in Education
Leveraging the power of WordPress for the educator. How to easily manage your blended classroom, post resources, videos, etc in an easy to edit, easy to access website.

Phi Kim – Write a book in 7 weeks using WordPress
My talk will highlight the 7 steps (and 7 weeks) I took to completing my first book, Big Business Problems: Small Business Solutions. The journey to completing the book was chronicled on my wordpress site. WordPress provided the platform and writing tools that forced me to write at least 15 minutes everyday.

All it takes is one idea to start a great book.

SESSIONS 9:30-10:30
Nathan Driver – SEO: From Creation to Execution
The topic would cover on how to optimize a WP site from using specific plugins to how to integrate analytics and webmaster tools.

Laura Eagin – 13 WordPress Mistakes I Made
Going from newbie to intermediate WordPress user has it’s share of hurdles. You don’t know the best practices and you learn a lot the hard way. From simple things such as remembering to put Alt tags on your images, to more complex things like PHP errors. This talk will walk you through some big no-nos when it comes to editing and launching your WordPress self-hosted site. Learn from my mistakes, it’ll save you a few headaches.

Brian Layman – Say that again in plain English
Sometimes even though you are pretty certain what you are hearing is English, once they start talking their special website language, web geeks can be pretty hard to understand. This session will cover the basic terms that you need to know when you want to give them instructions and get them to do what you need to have done on your site.

SESSIONS 10:30-11:30
Angela Bergmann – There’s a Plugin for That
Presentation highlighting some of the various plugins users can use to expand the power of their WordPress blog. Apple says “there’s an app for that”, well with WordPress, there’s a plugin for that!” . Plugins highlighted:

-Social Media integration
-Admin tools
-SEO
-Contact Forms
-Expansion (shops, forums, etc)

Al Davis – 10 things to do after the install
I am going to walk you through 10 things you should do to improve your WordPress install while it’s still got that new website smell going for it. There will be some security tips to keep you safe, as well as some SEO and productivity suggestions to help you get the most bang for your buck.

Dustin H – Podcasting and WordPress
WordPress & Podcasting: How to easily add a podcast to your website
Podcasting can easily be incorporated into a WordPress website or blog and it has all of the benefits of creating blog posts. With the power of an RSS feed, a podcast feed can automatically be picked up by large curators like iTunes and Stitcher radio.

LUNCH 11:30-12:30

SESSIONS 12:30-1:30
Charlie Craine – Advanced SEO
More details to come!

Joe Rozsa – You want to stick that where?
In this particular case, size does matter. We’ll go through steps to properly size images and graphics for your WordPress website using Photoshop and Google +s’ image editing feature to optimize upload and download speeds.

Mike Fraser – So you want to be social, media that is.
We will be covering how social media is becoming integrated into search engines, along with engagement strategies using Google+, Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, Pinterest. Lastly we will discuss Return on Investment vs. Return on Relationship.

SESSIONS 1:30-2:30
Joe Rozsa – Everyone is allowed in the kitchen. But not everyone is allowed in the liquor cabinet.
Multi User/Multi Admins and why it’s important to grant the proper access. So, you’ve got a WordPress site that multiple people will be admins for. This session will cover why it’s important to set up varying degrees of access to the back-end of a WordPress site.

Brian Layman – Security and WordPress
More details to come!

SESSIONS 2:30 -3:30
Justin Shreve and Beau Lebens from Automattic – JetPack and what it’s all about.
A quick overview of the features of JetPack that are now included with an installtion of WordPress from the Code Wranglers themselves from Automattic. You won’t want to miss this session.

CLOSING REMARKS 3:30-4:30

If you use WordPress to build things for other people, we want to make
your life easier. No matter whether you freelance on a solo basis,
lead a small web shop, make plugins in a dark closet, or crack the
whip at a large design firm, our aim is to become your go-to source of
information and resources to help you expand your WordPress skills and
know-how. To make you better at what you do. To make it easier to make
your living and look great doing it.

You’re part of a tribe of WordPress designers and developers over
10,000 strong, spanning the entire globe. CodePoet.com aims to bring
the working knowledge and real world strategies of those people into
one place, for you tap into.

Hey WordCampers… here’s a brief run down of some of the topics we’ll be covering at WordCamp North Canton. We’ll be announcing the speakers very soon.
1. WordPress in Education
2. Strategic Content Creation
3. There’s a Plugin for that
4. 13 WordPress Mistakes I’ve made
5. WordPress and Podcasts
6. 10 thing to do after the install
7. Video Blogging
8. SEO: From Creation to Execution
9. Setting up Multiple Admins on a WP site and why it’s important
10. Properly sizing images and graphics for your WP site using Photoshop and Google + Image Editor
11. Writing your first book in 7 weeks using WordPress
12.SEO (beginner and/or advanced)
13. Say it again in plain english (basic web-geek speak broken down in plain english)
14. JetPack (we’ll have an Automattic employee with us at WordCamp

That’s not all, we’ll be announcing more as the date gets closer. Don’t forget that there will also be a Happiness Bar to help you through WordPress issues you may be having with your site. Tickets are on sale now… don’t wait to get yours.

Tickets for WordCamp North Canton are now on sale! We’re having a little issue asking for your T-shirt size though. Go ahead and register and we’ll circle back around with you once we have that figured out. There are only 200 tickets available so don’t wait long!

If you’re going to be an overnight guest, we’ve set aside a block of rooms at the Hampton Inn and Suites just 10 minutes from the venue.

Tickets for WordCamp North Canton will go on sale on April 1. Don’t delay getting yours… they won’t be around long and we don’t want you to miss out… it’s a long time until WordCamp North Canton 2014. They’re only available online here… so make sure you check back next Monday. If you’re coming from out of town, or are just looking to spend the night after WCNC, we’ll have a link available for you to book a room as well.

Hello Sponsors. We’re looking for you! If you, your company or organization would like to sponsor WordCamp North Canton… we’d love to have you. We’re sure we have a sponsorship level that will fit. Check it out… and come camping with us!

It’s official. Four Kids Coffee is the OFFICIAL supplier of breakfast deliciousness to WordCamp North Canton.