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Sponsor highlight: StickerGiant

Stickergiant-Logo-300px__55831014402e5Every sticker has a story. That’s the tagline for WordCamp Fayetteville sponsor StickerGiant and we love how they help each WordCamp and all their other clients tell a story. StickerGiant prints high-quality stickers and labels. They’ve been providing free stickers for WordCamps all over the world since 2008 because they too use and love WordPress!

They have the best customer service, quick turnaround times and free custom shapes using state of the art laser cutting.

StickerGiant was founded in 2001 by entrepreneur John Fischer and illustrator Mike Brooks. Since then StickerGiant has grown into the #1 sticker company on the internet. John and his team work every day to delight each and every customer.

StickerGiant is based in rural Boulder County, Colorado in a town called Hygiene (yes, they’ve heard the jokes)!

Thanks to StickerGiant for being an “Editor” level sponsor of WordCamp Fayetteville.

Sponsor highlight: BoldGrid

boldGrid-transparent-lockup-2aBoldGrid is a website builder powered by WordPress. It is a free set of WordPress plugins, themes, and other content that allows site creation and management similar to non-WordPress website builders.

By placing WordPress more in line with DIY site builder solutions on the market, their mission is not only to make WordPress more accessible and easy for beginners to utilize, but also automate and streamline typical WordPress tasks to provide a fast, creator-friendly platform that even web professionals will appreciate.

Experience WordPress as a website builder, including: free pre-built themes, drag and drop editing, integrated image banks, simplified photo editing, built-in staging, automated backups, and so much more.

BoldGrid will have you creating professional looking WordPress sites in minutes!

Thanks to BoldGrid for being an “Admin” level sponsor of WordCamp Fayetteville!

 

Sponsor Highlight: Pantheon

Pantheon_Tag_Color_clearThe website management platform for Drupal & WordPress, Pantheon provides web teams with the hosting, cloud-based developer tools, and scalable infrastructure needed to run awesome websites.

According to their website, Pantheon started in 2010 with a small team from their consulting businesses, and is now a team of 70 of the world’s experts in building, launching, and managing WordPress and Drupal websites.

Pantheon now powers more than 100,000 sites, serving billions of pageviews a month. They funded by the backers of Heroku, ExactTarget, and SendGrid.

Pantheon’s container-based infrastructure allows you to launch websites faster, without worrying about traffic spikes, security or performance. It’s free in development.

Thank you to Pantheon for being an “Editor” level sponsor of WordCamp Fayetteville!

Sponsor highlight: Jetpack

jetpack-horizontal-white-bgIf you’re a self-hosted WordPress user, gone are the days of needing a plugin to provide each function you need. With Jetpack, users gain access to all of the most powerful and popular WordPress.com features.

According to the Jetpack website, Jetpack allows you to:

  • Install more two dozen popular plugins with one click (and update them all the same way).
  • Engage millions of WordPress.com users, allowing them to interact with your site.
  • Boost your site’s performance by taking the load of these features off your servers.
  • Count on regular updates, enhancements, and troubleshooting from the same folks who build WordPress.com.

Jetpack is a free WordPress plugin that simplifies managing your sites. This single plugin enables Photon (a global CDN for images), uptime monitoring, brute force protection, traffic-boosting tools, single sign on, multiple-site management, and automatic or bulk plugin updates. Additionally, Jetpack includes several features that help you customize the look and feel of your site without installing other tools.

Thank you to Jetpack for being an “Admin” level sponsor of WordCamp Fayetteville!

Sponsor highlight: WooCommerce

woocommerce_logoWooCommerce is the fastest growing eCommerce software/platform, powering more than 30% of all eCommerce stores with more than 1 million active installations. Built to integrate seamlessly with WordPress, it is a fantastic eCommerce choice for existing WordPress users and connects you to the fast-growing WordPress ecosystem which now powers more than 25% of all websites on the internet.

What started in 2008 as three WordPress enthusiasts from different countries sharing ideas over email is now an international team of designers, developers, support ninjas and marketing people, catering for a passionate and constantly growing community of hundreds of thousands of users in 19 countries.

In July 2015, WooCommerce was acquired by Automattic, the creators of WordPress.com, which serves more than 15.8 billion pages a month and also the creators of other popular WordPress services including Akismet, Jetpack, and VaultPress.

With WooCommerce, WordPress users can start with all the basic tools that any small business would need to start selling online, including product setup, payments, shipping options, and sales reports and as your business grows choose from over 300 premium add-ons available including additional payment processors, shipping methods, inventory systems and marketing tools anyone to sell anything, anywhere from real products and digital downloads to subscriptions, content and even your time.

Thank you to WooCommerce for being an “Admin” level Sponsor of WordCamp Fayetteville.

5 Ways to Prepare for WordCamp

 

You don’t really have to prepare for WordCamp. You can just show up. Get to the Reynold’s Center on the U of A campus around 8:00 a.m. on Saturday, July 23rd. Friendly people will help you register, there’ll be coffee, and you can just prowl around and find a session that interests you. Meet new people, have fun at the parties, and get back to work refreshed on Monday.

If that’s not your style, here are some things you can do to get ready:

  1. Get business cards, stickers, or other small items with your name, logo and contact information. Put them where you’ll be able to find them quickly. When you meet people, you’ll want to be able to exchange info easily.
  2. Sharpen up your elevator pitch. There are actual elevators at the Reynold’s Center, so you’ll want to be ready when someone asks, “So, what do you do with WordPress?” Something simple like, “I build custom plugins” or “I’m converting my town’s 19th century newspapers into blog posts to create a lasting record of our history” will get the conversation off to a good start.
  3. Figure out how you’ll collect and store information. The slides from the talks will be posted, but you’ll need a way to record the things you particularly want to remember, as well as your thoughts. WordCamp can give you overwhelming amounts of information, so capturing it all for later use is a good plan. Maybe tweeting with hashtag #WCFay will be enough, or maybe you’ll be bringing your hand-tooled leather notebook and vintage fountain pen.
  4. Charge your phone, your laptop, your tablet, and anything else you’re bringing along. Bring a charger, too. With your electronic devices all ready and comfy, think about your own comfort, too. Bring a water bottle, a jacket if you tend to get cold in conference spaces, a snack if you have special needs or preferences.
  5. Get your mind ready. If you have specific questions you know you’ll want to ask, check out the speaker bios and see who might be able to answer that question. If you’re an introvert, set yourself a goal of talking to 10 new people and get psyched up to do it. Take a tour of your website and think about the skills that will take you to the next step. Knowing what you want to learn or develop can help you focus on that learning at WordCamp. Even if there are no specific sessions planned on that topic, there are bound to be people you can learn from.

Sponsor highlight: Moxy Ox

Moxy Ox is a “boutique printer of choice for retailers, agencies and designers who prefer to make an amazing first impression.”

Moxy OxLocated in Tontitown, Arkansas, Moxy Ox works with every size of client from Fortune 500 companies to tiny startups.

Moxy Ox is providing the printed materials for WordCamp Fayetteville 2016. Just wait until you see their beautiful work!

The company’s products include business cards, pocket journals, coasters, rack cards, pen cards, bookmarks, desk calendars, catalogs, door hangers, brochures, flyers, lobby posters, labels, table tents, notepads, menus, invitations, letterhead, envelopes, pitch books, carbonless forms, notebooks, hang tags, greeting cards, thank you cards, folders, postcards and magnets.

Visit their site at moxyox.com.

Moxy Ox is an Author level sponsor of WordCamp Fayetteville. Thank you, Moxy Ox!

Sponsor highlight: DreamHost 

Since 1997 DreamHost has helped individuals, small businesses, entrepreneurs and developers the world over bring their dreams to life on the Internet.

Dreamhost logoFrom domain registrations to traditional web hosting and highly optimized managed WordPress hosting, more than 400,000 customers trust DreamHost to be their online home.

Winner of PC Magazine’s Best Web Hosting Service for two consecutive years, DreamHost will get your website, blog or e-commerce shop online quickly.

DreamHost supports the WordPress project and community with dedicated resources and a passionate team. Packed with excellent value, DreamHost is a great place to launch a blog, website, or online application into the stratosphere!

Learn more at www.DreamHost.com.

DreamHost is an Author level sponsor of WordCamp Fayetteville. Thank you, DreamHost!

Sponsor highlight: WPML, the WordPress Multilingual Plugin

WPML, the WordPress Multilingual Plugin, turns WordPress websites multilingual. It works with caching, SEO (search engine optimization) and eCommerce plugins, and allows the building of complete multilingual sites. WPML powers simple blogs as well as corporate and enterprise sites.

wpml-web-e1433270709770WPML allows users to translate everything in the site, including content, menus, widgets and even theme and plugin texts. WPML powers over 500,000 commercial websites from all over the world.

More information about going multilingual can be found at WPML.org.

Interested in working for WPML? If you’re passionate about coding, fluent in database architecture and know WordPress API inside and out, we need you. See details at our Open Positions page.

WPML, the WordPress Multilingual Plugin, is an Author level sponsor of WordCamp Fayetteville. Thank you, WPML!

WordCamp Fayetteville is over. Check out the next edition!