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Author: Saurabh
Call for Speakers Extended till the 19th of July
We’ve had a tremendous response to the call for speakers. However, we still have sessions left and we’re looking for certain kinds of speakers and specific types of sessions. We’ve also been requested by potential speakers to extend the deadline so they can prepare better proposals.
So, instead of a day or two (as we were requested to), we are extending the deadline by 10 days. The last date is now July 19. So, go ahead and apply, fast!
And no, under no circumstance will we extend it beyond that!
MilesWeb is our Community Web Hosting Friend
Please welcome our Community Web Hosting Friend MilesWeb who’s supporting WordCamp Pune and its activities in more than awesome ways. Find out what those ways are at the WordCamp.
Meet Sagar Jadhav, core Contributor, Photoshop guy and our next Speaker
He’s been building, websites, themes and theme-frameworks for six years now and is one of the best front-end developers around.
Looking at his body of work, it’d be hard to believe that Sagar started off as a Photoshop expert and today is a proud core contributor to WordPress 4.2. All because WordPress charmed him and he fell for it!
He loves building modern, user friendly web sites and applications is and hence actively seeks out new technologies that help him stay up to date.
Arun Prabhudesai is who you want to be!
An entrepreneur, blogger and internet addict, after a 12 year stint in the IT Industry across three continents, Arun came back to India to start on his own. His two startups have had mixed success.
He is the founder of Armoks Interactive Labs and the founder-editor at Trak.in. Trak.in is one of the most popular virtual destination for Indian technology news and views. He and a team of passionate writers present insightful and analytical stories on technology, telecom and the startup world.
Find out why WordCamp Pune wants you for Sessions
We have received great response to our call for speakers. However, there are some topics/ domains for which we’re specifically looking for experts. So, if you haven’t applied because you weren’t sure what you’d do, we’ve made it easy for you. Read on and see if you fit the bill. If you do, do hurry up. There are just six days left for closing applications.
Designers
We’d love to have you enlighten us about the basic principles of design. So that we may discern good design from bad and never make ghastly websites like the one above. (Ling’s Cars, in case you were wondering!)
There are so many themes and so many designs floating around. There is ample scope of making a mistake and choosing an inappropriate theme. You know how expensive that mistake could turn out to be. We probably don’t. Just head to the application form to evolve our design sensibilities.
Expert Reviewers/ Critics
There’s one thing about WordPress (and with the open source world) that some people love while others hate. There are too many options in the WordPress ecosystem. For every feature, there are at least 2-3 plugins if you’re lucky or dozens if you’re not. For every business there are hundreds of potential themes. And there are a lot of hosting options, OSes, server software, domain name providers and so on.
You’d be the person who can tell us what’s good and what’s not and why. Maybe you’d tackle the essential and/ or common features or maybe you’d like to take up anything that your audience throws at you. Maybe you just want to select one important and popular product and evaluate it for us. We leave that up to you and we really want you to apply to speak.
Comperes/ Hosts/ Emcees/ Moderators
You love the stage, you enthrall the crowd and you have the knowledge as well as the tact for moderating discussions and conversations. They can get confusing and haywire faster than you’d spell haywire. Open source is chaotic and we need co-ordinators to bring in some order.
You are either a great blogger or and expert developer. You probably aren’t much interested in the amount of good vibes, karma and connections that come with this role. Quickly fill up our orderly form.
Debate Enthusiasts
If you love talking about controversial or ambivalent issues and don’t mind debating someone with opposite views, you’d be at home in WordCamp Pune. For a democratic software, difference of opinion is important. Contact us to help the democracy.
Helpful People
In spite of the best efforts of the community, some things are still difficult/ obscure/ slightly complex/ exasperating. At least once in your relationship with WordPress, you’ve needed help and you’ve received help!
As someone with some experience and knowledge about WordPress, it would be great if you could give back to the community by helping your fellow WordPress lovers. The happier people are with WordPress, the more they’d use it. The more people use WordPress, the better it is for business! How about getting in touch to engineer some happiness?
Did we tell you that there are just six days left to apply?
Photo credits:
- THE EMPIRE WANTS YOU 2! by legOfenris is licensed under NC BY ND 2.0.
- The photo for comperes is from WordCamp Mumbai’s Facebook page, and out of context for representational purpose only. In reality it shows the organisers at the closing ceremony conducted by Alexander Gounder (the Compere).
WordCamp Pune is different
No more sitting in the same room the whole day, listening to all the speakers, whether or not they are relevant for you. WordCamp Pune 2015 is going to be way more interactive than any conference can be. Oh! We are also going to have a lot of fun. What’s so different about WordCamp Pune?
Parallel Tracks
Three parallel tracks means three things to choose from at any given point. Don’t code and don’t care about it. Why go through a talk on plugin development? Maybe a workshop on writing well may interest you better! Ditto for programmers. You don’t have to sit through talks about what plugins to install.
Local Languages
We have sessions lined up in Marathi and Hindi, as well. Being pragmatic, these will be mixed with each other and English. It’s always more fun to participate in something in our everyday language!
Panel Discussions
What is better than one expert giving you their opinion? Multiple experts discussing the best ways possible and involving you in the discussions. While we we’ll announce the topic (very useful one, we promise) and the panelists (very interesting ones, we promise) very soon, a panel discussion is always better than a speech, we think.
Debates
Who doesn’t love a lively debate? Just throw in a controversy and watch the fun! On a serious note, not everything is black and white. Things are confusing at times. It is always great to have two opposite points of view slug it out and help clarify some important questions. All of us get to participate in a debate, don’t we?
Lightning Talks
Why listen to someone for hours if they can be done in 5 minutes? Super short, super crisp, lighting talks will allow us to listen to four talks in the time reserved for one! (By the way, we’re really short on good entries, maybe you or your friend would want to present their blog or their product.)
The WP Lounge
What if you don’t want to attend any of the sessions? You go to the WP Lounge where WordPress lovers and experts will chill out and discuss … what else, WordPress. Very useful if you have questions or need help with WordPress or can help someone else with it. The second best place to catch hold of speakers after their talk (Session Overflow is the first!).
Workshops
I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.
– Confucius
True that! Learn by actually doing something rather than listening to people talk about things or looking passively at slides. Experts will conduct workshops on setting up multilingual websites. There are more workshops that we’ll announce in the coming days.
Unconference
If you have a topic and some people willing to listen to you, we don’t want to stop you. Maybe you were not selected as an official speaker. Maybe you come up with the idea right then. Just get to the main schedule, grab a marker from a volunteer and add your session to the unconference space. Afterall, it’s all about openness and freedom!
Open house
The whole WordCamp gets together and then it’s an open house. Any question can be asked by anyone and anybody can answer it. It just has to be about WordPress. Any topic can be discussed, any issues tackled. It’s all open!
Networking & Breaks
An hour long lunch break, two tea breaks (20 mins & 30 mins) and seven 10 mins breaks between sessions. That’s ten breaks of total three hours; enough time to make personal and business relationships or just take a break between heavy duty sessions!
Scavenger/Treasure Hunt
A real WordPress treasure hunt with a lot of fun. We’ll be announcing details a few days before the WordCamp. Otherwise, the fun gets spoilt!
More Contests
There are other fun contests that you’ll hear about in the coming days. Sorry, can’t divulge any more information at this point; can’t spoil the surprise!
An After-Party
You, I and everyone at WordCamp Pune 2015 will party at the end!
Think we’re missing something? Do you have a great idea? Why not let us know!
Photo Credit: 25.365 by Romana Klee is licensed under CC BY SA 2.0.
An Intense Discussion by Shaun Dunphy is licensed under CC BY SA 2.0.
Unconference by JD Lasica is licensed under CC BY NC 2.0.
Flex Get Together_Sudoeste by Casa Thomas Jefferson is licensed under CC BY NC ND 2.0.
Treasure 014-1 by leigh49137 is licensed under CC BY NC 2.0.
We like to after-party
Were you wondering what this tweet was all about?
Aunty police bula legi…
— WordCamp Pune (@WordCampPune) June 28, 2015
After Party is what happens after
What do you do after the WordCamp? Go home? Go back to your hotel room? Go out for a drink or two with your friends?
Why not go to a party where everyone can hang out, chat, and have even more fun together? I mean how cool would it be for participants, speakers and organisers to socialise at the same place and at the same time.
Hmm, tell me more
The after-party will be somewhere close to the venue. The party venue will be decided depending on the number of people.
We will make some sort of arrangements for discounts but you’d have to pay the remaining amount for your food and drinks. Nothing will be completely free.
There are no separate tickets. Your WordCamp ticket is your entry pass. However, you have to pre-register for the party.
The party will start at about 7:00 in the evening and go on till the legal permissible time (usually between 11:00 to 12:00 depending on the venue).
You can dance, as long as you don’t dance like this:
I don’t drink
Cool, neither do half the organisers. You can still come to the party, sip some juice, mocktails or Thums Up on the rocks and watch drunk people. It’s a lot of fun!
I’m a vegetarian
No issues, half the organisers are vegetarian (including myself); we even have Jains amongst us. We’ll eat our veggies and paneer.
How do I book my place?
The tickets go on sale in a couple of days. In the form, there’ll be a field asking if you want to attend the after party. Just say yes/ tick mark it and we’ll add you to our guest list for the after-party!
We’ll see you at the WordCamp and after it, as well.
Joe Guilmette is vagabonding to Pune
Originally from San Francisco, Joe is a Bangkok based WordPress developer. He spends about half the year on the road, often working with limited internet connectivity and a distributed team. Coding from airplanes, buses, boats, and cafes around the world, he quickly felt the need for a robust local/remote workflow.
Joe wears many hats, including project management, development, and lead customer support roles for Soflyy, running a small WordPress studio, and co-organising the WordPress Bangkok Meetup group. In his free time he enjoys SCUBA diving, travelling, long walks on the beach, and harassing his roommate’s cat.
Here comes Gaurav Pareek, our third speaker
A Web developer, UI/UX hacker, free software activist, Doctor Who fan and all round geek. Gaurav discovered WordPress in 2009 and fell in love. He even ran a web development services company for 5 years completely revolving around WordPress.
Primarily a theme developer, he also dabbles in non-traditional uses of WordPress. When not doing his job as a web developer or geeking out on science fiction stuff, he dabbles in accessibility tech, bash, python, Linux desktop software, 3D design, music, and cooking. He aspires to start a social enterprise for accessibility related technology someday.