Photography and Bingo Contest Winners!

First, our apologies for the delay in announcing the winners of the WCPune 2017 Photography and Bingo contests! 🙏

Photography Contest Winner

I would like to thank each and every attendee of WordCamp Pune 2017 who captured some of the great moments during the event.

We found a LOT of pictures on our Twitter and Facebook streams. It took us some time to get through all of them and choosing a winner was complicated!

So, without further ado, our winner is Abhishek Deshpande.

Abhishek took so many photos during the event and captured some of the best & most memorable moments. Thank you very much, Abhishek, for your efforts with the camera. You will soon receive an email with a surprise gift 😉

All the pictures captured by Abhishek can be found on his Facebook album

Bingo Winner

In order for you to get to know our generous Sponsors better, we asked you a few questions. You needed to write the answers and tweet or let us know as soon as they finished with all the questions.

Here are some of our WCPUNE Bingo tweets. Thank you all, for participating in the game.

Based on who answered all the questions promptly and correctly, we have our winners:

  1. Varun Pailwan
  2. Bharat Parsiya

Our winners will soon receive an email from us with the surprise gift 🎁

Thanks for your participation!

Our thanks goes out to each one of you who participated. Your participation helped make WCPune an exciting, energetic place to be.

See you next year! 🙂

Paging all bathroom singers for the WCPune After-Party! 🎙

Where: Classic Rock Coffee Co. (Maps)
When:  7:30PM onward
Tweet: #WCPune #WCKaraoke

Get your WCPune name badge along!

WordCamp is going to be a day full of sessions, networking and Fun! After all that mental workout, you’ll want a place to relax. The WCPune After-Party  is that place 😀

We have tied up with Classic Rock Coffee Co. yet again to bring you a great venue with tons of space, great music and a dance floor.

Most importantly, they have agreed to set up a karaoke playlist with popular Hindi and English songs for all our pocket pop stars!

Use the #WCPune & #WCKaraoke hashtags to show us that you are having a great time! 🎤

First round’s on us!

That’s right, if you are a WCPune attendee, your first drink (alcoholic / non-alcoholic) is on us! All you need to do is get your WCPune name tag along.

The Venue

Credits: Zomato listing

Classic Rock is only about 20 minutes away from the venue, though that can depend on the traffic on North Main road.

Maps link: https://goo.gl/maps/GQZgok1Ugdy

Auto rickshaws should be available outside the venue. Taxis from Uber and Ola should also be available. (Remember to carpool!)

Image credits: https://www.zomato.com/pune/classic-rock-coffee-co-kalyani-nagar

All you need to know about WordCamp Pune 2017

WordCamp Pune is tomorrow, Sunday the 15th January 2017. This post has most of the information you need to know at a glance.

Topics:

Venue

Where is the venue?

Ness Wadia College of Commerce,
V.K. Jaog Path, 19, Bund Garden Rd, Sangamvadi, Pune, Maharashtra 411001, India

Map Link http://ow.ly/9dSS307WiS9

How do I get there?

Jehangir Hospital is a well-known landmark, down from the road of the venue. There are also three bus stops (Ruby Hall, Dhole Patil Chowk & Wadia College) around the venue.

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Any accommodation/Hotels near the venue?

This list of hotels we published earlier might be useful.

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Registration Process and Time:

The registration desk will open at 9:00 am and stay so until 11:00 am. You will require your name and email address to complete the process.

If you are planning on attending any of our Pre-WC events today, you can register there too.

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What about breakfast?

We want to make sure that your Sunday morning is as relaxed as possible. Just get to the venue, and we will provide you with steaming hot poha and chai.

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Swag

The swag counter will start at 10:00 am. It is located near the Registration desk. We will need your name and email ID to identify your pre-selected T-Shirt size.

#WCPuneSwag includes:

  1. T-Shirts – “A Day in Pune“
  2. Water Bottle (sipper) – Use through the day
  3. Wapsara Badges (Puneri Wappu)

Also, there will lots of swag from our awesome sponsors. All you need to do is visit their desks and say hi 🙂

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Sessions & Schedule

We are having 4 parallel tracks -“Users”, “Developers”, “, “Community”- in different rooms. We encourage you to jump between sessions, depending on what interests you.

All tracks will commence at 11am. 

Check out the complete schedule.

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What if I want to Network?

Sure! There are opportunities for networking at the following areas:

  1. Happiness bar – If you have any questions related to WordPress, want to discuss your ideas, etc. Our organizers and volunteers will be there to help you.
  2. An open air space – If you wanted to sit on the green grass and discuss  WordPress over a cup of tea/coffee. I am sure you will enjoy this place. 🙂
  3. Our Sponsors’ desks – Discuss with our sponsors their products, services and job openings!

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Other fun activities?

We have few activities after registration (9:00 am) and before sessions (11:00 am):

  1. Bingo with Sponsors – We will ask few questions, you answer them and win goodies!
  2. Speaker quiz – Get to know our speakers better!

#WCPune Photography Contest – Capture a photo, and use the #WCPune hashtag.

Buddy system- Find and connect with another person at WCPune. No prizes for this one, just opportunity to meet some cool new people!

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I’m hungry / Where’s the food?

We will serve Poha, Bhakarvadi (from Chitale Bandhu), Shrewsbury Biscuits (from the famous Kayani bakery), Sandwiches and Til Ladu (made from jaggery and sesame seeds).  

Tea and Coffee will served throughout the day. 

Our meal venue will look something like:

Time Time Menu
Breakfast 9 to 10 am Poha, Bhavarkvadi, Biscuits, Banana, Tea & Coffee
Lunch 12:10 to 1:30 pm  Sandwich, French fries, Banana
High Tea 3 to 3:30 pm  Vada Pav, Bhakarvadi, Tea/Coffee

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Do’s and Don’ts

No Smoking (🚭 ) or alcohol at the venue. Being a college, it’s not only prohibited but is also a legal offense.

Also, refer the complete code of conduct for WordCamp Pune.

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After party

Relax and have a good time at the After-Party.

Where: Classic Rock Coffee Co. (Map)
When: 7:30PM onward
Tweet: #WCPune #WCKaraoke

Don’t forget to get your WCPune name badge along!

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See you at WCPune! 🙏

Links: Schedule | Venue | Code of conduct

Careers for non-developers in WordPress

Are you a designer, communicator, or other non-coder? Do you wonder if and how you can fit into a WordPress agency? Are you a student looking for a career path that excites you?

Each of our panelists have made successful careers in WordPress agencies, while having core responsibilities other than writing code. They will provide insight on the possibilities and paths that you can take towards a career in WordPress.

The session will be informal and conversational, with sufficient time devoted to audience questions.

Shilpa Shah (Moderator)

Shilpa Shah is co-founder, Hummingbird Web Solutions and primarily focuses on CyberChimps, a WordPress Themes Store.
She was bitten by the travel bug pretty early on and was lucky enough to have a job (in her earlier corporate avatar) that took her to various countries, meeting some truly wonderful people everywhere! She enjoys dancing in the rain ( or anywhere actually) , trekking, camping outdoors.

Shilpa on Twitter: @IdleGazer

Nitun Lanjewar

Nitun started his career trying to dabble in PHP and started using WordPress back in 2009. His curiosity with WordPress more or less got him communicating with clients more than actually write code. He has communicated with over 200 clients projects. He loves the process of handling a client project and enjoys giving support to WordPress products.

He works as VP – Products for rtCamp.

Nitun on Twitter: @nitullanjewar

Parth Gohil

Parth is working as a Community Manager at Axelerant. His work focus is to help with open source community efforts, managing social media profiles and online marketing campaigns, and confirming analytics.

A tech enthusiast by heart and open source evangelist, he has been known to escape from work by giving time to his personal entrepreneurial goals, to Cha-Cha Productions, and by indulging in sports like football, table tennis, swimming and billiards.

Parth has acted in 6 short films and he also knows how to pilot a single engine aircraft.

Parth on Twitter: @parth_gohil

Alexander Gounder

Alex is an SEO / SEM, Internet Marketer with a wide variety of work experience across industries and domains like Films, TV Production, Customer Service, Politics, Government Operations, Press Relations, Graphic & Web Design to finally Internet Marketing & SEO.

For the last four to five years he has been involved with the Indian WordPress Community which has helped him use WordPress for his clients at Ink my web better.

He’s often seen ranting about politics on Twitter.

Alex on Twitter: @gounder

Nancy Thanki

Nancy Thanki is a photographer, filmmaker, and Happiness Engineer. Whether she is tinkering on the web or editing a film, she’s enjoys introducing users and storytellers to visual design and how to avoid the pitfalls of “en vogue” to create products that can withstand the test of rising and falling fashions in typography, photography, moving images, and design.

Nancy on Twitter: @NancyThanki

Our panelists will try to solve your Product vs Service dilemma

One of the fundamental questions that all business owners need to answer at some point is the age-old “Do I pursue a Product or a Service model?”. More than just a decision, the answer defines an organizational mindset that helps shape the personality of the agency.

Our panel of experts have experience in successful product- and service-based companies over the years. The session will be informal and conversational, with sufficient time devoted to audience questions.

Karthik Magapu (Moderator)

Karthikraj is Co-Founder and Chief Explorer of Hummingbird Web
Solutions, which builds and supports products for Web developers and Web Designers. WordPress is a big part of what Hummingbird does – www.hbwsl.com/wordpress
He also teaches Yoga, enjoys solving variants of the Rubik’s Cube and loves Open Source.

Karthik on Twitter: @KarthikMagapu

Devin Walker

Devin Walker is the creator of Give, the top-rated WordPress donation plugin and founder of WordImpress, a San Diego based WordPress plugin company. He has been working with WordPress for 8 years and has extensive experience developing and supporting popular plugins such as Google Maps Builder, Yelp Widget Pro and WooCommerce Quick Checkout. In total, his plugins have more than 100,000 active installs and hundreds of 5-star reviews. Outside of the WordPress world, Devin enjoys traveling, going to concerts, and playing golf.

Devin on Twitter: @innerwebs

Nirav Mehta

Nirav is called the entrepreneur geek. He likes technology as much as business.
He’s built a rather eventful track record over the last 18 years. He launched India’s first electronic magazine, a thriving web agency that went down in 2009, made a heroic return and recovery, then a string of successful product businesses in parallel. He’s authored three books and speaks at various tech and business events.
But hey, numbers and all the claim-to-fame apart, what’s most important about him is that he loves to contribute. He is easily approachable and has a lot of experience. So if you have any questions about WordPress, WooCommerce; starting up, running or scaling a tech business, he’d love to help!
Start with following him on Twitter @niravmehta! You can learn more about his WordPress solutions at: http://www.storeapps.org and http://www.icegram.com
Nirav on Twitter: @niravmehta

Rohan Thackeray

Rohan is the Founder of Wisdm Labs and directs their overall strategic and management functions. With an experience of over 10 years in technology, sales and product marketing across IBM and Convonix, Rohan continues to develop long-term value for the company’s stakeholders. He is an avid trekker and a foodie at heart.

Rohan on Twitter: @rohanthakare

Premanshu Manghirmalani

Premanshu is a website designer at heart, a PHP programmer by chance, an entrepreneur by passion, a law graduate by qualification, a biker and an avid Reader.

He runs a web development firm – SunnyZ World and has been doing lots of WordPress websites especially for SMEs and MSMEs.

Premanshu on Twitter: @unsharpme

WhatsApp WCPune Helpline

Announcing the quickest way to seek any WCPune assistance- our WhatsApp Helpline. Feel free to use this group for any questions related to the venue, travel or accommodation.

WCPune WhatsApp group link post

Please note that due to the way that WhatsApp works, your number will be visible to all those present on the group. If this is an issue, we suggest you use Twitter to get in touch with us.

Thanks to the WCUdaipur team for introducing us to the idea!

Pre-WordCamp Schedule: Beginners Workshop and Mixer event

WordCamps are more than just the single day conferences. They often include a lot of supplementary events organized by the local community.

WordCamp Pune is no different- we have two events lined up for tomorrow (aka the day before WordCamp 😱)

Beginners Workshop & Buildathon

Open to anyone- with or without a WCPune ticket. Lets learn about the WordPress project? What is WordPress as a software and ultimately learn how to setup a WordPress website for yourself.

Carry a laptop along and stay around to get introduced to WordPress. If you are just curious about WordPress, or want to get a blog started or want to get started as a developer, this might a good place to start.

The workshop will be conducted by Saurabh Shukla with many WordPress experts around to help you out.

Beginners Workshop and Buildathon (Pre-WordCamp event)

Saturday, Jan 14, 2017, 10:00 AM

Thought Works
6th Floor, Binarius Building, Deepak Complex, National Games Road, Shastrinagar, Yerawada Pune, IN

1 Exchangers Attending

Open to anyone- with or without a WCPune ticket. A collaborative workshop in which everyone helps everyone else learn WordPress guided by experts.

Check out this Meetup →

Mixer Event

WordCamps are social events that reward social interaction.

Exactly like the name implies, this event is intended to help you socialize (mix around) with other attendees and speakers.

The mixer is intended to provide an informal setup for attendees and speakers to interact with each other. There are no planned activities, expectations or barriers to entry- you just need to show up and be open.

I’m not sure… I am shy / I don’t speak English / I’m not from Pune.

Don’t worry, we are here for you <3

Seriously though, most of the WCPune organizing team and a lot of volunteers will be in attendance.

Come over and ask us to introduce you to anyone else, and we will oblige. If nothing else, you can chill with us!

Mixer Event (Pre-WordCamp Event)

Saturday, Jan 14, 2017, 5:00 PM

Ness Wadia College of Commerce
V.K. Jaog Path, 19, Bund Garden Rd, Sangamvadi Pune, IN

1 Exchangers Attending

The mixer is intended to provide an informal setup for attendees and speakers to interact with each other. There are no planned activities, expectations or barriers to entry- you just need to show up and be open.Show up at the Open Air Theatre.

Check out this Meetup →

Looking for your next gig? Check out the job board at WCPune!

WordCamps are a great place to network and meet new people who have similar passions as you. Attendees not only include freelancers and interesting individuals, but also representatives from different companies in the ecosystem.

People who attend WordCamps potentially already have a lot in common. This makes it so much easier for freelancers to find future collaborators and organizations to find talent.

With this intention, we will be setting up a job board at WCPune. We invite you to post job listings and opportunities for collaboration.

And we don’t mind you getting creative with your listings either!

Image credit: https://twitter.com/PerfectDashbrd/status/805091287590379520

As with any element of community, the board is dependent on collective goodwill. It is not meant to be vector for affiliate or product marketing.

Look for the job board in the common networking area of WCPune. All the best!

Meet our awesome Agency Sponsors

Yapapaya

Yapapaya is a group of reliable experts from India, passionate about building great WordPress solutions. They were founded with three core values:

  • 1. Excellence should be the default, not an exception.
  • 2. Transparency should be the default, not an exception.
  • 3. Freedom should be the default, not an exception.

Yapapaya believes that great customer service is in getting things done, letting you focus solely on your business.

You can follow Yapapaya on Facebook and Twitter

Beaver Builder

Beaver Builder is a powerful and flexible drag and drop design system. Whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned professional, you’re going to love taking control of your website with Beaver Builder. What you see is what you get! Beaver Builder’s intuitive page builder works in real time on the front end of your page.

Beaver Builder’s page builder plugin can be used with any theme and you can switch themes without losing your content. Even if you decide to stop using Beaver Builder, your content gets ported right back into the WordPress editor. Beaver Builder has variety of presets that automatically update the theme settings to create dozens of different styles with the click of a button. You can then modify these presets to your heart’s content with the Beaver Builder child theme.

CybroGeek

BUILDING THE ERA OF THE CYBER GEEK.

CybroGeek is a global provider of end-to-end Information Technology services, based in India. They provide web design, app development, web security and hosting services.

Their dedicated Research & Development cell and training courses are designed to benefit budding Engineers.

Their 4 sister companies O9L Networks, Imhosts, Cybrogeek IT Academy and ZamZam Computers run under one roof.

CybroGeeks are hiring!

WordCamp Pune is over. Check out the next edition!