WordCamp Calgary

Sponsor Spotlight: GoDaddy Pro

GoDaddy Pro We’re showcasing all the amazing 2017 WordCamp Calgary sponsors. The people and companies that help make it possible to bring together the WordPress enthusiasts of Alberta. Today’s sponsor spotlight is GoDaddy!

You probably know all about GoDaddy already. They’re the biggest! But what’s this “Pro” thing?

GoDaddy Pro is a free membership program for web developers, designers & agencies. It offers exclusive tools to help onboard, manage and maintain multiple clients and their sites fast and easy. With GoDaddy Pro tools, you can easily shop for your client, monitor their sites, and manage their products from a single dashboard. Additionally, your membership includes advanced 24/7 technical support and rewards for recommending GoDaddy to your clients.

You can use GoDaddy Pro with all of GoDaddy’s newly refreshed hosting products, including Managed WordPress, cPanel shared hosting, our brand new cloud product, and our virtual and dedicated solutions.

And, always get the best price on GoDaddy products with your “30% off list price” member benefit.

Learn more about GoDaddy Pro.

Sponsor Spotlight: Pantheon

We’re showcasing all the amazing 2017 WordCamp Calgary sponsors. The people and companies that help make it possible to bring together the WordPress enthusiasts of Alberta. Today’s sponsor spotlight is Pantheon: Website Management Platform.

Pantheon puts the power of the Internet in the hands of developers and DevOps teams.

Pantheon started in 2010 with a small team and have since grown to 70 of the world’s experts in building, launching, and managing WordPress and Drupal websites. They power 150,000 sites and serve billions of pageviews a month.

They have an ambitious goal: to build the heroic infrastructure for the web—and ultimately power a third of website traffic across the globe.

We like companies with big goals.

They deliver rock solid hosting and the most complete platform for professional website creation. One that gives web teams all of the developer tools, hosting, scaling, performance, workflow, and automation they need to build the best websites in the world.

For more information, visit www.pantheon.io.

Sponsor Spotlight: SiteGround

In 2004, SiteGround was founded by a few university friends. They started with only a handful of people working from their university dorm rooms and today the company has more than 400 employees and is growing.

Their servers, available in 4 different data centres across the world, are optimized for ultimate WordPress speed and security. They also provide many goodies for WordPress fans. Automatic updates for the core WordPress and its plugins, WordPress SuperCacher for amazing speed, staging tools for the coders and unique WordPress auto-installer for beginner users. All these tools are crafted in-house by the SiteGround team.

Of course they also didn’t forget the importance of standard hosting features like the domain name registration, the email service, control panel and the reasonable pricing.

They pride themselves on their support. Their team is avail 24/7 by phone, chat and ticketing, and consists of WordPress enthusiasts who will help you with specific WordPress issues.

SiteGround has been actively involved with the community speaking, supporting and attending various WordCamps around the world and by sponsoring WordCamp Calgary, they want to further contribute to the amazing WordPress community.

We’re happy to have them as sponsors this year.

Sponsor Spotlight: Lighthouse Labs

Who are Lighthouse Labs? You probably know the answer to that question already but we’re going to tell you anyway.

Lighthouse Labs is a place to learn. The run their signature event, The HTML500 and it’s a huge success. It is a free, one day crash course in HTML & CSS created with the goal of inspiring more Canadians to shape their community through code. How awesome is that?

Lighthouse Labs was started by a group of coders in 2013 and has its main campuses in Vancouver and Toronto. They also have satellite campuses in cities throughout the country, Calgary being one of them. Here’s how they describe themselves:

Our mission: to continuously find the best ways to train the next generation of developers and to transform the way tech education is delivered.

That’s a great mission to have and we’re so happy to have them as sponsors again this year.

Sponsor Spotlight: SAIT

SAIT has numerous programs and certificates available but if you’re reading this, it’s likely you’ll be interested in their New Media Production and Design program.

What is NMPD? In their own words:

New Media Production and Design provides comprehensive training in multimedia skills. Students learn the tools and techniques used in web design and development, corporate presentations and communications, audio and music production, educational design, animation, simulation, game design, and many other specialties. The program emphasizes project-based, hands-on training, with students working in teams for assigned clients to produce comprehensive and useful media products.

Your Career
Graduates find employment in specialty new media production houses, agencies, corporate, educational or government organizations. Some develop their own freelance and small business opportunities. Work ranges from web design, corporate communication and digital signage to educational media, animation, simulation or game design.

New Media is all about the modern age and the ways in which people communicate digitally. And, as we are all about WordPress, we get it. And here’s a video that will tell you much more about the program.

If you’re about current tech, SAIT New Media Production and Design is all about you.

Sponsor Spotlight: Armadillo Studios

Since 2007, Calgary-based Armadillo Studios has been providing web design and development services to companies all over North America. They’ve helped numerous businesses, political campaigns, non-profits, and start-ups improve their online presence.

Led by Connor Turner, their team brings a passion for working with their clients to build powerful WordPress powered web sites, effective social media campaigns and results orientated e-mail marketing solutions.

Armadillo Studios works with small and large businesses, marketing agencies, start-ups, not-for profit organizations and political campaigns in Calgary, Vancouver, Ottawa, Toronto, Chicago, Washington D.C. and Austin, TX.

Armadillo’s portfolio includes websites for the National Cattle Feeder’s Association, The Event Group, VA Angels and Hayer Law Office.

Sponsor Spotlight: Winning WP

WinningWP is an award-winning blog that covers in the ins-and-outs of WordPress. Their articles cover techniques and resources and shares helpful information to everyone with an interest in WordPress.

They’ve created a resource that’s thought provoking, educational and current. WordPress is constantly evolving and Winning WP stays on top of all the changes within each release.

The site is run from London, England by Brin Wilson, a self-proclaimed WordPress enthusiast and is a collaboration between professional creatives, coders and web designers from around the globe. Each writer contributes a wealth of knowledge and expertise on a range of WordPress-related topics.

Sponsor Spotlight: Build Studio

Since 2011 Build Studio has been designing and developing websites for businesses across Canada. While the majority of their work has focused on WordPress websites, they also work with companies to develop their brand and reach their customers in new ways. By creating an engaging online presence, Build helps their clients to reach audiences they couldn’t before.

Along with website design and development, their services include graphic design, branding, strategy and advertising.

Build Studio’s portfolio of work includes website’s for the Calgary Drop-In Centre, Alberta Wilderness Association, Graniteworx and Quarry Park Law.

Introducing Miko Photography

WordCamp YYC is very grateful to Jana Miko for donating her time as event photographer this year!

Jana Miko is an award winning professional photographer serving the Calgary area since 2004. She holds several accreditations in various areas of portraiture and has been recognized for both her work in the studio and on location.

With Miko Photography you have the option to have your portrait created either in the studio or in the setting of your favourite park or location.

For WordCamp attendees and their colleagues, Miko Photography is offering professional headshot sessions for only $97, which includes studio sitting fee and a finished high-resolution file from your choice of pose.

Call 403.451.9769 today or visit www.mikophotography.com

What’s the agenda going to be?

I know many of you are anxiously awaiting the schedule for May 27. We are diligently working on bringing you the best speakers and topics to make this another successful event. As you can imagine, this takes some time, longer that we would like. But we are in the process of vetting speakers for final approval and then we can start announcing them!

Until then, here is a general time line for how we are planning the day:

9:30am	Registration Opens
10:30am	Welcome/Opening Remarks
11:00am	Session 1
12:00pm	Session 2
1:00pm	Get Your Grub On! aka Lunch
2:00pm	Session 3
3:00pm	Session 4
4:00pm	Short Break
4:15pm	Keynote Speaker
5:00pm	Closing Remarks
5:30ish	After Party!

As with previous WordCamps, the various Sessions will offer 3 Speakers to choose from.

I hope this helps you plan your day a bit better. We look forward to seeing you on May 27! Don’t forget to get your ticket: https://2017.calgary.wordcamp.org/tickets/