We’re hard at work organising WordCamp Bristol 2019: we’ve got the schedule sorted, contributor day arranged, swag on order and sponsors lined up.
Now we need the missing components – YOU, our attendees!
What is WordCamp Bristol?
If the concept of a WordCamp is new to you here’s a quick summary of what you can expect from WordCamp Bristol…
WordCamp Bristol is a WordPress focussed conference being held over three days. It’s an opportunity to learn, meet others, find out things you didn’t know you needed to know, eat, drink and be merry!
The main conference days are Sat 18th – Sun 19th May and will feature two tracks of talks on a huge variety of topics aimed at all experience levels and disciplines. All for the bargain price of £35. Yes you read that right – £35 for both days!
Our contributor day, a smaller affair, will be held on Friday 17th May and is an opportunity to give back to the fabulous open source WordPress community. Tickets are free but must be ordered separately to your main conference day ticket.
So now you have the gist of what’s happening, here’s some reasons you should absolutely come along for all or part of what will be a very special event in the South West.
Reason #1 – Did we mention tickets are just £35 for *both* days? What incredible value!
Don’t be fooled into thinking that a low ticket price means a low quality event – that couldn’t be further from the truth!
A ticket actually costs us £125 when you take into account all the costs, such as venue hire and food & drink. Additionally, none of the organisers get paid for this fantastic WordPress event, it’s all voluntary.
It’s thanks to our generous sponsors that we can open up this unforgettable event to more people by offering such a low price tickets. To recap, a £35 ticket gets you to:
- Lunch on both days
- An evening social with more food provided
- Access to two days of talks
- Swag and freebies to take home
Even if you can only make it for just one of the talks, you are still getting incredible value.
Reason #2 – The WordPress community is honest, friendly and welcoming
A lot of people make a lot of noise about how friendly and welcoming the WordPress community is – it’s true, the fuss is justified!
You will leave finding your heart warmed and your brain stuffed!
No matter your background or experience level you will find yourself sure of a warm welcome. You can check out our code of conduct for more details.
Reason #3 – Our schedule isn’t just about coding
Our schedule is varied and has been created to appeal to a diverse audience of people who use WordPress for their work. Designers, marketeers, business owners or user experience specialists will all find talks that are hugely interesting to them.
Reason #4 – Our speakers are the best! Literally.
We worked very hard to put together the very best selection of speakers possible to represent WordPress in the South West and South Wales. Like our organisers, all our speakers our volunteers too. Every speaker is a seasoned speaker who is an expert in his or her field and is sure to spark your interest in their chosen topic.
Not only that, our speakers are normal human beings too (who’d have thought!) who will be happy to chat and catch up with you after their talk. They will be around the conference to answer your questions or discuss WordPress further with you.
Being honest we found the selection process hard as we has such a huge array of talent to choose from in the local area. You can read more about who applied to speak and how we made our decisions in our speaker selection process blog.
Reason #5 – It’s not what you know, it’s who you know – there’s ample opportunity to network
One of the best things about any WordCamp is the fantastic people you get to meet. The speakers, the volunteers, the sponsors and of course the most important part of it all, you, our attendees.
As well as the two tracks of talks, WordCamp Bristol has ample space, inside and outside, for sharing a cup of tea with someone and having a chat about whatever takes your fancy. We fondly call this the “hallway track”. Not only that but the after party on Saturday night, which will be a low-key affair, will give you plenty of opportunity to catch up with speakers and other attendees.
You might heard that Bristol is one of the biggest tech hubs outside of London and is fondly known as the Silicon Gorge. So you’re sure to meet other attendees who do all sorts of weird and wonderful things with WordPress: if you can think of it, someone will be here doing it!
Reason #6 – Need a bit of downtime? We’ve got you covered
We all know that conferences can become a little overwhelming at times. Because of that we have a dedicated quiet room (an entire lecture room) where you can escape to process that amazing talk you just heard or simply to get some quiet time to yourself to reflect.
Not only that but our venue is in a quiet area of Bristol University’s precinct, and 5 minutes away is the beautiful Royal Fort Gardens which will be open on the weekend to escape to, should you feel you need a dose of outsideness.
Reason #7 – Eat and drink to your heart’s (or belly’s) content
All this learning and networking can certainly help you build up an appetite. As part of your £35 ticket there will be ample food and drink for all throughout the day.
On arrival and available all day there will be free water, tea, coffee and biscuits. Lunch on both Saturday and Sunday will be a buffet lunch with a variety of vegetarian and vegan food to satisfy all diets. We are able to cater for any allergies, just be sure to tell us when you buy your ticket. There will also be dinner at our after-party venue at the Watershed.
Reason #8 – Bristol is awesome!
If you don’t live in Bristol, you should know that there is something in the water here that makes this place incredibly special. Seriously, get on to Google now and type in ‘bristol voted best city’. In fact we’ve just done it for you, have a look at the top results…
In the top results: best place to live , best place to live outside of London for under 26s, happiest city, kindest city (we’re especially proud of that one) and one of Europe’s Top 10 cities. And no, Bristolians didn’t write all these posts about themselves! 😉
We invite you to come and see for yourself our beautiful, crazy creative city and get a dose of some feel good.
Reason #9 – Our venues are lovely
We’ve got three venues that WordCamp Bristol will be happening across.
How did we do? Are you coming?
We hope you feel as excited as we do about coming along! It’s not often that the South West gets an opportunity to come together to talk about all things WordPress. We hope you will be part of something special.