WordCamp Miami is put on every year, its a conference about WordPress for beginners, intermediate and developers.
The guest is Jesse Velez from We Do Internet and he’s the lead support Organizer for WordCamp Miami 2020.
Ticket 30% Off, coupon code: sleon
More info on WordCamp Miami 2020: https://2020.miami.wordcamp.org/
Transcript
Santiago Leon
Welcome to the Miami tech update, where we explore what’s going on in the tech community here in Miami. A lot going on Miami is not a Silicon Valley or New York City, but it’s definitely in competition for third place. And today we have a special guest today. There’s actually a work camp conference, which is a conference about WordPress, where people from beginners, intermediate or events, learn more about WordPress. It is a content management system that was created back in 2000. And in the mid 2000s, I’m gonna say the exact year and this year, we Our guest is Jesse Velez. He’s one of the organizers for work camp Miami, 2020 and Jessie, welcome to the Miami tech update.
Jesse Velez
Hey, thanks, Santiago. pleasure being here.
Santiago Leon
Good. Good. So Jesse, tell me how many years have you organized camp.
Jesse Velez
Well, this is my second year working as an organizer. This year, I’m the support lead organizer. So I’m kind of up there with the organizer working with him supporting him. This is actually my, my second year organize. I was speaker organizer last year. And this is in the year before that I was a volunteer. So I’ve been here about three, three or four years.
Santiago Leon
You’ve been new to the WordPress community or I mean, my question is How long have you been with the WordPress community?
Jesse Velez
Well, I’ve been working with with WordPress itself for well over five years. But with the WordPress community, I’m only now getting involved in the last three years since I found a work camp found me they I was able to meet more people, because I am a small business owner. And so sometimes you get siloed and you’re not always around. The people who do the same thing you do so work camp was great opportunity. For me to get out there and meet some other people, and currently actually needed the WordPress meetup at NYU as well. So I’m really excited about that. And so it’s been about three, three years inside that community as a whole.
Santiago Leon
What got you into WordPress,
Jesse Velez
ease, ease of use, it was much easier to use. I’m a developer and I do all the parts of web design, web development, web programming. And what I find is that some things, like, for instance, a contact form. Like it’s just so easy to add a contact form, I didn’t have to code it, I’d have to figure it out. You know, okay, prepare. So those kind of tools led me to investigate further and I found that medicines a rich environment that I could use my PHP skills and add to it. And it was definitely because it’s open source, I didn’t have to, there’s nothing hidden. So I had access to all the files and I was able to go in there and modifying and I started it. So here I can create themes. You know, and I can make my own thing and make it all look this way. So it was that openness that really attracted to me and really building on a lot of the basic so it’s really good. That’s when I started. It’s much bigger, more robust now.
Santiago Leon
I’ve been using WordPress for over 10 years and I think you’re right I don’t I’m not sure what it is with WordPress. That got me into it. I’ve been a developer before WordPress. But what is it with WordPress Jessie that attracts a lot of people not just you know, coders but designers and just beginners, what makes WordPress so attractive,
Jesse Velez
I think is that a lot of what I said for designers is that you do have access to the code you can make can modify, you can build for the non programmers, like say like if you’re just a web designer, there are some robust page builders that allow you to express yourself there, but it definitely has its limit. You know, but soon as you hit the limit, the more you learn, the more you can expand on it. Like right now WordPress is using react and JavaScript in a Gutenberg was not that rumor. But in Gutenberg and in general. So this is a lot of skill levels that meet the need of the people. So if you’re a beginner, it works great. You’ll have to learn anything heavy. You know, if you’re a programmer and you have a tool kit, you have an API and all these nice little rich features that is attractive to I think a lot of people, not just programmers, like, you know, Joomla is a lot different than WordPress. You know, skill level wise. It’s a lot different. So I think that that’s my main
Jesse Velez
reason for you.
Santiago Leon
As we were talking about before, WordPress attracts a lot of people from a lot of diverse backgrounds, diverse levels, industries itself, and it has also produce conferences, which is called Word camps. And I believe it started at the big around the beginning when WordPress comes out. Jesse can tell the audience what is working
Jesse Velez
Okay, so work camp is a conference. I call it a conference, but it’s a collection of talks on a weekend. And so it’s usually Saturday and Sunday and it’s people who are giving up their time and effort energy speakers don’t get paid volunteers don’t get paid. You know the people who are there are there to learn to grow and to network and work at Miami’s a little bit different because our size is much bigger most work camps are not as big as work camp Miami, most work camps are, you know, hundred 200 people and then there are the largest city areas like like ours, but work camp is a great opportunity to learn and to get connected with other people. And so I like that the most, you also get a chance to speak to sponsors. Last year I had an issue with WP Engine and it was Sunday you know it’s kind of slow. One of their, their their table people came sat with me We locked in he had more access, you know, to the back end that I had and we were able to figure out a problem real quick. I really liked that too, that you just don’t get access to, to to people but you also get access to sponsors who, from my experience are experts in what they do. They’re not just people who are at the table, you know, trying to hand out stuff, they actually a part of the team that knows their products very well. So it’s very helpful.
Santiago Leon
Work at Miami. Can you tell us a little bit what is happening? What are the dates and things like that?
Jesse Velez
Okay, so work at Miami has a start point. So we have on Friday, February 28. We have two workshops that are full day workshops and those are $25 for each workshop you can only take one of course because they’re full day and what is the beginners of WordPress beginners one to one so if you don’t know WordPress, are you kind of like not not really skilled you don’t feel confident You can go there and take the WordPress beginner now there’s also a developer workshop for, of course, developers. And that’s for people who are looking to get better at what they do. So they know WordPress, but they want to get behind and play with it a little bit more. That’s there as well. So now the actual main event starts on Saturday, February 29. And so that’s a full day event. We and it continues on Sunday. It starts early in the morning. That weekend is $50. That’s a great, great, great cause for conference this big. And so we have, we have continental breakfast. We have lunch. We have speakers, you know, we have a game show at the end of the days and then after that we have an after party on Saturday at cheese right there at five you. So we’re having this at the FBI to South Campus, the Modesto campus for Southwest eatery. And so that’s a great campus. Great facility. Chili’s is right there does it Room working on having this pool. There’s all types of fun you can have afterwards. And then on Sunday, we do it again. You know, we have more talks, more special things. We have kids camp on Saturday and Sunday. So there’s like a lot going on. There’s a lot of opportunity. So that’s it. That’s February 29. We have workshops on a Friday to them all day, depending which one you want. And then Saturday, and Sunday is our main event. And those are full day over 65 talks. We’re going to have so these last two are different years.
Santiago Leon
Friday, what is the workshop about on Friday?
Jesse Velez
What is the word? What is a WordPress beginners workshop? No, that’s the one on one. And then a developer You mean like what is the content on the developer?
Santiago Leon
Yeah, I mean, what what does Friday consist of?
Jesse Velez
Friday just consists of the workshop. So you come in in the morning, you register, you go to work, you know, I mean, you learn but you learn in in one environment, whereas on the weekends, there are different talks with you Teachers and some of them are short some of the longer on Friday you have a full day. And of course you’ll also be served lunch as well. So lunch is included. But those are guests are conditioning to workshops because the awful full days
Santiago Leon
I will have to say on my part that I am part of the organization, the organization team of work camp Miami, and I helped out with the speaker’s part and the programming. So Jesse can’t tell us tell the audience are these speakers famous speakers? Are they world renowned or they’re just people that just contribute to WordPress every day?
Jesse Velez
right we see Santiago just admitted that he’s to blame you know like any other thoughts you can go No, actually he’s he’s part of a team that works to see what it is and and what’s going to make interest or what’s interesting to people. So we have a mixture of people we do have some WordPress, I don’t know what you call them, but but they make their rounds. You know, they are big speakers. Who come down, but we’re really looking this year to focus on local speakers. So right now we have people coming from Alabama, and you know, California and New York and Pennsylvania, we have all those, but also we’re focusing on making sure that our Tri County area also has a good representation. So that’s one of our focuses, say, We want people who are nearby because they are part of our community. And you’re going to get, you know, tons of stuff, you’re going to get those seasoned speakers. But there’s also going to be some new speakers as well. And this year, we’re trying something out. We’re trying to do talks in Spanish, so there are like two or three talks. They’re in totally in Spanish language. So we’re going to make sure you know, don’t go there if you don’t understand Spanish, but our idea was like, we’re Miami, you know, there’s tons of Spanish people want to present something in their language in our language, and I understand it as well. That’s going to be really, really exciting. It’ll be a few talks. You know, we don’t want to alienate people. That’s something that we’re doing too. So hope that answer your question.
Santiago Leon
It does also another part of a work camp. That is just not for adults. There is a thing called work camp kids. Why should parents bring their kids to work camp kids?
Jesse Velez
with kids camp camp, we’re working for WordPress. Yeah, kids camp was called that’s, that’s the time where kids get to learn at their level. And we have two two age groups. So we have those that we call the kids and then teams. There are two separate camps at all to get together. They’re all together on site. But they’re different learning environments. So because of that, you know, we have a staff on hand, it’s going to help kids learn what well how important is a blog, how to set up a blog. You know, the young kids set up a blog, the older kids, the teens, they start to talk about marketing and business. So if you go to our schedule, which is online at 2020, that Miami dot work camp.org slash schedule, you’ll see there also actually I think it’s actually not that let me correct myself. It’s 2020 dot Miami dot work camp.org slash kids and there you’ll see all the content, what they’re going to learn their schedule so if you are a parent and your child is interested or you’re interested in getting them familiar with WordPress is a great opportunity WordPress is is great for for kids, the the learning curve is low, like you know, kids get on and they get started. And there’s no programming needed. They can get their own blog, their own stuff going on. And this year, you don’t work with certain sponsors to to get them, you know, incentives like their own work their own WordPress blog, you know, so when they leave, they have their own blog, it’ll be accessible, you know, to what they need, I guess to the world. And then from there, they can continue to join it. But there’s a lot of stuff going on. There’s there’s what they call steam and stem, you know, different types of learning. That’s I think, really, I you say it’s impacting our community for sure. So if you want to come down and bring your child, you are required to stay with your child, unless you have a guardian that’s with your child. So we don’t want parents coming and leaving their kids, we want them to be involved too, so that the learning can continue afterwards. So you can go ahead and purchase tickets for your your child, they are greatly reduced compared to the the weekend ticket.
Santiago Leon
Yes and quick eration. How can people buy tickets and how much are they?
Jesse Velez
Okay, so if you want to buy a ticket, go to 2020 dot Miami dot work camp.org slash tickets. Or if you just go to any of those pages, there’ll be a ticket button at the top. And the general weekend admission which covers Saturday and Sunday is $50. That’s where you know, the regular people not kids can go to this too, but that’s not kid camp. And then of course Friday, all the two workshops. Those workshops are priced at $25 is full day, lunch will be served, things like that. And then of course, we have the Kids camp tickets kids camp for the child between the ages of 13 and 14, I’m sorry, from the ages of six to 18 is $10. And a parent ticket is $10 as well. So you will get serve also lunch of lunch both days. You know, I’m sure they got plenty of snacks. And so you don’t have to worry about that. So for $20 you and your child can come to kids camp and enjoy a weekend of learning.
Santiago Leon
Also in the schedule that that I helped out a program out is JavaScript. Tell us the importance of JavaScript and WordPress, obviously WordPress people, many people know is PHP, but JavaScript is kind of it’s a distant cousin. So is Java. I mean, so can tell us why JavaScript is so important and work camp.
Jesse Velez
Okay, well, a few years ago, the founder of WordPress, Matt Mullenweg. He mentioned that he mentioned that if you’re going to really be involved in WordPress, and JavaScript is important. To learn, and since that time is developed that it is, so the current iteration of WordPress is built on page builder or a editor called Gutenberg. And it has a lot of JavaScript or react js, and other types of stuff. So it’s been a really like, important part of the WordPress community, because it’s how it works now. So, you know, JavaScript isn’t the same as PHP, and how and where it functions. And so right now, a lot of lot of stuff you do takes place in the browser, you know, so you’ll have to go back to the server, like PHP has to. So again, I’m not a JavaScript programmer, you know, but I have been hearing that JavaScript is super important for the way WordPress is being developed and will continue to be developed in the future, whether it’s, you know, Node JS, or react or some other form of JavaScript or libraries.
Santiago Leon
One other big feature that we’re from Added not too long ago is Gutenberg. And obviously Gutenberg does use some JavaScript elements. We’ll be seeing more topics on Gutenberg. Jessie, why is Gutenberg so important? And WordPress?
Jesse Velez
Well, Gutenberg is now the default editor. So when you install WordPress, unless you make an effort to switch out of it, it’s there by default. And so most people are just going to start out using it. Just like it’s going to be that first experience for for some most of us WordPress for a long time, we use the classic editor. And so there are features to still keep us there. But last year’s address, or the state of the Word says that, you know, this is the direction we’re heading in. So Gutenberg is here to stay right now. And now we just have to figure out how to work with it for us who are used to the classic enter. For most of the people who are just getting on board who are just learning to use WordPress, they’re going to find that it’s kind of a for me I look at it is just a page builder, you know, a way for you to make your page more robust than using content. Canada. So I think that’s the benefit of it. I’m still not too, I’m not really on. Like, it doesn’t matter to me in a sense, you know, because I read on us, goober and Us page builders. So how does that look in the future? I’m not quite clear. But you know, it looks like a good tool and people are using it. And again, us who are used to the old stuff is taking a little bit more time to get used to the new stuff.
Santiago Leon
As a WordPress developer myself. I found Gutenberg very useful. When it first came out. I was a little bit Oh, wow. You know, this is a new thing I’ve learned. But now with Gutenberg, I found the result that I don’t have to code as much. I don’t have to add columns and a code wise because when you have columns, you got to deal with CSS and you got put in devs. But with Gutenberg, it helps you organize it and also obviously out, test shortcodes or any other plugins, and now plugins are working with Gutenberg. And that’s another thing about the WordPress community or like like the WordPress I can’t say industry but like the WordPress community is the plugins I think one thing that makes WordPress amazing is the plugins is about I think over 100 100 k plugins out there. So Jesse obviously work camp is a very I mean like the like the talks are very diverse. Are we going to see some plugin talks?
Jesse Velez
Well, I believe we are going to see some plugin talks. You made the schedule.
Santiago Leon
I didn’t make the schedule, but I’m playing Oh, so I gotta
Jesse Velez
go yes, we don’t we don’t have like really big, like create a plugin kinds of talks. We do have pieces that that take part of plugins. So if you want to learn about API’s, which plugins utilize. We have something there about transit API’s and caching so lots of little pieces. I didn’t really see any real big like, hey, create your plugin talk. Because again on the weekend, it’s not workshop. It’s Talks. And so some of the talks are 15 to 20 minutes. Others are as much as 40. So it’s not like you really can, can do you can’t create a plugin in 40 minutes. But there are little pieces that you can go through and say, Okay, if I want to learn to build a plugin, then I’m going to need to know about API. So there’s something there for you. I need to know about security because plugins are technically are the worst or the highest security risk, you know, plugins. That’s how a lot of hackers get into plugins. So yeah, we have lots of talks that are scattered around. I don’t remember seeing any real specific point in time, which that will be a good talk but
Santiago Leon
obviously like you’re right, you can’t learn how to make a plugin but if you did, you start with Hello Dolly and and look at the documentations and all that, which I actually learned how to make a plug in about two years ago, and I’m still learning it because I mean, I probably didn’t do it right. But this is like a whole nother podcast. And of course WordPress has to prove it up. Before we go to the WordPress repository, I’m
Unknown
one of the remember Yeah, quick there’s also there’s there’s other ways to like they have WordPress plugin boilerplates that you just type in your information, it will give you all the base of what you need for a plugin and then you just have to put in the functionality. There’s a lot of good opportunities. So that’s what I mean by this pieces every way you can pull together to bring to your plugin.
Santiago Leon
That is correct. And WordPress is a lot of tools out there not just the plugins itself was a lot of tools out there. That is help you to develop your website to the best it can be. And I forgot to mention this part WordPress is used 35% in the world. So it definitely has a big footprint. And when it comes to the internet and web pages, you know, when they’re competing against Squarespace, Wix and some ecommerce stores like Shopify, but you know WordPress version of Shopify is WooCommerce, which WordPress owns WooCommerce they just Recently bottom not to automatic,
Jesse Velez
automatic automatic that WordPress itself is open source. It’s org You know, so but WordPress, support and champion by automatic
Santiago Leon
a another feature that I seen work camp every year it’s a sponsors tell us about the sponsors this year and what does that benefit for the ticket holder?
Jesse Velez
Okay, well, the sponsors, they’re the ones that really make this financially possible because the overall our overall goal is to keep ticket prices down. We really don’t want any barriers to access. And so keeping a two day conference at $50 is extremely, extremely cheap. By comparison, I mean, you even sent me something the other day it was like 461 if I act now, you know, it’s like it can be very expensive and so the sponsors are key to making sure that we can present this affordably You’ll also find out that sponsor some of them also the speakers too, even though we try to choose them kind of blindly, but it is turns out, they submit talks. They speak, they’re part of the community on the volunteer. So they very key to making this happen financially and also with manpower. One of the good things about sponsoring is that, well, first of all, you know, we’re WordPress as organizational work campbellsville as an organization, they have a global community. And so it’s not just that the sponsors are sponsoring Miami because it’s happening. It’s, it’s a party and it’s summer in the winter. You know, they’re part of sponsoring work camps throughout. And so that that’s very important that financially we can remove that barrier for people and they can enjoy themselves with what again, 65 total for people from around the US and some from around the world. So, I believe asked us that’s the key. They also most of most of the people here are promoting themselves. That’s why they do So they have hosting services, security services, pay your taxes. Like if your business has to pay, no taxes, you can do so to plugins and all types of stuff, including WooCommerce. And hosting. It’s really diverse.
Santiago Leon
And of course, if you want to meet your hosting company, they’re will they’ll probably most likely be there. If it’s GoDaddy Bluehost, or even green geeks, it could be their next wasn’t questions Why does this happen a certain day, great time to have q&a. And also, you don’t have to be a big time. multimillion dollar company to sponsor you can be community sponsored. Can you tell us how they could sponsor the event? If they’re an agency or maybe just Freelancer Jessie, how can that be possible?
Jesse Velez
Okay, so you can go to our ticket page, you can buy a community or an agency sponsor. I will go there now and tell you what the cost are. For the agency sponsor does it for small businesses. agencies and WordPress professionals who recognize that work camp, Miami is valuable. And you know, they want to just take part of it, it’s $350. If you want to be a community sponsor, and this is intended for anyone who wants to get back to the WordPress community, it’s $99. So you’ll get ticket as well, you’ll get a ticket out at $99. And of course, at sponsors, you’re getting a ticket as well. And so part of that is just entry point, you know, your local, you want to help out you want to be part and then you can take part of that level versus the sponsors, of course, are also
Santiago Leon
is also a great opportunity. If you’re looking for freelancers to work with you, or a possible employee job. That’s one of the benefits you could do as well. And also I I believe they’re gonna have this this year, where they have a big board, you know, looking for freelancers, right?
Jesse Velez
Correct. So we have a for hire board and what is is hire me the other is work for me. So yeah, those will be two boards and people sign up and they put the email and somebody might put up looking for a developer, then you could respond right there. I usually take pictures of the board, you know, so I can look it over. But yeah, there will be that opportunity for you to if you’re looking for work or you’re looking to hire Yeah, it’s going to be over 600 people. So you know, so your options are there’s going to be new people there’s going to be seasoned people that have a large variety to pick from if you’re looking to hire or if you’re looking to to work
Santiago Leon
yeah, and to be honest work camp, not just for Miami people, a lot of people from the outside come into my mind is one of the top top three work camps in the country maybe in the world. And you see a variety of people but no plugin developers you see people from automatic the people that brought you WordPress and and you able to network and to be honest, one of the big factors that I like about WordPress that’s created jobs is created. People businesses is created me business. That’s how my business started is because of WordPress. Also Jesse, Jesse started his business because of WordPress that is the foundation of his business. So it’s not too late. I mean, people think, Oh, well, WordPress is thing of the past. No, no, no, no, this is very young. This is WordPress has so much potential outtie It keeps, keeps upgrading keeps updating, and there’s new platforms bonato. And there’s ideas that have not been invented.
Jesse Velez
Right, Jesse? Is Right. Yeah. And it’s open source Christ the posting about it. So. So even though they’re competing for other businesses, like you can’t get the code from Squarespace. You can’t get the source code from, you know, GoDaddy professional and they have, you know, and there’s benefits and if you’re a developer, you want that because you would like to get in there. But if you’re just somebody who wants to be a word website that might work for you. But ultimately, WordPress is growing. It’s growing very big. And you can tell by the sponsors that are there and how they’re, they’re investing Thinking new technologies that help support WordPress as well.
Santiago Leon
And and if you have an idea that you’re kind of pondering, you could use WordPress for that idea, or you can use WordPress to promote that idea. Or if you’re, you know, if you’re so pondering about web, web development or WordPress come to the conference. You don’t need to know anything about code. Nothing about design, nothing about the internet coming to work camp. It’s a great place to test if this is for you. If there if your idea should be, you know, blossom, that conference, a lot of people you know, like I was saying before start their business start their startup because of work camp. I’m Jesse, I did not plan this with you before but do you have a special code for a discount price for a ticket?
Jesse Velez
Okay, yes, but I would like to get that call. And I would like to say that we also have business and marketing classes also talks So there’s not just WordPress is not just developing. If you’re a freelancer, if you want to find out, you know, you learned from seasoned freelancers like how to deal with clients, how to deal with clients who don’t pay, or you just want to know about marketing in general, we have two tracks, one on Sunday, one will satisfy one of the Saturday one on Sunday. So even if you don’t want to do WordPress, or that’s not really your biggest interest is still great opportunity to check out our schedule.
Santiago Leon
Yeah. And while you’re getting the code, I’m gonna do some extra talking. My friends work camp. Wow, I, I probably went to work at number three in Miami, I think about like, less than 10 years ago, maybe eight, seven years ago. And it was great. Like every time I ponder about it, no, you gotta go. I learned something every year work camp. I’ve been in with WordPress over 10 years, and I still learn something new every year. There’s one thing called the WPC. Li it’s a Really developer stuff, where you’re able to control WordPress from a little terminal from your Mac or from your Windows PC enabled to install a WordPress site onto your server, or you can add a plugin, it’s really, really nerdy, but it helps me out to speed my productivity. You know, when you’re in an agency or your freelancer, things start build up, keep in mind, not every buddy is digital. There’s stores out there mom and pop stores that are not online. They’re not even on Google yet. So the opportunities is endless. I still think it’s a huge frontier, the internet’s like space. So definitely consider coming to work camp, I suggested it is the cheapest tech ticket in town, you cannot meet it. I mean, most tech tickets are hundred bucks. And actually, it’s probably $200 and up, and not many people had that type of money. But if it’s 50 bucks, probably less because once you know when Jesse has that code, which I think he’s ready, just go check it out for a Saturday. or Sunday or come on Friday for the beginner workshops. But Jesse, what is the discount code?
Jesse Velez
Okay, so Asli on FL, e o n. And that’s what 30% or
Santiago Leon
30% off, you can’t beat that.
Jesse Velez
Now also real quick, I’m including that for the general admission, if you want to go to kids camp, as a parent, if you want to go to develop a workshop on Friday, you’ll get 30% off those, any of those things.
Santiago Leon
And there you have it, you know, you got opportunity. If you have kids, and you have a babysitter, bring them to work camp, because it’s just a good opportunity for your kid. And for yourself to maybe, you know, make some extra cash on the side. You know, maybe if you’re tired of doing Uber or Lyft Hey, you could sit down your computer and make money by coding. And you know me or maybe create an idea actually met a guy last year who met who learned WordPress and now started a education site learning how to teach people how to play guitar. And he and he used a WordPress site WordPress makes it easier. I don’t know about Squarespace and Wix. But it feels like it’s limited WordPress. It’s open source just like Jesse said, and you’re able to expand your horizons, you know, that’s what I like about WordPress and for the first place I wanted to create a project and I use WordPress and WordPress helped me out and I loved it and then afterwards I started creating sites for clients and clients itself people that don’t know much about tech they can update their content on WordPress is easy. Some people prefer me had me doing it but you know, it is what it is I’ll charge them right. So Jesse one more time what is the best way to for people to find out more about work camp Miami 2020.
Jesse Velez
Okay, so go to 2020 dot Miami dot work camp.org that’s the best way. You can follow us on Twitter. You can follow us on Instagram. We have all the social channels but if Go there that will get you started to choose from the menu of the things you want to find out also tickets some pretty big button there. Get your tickets, this code SL, EON Leon, that will will expire next week, Tuesday. So you have until then, to utilize it otherwise, you know, and now we’re filling up fast. I mean, we’ve already extended this our seats, so we can hold a little bit more. So if you don’t take advantage, now’s a good time. Don’t wait until Tuesday. And definitely don’t wait until the conference but you know, come on down. Well come and enjoy the tons of learning as well as you know, it’s gonna be a little party too. If you’d like to party, and then come on down to fight
Santiago Leon
for 50 bucks includes lunch, the workshops and a T shirt is that correct?
Jesse Velez
Well every day again, the workshops a little bit different so the workshops will get you know some content got some bagels and coffee, right and then There’ll be a full lunch and then you know that that’s what that day but the weekend will have bagels and coffees and lunch and after party on Saturday and and special ice cream on Sunday says swag lots of swag. Yeah like little things stress pools, tote bags pins. You know every every sponsor brings swag because they want to get their name in your house. You know in your pockets of is plenty of opportunity to just collect that if you like that. I got tons of pins I really liked the pins. And so this there they have to so it’s a great opportunity enjoy yourself. Come as you know he’s want you can come in and out and Saturday and Sunday. You don’t have to stay in a talk. You know you can choose what you want but definitely go to 2020 dot work that Miami that work camp.org and then you see the schedule tickets, sponsors speakers, is all there for you to enjoy.
Santiago Leon
And also keep in mind you could be a potential WordPress speaker in the future down the road. You become an expert on Gutenberg or you become an expert on how to disable WordPress completely unable to speak on it. No forgive in the future and work camp, you know, it’s a great place to because they, you know, open up to anyone to speak obviously if it’s pertaining to WordPress or anything like that, but it’s a great opportunity to get your speaking skills as well. But that’s a whole different podcast out there. But yeah, we’re camp Miami 2020 February 28 to march 1 2020 be perfect whether it’ll be at the NYU campus in Miami, at FSU, Modesto, muddy campus in Miami, Florida is at the I think it’s like a business computer science area. Right? Is that what understand
Jesse Velez
the College of Business? Yeah, College of Business.
Santiago Leon
And ephi you are great host they’ve been hosting this for the past couple years. They’re really work camp friendly. And also tell us about your WordPress meetup. If people can’t make it to the conference Tell us about that like the WordPress meetup in Miami.
Jesse Velez
Alright, so before the conference on Thursday we’re having a WordPress meetup. So you definitely want to go to meetup.com and look for South Florida WordPress meetup. I don’t know. I think it’s SF. I’ll get the exact address there but but every month there are two meetups that happened in in our area there is a powered via which meets in Broward up in Davie. And then there’s a Miami meetup, which right now is meeting in half by you. So the beginning of the month is the brown one. And then near the end of the month is Miami, which has lots of opportunity. You can make one you can make the other. Again, we we have people who are just learning how to talk. So we have them come there, we have seasoned speakers. We do open kinds of stuff like will review your website or will give you tips on stuff. And a lot of it is community driven. So it’s not just like me teaching, you know, many times, not even me at all, I’m just hosting it. And people can come in and give their advice and their pointers. It’s really a Community base kind of stuff. And that’s a lot to do with what we want in the Miami and Tri County areas that people work together even afterward camp. We just don’t want to see each other once a year. Yeah, correct. Yeah, I think something important I heard from john Maxwell, he said that we over estimate the event and underestimate the process. You know, community is a process that takes place over time. And so we do that twice a month, every single month, sometimes, you know, Christmas interrupts us, but we do it every single month, and you can enjoy a lot of what you’re going to experience at work camp, it continues afterwards. Again, it’s all volunteer base is people giving you their heart and their time, because we want to, we need the support. You know, we all need the support even me as a business owner. And so this is a great opportunity. So go to meetup.com slash SF dash WordPress dash users, and then you’ll see the upcoming event which is going to be the Thursday before On the 27th, that’s gonna again, be a little time celebrate. You can talk to people before the event, you can speak to sponsors, you can, you know, ask questions, and we give like kind of like a little bit of a launch, like a launch party, in a sense. So you can also sign up there and you can take part in that as well.
Santiago Leon
Yeah. And speaking about volunteers, I’m not sure if it’s still open for volunteers, but you’re able to volunteer at work camps. Jesse a little bit information about that.
Jesse Velez
Okay, so you can volunteer at work, and we still do need volunteers. It takes lots and lots of people to run an event the size. And again, since we are volunteer base, you know, it’s very, it’s a struggle, and but we’re doing good, but we definitely could use more. So if you want to volunteer, go to 2020 dot Miami dot work camp.org. And there you’ll see in the menu and opportunity for you to sign up to volunteer. Yeah, and you can you know, volunteer.
Santiago Leon
Yeah, Sunday volunteers and you don’t have to volunteer all day or all weekend you do for a few hours. Any amount of time helps. to ourselves is
Jesse Velez
a lot so volunteer, you know will return to you something by by giving you an opportunity to get greatly reduced price ticket it depends all together but you know what to make sure that you get there and you enjoy the conference as well you’re not just running around all day exactly a few hours put you in a spot you know be there you can enjoy the the event and you don’t have to work too hard and some people are going to be working hard because that’s just how they are
Santiago Leon
yeah and and you can be a room MC if you want to stay in the auditorium listen to people but it also volunteering and you able to meet the speaker make sure the room is all in order. And or you can help set up and tear down whatever whatever is in your discretion where you’re able to do it. And yeah, we’re campus fun is a fun weekend. I have a great time every when I go I only see certain people once a year and it’s I work at best time to catch up with your fellow developers fellow colleagues that you haven’t seen in a while, and also meet people that you used our plugin, you know, you probably use contact form seven, maybe the guy that created contact form seven might be there anonymously, you know, hey, what do you do I contact form seven. So things like that. So 2020 dot Miami that work, work can work all the informations there tickets, volunteer speakers, the schedule and everything you need to know about the after party which everyone kind of looks forward to as well. Jesse what is the best way for people to reach you to talk to you about WordPress and work camp?
Jesse Velez
Okay, so you know, I’m an open book, you can call me 345741805 for you can also contact me at Jesse at we do internet.net even if you send an email to Miami at work camp.org like those are all the roads for these two week. And, of course, you know, not be alone but to the work camp staff. And we also have a Gmail account what work camp Miami 2020. At gmail.com you can send inquiries there as well. But ultimately, you know, reach out, you know, I’ll take your call if you have questions you want to find out about this or that I’m here to help, at least to put you in the right direction or put you in touch with the right person.
Santiago Leon
Jess is very accessible, really, really happy to be with them in the teens organized work camp 2020 definitely learned a lot about organizing, organizing, organizing an event is never easy organizing event by It was really a huge privilege to organize this work and I’ve been working for the past couple years and definitely was a great opportunity to see the behind the scenes and all the manpower behind it. We have a lot of people organizing it. So we’re really really excited really pumped when we get to that top of the mountain is like wow, we did it. And I mean, I mean, I feel in right now like, yes, I’m there but we’re only about like five more yards away feels like even longer, but it depends who you ask. Remember the discount code is Leon s e o n to get your 30% off the ticket of 50 bucks. So you able to save some couple of dollars for for a McDonald’s lunch. And so go to 2020 dot Miami that work camp that org and put the discount code s l eo and expires on Tuesday, February 25. So definitely get your tickets beforehand work campus next weekend, the 29th. So, I mean, there’s a possibility last minute on a Friday morning they could call Jesse Jesse, I want to take it I’ll pay as much as you want. That can be very possible, right?
Jesse Velez
Yes, possible. Late registration usually just affects your swag. You might not get a T shirt. But we don’t turn anybody away. No.
Santiago Leon
work camp is a very huge event in Miami. You cannot miss it. And if you’re in the tech or you’re still pondering about tech, go to work camp. You’re not just learning about WordPress, you’re learning some other stuff like hosting and things like That anyways Jesse Any closing words?
Jesse Velez
No, you said it all you got you got you got the website, you got the discount, you got the information so whatever you need, just reach out.
Santiago Leon
And of course you can reach me at s l EOS Leon or Selena productions.com. You go on on my Twitter or my Instagram, and I am like 60 80% of my business is WordPress. So, if WordPress was completely gonna shut down, I will have to look for new job. That’s how that’s how much WordPress is important. Anyways, this is the Miami tech update. We’ll be interviewing feature people feature startups in Miami. We interviewed a few people in the past about how they started their businesses in Miami. Miami is a lot going on. offer up was started here in Miami. So there’s a lot of things going on and who knows you could be the next using WordPress. Jessie. Always a pleasure. Thanks for coming on to the Miami tech update.
Jesse Velez
Thank you
Transcribed by https://otter.ai