Cody Benson,directory of Digital Strategy at Georgia State University and Stacey Martin, one of Cody’s esteemed team members, did a very thorough  job this weekend, getting the beginners up to speed and ready for WordCamp Atlanta. Team members, Dan Stevens and Monaco Jones were also on hand to lend support.

The training was held at GSU in a gorgeous room with two huge projector screens on either side of the room which were clearly visible despite the room having a wall of windows on each side.

Mickey Mellen, coordinated the Workshop along with GSU representative Colleen Geary. Kathy Drewien, Will Reece and Judi Knight were on hand to welcome the beginners and help field questions.

Cody was our WordCamp Keynote speaker last year when he talked about how Georgia State was in the process of moving all of their web presence to WordPress which was a massive migration challenge which has now won awards and has them featured on the WordPress.org Showcase. We are lucky to have Ga State  University play a role with us in making Atlanta

If you missed the workshop or want to have some extra reinforcement on what you learned but using WordPress.org, rather than WordPress.com, you can get free access to a seven video beginner series, Getting Started with WordPress.

This year, if you have a ticket to WordCamp yourself,  you can bring your kid to Camp for free to attend  a Kid’s Camp workshop on Saturday,  March 15th.
 
Space is limited so get your kid a  free ticket today.
 
We’ll be offering a half day of programming  from 9-12 specifically for kids Jr Hi and up ( or younger upon request with demonstrated interest and experience) who are interested in learning more about WordPress. After the workshop, they can stay for lunch, and if they are up for it they are welcomed to go to the other sessions in the afternoon if you are supervising them.
 
Syed Balkhi, Sara Cannon, Micah Wood and Russell Fair will present several shortened sessions in a simple and easy to understand format geared specifically for kids who are interested in the basics of a WordPress site as well as an introduction to how a site is created from HTML, PHP and CSS.
 
The sessions will cover:
 

1. Introduction to blogging, what it is and why you should care
2. Coding Katas, learning to code takes practice
3. Designing for WordPress, how we use themes to create amazing websites
4. Next Steps with WordPress

 
The first session starts at 9 am Saturday and will conclude at lunchtime. Some of the sessions will be hands on;  bringing a laptop  with WordPress installed is encouraged.
 
Send your questions to Russell Fair through the contact form.

There are going to be several WordPress Meetup Groups focusing on getting our WordPress Newbies up to speed before camp.

Here is the list at this point. Be sure to check back later to see if others are added.

MARIETTA – Atlanta WordPress Hands on Learning Group
Wednesday March 5, 6:30 – 8:30PM $10
This is a hands-on working group. Don’t have a WordPress site yet? We’ll help you get one up and running before you leave and teach you how to add and format posts and pages and add media to your site.

YOUR OWN PLACE AND TIME – Free Access!  Getting Started with WordPress Video Series
Sign up for free access to get seven videos that will walk you through the basics of starting and using a self-hosted WordPress site. The total time for this 7 video series is 3 hours and 40 minutes. Sign up here.

Yowzers!  we knew the tickets would go fast. It took a couple of weeks last year. This year the fifty beginner Workshop tickets flew out of her the first night. Then it took only 48 hours to sell the remaining 425 tickets.

Update March 5: As people have changed plans they are turning back in some tickets so please let us know via the contact form if you would like one. There is still a chance that you may get to come!

We flooded social media with the word that the tickets were going fast, but some people still didn’t get there in time and they are not going to be happy:-( There is a chance that a few more tickets might become available.  This year people can get a refund on their ticket if their plans change, which would free up some tickets.

I wish we could take everyone who wants to come, but we are restricted by the size of the ballroom and breakout rooms in our location.

There are a lot of other WordCamps coming up the next few months.  Our neighbors in Asheville North Carolina  are  planning their first WordCamp May 30th – June 1st. Charleston South Carolina is having their first WordCamp May 17th. Or you might be up for some adventure and try WordCamp Prague, February 22nd or WordCamp Mumbai the same weekend as our WordCamp.

And then there is our neighbor to the South, WordCamp Miami, who is lobbying for our overflow with this cool little graphic! Ha! Ha!

We are lucky in Atlanta to have a very strong WordPress Community. We hope you join us by attending Meetups on a regular basis. Our various Meetups around town are a great way to make friends and colleagues, get up to day information and give back to the WordPress Community.

Leave a comment if you’d like to be on a waiting list for regular WordCamp Tickets.