Category: Community

Want to help build a new setup and management service for WordPress?

17 April 2018Announcements, Community Leave a comment

HowMightWe is looking for WP users to help them build a new WordPress setup and management service.

“One of our clients is a hosting company that wants to make WordPress easier to setup and manage. We have some wireframes of a concept and we would like some fresh eyes to see if we’re not smoking our socks. We need 5 people in total over 2 days. We want people that know a little bit about WordPress but they don’t develop sites, or design sites for other people. (i.e. not WP professionals). We want they people that want a site of their own and want to use WordPress to create it. We could be wrong, but we are imagining that it would possibly be creative people with a small business, or freelancers wanting to showcase their work. They need to have at least touched or played with or know a bit about WordPress.”

Dates: 25-26 of April
Time: 1 hour slots through out the day. (8am-6pm)
Gift: R800 each

For more information or, to book your slot, contact Dirmu via her cell at 082 956 9946 or via email at dirmugouws@iafrica.com.

Brand Candy brings it’s nearly-famous digital training courses to Cape Town and Jozi

24 November 2017Announcements, Community Leave a comment

Brand Candy is owned and run by Richard Burgess and Janet Hancock. Amongst running the digital strategies of their clients, they have been up-skilling business owners and their teams on all things digital marketing since 2014. Their courses were borne out of a need for business owners to have a better understanding of how the online space could be better utilised in marketing their brands. It all started with the “Social Media for Business” short course, and with it’s crazy popularity, and constant requests, the “WordPress 101” and “Content Marketing for Irresistible Communication” courses are now also offered. In 2018, Brand Candy will be launching an advanced, targeted Facebook advertising course and a Search Engine Optimisation course for those with more in-depth needs.

The current courses are run on a monthly basis, and with an expanding customer base, Richard and Janet will be taking these training workshops to Cape Town in November this year, and to Johannesburg from March 2018.

The current offering of training courses are pitched to a small to medium-sized business audience, where the key decision makers have identified the need for their brands to be present in the online space. The comprehensive courses are four hours each, and cover the basics for getting started with managing a business’ online and social reputations.

Both courses are available in Cape Town next week, with limited seats – a maximum of six people per workshop. On Thursday will be “WordPress 101”, facilitated by Richard, and Friday “Social Media for Business” facilitated by Janet.

The cost of each of the courses is R1540 per delegate (incl VAT) and includes coffee in the morning and lunch in the afternoon. They start at 9am sharp and finish at 1pm, and will be held at the luxe offices of PR Lab and Kayser Baird in Black River Park, Observatory.

For more information, bookings and queries, visit the Brand Candy website here.

Direct booking link for the WordPress course:

https://www.brandcandy.co.za/product/wordpress-course-cape-town/

Direct booking link for the Social Media course:

https://www.brandcandy.co.za/product/social-media-course-cape-town/

Early Bird tickets available now!

7 August 2017Community 1 Comment

Are you ready for the Mother City’s best-loved WordPress event – WordCamp Cape Town 2017?

The eighth annual #WCCT2017 (yip – that’s the hashtag) has something for everyone – from newbie bloggers to programmers, freelancers, developers and business owners.

Expect to tweak your skills, discover new tips and trends from our awesome speakers, share your knowledge – and meet some awesome people.

You’ll be learning about and giving back to the project we all love – WordPress. So circle your calendar for 22 and 23 October, to be held at the River Club.

Catch the Early Bird Special to save some dosh and reserve your seat (tickets are limited)! Offer closes on 15 August, so book today. 

Head on over to our Ticket page and book your WordCamp tickets. We are offering an early bird special to all tickets sold before 15 August. Simply use the coupon code earlybird, for a 20% discount on all standard tickets.

We’re putting together a super-cool, two-day programme, with free swag so spread the good news! And check back here for further announcements as we count down to the big event.

Ticket sales and a Call for Sponsors

17 July 2017Announcements, Community, WordCamp Leave a comment

With 14 weeks to go till WordCamp Cape Town 2017 I’m starting to feel that combination of excited anticipation and nervousness that goes along with planning such an event. Today I’m happy to announce that two very important pieces of the WordCamp puzzle have slotted into place, the availability of WordCamp Tickets and the Call for Sponsors.

Ticket sales

Those who booked tickets last year will remember that ticket sales were in US$. This was because the WordCamp organising team did not have a local bank account available in order to process the funds. This year we are happy to announce that all ticket sales are in South African Rands and are being paid into a locally managed bank account. A big thanks to PayFast for helping us with the payment gateway process.

Head on over to our Ticket page and book your WordCamp tickets. We are offering an early bird special to all tickets sold before 15 August. Simply use the coupon code earlybird, for a 20% discount on all standard tickets.

Call for Sponsors

Without the past support of our generous sponsors, WordCamp Cape Town would not be affordable to the vast majority of the local community who attend. WordCamp attendees have two full days to gain insight from our speakers, network with other WordPress users and developers, and learn more about WordPress and open source. By donating to WordCamp Cape Town, our sponsors make this event a reality.

If you or your company would like to sponsor WordCamp this year, please head on over to our Call for Sponsors page, choose your sponsorship package and fill in the Sponsorship form.

 

We want to hear your WordPress story.

19 June 2017Community Leave a comment

 

When I joined @hlashbrooke in planning WordPress meetups I was full of vim and vigour to organise more meetups. I had just come from my first WordCamp and I was super excited to help the community grow. Sadly since then I have only managed to either plan or attend two meetups. Work, life, family, it all just seems to get in the way.

We started #coworkpress as a way to try and counter our lack of more formal monthly meetups but I realise that this does not fill the gap properly. So (in my usual gung ho way) I am going to try and see if I can setup something a bit more robust for the rest of the year.

Your WordPress story.

I want to hear your WordPress story. How did you get started with WordPress? What are you doing with it now? How are you using it to change the world? What do you love about it? What do you hate about it? What would you like to do with it in the future?

We all have our WordPress story and I want to hear yours. And, seeing as it’s your story, I want to make it happen somewhere that you are comfortable with. So I’ll discuss with you and find a meetup location that makes it easy for you to attend and comfortable to speak.

There are six months left until the end of this year, so I’m looking for six people who are willing to share their story. July is just around the corner, so if we can get someone for July already that would be great. If not, I’ll find someone, even if I have to do it myself.

If you are interested in telling your story, use the form below to get in touch.

WordPress Beginner Workshop #2

13 June 2017Community Leave a comment

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We had so much success with the last workshop, packed house, amazing food and fantastic people, that we’ve decided to do another one.

The second workshop will be held on the 1 July 2017, at Workshop 17, V&A Waterfront.

We will start at 9am sharp and finish around 3pm.

Its important to bring a notebook and laptop (we have plenty of plug extensions).

A little information on the workshop itself:

These workshops are aimed at users rather than developers. No coding experienced is necessary and no WordPress experience is required either. However, if you are a developer, this will give you a solid understanding of the powerful tool that is WordPress.

In this workshop you will learn all about WordPress, themes (how to choose a good theme, installation and customization), plugins(what is a plugin, how to choose a plugin, installation and optimization), how to manage your plugins & themes, edit menus, use widgets and security.

Tickets can be purchased here: https://www.quicket.co.za/events/29933-code-saloon-beginners-wordpress-workshop

Hope to see some of you there.

 

 

Sign up to use your skills for charity

24 May 2017Community, do_action, Events Leave a comment

We’re very excited to announce that sign-ups are now open for our fourth annual do_action WordPress Charity Hackathon! We have a great selection of 10 non-profits that we will be working with and we are looking for participants from the local community to work on their brand new sites.

All skill sets are needed!

As always, we’re looking for Social Media Managers, Content Managers, Project Managers, Designers, Developers, and Quality Assurance Testers for each of the teams, so if you have any experience managing websites in any capacity then you can participate!

The sooner you get your name in the better as these spots do tend to fill up fast – we already have half of the spots filled 🙂

This year we’re working with the following organisations:

  • The Homestead Projects for Street Children
  • Durbanville Children’s Home
  • Kidz Adventure Camp
  • Iliso Care Society
  • ASSITEJ South Africa
  • Usiko Stellenbosch
  • Daughters Of Destiny
  • Rotary Club of Constantia
  • Little Lambs Christian Day Care
  • Tygerberg Association for Persons with Physical Disabilities

When you sign up you can select which charity you would like to work with and what your role on the team will be.

What is do_action?

In case you haven’t heard about it before, do_action is a charity hackathon that uses WordPress to uplift local communities. The hackathons are community-organised events that are focussed on using WordPress to give deserving charitable organisations their own online presence. Each do_action event includes participants from the local WordPress community coming together to plan and build brand new websites for a number of local organisations in one day.

We first started do_action in 2014 in Cape Town and, in the last year or so, it has grown into a global movement with events starting up all over the world.

I’m really looking forward to working with many of at this event once again!

WordCamp Cape Town 2017 – Call for volunteers and speakers

23 May 2017Announcements, Community, WordCamp Leave a comment

It is with great excitement that I announce that the WordCamp Cape Town 2017 call for volunteers and speakers is now officially open!

Every year, local and national WordPress users volunteer their time to help make WordCamp Cape Town happen. Our volunteers help manage the venue and keep the event running smoothly, while our speakers provide engaging workshops and talks to provide our attendees with the mental stimulation they need to go forth and build bigger and better websites, eCommerce stores and blogs with WordPress. Without them, WordCamp simply wouldn’t exist.

This year we have some big things planned, so we need as many hands on deck as we can possibly get. If you’ve never spoken or volunteered for a WordCamp before, I highly encourage you to give it a bash this year. We have a great organising team and with the right group of volunteers, I’m sure there is nothing we can’t accomplish this year.

Visit the WordCamp Cape Town website for all the relevant information, or go straight through to the Call for Volunteers or Call for Speakers announcement posts.

WPHugs & Mental Health Awareness Month

17 May 2017Community, Leave a comment

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2001, one in four people would experience a mental health issue, and less than a third of these people would seek the help that they need.

May is Mental Health Awareness Month in the US, so we would like to take moment to talk more about it and to help others reach out and speak out.

The first time I openly spoke about my personal struggles with mental wellness was with the mic and a full audience at WordCamp Cape Town 2016. It was not easy to do, and that is exactly what raising awareness is trying to do; make it easier for people to speak up and reach out.

It was also at WordCamp Cape Town 2016, that I spontaneously decided to add a hashtag to the bottom of all of my slides called #WPHugs. I didn’t know what to expect from the talk – a non-tech talk at a tech event. But, WordPress has never just been a technology, WordPress is it’s community.

Many people came to me during breaks and during the after party and opened up about their own struggles. Many saying they wished that they were brave enough to speak to their bosses or colleagues or employees about it. I want to help make speaking out less of a bravery; and more akin to the ease at which we admit to others that we are cold in winter.

I went through one of my most difficult struggles in February this year, I had fallen, and it was largely the WordPress community that I have grown into, locally and internationally, that have been helping me with the lifting up.

I could not leave WPHugs to simply be a #hashtag. WPHugs for WordPress is now a full project that began early May, and is volunteer driven, just like WordPress. It aims to offer a supportive and educative platform to raise awareness about mental health and make it easier for everyone to never reach the darkness of not knowing or feeling alone, it’s a community by the community for the community.

The future of WPHugs sees it having regular essays written by other WordPress friends as well as created a repository of resources and supporters of the WPHugs initiative. Currently all discussions happen in Slack. WPHugs Slack has many members from around the world and our local WordPress South Africa Slack has a #wphugs channel.

Let us come together to remove the stigma of mental health issues – The WordPress Way.

Visit: WPHugs.org

Other:
WPTavern: WPHugs: A Community Devoted to Educating, Discussing, and Raising Awareness of Mental Health
HeroPress: Community saved my life: Falling down, lifted up.