Message from the Organizer: Michelle Schulp
Some of my favorite things to hear at an event are from the attendees that WordCamp, somehow, changed their life. Whether that’s hearing a new idea, meeting a new person, being inspired by a speaker, or getting a question answered, I want everyone to feel that same spark that the WordPress community gave me back when I started.
In addition, since moving to Minneapolis a few years ago, I’ve fallen in love with the city. Not just the amazing atmosphere, but the welcoming communities here. It brought a smile to my face every time I heard someone from out of town comment on how great Minneapolis was. It’s like this amazing gem no one knows about yet. I hope we continue to get more visibility for the greater Minneapolis tech and design communities.
I’ve also learned as an organizer that the success of an event is driven by its team, and the organizing team at WordCamp Minneapolis is second to none. Minneapolis has a passionate WordPress community that is very enthusiastic about open source and giving back, and that was showcased by my fellow organizers (along with the volunteers who supported us, and the speakers who donated their time and money to be here) who helped make the event better than I could have expected. The sponsors stepped up as well to provide the financial backing to help everything run smoothly. I am so incredibly grateful to everyone involved.
Interview with a WordPress Business
What’s your name? Marc Benzakein
What is the name of your business? ServerPress, LLC
What does it do? We offer services and tools to make the workflows for WordPress Developers and Designers, such as DesktopServer and WpSiteSync. DesktopServer is a local development tool made specifically for WordPress developers and designers to spin up local develpment sites in a matter of seconds. WpSiteSync is a free plugin (on the WordPress Repo) which allows for you to syncronize content (Posts and Pages) with future plans to add extensions to syncronize all aspects of WordPress Development and specific plugins.
What’s your role on that team? Operations Manager
What’s the purpose of the business? Our goal is to create tools to make the lives of our customers easier. Quality of life is important and we work to make everything as efficient as possible in order to allow them to work on the things that make them money, while giving them the free time they need to enjoy the fruits of their labor. Supporting the WordPress Community is a cornerstone of our philosophy because we believe that helping others to achieve their goals can only have a positive ripple effect.
Who should use it? WordPress designers and developers is our primary client base, but we make them easy enough to use so that someone with literally no WordPress experience can be up and running in a matter of minutes with minimal learning curve.
How does it help people? Our products are built to save people time and work efficiently.
How long have you been working on this project? Our flagship software, DesktopServer, has been inexistence now for over four years. But I have personally been involved for approximately three years.
What’s your history in the field? I originally got involved with WordPress when I was liquidating obsolete motorcycle parts (specializing in Harley Davidson) on Ebay. It one day struck me that I should be making money off of my competitors on Ebay. I discovered a plugin that read the Ebay feed and got an affiliate account going. Within an hour, I had my first WordPress site up and running and within a week, I was making money from my competitors on Ebay. It was then that I realized that WordPress was far more than a blogging tool and I directed my focus toward website development.
What makes WordPress the best option for your product? DesktopServer and WPSiteSync For Content are specifically optimized for WordPress and its database structure. There may be other products that offer similar capabilities, but none of them are specifically developed with WordPress in mind.
Attendee Spotlight
My name is Solomon Scott, I’m a web developer at Chief from Washington D.C. I’ve been attending WordCamps since 2013, my fist one being WordCamp Baltimore. Since then, I’ve been to WordCamp Lancaster, Philadelphia, and US.
The best thing about WordCamps is that they have always been great ways to connect with new people as well as see old friends, and to learn new things. Every time I go to one, I make new friends and gain more wonderful memories. At WordCamp Minneapolis, I learned to really see WordPress beyond the standard loop as It can do so much more. I plan to challenge myself to see what I can build with it and create more innovative solutions.
Usually, at WordCamps, I am just an attendee but recently, I have promised myself that I would get more involved in the WordPress community by volunteering, applying to speak and helping to organize. At WordCamp Minneapolis, I spoke on combining JavaScript and WordPress using design patterns and was excited (albeit nervous) to share what I’d learned. I am also proud to be helping organize this year’s WordCamp Baltimore.
My favorite WordCamp story is actually one that I’ve had from WordCamp Minneapolis. At the Bluehost table, I played Super Smash Bros. on the Nintendo 64 with the Bluehost team. I ended up having a rivalry with one of their team members, Devin. We played in between sessions and went back and forth with our wins but in the end it was close and I won the last game.
