Speaker Spotlight: Kelley Lynn Kassa!

WordCamp Montreal is only a few weeks away! We’re as excited as ever about this event. We’ve prepared a speaker spotlight series that will show off some of our speakers at this years event!

I’m happy to present our next spotlight, Kelley Lynn Kassa!

Kelley is currently the director of marketing communications for Datawatch, where she is launching their first blog, managing and implementing the company’s social media strategy and creating inbound marketing content.

Kelley will be giving a talk titled How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Blog.

Why WordPress?

Kelley Lynn Kassa

It’s easy. I’m not a “technologist” – I’m a writer, blogger and marketer. I don’t have the time to spend learning complex technology. WordPress not only does everything I need it to do for content, it also has all the latest and greatest widgets. I cringe whenever someone recommends a platform other than WordPress.

Why did you decide to speak at WordCamp Montreal?

Many reasons: first: people do struggle with blogging. How to start and how to keep it going. Second, as a WordPress advocate, I want to balance speaking with my own interests in learning more. So I opted to speak at one WordCamp and participate as a general attendee in another. As for Montreal: it’s a wonderful city, I’ve not been there in 10+ years and I’m looking forward to reacquainting myself with the city.

What is your talk going to be about?

Blogging. It’s so easy to over-think content to the point of paralysis. I want people to come away from my session excited about blogging, and with concrete ideas on how to maintain their own blogs. I want people to commit to keeping their blog fresh, interesting, informative and updated.

What are you most looking forward to at WordCamp Montreal?

Learning how others are using WordPress, particularly from an international perspective. As an American, it’s too easy to fall into the trap that what we do is the best, and the rest of the world doesn’t matter. It does, and I want to learn from others.

What is the one thing you want people to walk away with from your talk?

Blogging isn’t something to dread; it’s something that can be fun.

What is your favourite WordPress plugin, and why?

As “unsexy” as this is, I’d have to say the Google Analytics for WP plug in. It’s great for delivering metrics for your blog.

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Speaker Spotlight: Yannick Lefebvre!

WordCamp Montreal is only a few weeks away! We’re as excited as ever about this event. We’ve prepared a speaker spotlight series that will show off some of our speakers at this years event!

Our first spotlight is on local plugin developer, Yannick Lefebvre!

A tech enthusiast working in the modeling and simulation software industry, Yannick has been blogging since 2003, started using WordPress in 2004 and published his first plugin, Link Library, in March 2005. Since then, he’s released six other plugins, all hosted on the official WordPress.org site. He absolutely love using WordPress to develop web sites and find PHP to be a most liberating language compared to more traditional languages such as C/C++.

Yannick will be giving talk on Plugin Development Demystified.

Why WordPress?

Yannick Lefebvre

Yannick Lefebvre

After briefly trying out the Blogger platform in 2003, I turned to WordPress in 2004 to get more control on the way my content was published and gain access to a lot more functionality. As a programmer, I was stunned by the platform’s reliability and openness. I quickly started developing my first plugin, Link Library, to fulfill a need that a plain vanilla WordPress install did not offer and never looked back. With each new release, I am always amazed to see all of the new features that are put into WordPress along with the thought and care that goes into the developer APIs to allow us to be even more creative in our extensions.

Why did you decide to speak at WordCamp Montreal?

Ever since I first started using WordPress, I have always thought about how I could give back to the community that provides me with such a rich platform. The seven open source plugins that I have published to the WordPress official site are part of that effort, but I also felt a need to connect with local WordPress users. After finding the WordPress Montreal Community Facebook page, I found out about last year’s Wordcamp and immediately decided to share my knowledge of plugin development with this group. With the great reception that I had with my first presentation, coming back for seconds was a no brainer.

What is your talk going to be about?

I will be explaining to WordPress developers how easy developing a plugin for the WordPress platform can be. The topics that I will cover will include everything from the first few lines of a plugin file to registering action and filter hooks to creating shortcodes and putting together admin panels for your plugin. This talk is primarily focused towards WordPress developers but users might also appreciate learning a bit more about how all of the plugins that they use are built.

What are you most looking forward to at WordCamp Montreal?

Connecting with other WordPress users and developers during breaks, lunches and evenings. I had a great time talking with other members of the community last year and learned a lot from these conversations and some of these contacts became good friends beyond the event. If anything, I hope that breaks between talks will be slightly longer than last year if the schedule allows for it 😉

What is the one thing you want people to walk away with from your talk?

To appreciate both the ease of use and power of the WordPress development API.

What is your favourite WordPress plugin, and why?

I am obviously biased as a WordPress plugin developer. I will have to go with my most popular plugin, Link Library. It powers two sections of my personal site and has become a cornerstone of many of my users’ sites.

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Early-Bird ticket price ending Friday May 13 (TODAY!)

Photo by LexnGer on Flickr. Click for original.

The site is launched and the first batch of speakers are up on the talks page, so we are closing down the -10$ early-bird tickets at the end of the day. You should be able to get the new price until early saturday morning, but why wait?

Register now »

Starting Saturday morning the normal $40 price will be in effect. Remember, this is still an amazing deal in the world of tech conferences! Because of our amazing sponsors (see sidebar) your measly $40 will get you two days of expert talks, catered lunch both days and some sweet WordPress-related gifts/surprises. There are cheaper things in life, but few are as educational and fun.

Whether the early-bird tickets are still available or not, now is definitely the right time to Get your tickets!

Note: Friday May 13 is also the deadline for speaker applications, so we will be shutting off the forms and working with the proposals we’ve already recieved. Thanks to everyone who applied! If we haven’t gotten back to you yet we will do so soon 🙂

Thanks for your support so far and for your excitement about year three of WCMTL!

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Welcome to the WCMTL 2011 Website!

We are very excited to be able to announce some of the details for the upcoming WordCamp Montréal 2011.

Our venue will once again be UQAM’s Coeur des Sciences. It’s a great space right downtown.

We’ve had a phenomenal response to our call for speakers. We’ll be featuring some great international speakers along side our homegrown talent. In addition to talks for users and developers, we’ve added some exciting unconference style events for the first time. And we are thrilled to be able to offer a Happiness Bar throughout the event, in both English and French. Our full schedule will be posted soon.

It’s not too late to become a sponsor. Just like last year, we are also offering microsponsorships for freelancers and small agencies.

This event depends on the hard work of volunteers. you can be one of them. Sign up now to become a volunteer.

We’ll be announcing even more details over the coming weeks. Check back often!

Register now! »

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They’re Talking About Us

WordPress is a rising star and WordCamp is one of the most exciting tech events in Montreal. Here’s what people have been writing about us so far:

Montreal WordPress CommunityPort 25WPCandyTechvibesMontreal Girl GeeksMontreal.rb – The Montreal Ruby CommunityWP Tavernwheresitworking?COCo – the Centre for Community OrganizationsWPmobTechnologyNetwork.catomauger.comWP ThemesWordPress CremeWP:LocalL’Agenda du libre du QuébecPixel SolitaireSymétrisStartupDigest

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