See you in 2016 (or may be at our next meetup)

We are back from WordCamp Pune and had a great time there!!

If you did notice WordCamp Mumbai getting mentioned there a lot (Thanks Saurabh) and was wondering what’s really happening. I have the insider scoop for you 😉

But this is also an end post for WordCamp Mumbai 2015 of sorts so I have some info to share with you about this WordCamp before I go on to the next one.

Money Matters First:

So we’d like you to know how much we spent and on what. This helps us maintain transparency and also if there something that we are paying too much for you can always point it out, who doesn’t love saving!

So here’s our Statement of Accounts

Watch them again:

We have uploaded the session videos here on WordPress.tv

Please Note: that videos get moderated before going live and may take time, so please be patient if a certain speaker video isn’t up yet or you could pester us about the same as well.

Now to WordCamp Mumbai 2016

We are in the initial stages of pre-planning, figuring out our budget, venue and getting them approved before we move forward.

In 2016, one of our Organizers from last year Sanat Hegde will be leading the charge, and I will be stepping back only from being Lead Organizer and will continue being part of the WordCamp. It’s important to note that Sanat was an attendee at WordCamp Mumbai 2014, attended meetups thereafter, joined our organizing team last year and now is leading WordCamp Mumbai. We have built an open group here which is always looking for volunteers to help with meetups, workshops and WordCamp, So join in here.

If you are interested in Sponsoring, Speaking or most importantly Volunteering; you can subscribe to our Blog here, as we will be making announcements about the same there.

If you really feel that there is something you need to ask us about, you can just go ahead and use the form next the subscribe option.

Meetups are more fun!

While WordCamp is this big ticket event, Meetups happen regularly (at least one a month). Meetups are a great place to meet fellow WordPress Enthusiasts and make life long friends.

We prefer using volunteers who attend meetups as we are more confident when we meet people face to face, regularly.  If you would like to speak at the WordCamp, but aren’t very confident, you can also get in touch with us about speaking at the meetup, as a trial.

So Signup for a meetup here.

BTW did I mention that this is WordPress Chapter Program Meetup, which means anyone can organize a WordPress Meetup.

Find yourself “WP Helpers” at WordCamp Mumbai

Often at a WordCamp you are confused whom to ask for help or how to ask for help about WordPress. Sometimes because there are many experts, some might feel their questions are too basic or too simple to be asked, some might just be shy to ask questions at a Q &A part of the speaker’s session.

This is why we are introducing WP Helpers at the WordCamp.

What are WP Helpers?

Many times you want some WordPress help on a one on one basis from an expert who has used WordPress for a long time. So people who are volunteering for helping out people with their WordPress queries at the WordCamp are called WP Helpers. 🙂

How to find WP Helpers at WordCamp Mumbai?

There are many experts at this WordCamp. Many of them are our speakers and also a lot of people who work on WordPress for a living. We will be co-ordinating various experts at the venue. Just ask any of the volunteers or the designated co-ordinator for help and they will answer your questions themselves or find someone who can.

How do I become a WP Helper?

When you register in the morning, just mention how you use WordPress and would like to be an WP Helper. We already have a co-ordinator who will handle and get the right queries to you.

Gaurav Pareek on “Better WordPress Development with Vagrant”

Better WordPress Development with Vagrant

Hi WordPressers!! My name is Gaurav, and I’m a WordPress developer. Generally I make themes but I also dabble in plugins and stuff. I’ve been using and developing custom solutions with WordPress for nearly 6 years, and have seen a lot of unusual, weird and bad development practices throughout the whole web development community.

Most of these “bad practices” don’t turn into big problems if a single freelance developer is involved, but if two or more people are there, it quickly grows into a nightmare. If these people are distributed, it’s a whole new story. If you’ve ever worked in such a scenario, you might have heard about the following

  • Works on my machine
  • Your server config isn’t right.
  • It worked when I tried it on localhost.

Enter Vagrant

Vagrant aims to solve all of these by providing an easy way of creating, maintaining, and reproducing portable development environments. All this information is stored in simple text files. This whole thing can be put under version control, and tracked across projects.

What will I speak about

In my talk, I’m going to give a brief introduction to Vagrant, and share some problem scenarios which make Vagrant a must have for every WordPress developer, designer, or theme tester. Then I’ll be giving a live demo showing how easy it is to get started with a pre-configured environment.

I really believe that this session will really help both beginners and experienced developers/designers in some way.

WordPress Settings API by Vishal Kothari

Wordpress Settings API by Vishal Kothari

I am the founder of Tyche Softwares & the CTO at PreK12 Plaza. At Tyche, our team focuses on developing WooCommerce plugins. We’ve had the privilege of being the first to release a Booking plugin that’s fully integrated with WooCommerce. Apart from that, we maintain a very sharp & limited focus on the plugins that we have.

At Tyche, I am not actively involved in coding, apart from for a WordPress plugin that’s in development. My typical day is occupied with ensuring top quality customer support by our team. It also includes prioritizing features for plugin updates, improving the quality of existing plugins & affiliate management, sales & marketing.

Doing things the right way

It’s widely known that WordPress is now used on about 23% of the websites on Internet. What is not known is that only 22% of WordPress sites are up to date. Yes, only 22%!

This is worrying. Because this suggests that the websites that are not up to date, have not been designed / coded in the right way so as to allow them to update to the latest version of WordPress.

What I will cover

The take away from this session would be one step in the direction of doing things the right way with WordPress.

The session will cover on how to use the WordPress Settings API to add sections & setting fields on existing settings pages as well as on new pages.

It will also cover data validation & sanitisation as they play an important role.

Although it is not possible to cover a lot within 20-25 minutes on this topic, but the idea is to cover enough so that all theme & plugin developers who are not already using the Settings API can start checking it out & using it.

You shall be able to find code resources on Github as well as notes. I shall be updating that soon & posting the links here.

Introducing our latest Sponsor – Mobapper

We are excited to have yet another bronze sponsor, Mobapper.

Mobapper-Logo-High-Res

Mobapper helps you create native mobile apps for your WordPress website in minutes without writing a single line of code. You can create apps for iOS, Android, Windows and Blackberry. All of your content will be readily available in the apps.

Mobapper will take care of publishing and maintaining the app in multiple app stores. Publishers can monetize these apps using admob.

You can follow them on Facebook and Twitter

Like our other sponsors, the Mobapper would also be attending WordCamp Mumbai. You can meet and learn more about all our awesome sponsors during the WordCamp.

 

WP Oven joins us a sponsor

We are glad to announce that WP Oven has joined WordCamp Mumbai 2015 as Bronze Sponsors.

WP Oven

WPOven is a Managed WordPress VPS Hosting with an inbuilt Site Builder, which can be used to build great looking sites on the fly. WPOven servers are optimized for WordPress and runs a stack comprising of Nginx, Varnish, PHP-fpm & APC.

There is no limit to the number of sites that can be added or the number of visitors per server. WPOven also includes a white label Clients Manager, using which the WPOven users can manage there client’s sites running on there WPOven server and also invoice them and provide support to them.

WPOven also includes Daily malware monitoring, One click Staging sites, Daily backups on S3, Real Time server and site stats along with a dedicated support team, all this starting at $19.95 per month.

You can follow them on Facebook and Twitter

Mahangu Weerasinghe on “Teaching Happiness”

Hello, Mumbai! My name is Mahangu Weerasinghe and I’m a Happiness Engineer at Automattic. I work on the team that provides live chat support to WordPress.com users, so there’s a chance that some of you may have already spoken to me online. 🙂

WordPress is currently used by 23.4% of all websites. That’s a lot of sites.

The question then, is this: in an age where everyone is developing WordPress solutions, how do you make sure that your offering stands out from the crowd?

Support

In an increasingly saturated WordPress products and services market, providing quality support is one of the factors that separates good WordPress solutions from the great ones.

My session at WC Mumbai 2015 is titled Teaching Happiness: What WordPress Support Can Learn From the Classroom.

I realise the topic is a little unusual, but it comes from a very personal place. Prior to joining Automattic, I was a high school English teacher, and as I made the jump from teacher to Happiness Engineer, I realised that there was a lot of overlap between the two roles.

What I Will Cover

In this session, I will explore how we, as providers of WordPress support, can see ourselves as teachers instead of fixers, and in the process completely alter the dynamic of the support space, creating a more holistic experience for both our users and ourselves.

I will show how some of the tools that teachers use to Plan, Manage and Follow-up on their lessons can also be used in WordPress support interactions, and how these methods can help our users become more and more independent.

I strongly believe that support will play a pivotal role in helping us reach the next 23.4% of the web, and encourage you to bring all your support-related questions and comments to this session. I look forward to hearing what you have to say!

Session Link: Teaching Happiness: What WordPress Support Can Learn From the Classroom

Make some noise with #WCMumbai

The WordCamp is back in Mumbai. In just over a week from now on 7th and 8th March, WordCamp will get underway. The volunteer team has worked out details like WiFi, the menu for lunch on both days.

A lot of people who are attending WordCamp Mumbai, we really only interact with them online most times. One of the best way to get in touch with WordCamp activities is through various social channels.

#WCMumbai

Here is a list of all the social media pages we will be using:

Facebook
Twitter
Instagram

Let’s make some noise as we enter the last week before WordCamp. Get our attention by using the hashtag #WCMumbai.

Something to remember!

Be respectful. We have a Code of Conduct to WordCamp Mumbai. This is to keep the engagement interesting, informal and fun but not disrespectful, discriminatory or hateful.

And since its just eight days left, go ahead and register for WordCamp Mumbai

Introducing Sponsor – WPEka Club (Bronze)

We would like to introduce WPEka Club which is a Bronze Sponsor at WordCamp Mumbai 2015. WPEka Club answered our “Call for Sponsors” and came on board as Bronze Sponsor to support the WordCamp in Mumbai.

WPEka Club Final Logo

WPEka Club is brought to you by a group of WordPress fanatics from India. It’s a premium WordPress themes and plugins store and has 35 themes and 49 plugins on offer right now. A new product gets released every week. Their plugins cover surveys, legal pages, advertisements, listings, backup, affiliates and more. You can find AdSense, corporate, directory, eCommerce, magazine and many more themes in their pack.

WPEka Club members enjoy premium support and exclusive gifts and discounts for products / services that help them make the most of their WordPress websites.

You can browse their full collection on their site and join them on Twitter, Facebook and Google+

Introducing Sponsor – rtCamp (Bronze)

We would like to introduce rtCamp which is a Bronze Sponsor at WordCamp Mumbai 2015. rtCamp answered our Call for Sponsors and came on board as Bronze Sponsor to support the WordCamp in Mumbai.

rtCamp

Started in 2009, rtCamp offers WordPress consultancy services and products. rtCampers consistently contribute to WordPress core and other open-source projects.