I don’t know about you, but I like information and details and knowing what to expect, especially when it comes to attending live events.
I know that one of the worst things ever as an attendee is getting to an event — where you’re going to be for the whole day — and not have something you need!
Between the organizers, attendees, sponsors, and speakers, we’ve got almost 500 people to care for, and while we are doing our best to serve your needs, we also know that we do have some limitations and ask you to be understanding.
Here are a few posts we recommend that you read:
- Advice For First Time WordCampers From Our Speakers
- How To Avoid Mind-Numbing Overwhelm At WordCamp
- The Number One Thing You Should Do At WordCamp
Also… Please be sure to read this entire post. It will give you a one-stop spot to learn everything you need to know about attending WordCamp Sacramento. This way, you can arrive confident that you’re prepared to have a fantastic day.
Dates & Times
WordCamp Sacramento is happening Saturday, September 16 and Sunday, September 17.
- Saturday registration will open at 8:00 am and Opening Remarks will be at 8:40 am.
- Saturday sessions run from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm with a Networking reception immediately following from 5:00 pm to 6:30 pm.
- Sunday opening remarks are at 10:45 am.
- Sunday sessions run from 11:00 am to 5:00 pm.
Event Venue Details
- Venue Address: Sacramento Convention Center located at 1400 J Street, Sacramento, California 95814. Get directions and nearby hotels on the WordCamp Location Page.
- Venue Entrance: Enter the Convention Center using the West Lobby Entrance on 13th Street (across from the parking garage/K Street/IMax).
- WordCamp Location In Venue: WordCamp will be upstairs — we have the entire second floor meeting space.
- Room Setup: The ballrooms will be set up “Classroom-Style” so every person will be sitting at a table.
- Power: There are MINIMAL plugs and power outlets available. If you want to bring a power strip, more power to you! I’m sure others will appreciate it. If you do need to recharge a device, there are some plugs in the Sponsor lobby and in the Happiness Bar/WordPress Help Desk room.
The Creative Nail Expo is happening this weekend as well on the first floor. When you enter the building, you’ll walk through their registration area and up the stairs to enter our event.
Parking
Leave early and be sure to leave enough time to find parking! We’d hate for you to miss the first sessions because you’re driving around or walking in from a parking spot far away — it happens every year and those first sessions are going to be great.
While you are always welcome to look for street parking, there are several parking garages conveniently located near the Sacramento Convention Center:
- Esquire Plaza Parking Garage located at 1215 13th Street (between J & K Streets, closest to WordCamp venue entrance, $21/day)
- City Of Sacramento City Hall Parking Garage located at 921 11th Street (10th & I, 11th & I, $5/day)
- Capitol Garage located at 1303 10th Street (corner of 10th & L Streets, $5/day)
- AKT Lot located at 1418 K Street ($15/day)
- 900 13th Street (between I & J Streets, $30/day)
Event Registration
Registration opens at 8:00 am.
Please arrive early, grab some coffee, chat it up with our sponsors and fellow WordPressers, and snag a seat.
- Registration will take place on the second floor lobby/landing area, at the top of the stairs, to your immediate left.
- Registration will be done by first name: A-G, H-O, P-Z, Sponsors.
- At registration, you’ll get your name badge and lanyard, t-shirt, stickers, and event program.
- We have A LOT of people to get registered in a VERY SHORT amount of time, and while we have many volunteers ready to make the experience as easy as possible, we do ask for patience and we ask you to arrive early!
If You Arrive Late:
After registration is closed, any late comers will need to check in at the Happiness Bar/Help Desk to pick up their name badge/t-shirt etc. The Happiness Bar is in Room 201 on the left at the top of the stairs.
Event T-Shirts
- If you registered before the t-shirt deadline (August 29, 2017), you will receive your shirt at Registration.
- If you registered after the t-shirt deadline (August 29, 2017), you are invited to stop by the registration table during the Sunday afternoon break to select a shirt from what is leftover. First-come, first-served.
- If any shirts are left at the end of the Sunday afternoon break, attendees who ordered the wrong t-shirt size are welcome to see if the size you need is left and trade in your shirt.
Event Volunteers
The WordCamp Sacramento Organizing Team and the event volunteers will be wearing green and white tie dye t-shirts to make it easy for you to find them. At any time during the event, if you need something, have questions, have an issue or problem, or want some help, find someone in a green tie dye shirt and they can take care of it or point you to an organizer who can.
There will also be a table at the back of each ballroom specifically for organizers and volunteers. Someone will be at that table in each room all day, so you can check-in there for help as well.
“The happiest people don’t have the best of everything, they make the best of everything.”
The entire WordCamp Event is organized, planned, run, and delivered by volunteers. A LOT of work — hundreds of hours — have gone into making this event happen within a set budget approved by, and within specific rules and guidelines provided by WordPress Community Support.
- Organizers are volunteers, donating their time to create this event.
- Speakers are volunteers, donating their time and paying for their own travel.
- Our volunteers are working hard to create a great experience for you.
Everyone involved with this event is giving their time because they love WordPress, they support this community, and they wanted to help create a great experience for you. Not a single person associated with this event is being paid in anyway, so please give grace, have patience, and be nice.
Opening Remarks
Official opening remarks will take place in the Peace Room at 8:40 am on Saturday and at 10:40 am on Sunday.
The Learning Sessions
WordCamp Sacramento is delighted to offer two days of WordPress-focused learning, featuring 48 sessions and 50 speakers sharing their expertise and knowledge!
The sessions are split between three rooms, the Peace Room, the Love Room, and the Freedom Room. You have the choice to stay in one room all day, or bounce between the rooms throughout the day to cherry pick the sessions you want to see most.
On Saturday, the Freedom Room will house the full day Beginner Track, walking attendees through the process of building a WordPress theme and using WordPress.
All sessions will be video recorded and submitted to WordPress.tv.
Please know that WordPress.tv is managed by volunteers who are required to review and caption every video from every WordCamp around the world in full before posting it to the site. With more than one hundred WordCamps happening each year, with anywhere from 10-60+ speakers/sessions at each one, it can get backed up. Please understand it may take a while for the videos to get posted.
BREAKS
There is a 10 minute break between every full session, so you have time to switch rooms, use the restroom, or grab a drink. We also have a longer 20 minute break in the afternoon on Sunday to grab a snack.
QUESTIONS
At the end of each session, there will be a small amount of time for you to ask questions. If time runs out and you still have questions, most speakers will head over to the Happiness Bar following their presentation and be available to chat with you.
Event Schedule
The full WordCamp Sacramento schedule is posted online, with the sessions listed by room with times.
Be sure to review the session descriptions and schedule before the event to figure out which ones you want to attend. Click the name of the session to read a description of what it’s about. You’ll also receive a print event program with the schedule in it when you check in at registration and get your name badge.
Beginner Track
We have an entire track on Saturday dedicated to beginner sessions, and a variety of non-technical sessions on Sunday to help you improve your content, website, search engine rankings, and more.
The Beginner Track is a sequential series of sessions designed to walk attendees step-by-step through the process of building/customizing a WordPress theme. The sessions will also teach attendees how WordPress works, how to navigate the WordPress Dashboard, how to select a WordPress theme, and how to use WordPress. And it will cover popular plugins and provide recommendations. There is also LOTS of time built into the schedule to get your specific questions answered. This is a HUGE opportunity to have professionals directly help you with your WordPress website and answer your questions.
If you plan to participate in the workshop and want to work on a theme alongside the instructors for the day, you need to install a couple things on your laptop before the event and click this link for information and instructions.
If you already have a website or blog in place and you’re going to pop in and out of the beginner track, you don’t need to do anything.
Speed Networking
If you want to expand your personal network and meet other attendees and WordPressers, but you’re sky or introverted… or you just hate networking, join us for a facilitated networking session on Saturday just before lunch.
What’s facilitated networking? It’s guided networking. Instead of being left on your own to awkwardly introduce yourself to strangers, you’ll be following specific instructions. We’re going to tell you what to say and who to say it to, and you’ll be moving around the room so you meet as many people as possible.
You’ll receive instructions at the event, but if you want to prepare in advance, I wrote a post with all the exact details.
Communication
We’ll be posting session reminders, event announcements, photos, lunch details, and more throughout the event via Twitter. We’ll also be tweeting the links to download the slide decks for each speaker/presentation.
- Be sure you’re following @WC_Sacramento to get all the updates.
- Follow and use the event hashtag #wcsac.
- Check out our Twitter List of all of the WordCamp speakers, organizers, and sponsors.
Don’t want to worry about bookmarking links or downloading the slides during the event? No problem! A list of all of the presentations and associated slide decks will be posted to the WordCamp blog after the event.
The Happiness Bar
One-on-one help with your WordPress site is available throughout the event at no extra charge in the Happiness Bar, our WordPress help desk!
Throughout both days of the WordCamp Sacramento event, the Happiness Bar will be staffed with skilled volunteers who will be on hand to answer your WordPress questions and help you with your WordPress site. If you need help, this is your chance to speak with someone 1:1 and ask questions, get plugin recommendations, get help with your theme, learn hands-on, get help with your code, and troubleshoot any problems you’re having.
Whatever you need help with, as long as it’s related to WordPress, we’ve got you covered.
The Job Board
We love connecting members of our local community and we’re doing it at WordCamp too with a giant Job Board!
- If you’re hiring, grab a marker and write down the position and the contact email/website URL.
- If you’re looking to hire a contractor or get help with your site, write down your name and email, and a quick note about what you’re looking for.
- If you’re a freelancer with availability, grab a marker and write your name, website URL, and “available for hire.”
- Looking for full-time or part-time work? Grab a pen, write down your name, portfolio URL, and “looking for FT work” or “Looking for PT work.”
- Design looking for development support? Developer looking for a design partner? Write it down!
If a posting looks interesting, you can respond right from WordCamp and maybe connect face to face before the event is even over. Or, if you’re a follow-up-later type, snap a photo of the Job Board and reach out after WordCamp.
*Please don’t use giant writing and leave room for others.
The Networking Reception
WordCamp officially ends for the day on Saturday at 5:00 pm when the final sessions of the day wrap up.
All attendees are invited to stay a little longer for a networking reception that starts immediately after the event and runs until 6:30 pm, leaving you time dinner with friends, time to check in with the family, or get a great night’s sleep so you’re rested for the Sunday sessions.
The networking reception will be on the second floor lobby/landing — in the same area registration was located at in the morning, and the same area the sponsor tables are set up in. This means you only have to walk a few feet to reach the reception and you’ll have extra time to chat up the sponsors.
Food And Drinks
Unlike the WordCamp venues in the past, the Convention Center is downtown and close to a lot of dining options… Plus, there is a Starbucks in the lobby.
But we don’t think you’ll need to worry about that because we’ve got you covered…
I know some of you are big eaters and some of you have special dietary needs, so we’re giving you all the details about exactly what is being provided at WordCamp so you’ll know if you need to pack your own lunch, or bring some snacks in your backpack or bag. Likewise, if you’re a BIG water drinker, you may want to bring your own water bottle or your own travel coffee cup.
BEVERAGES:
- On Saturday morning, there will be regular and decaf coffee, hot tea, and water available.
- On Saturday afternoon, there will be regular and decaf coffee, lemonade, and water available.
- On Sunday, there will be regular and decaf coffee, hot tea, lemonade, and water available.
- If you’re a soda drinker, there is a soda machine in the hallway outside the ballrooms.
SATURDAY LUNCH
On Saturday lunch is be provided by three incredible Sacramento food trucks! That means you’ll have three different trucks to choose from, each with several options available. And, you have the ability to customize your item as well, so if you don’t eat dairy like me, you can ask for no cheese 🙂
To help you decide what to have for lunch, we got the exact menus for WordCamp from each food truck, listing each lunch option and what’s included/on it. Hopefully this will help you identify the best option for your unique dietary needs.
Check out the WordCamp menus for each truck:
SATURDAY NETWORKING RECEPTION
When you walk out of the final sessions on Saturday, we’ll have a networking reception setup and ready for you with some delicious small bites, including:
- Chicken Chingalingas with Avocado Relish
- Quesadillas with Roasted Chiles, Cheese, and Cilantro
- Fire-roasted Salsa and Salsa Verde with House-made Blue & Yellow Corn Tortilla Chips
- Beverage: Watermelon, Mint Agua Fresca
SUNDAY AFTERNOON BREAK
During the Sunday afternoon break, we’ll have an assortment of soft pretzels and fresh baked brownies on hand to help you perk up and finish the event strong!
SNACKS
Of course, it wouldn’t be WordCamp Sacramento without snacks! Be sure to say hello to our sponsors and stop by their tables for little snacks and treats throughout the event.
We hope you’ll join us!
Get Social Please!
Show your love for WordPress and WordCamp and use the event hashtag #wcsac. We will have wifi available, so help us get Sacramento WordPress on the map and elevate our local WordPress community by sharing the event on social media.
- Tweet about things you’re learning, the speakers, the sessions, people you’ve met, and more (@WC_Sacramento).
- Share things you loved from the sessions or publish them to Facebook.
- Take photos with other WordPressers and share them.
- Share posts about the event on LinkedIn.
- Live blog the sessions you attend and share them on Twitter with the hashtag.
- After the event is over, write recaps of the sessions or the entire event on your blog and share them with us using the hashtag #wcsac — we’ll promote you and your posts through our social channels and post links to your website on the WordCamp site!
Code Of Conduct
Let’s keep WordCamp positive and friendly!
WordCamp Sacramento believes our community should be truly open for everyone. As such, we are committed to providing a friendly, safe and welcoming environment for all, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, disability, ethnicity, religion, preferred operating system, programming language, or text editor.
Our Code of Conduct outlines our expectations for participant behavior as well as the consequences for unacceptable behavior. We invite all sponsors, volunteers, speakers, attendees, and other participants to help us realize a safe and positive conference experience for everyone.
Also, please remember, none of us are professional event planners. This is a volunteer-run event and we’re all doing our best to make this a great experience for everyone.
Thank You!
Thank you so much for being part of the WordPress Community and for coming to WordCamp Sacramento 2017!
We look forward to seeing you tomorrow!
This is a very nicely detailed and helpful event description!