Speaking at WordCamp Netherlands this Weekend!

This weekend I’ll be in Utrecht, where I’ll be speaking at WordCamp Netherlands. This will be the second WordCamp I’ve attended, having been to WordCamp Portsmouth last year. Coen Jacobs wrote on his blog that he’ll be speaking and it inspired me to write a little bit here.

This is the first time that I’ll be speaking at a WordCamp so I’m a little bit nervous. And I’m not speaking once, I’m speaking twice!

Do’s and Don’ts for WordPress Startups

Bowe Frankema suggested that I do this presentation. It builds on articles I’ve been writing for Smashing Magazine over the past few months. I spent a lot of time emailing people who run WordPress businesses and it’s been great to use these contacts to put together a (hopefully) helpful list of advice for people about to start their own WordPress startup. It also includes some advice from me, that I’ve learned from starting up Words for WP.  They’ve put me on the keynote track – EEEP!

Writing Docs Like a Boss

Since my own WordPress superpower is writing documentation, I also thought it would be a good idea to say a bit about that. I’ve never seen a presentation about documentation at a WordCamp before and it’s actually a really important part of producing a successful WordPress product or service. In the presentation I’ll talk about how you can produce really great docs for a WordPress product. The title comes from a dumb thing that Bowe Frankema says all the time, then I was told by Paul Gibbs that it’s from this:

I’ll be writing up both of these as articles for Smashing Magazine so even if you can’t make it to Utrecht you can find out what I’ve been talking about (minus the silly clanger-voice that I have).

I’ll also be writing a piece for Smashing Mag called “Diary of a WordCamp” so I’ll be doing some roving reporting, taking photos of people and generally trying to keep track of everything that’s going on. If you’re there make sure you say hello!