What can be better than a WordCamp? Maybe, a WordCamp in the summer at the coast when you can still swim? In just a few weeks, Croatian WordPress community will host its second WordCamp, which will be held in Split on the first weekend of September.
Reason 1: It is an English-speaking WordCamp
Although WordCamps are local events, after having extremely successful WordCamp Croatia last year, this year’s WordCamp Split will be a “national WordCamp”. Last year Croatian WordPress community decided to have one WordCamp per year, and this year our annual WordCamp will be in the amazing city of Split.
This also means that we expect people from all over Croatia but also from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Slovenia, as well as people from other European countries.
As last year, most of the talks will be in English (well, all to be precise, except one talk about WooCommerce which is aimed at local community). Croatia is a well-known tourist destination and most of the people in it speak rather good English so you can expect a lot of interaction on WordCamp and outside it.
Reason 2: Great speakers
WordCamp Split will host some amazing local and international speakers: Tomaž Zaman (Codeable), Luca Sartoni (Automattic), Noel Tock (Human Made), Joško Džidić (Sucuri), Milan Ivanović (ManageWP), Nevena Tomović (ManageWP), Tomislav Leljak (AM2 Studio), Borko Livić (Media X), Andrej Šimunaj (AM2 Studio), Natko Hasić (Convertiv), Lucijan Blagonić (Blagonic Brothers), Emir Kurtović and Nela Dunato.
Every year we host some inspirational stories aimed at local WordPress community. Our aim was to show how you can work and succeed with WordPress no matter where are you living. The world today is more connected than ever and WordPress can be that connective tissue that connects us all together for some greater good. This year we expect memorable storytelling from Tomaž Zaman and Noel Tock about their WordPress journeys.
Here is a brief topics overview:
- Luca Sartoni will talk about growth methodologies in a distributed environment
- Milan Ivanović will talk about WordPress.org theme reviews
- Joško Džidić will talk about website security
- Nevena Tomović will talk about how to write good content
- I’m expecting three great design talks from Lucijan, Nela and Natko, about style-guides, design revisions and branding
- And three great development talks from Andrej, Tomislav and Emir, about REST API, custom URL structures and related posts based on user engagements
Reason 3: Workshops
All workshops except the one from Luca Sartoni about “The art of public speaking” will be in Croatian. Workshops are mostly aimed at local community and are free for everyone. Last year we had around 100 people on 3 workshops with a very good average satisfaction.
This year we will host 5 workshops, 2 of which are hosted by Algebra – our educational partner, and the largest Croatian privately operated educational institution. Topics for workshops are:
- Managing WordPress projects (Krešimir Končić, Neuralab)
- How can your user feel like a superhero in 5 easy steps (Aleksandar Savković, ManageWP)
- Visualization of data collected with WordPress (Konrad Leon Toldy, Algebra)
- The Art of Public Speaking (Luca Sartoni, Automattic)
- My first WordPress plugin (Konrad Leon Toldy, Algebra)
Reason 4: Amazing community
When Croatian WordPress community started three years ago we dreamed big but we took small steps. In the past three years, our community organized more than 20 different WordPress events including meetups in 4 different cities (Zagreb, Split, Rijeka and Pula), one WordPress Global Translation Day (in April of this year), and 1 WordCamp and Contributor day (last year).
In that period we have seen more and more individuals and companies adopting WordPress and the climate is changing in the public and private sectors as well. Currently, largest Croatian open source project is being built on top of WordPress and we have seen some companies that have made an amazing progress working with WordPress projects.
Reason 5: A perfect vacation
Croatia with its beautiful coast and more than a thousand islands is ideal summer destination. And WordCamp Split happening in the first weekend of September is still in the swimming season. When not swimming, you can enjoy Croatian cuisine (in Split it is mostly Mediterranean cuisine similar to Italian, with a lot of fish and seafood and olive oil).
If you are more into wines, you could explore the roots of the world famous Zinfandel. Zinfandel is grown today in 10% of California’s vineyards, but DNA analysis has revealed that it is genetically equivalent to a local sort of Crljenak Kaštelanski (grown in Split area). Although during centuries Croatia had several indigenous varieties related to Zinfandel the grapes were almost entirely extinct by the phylloxera epidemic of the late 19th century. Lucky for us wine lovers, 9 vines of Crljenak Kaštelanski were discovered in 2001 and are now being grown close to Split.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdy4PF9zPO8
Grab your ticket
Tickets are on sale for $20, and as of today we still have 59 tickets remaining. Hope to see you in Split. :)
p.s. If you liked this article and are planning to come to Split remember to say hi to me at @eblagonic. If you cannot visit our WordCamp Split don’t forget to share this story and we hope to see you next year!
Opening photo by Nick Savchenko
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