Jason Murphy

WordCamp Las Vegas: Passion and Inspiration for the New Year

Jan 6, 2009 Las Vegas, Wordpress

WordCamp Las Vegas is happening this weekend. Sadly, I moved from Las Vegas earlier last year to pursue an endeavor in South Florida, so I will not be attending (much to the organizers disappointment). But I will be participating remotely as much as I can via Ustream and Twitter.

I have to give major credit to both John Hawkins and his wife Chris for putting on this show. I may not be attending, but I’m on meebo with John on a daily basis and know how much effort he and Chris have put into organizing this event and coordinating all the details. I am in awe and much inspired by how well they have done at securing speakers and sponsors for the 2-day event, and at how well they have held it together while picking up all the last minute detail pieces. I really am bummed that I won’t be able to attend to see this event in person (that’s a major understatement), an event which I feel is probably the pinnacle event of John’s online marketing career. My only hope is that it is such a huge success that there will be many more WordCamp Las Vegas events to come!

To those fence sitter friends of mine in Vegas and Utah wondering whether or not to attend, to all those from my affiliate marketing past who will be there for Affiliate Summit, and to all those gadget junkies I’ve met over the years from my portagame days who will be at CES:

THIS IS A MUST ATTEND EVENT!

Here’s the deal, for less than the cost of a single hand of BlackJack* you can attend a 2 day event that will:

1. Get you 1-on-1 access to 15 high profile speakers that are A-List bloggers and designers!
2. Give you access to a list of of over 100 attendees who are passionate wordpress nuts
3. An awesome agenda full of wordpress goodies, as well as basic marketing, seo, and design sessions.
4. Opportunity to win some fantastic door prizes! (Ahem, John, you might want to make a small post mentioning what prizes are up for grabs and who sponsored them…if you haven’t already).
5. A weekend in Vegas where you’ll most likely learn how to make money instead of lose it.

The speaker list is crazy packed. How John pulled off getting all these people together in the same room, I’ll never know. The WordPress and/or Vegas gods must be smiling on him (I haven’t heard of a poker tourney win lately, so I assume its the WordPress karma spreading wildly). The speakers include:

• Matt Mullenwag
• Joseph Scott
• Aaron Hockley
• Lorelle VanFossen
• Jim Kukral
• Geoff Kleinman
• Liz Strauss
• Michael Dorausch
• Dave Taylor
• Micah Baldwin
• Shayne Sanderson
• Ethan Gahng
• Chris Brogan
• Jim Turner
• Niran Amir

With speakers like above, you are already getting a much better return for your $20 than any table game would give you.

BUT, and this is a huge but, since this is happening pre-Affiliate Summit, and smack in the middle of of CES and AVN’s AEE, don’t be surprised if you see some major cameo’s happening during the event. I know many big players who will be in Vegas were invited to the event. Of the definite maybe’s, I’m really curious to know who shows up.

Even if you use Blogger, TypePad, MoveableType, LiveJournal, or MySpace as your major blogging platform, the WordCamp show will still be a huge value to you and get networking with some great people.

And all this for $20.

Register now. There won’t be any onsite registration, and the ticket booths close friday at noon.

I repeat: register now!

To the speakers, staff, and especially the Hawkins: Good Luck and may this be the best WordCamp Ever!

Tags: Las Vegas, wclv, wordcamp, wordcamp las vegas