Category: Uncategorized

WordCamp Cape Town has a tradition of having two of the best MC’s for the Friday sessions. Having great MC’s for these sessions is the highlight of the conference, as they bring smart humour and great stories to keep everyones spirits up between talks. Unfortunately we broke that tradition a few years ago by allowing Gareth and Nick from Derick Watts & The Sunday Blues to MC and we’re stuck with them again this year.

All kidding aside, Gareth and Nick are a great addition to the event and we’re pleased to announce they will be back again this year with their special brand of humour and WordPress ‘related’ conversations. 

Like last year, we don’t want to waste time for the workshops on installing software or figuring out if everyone has a notebook. So here’s a list the workshops that require some preparation and how to prepare for them.

Don’t worry if you don’t find the time to prepare, I’m sure someone will help you out. But if you do, please give it some time.

Needed for most workshops

• Pen and paper, or a note taking app
• Laptop

And for the more technical ones:

• Local installation of WordPress (can be done using Vagrant, Docker, MAMP, DesktopServer, or Local – the last two are recommended for the less technical engineering talks) with WordPress installed
• A code editor/IDE (Sublime, Atom, VS Code or PHPSTORM)
• A GitHub profile

Needed for specific workshops

All the workshops with an asterisk (*) need the prep for a technical workshop described above:

• Sass to the reCSSue*
  • Install the following plugins: Jetpack and WooCommerce
    • You will need to add a filter to the wp.config.php file to work with Jetpack on a local site – more info here
    • Make sure that “Custom CSS” is activated as Jetpack module at YOURSITE.DEV/wp-admin/admin.php?page=jetpack_modules
  • Install Storefront
  • Import the Storefront dummy data
  • Download this style.css file to your laptop (you can add it already under Appearance > Customise > Additional CSS and it should look something like this website)
• Creating Automated Marketing Funnels in WordPress*
  • Download all files from this Dropbox folder
  • Follow the instructions in the .docx file
• Elementor, my dear Watson*
  • Visit the demo site and click “Enter, my dear Watson”
  • Alternatively, install a Starter theme (like Underscores), Elementor, StylePress, and Anywhere Elementor
• Twig templating and why it’s addictive*
  • Download the workshop GitHub repo and install all the free plugins in it (Timber-library, WooCommerce, Debug Bar, Debug Bar Timer)
  • Import its images from /Pictures
  • Import posts & products from .xml file
  • Assign pictures to posts and products randomly
• Content Generation of SEO: A business guide*
  • (Offline) spreadsheets
  • Install Yoast SEO
  • Good to have but optional: Google AdWords account, Google Search Console, Google Analytics, Hubspot blog topic generator, Hemingway app
• Automating WordPress*
  • Install Node.js and NPM
  • Install Composer
  • Optionally, install Jenkins
• Inclusive Design: more heart , more humans
  • Cellphone & headphones
  • Chrome web browser: https://www.google.com/chrome/
  • Chrome Web Developer extension
  • Chrome Funkify plugin
  • Opera Mini for Mobile: Android / iOS
  • If you are on macOS or iOS, install the Sim Daltonism app
• Understanding all WordPress APIs, not only the REST API!* (so follow all tech workshops homework)
• Social Media Advertising That Converts
  • A live site, ideally with a way to capture user data (and even better if you’ve done that for a while)
  • Facebook page for your business with full admin rights
• Setting up a support system for excellent customer service
  • Create a dummy (new) Gmail account
• Composer and WordPress – a match made in heaven
  • Install Composer globally
• Vue.js as a Frontend to a WP Backend*
  • Make sure that pretty permalinks are activated and WP JSON is enabled
  • Install some local content, for example, use this file
  • Install and activate WP API Menus
  • Install Node.js and NPM
  • Ready to use Bash (Terminal, Windows Bash Shell …)
  • Clone this repo
  • Optionally, install Postman (or similar) to check API requests

You know what’s awesome? Being a part of WordCamp. You know what’s even more awesome? Being able to share that experience with other people.

Sessions from past WordCamps in Cape Town have been filmed and published online for all the world to watch and enjoy. This filming has traditionally been done by volunteers working to help bring the joy of our local event to everyone else, so this year we’re looking for someone to give back to the community again.

If you know how to manage a camera effectively and are willing to film these sessions for us, then please email capetown@wordcamp.org to let us know and we can make it happen. You don’t need to edit the footage afterwards as there is a central volunteer team at WordPress.tv who will do that for us, so this is just for filming on the day.

If you have your own equipment than that’s great, but if not we can certainly hire the equipment that we need, so please contact us if this is something that you would be keen to do!

In the same vein, we would love to have a photographer capturing the event for us this year. We didn’t have one last year unfortunately, so it would be great if we could bring that back for this year’s event. Let us know if that’s something you can give back to the community!

Interested in either of these ways to help make WordCamp Cape Town great? Email us now!

Anyone who volunteers for either of these roles will, of course, receive a free ticket to WordCamp. If you have already purchased your ticket then we will reimburse you.