MicroSponsors 2010

Posted on August 1, 2010 by Jason

Fraser HurellWe are super grateful for micro sponsorships from  BrightMindLabs the and the Tweet Twins – Kevin Andreassend & Jenny Wilmhurst.

There are still some microsponsor packages available.

BrightMindLabs is based in Whangarei but is world famous See @BrightMindLABS on twitter

Their project is “Teaching Children with Asperger’s to recognize and respond to emotions”

BrightMind LABS fuse immersive computer gaming principles with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.

First release is MyFriendQuest, a downloadable animated computer game for PCs designed to teach children – particularly those with Asperger’s syndrome – to recognize emotions and develop social skills.

In the ideal world, one on one professional therapy would be available to all children who need it.

Unfortunately, no-where in the world is the need for these services fully met. BrightMind LABS exist to make therapy much more accessible by developing computer games which fuse immersive gaming principles with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT).

Kevin Andreassend & Jenny Wilmhurst are the @Tweettwins

Kevin AndressendJenny WilmhurstJenny and I have co-partnered to establish the TweetTwins to bring a wide range of skills and experiences together in the online world to assist others to use Social Media tools to enhance their own business activites.

We are passionate in using appropriate technology to enhance your bottom line…the audience is listening, but are you talking. Jenny Wilmshurst and Kevin Andreassend

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Who is Coming 2010

Posted on July 31, 2010 by Jason

Some of you have been asking the easiest way to get an idea of who is coming along to WordCampNZ 2010 in Auckland. We do have contact details for all those who have bought tickets already.  Some people and companies just are on Twitter or we don’t have their ID’s.

Speakers List You may already be following most of these people. @billbennettnz @kaupapa, Alex Shiels @tellyworth and 15 others + a couple pending.

Attendees List There are 40+ on this list. Not everyone here as some are bringing 2 or 3 others & we don’t have twitter IDs for them. There may be a couple here who don’t make it on the day or are representing organisations or sponsors so the numbers wont match number of attendees.

Besides these 2 list there are 40-60 others approx who have booked or said they are coming.  If that is you we need to firm up arrangements in the next day or two. Remember to get your ticket before 10am Wednesday if you want a chance at the 5th Gen iPod from MagnumMac.

Speacial welcome to Public Address or Scoop online communities.

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Custom Post Types Anthony Cole

Posted on July 30, 2010 by Jason

Anthony Cole Anthony Cole is one of the co-organisers for WordCamp NZ this year and last year as well. Before that he co-organised WordCamp Au in Sydney 2008.

Custom Post Types have been made much easier with WordPress 3.0. There will be several experts on custom post types at WordCamp NZ this year and so we expect it will come up more than once.

The aim is to decode this concept for regular users as well as going into more technical detail for those who want that so this may well be two separate sessions or even a panel if that works.

Anthony and other speakers may well appear more than once. Part of the plan for Sunday generally is to facilitate some un-conference style sessions and workshops in response to feedback from Saturday and other questions.

For example – we know there are some new WordPress users who may want to learn more about various aspects of WordPress that many of us gloss over. So maybe there is a need for a refresher basics session as well. Let us know now or on the day what else you want to hear about.

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Win a WordCampNZ iPod

Posted on July 29, 2010 by Jason

WordCamp NZ Ticket offer We now have only 7ish days to go now before WordCampNZ starts.

It will be exciting to meet you guys and have you meet each other and work on the great projects you all have.

This year we have a development stream and a business stream and space for more people.

We need to print some t-shirts (cutoff looming) and to make everything go more smoothly it would be ideal if we can close actual ticket sales a few days early.

So our plan is to see if we can get the last of you booked before 10am on Wednesday 4th of Aug.

To do that our sponsor MagnumMac have supplied a 5th generation iPod Nano which we will award to one lucky ticket buyer on the Sat afternoon. Thanks for all the support.

To buy a ticket online please go to tickets and use a Visa or Mastercard to get your tickets.

Update: Its 10:07am This offer closed at 10am – thanks everyone who helped by making their purchase early.

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MagnumMac Gold Sponsor

Posted on July 27, 2010 by Jason

We are delighted to announce that MagnumMac is again sponsoring WordCampNZ as a Gold Sponsor. They’ve been kinda busy with some other products recently but haven’t forgotten WordPress users and WordCamp NZ.

MagnumMac Limited is the largest Apple specialist retail chain in New Zealand, selling the complete Apple product range and a comprehensive selection of high-quality third-party peripherals and consumables.

MagnumMac staff are enthusiastic Apple specialists and enjoy sharing their knowledge and helping customers get the most from their Macs, iPods and iPhones.

MagnumMac offers nationwide coverage with stores in Albany, Newmarket, Hamilton, New Plymouth, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin.

As part of the sponsorship we have some iPods, (iPod nano now has a video camera that lets you spontaneously shoot video) Freecom Drives see here and here for the Freecom Tough drives and a new product Powersticks.

Power Sticks“The Powerstick 8GB is a portable power source for your mobile devices as well as an 8GB Flash Memory storage for your files, songs , photos etc. Charge it using any USB port, and simultaneously upload and download your files.
With the Powerstick you can ditch your adapters and chargers as well as your floppies and CD’s.

All Powersticks ship with 9 adapters.
Apple, Micro USB, Mini USB (Blackberry), Sony Ericsson, LG, Samsung, Nokia, Palm Treo

Practical
One Powerstick can charge all your mobile devices as well as providing tons of storage for your files, songs and photos.”

So how to win one of these goodies? You need to buy your tickets early.

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Jane Wells – User Experience

Posted on July 25, 2010 by Jason

Anyone using WordPress for a while will know about the huge amount of work that has gone in on the back end user interface. This is one of the key advantages of using WordPress, especially for business users. Version 2.7 back in late 2008 was a huge step foward and every version gets better in usability terms.

Description

Jane Wells uses real examples to demonstrate how to best design your WordPress user experiences to mesh with those of the core software and fulfill the expectations of your users. From 2010

Video provided by Blaze Streaming Media.

[wpvideo aSi4FLWi]

Jane works at Automattic doing user experience stuff for WordPress and related projects. If you want to contact her, use this form, or @janeforshort on Twitter.

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Unitec Venue 2010 WordCampNZ

Posted on July 24, 2010 by Jason

Here is a photo gallery of the WordCamp NZ 2010 venue setting at Unitec.  Building 172 is just on the right through Gate 4 – view map off Carrington Road. See Getting to Unitec for more detail. We don’t have a pic of the main room at present but it is a larger style lecture theatre with continuous desk areas & seats on a gentle slope. Click on an image to view larger sizes. On Foursquare Building 172

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Idealog – Media 2010

Posted on July 23, 2010 by Jason

Thanks to Idealog Magazine for another mention in the weekly email today.

“The countdown is on ’til WordCamp 2010, the user-created conference devoted to all things WordPress from August 78. With just two weeks to go, now’s the time to book your t-shirts and tickets. book your t-shirts and tickets

Richard Hollingum, local organiser for TEDx Auckland, has just been confirmed as a speaker, joining an already stellar lineup for the event (and if you’d like to volunteer to speak, flick an email to the organisers).

WordCamp is also one of the first events to use the recently launched Be In The Room, an innovative way for organisers and attendees to follow the latest developments all in one place.”

We should also mention again that Idealog was our Media Partner for WordCampNZ in ’09 and is again this year.

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On sale now Subscribe now (just $47.50!)

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TEDx Richard Hollingum

Posted on July 22, 2010 by Jason

Richard Hollingum Richard Hollingum is Director of Department of Doing – a company which commercialises innovation and also the local organiser for TEDx Auckland. Some of you will know about the excellent TED.com conference and videos. TEDx is a way towards the transformation business.

The DOD website runs on WordPress although it might not be that obvious. The blog section is over here and Richards full DOD profile is here.

TEDx Auckland was held for the first time last October. Follow that event on Twitter over here when it runs again on Sept 26th. The TEDX Auckland website goes live at 12 noon on Friday 23 July NZ time so be the first to check out what is happening at that event.

Some of the local TEDx websites also run on WordPress but actually we haven’t invited Richard to speak because of WordPress.

TEDx Auckland is part of a new wave of grass roots engagement events that has a broad and growing vision. Richard’s company – Department of Doing looks a bit like an ad agency but it is more than that.

Among the attendees at WordCampNZ  this year (and many WordCamps around the world) some of the most enthusiastic WordPress users are non-profits and other types of charitable organisations who are all out to change their corner of the planet for the better.

We think you will enjoy hearing Richard share some visionary ideas.

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Be in the Room

Posted on July 21, 2010 by Jason

Be in the RoomThe Be In the Room service is for event organisers and for everyone who wants to get another view of events online just like being in the room.

One of last years WordCampers Lucy M from EstateofFlux , (now Sydney based) is part of this exciting project.  To quote.

“Be In The Room curates the leading online services that are changing they way we experience events – Twitter, Foursquare, Google Wave and live streamed video.

We provide a platform for those running or attending events to pull all event related content to one place.

By using Be In The Room you can enhance the virtual experience for those that are at an event and those who can’t be there.”

BiTR aim to be the next best thing to being there.

WordCamp NZ is on BiTR this relies on the event hashtag for visibility and that is #wordcampnz

We also added a Foursquare check-in and will watch this project with interest.

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