When we first started planning Wordcamp Australia almost a year ago now, Me and Sam sat down to lunch at the Eastern in Bondi Junction and talked about everything from which venue we were going to chose to what we were going to serve for lunch. We were very excited about putting on a WordCamp in Australia, and we knew it would be a blast.

But what people don’t tell you is that planning a WordCamp is a very tricky thing to do and it almost never ends, even after the event is over. Things like insurance, the internet connection, and even the catering are all very intricate and delicate processes.

To be honest, Sam and I didn’t know anything about what we were doing when we started. We had a few ideas of what we needed to do and we knew what we wanted to do. In the end, it all fell together, but at times it felt as if it was going to effectively fall on our heads.

There are alot of things to consider when planning a Wordcamp, as it is a full two-day conference. Everything from the attendee badges to the silverware being used is important and will not go unnoticed. People ask different questions and random costs effectively come out of nowhere.

When me and Sam were going through the process of planning Wordcamp, we found that there were a few rules to be learnt. They go a little like this…

The Rules of Fight Club Planning a Wordcamp

The first rule of planning a Wordcamp is: Don’t talk about WordCamp. I mean, literally. Don’t announce your conference unless you have your venue booked and unless things are set in stone.

The second rule of planning a Wordcamp is: You don’t talk about WordCamp. Get a few people together you absolutely trust with your life and don’t let anyone else in. It can cause serious issues later down the road.

The third rule of planning a Wordcamp is: if someone says stop, the fight isn’t over. We had one team member who left a tad bit late in the planning process, but, the show must go on. Don’t let anything stop you and don’t let anything

The fourth rule of planning a Wordcamp is: several guys to a fight. When you get people together to plan Wordcamp, three is a very good number. Two organisers is slightly underscale for an event of this scale (proven by Sam’s partners’ nickname for me: “Sam’s second wife”). Have someone work on PR, someone else on the venue, and yet another on catering.

The fifth rule of planning a Wordcamp is: Sessions will go on as long as they have to. Planning a Wordcamp isn’t a joke, and it isn’t easy if you do it right. Jeff Waugh and Alister Cameron got into a debate about the GPL. We had the option of cutting it off on time, but we let it roll and some interesting thoughts came out of it.

The sixth and final rule of Wordcamp is: if this is your first Wordcamp, you have to speak. I didn’t get a chance to speak, in fact, I had actually scheduled several speakers to make sure I wouldn’t get a chance, and I didn’t. The only time I was on stage was when helping a speaker hook up their laptop or when Sam threw the mic at me and told me to introduce a speaker. Looking back at it now, it was indeed a lost opportunity.

The Event

The event itself went very smoothly. In fact, it couldn’t have gone better. We held Wordcamp Australia over two days in a place called The Red Box in a suburb of Sydney called of Lilyfield.

Saturday

Badges, courtesy of Halans on Flickr

Saturday was the first day of the event and we had a large amount of attendees that showed up for the conference.

Jane Wells went over the Road to 2.7 and the massive UI overhaul done by Automattic. Sam demoed prologue groups, and David Wolf went over some cool ways to use WordPress as a Media CMS. Then, Dan Milward, author of the famed WP-E commerce plugin, announced that they were going GPL in his presentation, “WordPress and the Bling”.

We then broke for lunch (which was some amazing sushi) and then had a special presentation by the dancers from Legs on The Wall, which are an internationally renowned dance group who use the space to practise.

After lunch we had Matt’s Keynote, which was very detailed and went over some interesting history of the WordPress Community, some of which I hadn’t heard of (I’ve been lurking around since the 1.2 era of WordPress).

Following Matt, we had two lightening talks by Neerav Bhatt and Karel Segers which opened more of the community spotlight and what WordPress has done for its users. We then had some tea and Jason Kemp (yet another kiwi) gave his presentation on doing business with WordPress.

This was followed by Jeff Waugh’s intimate “Crikey <3 WordPress” presentation. Jeff went over how he had used WordPress MU for Crikey. The day was rounded off by a panel moderated by Sara Stokely titled “New Media and Journalism”, which went over the intricate game the two sides of the spectrum are playing.

Sunday

Alister Cameron (ants88)

We started the morning on Sunday off with a presentation on frameworks by Alister Cameron, which got people talking and created a huge debate about the GPL. After that, Jomar Reyes went over advertising with WordPress.

Afterwards, we had a more technical presentation on the versatility of The Loop by Harley Alexander and then broke for lunch with a less intimate setting on an easygoing Australian afternoon.

Epilogue

What was the outcome? We built a community. Walking past the stacked chairs, bundles of Cat5 wire, and talking to those who remained, I felt at peace. This was the start of something great. We had successfully organised a community. We shut the doors to The Red Box, hoping to return next year for another great weekend.

Then I tripped the burglar alarm.

Check the full schedule.

So without further ado, here’s the schedule for Wordcamp Australia 2008.

Part of the proceedings is the Annual General Meeting of the WordCamp Association, of which all attendees are members.

The agenda for the meeting is available via the Wiki.

About a week ago Anthony Cole and I (Sam Bauers) had a chance to talk to Charles Stricklin from The WordPress Community Podcast and most of the interview concentrates on the upcoming WordCamp Australia 2008.

While listening you can:

• Heckle with derision as Anthony calls Sydney “the San Francisco of Australia”;
• Gasp in amazement as Sam recalls his two (yes, two) talks at WordCamp UK;
• Ponder the appropriateness of Charles calling Sam a wife beater.

It’s all there in The WordPress Community Podcast No.47

It’s a very long episode, the WordCamp Australia juice starts at 15 minutes and the rest is quite interesting as well.

Entering into the final week before WordCamp is upon us we can share a few more things with you all.

First, the design for the shirt (above) that will be given to all attendees of WordCamp. The design is by Anne-Louise Dadak, thanks Anne-Louise!

Second, we have finalised the line-up of scheduled speakers for the conference. Keep in mind the list doesn’t include our speakers who are giving lightning talks.

Third, a good part of the second day of WordCamp will be in “unconference” mode. So any attendee that wants to speak, run a workshop, network or just socialise can do so. A whiteboard will be setup during the conference where people can slot themselves into the schedule. The second day will also feature some “normal” pre-scheduled talks as well.

Fourth, I’m pleased to announce that we have a great panel discussion confirmed for the event. The panel will consist of a mixture of bloggers, journalists and new-media folks talking about the impact of new-media on journalism (and vice-versa).

Fifth, there are still places available! We have extended the standard pricing of $82 to the end of this week. If you had been indecisive about coming then now is a good time to commit. If you haven’t already done so, register now!

Great news, Matt Mullenweg will be attending and speaking at WordCamp Australia.

Matt is the lead architect of WordPress, the founder of Automattic and was recently named one of the 25 most influential people on the web!

So, what are you waiting for, sign up to come along to WordCamp Australia today!

Ticket registration is now open. You can grab your tickets at EventBrite.

As far as Hotels go, anything close to Central, Darling Harbour, or near the light rail will be appropriate. If you have suggestions, please let us know.

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Sorry for the inconvenience, but we thought the benefits of holding the event a week earlier more than outweighed the negatives, and we’re pleased to announce that Matt Mullenweg, the principle architect of WordPress and the founder of Automattic, will be attending and giving a presentation.

We’re still in the process of confirming the venue, and will post an announcement very soon regarding the location and also open up ticket registration.

Early ticket purchases will be $60 + booking fee for a short time only. Standard registration will be $80 + booking fee. The cost will cover both days and lunch will be included.

We’re going to have a WordPress meetup in Sydney this coming Thursday, September 11th at The Bavarian Beir Cafe in Moore Park. You can check it out and add your name at Upcoming.

If you’re interested in helping out, Anthony Cole is putting together a list of volunteers. Volunteers will be helping out with registration on the day and possibly setup in the morning or the day before.

Let us know if you’ve got any input on the event. We’d appreciate to hear any feedback you have got.

We’ve had intermittent issues with the contact forms on the site, so if you’ve sent us something and we haven’t replied, please, feel free to resend it. The forms should be working now or you can just email via our contact form.

We have created and registered a non-profit association through which we can both run the WordCamp Australia conference and create a continuing base for WordPress user activity in Australia. See our new wiki for more information on the intended activities and aims of the WordCamp Association.

We have moved both the mailing list and the website to here. As you are probably noticing, the site is rather plain awesome (thanks Dan!), so we are calling on volunteers to lend us a hand with a theme for the WordCamp website. It’s a great chance to get your work in front of a lot of other WordPress users. Along with this, or separately if you prefer, we are looking for a volunteer to create a visual identity for the WordCamp Association. This visual identity will in turn influence the conference’s visual identity. Please contact us if you are interested.

We have decided to go ahead with a two day event for WordCamp Australia. This will give us plenty of time to focus on the often under-emphasised networking potential of a meet-up like this.

The dates for WordCamp Australia will be Saturday 6th and Sunday 7th of December 2008 Saturday 29th and Sunday 30th November 2008. The location is yet to be revealed.

You can now tell us if you are planning to attend by using Yahoo’s Upcoming service (requires Yahoo account).

Also don’t forget to join the mailing list for more fun and updates on the event as it falls into place.