WordCamp NYC 2010

Last Minute Details

I’ll email this to everyone as soon as the attendee emailer is working, but in the meantime, here are some last minute details/logistics to be aware of before tomorrow. If there are any questions I failed to anticipate, please leave a comment, so I can answer the question for everyone at once.

We still have plenty of tickets left, so please encourage your friends, co-workers, and anyone you know that uses (or should be using) WordPress to come. It’s not often you can get this kind of conference program for the cost of a movie and some popcorn, so spread the word!

Tonight (Friday): There’s no official event tonight, but for anyone who’s in town and wants to meet up with other WordCamp attendees, we suggest heading over to the Globe for happy hour (4-7pm). The Globe is right near the venue, so if you haven’t been to Baruch before, you can use this as a practice run to see how long it takes you to get there. The Globe is on E. 23rd St between 3rd and Lex. http://www.yelp.com/biz/the-globe-new-york

Location: Come to the Baruch College Vertical Campus entrance on E. 25th St. You will see signs once you’re inside to guide you to the registration area.

Registration will be open staring at 8am. Please don’t arrive before 8am; there won’t be anywhere for you to wait, and it will cause problems for us with security. Don’t worry, we’ll have plenty of time to check everyone in by 9am when we’ll start the show. When you get to the registration area, go to the table with the first letter of your last name on it.

To get past security, you will need to have a photo ID with you that matches the name on your registration.

Food: We’ll have coffee all morning, and we’re having lunch brought in on Saturday (sandwiches, salads, etc). However, you should eat breakfast before you come, and it wouldn’t hurt to bring a reusable water bottle/travel mug if you can to help us reduce waste.

Internet Access: There will be open wifi, but it is very limited in reach and bandwidth, so please consider leaving your laptop at home unless you’re planning to hang out in the hacker room and work on code for WordPress 3.1. This will help us ensure that the wifi can be used for the genius bar and other things that really need it. If you must bring your laptop, if you have an evdo card, it would be a good idea to bring it. There are also very limited electrical outlets, so your laptop will be running on battery power most of the time if you bring it.

Shirts: We will be distributing the t-shirts starting Saturday afternoon (we’ll announce the time/location at the event in the morning). We ordered a variety of colors based on what was available in each size, so it’ll be first-come, first-served for color choices.

Schedule/Timing: WordCamps are *casual* conferences, and schedule changes are always a possibility based on changing speaker circumstances, audience interest in a topic, etc. We plan to follow the posted schedule, but please understand that we may need to be flexible. If there are any last-minute schedule changes, they will be announced at the beginning of the day and the beginning of the tracks, as well as being posted in the registration area and on the session room doors.

Refunds: No refunds, please. If you can’t make it, please give your ticket to a friend (remember to update the attendee info using the link in your confirmation email) or consider your ticket purchase a donation to the cause of building a vibrant NYC WordPress community.

Volunteering: If you weren’t able to get involved during the planning stages but would like to help out, stop by the volunteer table in the registration area. Chances are there’ll be some easy ways you can help out during the event.

Video: We have Flip cameras to record the sessions to post on wordpress.tv. If you have a better video camera and would like to volunteer to record any sessions on Saturday and/or Sunday, just bring your equipment (people who have external microphones especially encouraged!) and go to the volunteer table in the registration area to sign up to record sessions.

Afterparty: WordCamp sessions end on Saturday at 6pm. After that, people will be gathering for the casual afterparty at Tonic East, a few blocks away at E 29th St. and 2nd Ave. We have the 2nd floor reserved, and if the weather cooperates, maybe we can snag the rooftop deck like last year, too. You may want to grab a quick dinner before heading over. We expect the bulk of people to congregate there starting around 7ish.

Sunday Unconference: In the registration area, you will see a sign-up table for unconference submissions. If there’s a topic you’d like to present on, lead a discussion about, or just meet other people who share the interest, fill out one of the session proposal cards and turn it in at the table. We’ll collect suggestions/proposals all day, and will announce the unconference schedule for Sunday at the end of Saturday during closing remarks (we’ll also post it on the website). If we have more proposals than we have time slots, we will get a quick show of hands from the audience during closing remarks to see which sessions have th most interest, and will set the schedule based on that.

Ticket Issues: If anyone is having a problem getting their ticket to go through, you will be able to buy a walk-in ticket for $40 when you arrive, using cash or credit card. If you bought a ticket online but haven’t filled out your attendee information form, check your confirmation email for the link. If you need the link to be sent again, email me and I can look it up for you.

And last but not least, a big thank you to the sponsors who forked over some cash to help us make this all happen, and based their amounts on beloved NYC landmarks:

Copyblogger Media: 1 World Trade Center (planned) 1776
VaultPress: Empire State 1454
Zemanta: W New York, Times Square Hotel & Marriott Marquis 1104
Rackspace: NYT Tower 1046
NorthPoint: Conde Nast Building 809
Margaret Roach: One Liberty Plaza 743
ContentRobot: Lipstick Building & Guggenheim Museum 555
nrelate: United nations 505
9seeds: Flatiron Building & Bayonne Bridge 436
WebDev Studios: 1 Times Square 395
Pods CMS Framework: The Majestic 346
Going2Media: Madison Square Garden 323
Polldaddy: Statue of Liberty 305
Double L Enterprises: NYPL: Stephen A Schwartzman Building & World Financial Center: Winter Garden Atrium 223
Page.ly: Park51/Cordoba House 195
PowerMyTechnology.com: Grand Central Terminal 130
Amphibimen Comics: 69th Regiment Armory Drill Hall 130
AroundHarlem.com: Apollo Theater 100

Instructions for Buying Tickets

We're using a new WordPress plugin for selling tickets, developed pro bono by 9seeds. If you have signed up to be a sponsor or have applied to be a speaker, please do not buy a ticket until you hear from Jane (by Sept 27, honest), as you'll need to use a special code to register if confirmed. If you're not sponsoring/speaking, go ahead and buy a Regular Admission ticket.

If you only buy one ticket, you'll fill in your attendee info right away. If you buy multiple tickets (like for a bunch of people from your company), you'll just fill in the billing info now, and you'll get an email with links for each attendee to go and fill in their own attendee profile (t-shirt size, email address, twitter ID, etc). This is a new system, so if you have trouble purchasing tickets, email jane/wordcamp/org for help.

P.S. The form styling will be fixed in the next plugin update. Beta, baby! :)

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NYC 2010 is over. Check out the next edition!