Announcing 2012 Wordcamp Austin May 19th Conference Sponsorship Changes Beginning 5 pm, Friday, April 20th, 2012

Blow-out WordCamp ticket sales, have necessitated changes to our WordCamp Austin 2012 Sponsorship options. At 5 pm Friday April 20^th, the previously posted Sponsorship opportunities and published perks are formally closed.

However, NEW, incoming Sponsors are FULLY welcomed with the following changes:

1. You understand that at this late date you may miss our tight print deadline for being included in WordCamp signage.

2. You will receive 1 organizational ticket vs. 2,3,4. (As of Friday April 20^th accommodating public ticket sales take precedence.)

3. You will still have full Sponsorship visibility online, BUT there may be a slight delay slight delay in posting.

4. We will do what we can to accommodate your educational, non-commercial interest in volunteering in the Happiness Bar (aka WordPress Tech-Support) or within one of our informal Luncheon Conversations with those attendees who have expressed an interest in your educational topic; however we cannot guarantee anything in advance. These luncheon conversations sessions are driven by attendee interest — no interest — no luncheon conversation session.

5. Our WordCamp Austin 2012 session schedule is set, and any openings in that schedule, due to speaker cancelations, etc. will be filled by sessions that are currently wait-listed.

6. As a Sponsor, you will also be invited to, our Speaker’s Reception on the evening of Friday May 18^th.

If you are OK with all of the above, we are deliriously happy you want to help by being a WordCamp Austin 2012 Sponsor

8. Any other Sponsor benefit NOT impacted by a deadline date or that does not over tax the venue’s capacity still will be available to you. At this time, under the stated conditions, ALL our Sponsorships are still available: Gold, Silver, Bronze, Small Business, Individual by ACH Transfer or Check made out and mailed to WordPress Foundation (notation for Wordcamp Austin 2012)

Addendum: Special Contributions & Donations at the amount of your choice are also welcomed via PayPal or via credit card processed PayPal.

Reminder: We have been given access to a beautiful educational space at the AOMA South Campus. However, we DO have to work with the capacity of the venue. We sincerely regret if reaching our top capacity prevents your Sponsorship participation OR your ability to register as a participant.

All this stated….

Thanks so much for your interest!

WordCamp Austin 2012 Sponsorship Programs

Gold – $1250

Large-sized Logo placement on WordCamp Austin 2012 website homepage and sponsor’s page (250 x 250px) with an active link through the end of 2012.
Prominent Logo placement on all printed signs, programs, and badges.
Almost unlimited distribution of SWAG and/or literature to WordCamp attendees via self-serve SWAG Table.
A dedicated, descriptive blog post featuring your company and sponsorship – which will also be broadcast via Twitter and Facebook.
Regular sharing of your company information and sponsorship on our Facebook and Twitter accounts leading up to, during, and after the event.
Detailed mention during the opening and closing remarks of event day.
Four WordCamp Austin 2012 Tickets.

Silver – $1000

Medium-sized Logo placement on WordCamp Austin 2012 website homepage and sponsor’s page (250 x 250px) with an active link through the end of 2012.
Logo placement on all printed signs, programs, and badges.
Distribution of two items of SWAG and/or literature to WordCamp attendees via self- serve SWAG Table.
A dedicated, descriptive blog post featuring your company and sponsorship – which will also be broadcast via Twitter and Facebook.
Regular sharing of your company information and sponsorship on our Facebook and Twitter accounts leading up to, during, and after the event.
Brief mention during the opening and closing remarks of event day.
Three WordCamp Austin 2012 Tickets.

Bronze – $500

Small Logo placement on WordCamp Austin 2012 website and small Logo on sponsor’s page with an active link through the end of 2012.
Logo placement on programs.
Distribution of one item of SWAG and/or literature to WordCamp attendees.
A dedicated, descriptive blog post featuring your company and sponsorship – which will also be broadcast via Twitter and Facebook.
Brief mention during the opening and closing remarks of event day.
Two WordCamp Austin 2012 Tickets.

Small Business – $250

Small Logo on WordCamp Austin 2012 site with text link back to Sponsor site.
One Ticket to WordCamp Austin 2012.

Individual – $75

Text Link on WordCamp Austin 2012 Site to Twitter username or WordCamp Austin 2012 Facebook link.
One Ticket to WordCamp Austin 2012.

Rackspace

During the recent launch of the latest version of the Apple iPad, Rackspace Cloud Sites customer gdgt.com handled more than 55 million requests and more than 110,000 concurrent connections in less than six hours.

And gdgt.com is not alone. There are a host of examples that illustrate why web agencies turn to the Cloud Sites website hosting platform for scalability and reliability. Cloud Sites has really made a difference to our customers and remains an integral part of Rackspace’s product portfolio. More Cloud Sites data and statistics are available in this infographic, which takes a by-the-numbers look at Cloud Sites.

With that in mind, we’re excited to announce that Rackspace has added several new and long-awaited features to Cloud Sites, enhancements that make it easier to leverage PHP and .NET; manage DNS; and improve provisioning.

New Technologies: PHP 5.3 & .NET 4.0

First, Cloud Sites now supports PHP 5.3 with an updated and modern set of extensions. This upgrade to PHP lets users take advantage of new features in the framework such as namespaces, lambda functions and closures, along with numerous performance improvements over PHP 5.2.

Cloud Sites users are able to create new sites leveraging PHP 5.3 or migrate existing sites to PHP 5.3 from the control panel.

Additionally, .NET 4.0 is now available as a technology selection within the control panel. This new feature allows users to easily upgrade to the latest version of the .NET framework in an automated fashion.

DNS Management Updates

The DNS manager of Cloud Sites is now capable of managing TXT, SRV and AAAA records. The addition of these record types gives users full control over their DNS configuration without needing to contact support to fulfill the request.

Other Improvements

Additionally, we’ve listened to customer feedback and have made several other changes to improve the overall user experience of Cloud Sites.

We’ve added MySQL server selection, which automatically populates your MySQL server when using the phpMyAdmin MySQL web administration tool.

We’ve also improved provisioning. Several key fixes have been made that improve the reliability of alias provisioning operations that previously had a high failure rate.

This release signals greater momentum and a bright future for Cloud Sites, and we’d like to thank all of our customers for their dedication and their feedback.

Also check out our new Cloud Sites website and this Press Release for a look at where Cloud Sites is headed.

As always, we welcome your feedback on Cloud Sties and your experience with these and other features on our product feedback site.

New info from Tyler at Modifly!

Inspired by the great weekend we had at WordCamp Austin, we knocked out a quick page* to connect with us. If you are interested in working with chill people knocking down challenging projects in creative and fast paced teams, then give us a shout and we will get in touch.

Full-time, Part-time, Beer-time, or Project based work**

http://Modifly.com/MadLibs

*WordPress + Gravity forms + sprinkle of JQuery magic
** Even if you have adopted a fully communal lifestyle denouncing all forms of capitalism, its still worth checking out.

Tyler Guidry
@Modifly

Modifly – Who we are:

Modifly is comprised of some of the most talented thinkers, designers, and developers from across the country. We are a collective without walls and without limits. We are not confided by the walls of a studio space. We are passionate about your success and your journey there.

We love our clients!

We love our clients and they love us right back. That’s because we don’t just build projects we build lasting partnerships. We’re proud to say our clients are some of the biggest brands from all over the country.

Our services:

Strategy

How did we get here?
Are we unique?
What now?
What is around the curve?

Do you ever ask yourself how did we get here? Where do we go now? Or what do we do to stay ahead of the curve? Well let us help you find the answers and direct the perfect plan toward to achieve your goals and overall growth.

Design & Development

Platform development, extensions, and integration
Implement and integrate unique process, not custom one of code
We have acronyms covered

We craft solutions for the user experience. We deliver clean sophisticated designs with custom and innovative technology. We don’t make things that just look good, we make them work. And for those of you who love acronyms, our experience has you covered (SSO, CRM, CMS, SOAP, REST, ERP, PHP, SOA, etc).

Project Leadership

Manage multiple outside vendors/contractors/deadlines
Single communication point
Run projects across internal business units and teams

Let us bring clarity to the chaos. Spinning lots of plates is right where we thrive. Our team can offer you valuable project leadership and be your single point of contact. We’ll oversee, organize, and manage all outside vendors, contractors, and internal team members. We ensure everyone is working together to deliver a quality product; on schedule and above expectations.

Enterprise SEO

Awareness
Lead Gen/ Conversion
Brand

If your business has given up believing Search Engine Optimization can truly make an impact then you’re not alone. But we’re here to restore your faith in lead generating SEO which will not just say it will move the needle for your business but actually do it. Our process is enterprise driven, scientific, and held accountable to your success.

Visit Modifly’s website here or Email us at answers@modifly.com

a small orange

At A Small Orange, we pride ourselves on taking a refreshingly different approach to
web hosting. Not only do we want to deliver the best possible customer service and
support at a low price, but we also place equal importance on providing the most
up-to-date, environmentally sustainable technologies available.

We’re constantly striving to improve the customer experience, and over the last few
months (with the help of WordPress), we’ve been sharing an increased amount of
blog content and social media links with our audiences.

We know many of our customers are a curious and outspoken lot, and we want to
provide information that will help them to learn more about web hosting, security,
design and development, or anything else that will assist them in running an
awesome website.

Is your organization looking to provide content to your audience on a regular basis?
Here’s a couple things to keep in mind as you get started. Have a great time at
WordCamp!

Keep content relevant & easy to digest.
Before you start blogging or sharing links, it’s crucial that you understand your
audience. What does your company do? Who are your readers? What types of
content will they find useful?

You don’t have to come up with all these answers by yourself. Get the opinions of
co-workers across a variety of teams, and construct a list of potential topics you can
cover. Also consider the different types of content that you’ll be generating. Short,
image-based blog posts? Whitepapers? Always aim to create content that is easy to
digest.

Follow relevant sites/blogs through Google Reader and Twitter.
Once you have a general idea of the topics you want to cover, take to Google Reader
(or any RSS service) and examine the landscape. What blogs and sites are doing the
best job covering the material you want to specialize in? What links of theirs are
sharable?

Twitter is a fine resource for this as well. Enter in a few hashtags that relate to your
topics, and do some general searches using pertinent keywords. You’ll be surprised
at how quickly you accumulate information!

Create evergreen content.
Find out what pieces of information are crucial to your audience. Are there
essential tutorials, lists, or reference-related things that your readers can go back
to repeatedly and share with others? This is known as “evergreen” content, and can
prove to be quite helpful when a blog or site is looking to establish itself as a reliable
information source.

Variety is key.
Publishing a dry, image-free 800-word post once a week as your weekly content
offering is a great way for your company’s site to get ignored. Explore smaller,
sharable formats, such as video or audio. Collect lists of great links that apply to
a specific topic and create weekly news round-ups. Don’t discount the power and
simplicity of images and slideshows. Having different content options helps to keep
things interesting and unpredictable, two essential components for any site on the
web.

Plan ahead!
You’ve got to keep things organized once you roll out your content plan. Editorial
calendars are a great tool to have for such purposes, and the Editorial Calendar
plugin for WordPress helps you integrate your blog schedule directly into your CMS.

Check it out here.

Stay social
After you start publishing, remember to reach out to your audience to see how
things are progressing. Engage with anyone and everyone who takes the time to
comment, and always encourage sharing and feedback! Make sure you’re always
asking questions in your posts, so you can give your audience the chance to offer
their opinion on an issue.