Press Release

For release: May 14, 2013

WordCamp Austin 2013 Set to Smash Attendance Records and Attracts Celebrities

AUSTIN, Texas – May 13, 2013  WordCamp Austin 2013, a prestigious conference that covers the latest developments in the open source software, WordPress, is set to break conference attendance records and attract over 450 users, bloggers, and developers, this weekend.  This year’s conference topics are geared to all levels of WordPress users, from beginners experienced designers and developers.  WordPress now powers one in seven web sites, and 58% of all content management systems.

Thanks to the Four Points Chamber of Commerce, this year’s ticket-only event will be held at the magnificent Austin Baptist Church Campus, on Saturday May 18, 2013. The developers-only conference will be held the following day, Sunday, May 19^th at CapitalFactory, in downtown Austin.

The 2013 keynote speaker is Cory Miller of iThemes and co-author of WordPress All-in-One for Dummies.  Featured speakers are Chris Lema, Chris Schmitt and Cody Landefeld.  Returning speakers are Jared Atchison, Nick Batik, Chris Wiegman, Brandon Kraft, Corrin Foster, Ilene Haddad, Amanda Quraishi, Eric Weiss, Crystal R. R. Edwards, Bill Erickson, Chris Olbekson and Stephanie Leary.  New speakers for 2013 are Jesse Peterson, Pat Ramsey, Hannah Hill, Robert Neu, Dorian Speed, Carrie Dils, Ansa Copeland, Joel Goodman, Taylor Christensen, Austin Gunter, and David Vogelpohl.  Developer-day speakers are Paul Ruescher, Eddie Machado, Jason Weaver, Mark Kelnar and Chris Olbekson.

Sponsors include WP Engine, an Austin company visited by President Obama this week, BlueHost, Rackspace, Dreamhost, FatMedia, Code Poet, A Small Orange, CyberChimps, SpringBox, Maintainn.com, Foo Plugins, Backup Buddy, Cloudioweb, ooshirts, DealTaker.com, Jared Atchison, Stephanie Leary, Mark Coppock, Chris Wiegman, Daniel Espinoza, and Sticker Giant.

Celebrity photographer Harrison Funk, who recently moved to Austin, will be the official photographer for the event. Funk was the late Michael Jackson’s personal photographer and has photographed top celebrities and leaders like President Obama and Nelson Mandela. “I am a recent convert to the WordPress and I’m pleased to contribute to the dynamic Austin WordPress community,” said Funk. “Events like these are valuable educational resources to businesses owners wanting to understand how to use WordPress to help grow their businesses,” Funk added.

WordCamp is organized by the all-volunteer Austin WordPress MeetUp group, the seventh largest WordPress MeetUp group in the world, with over 1500 members, including designers, developers and businesses.

“We often have to turn away people from our monthly meet-ups,” said Nick Batik, one of WordCamp Austin 2013’s co-organizers and a founder of the Austin WordPress MeetUp group. “The fact that WordCamp Austin 2013 will be sold out long before Saturday shows the popularity of WordPress.” added Batik.

Read about WordCamp Austin 2013 at https://2013.austin.wordcamp.org/ and follow us on Twitter at #wcatx

Contact: Nick Batik, 512-879-8658 nbatik@PleiadesWebCenter.com