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Where Can I Park?

No event in Nashville is complete these days without a discussion about parking. WordCamp Nashville is no exception and we’ve got a few spots as suggestions:

Saturday parking

There is one free parking lot in close proximity to a redpepper Deavor:

the lot across 3rd Avenue to the East (at 1015 2nd Ave N).

There are two pay to park lots in close proximity to a redpepper Deavor:

the lot directly behind (South of) the building (at 1009 3rd Ave. N)
the lot across 3rd Avenue to the East (at 1014 3rd Ave. N). If you wish to use this lot, you may use the parking code 0527 (WordPress’s birthday!) to get free parking in this lot only.

Sunday Parking

On Sunday, the lot at 1015 2nd Ave N and 1014 3rd Ave. N are both reserved for attendees of CrossPoint church. You will need to pay to park in the lot at the 1009 3rd Ave. N, or use one of the options below

Other free parking?

Yes, it does exist! On Saturday and Sunday, attendees may park for free in the state employee parking lot located at the corner of 6th Avenue and Harrison Street. Additional parking may also be found in the state parking lots located around the State Capitol.

ADA parking is available on a first-come first-served basis at the corner of 5th Avenue North and Harrison Street for persons with state issued license plate, placard or decal.

If you don’t mind a walk, there is also a paid lot on the corner of 5th and Madison in the Germantown neighborhood north of the event site. Additionally, there is street parking in the neighborhood as well if you’re up for exploring and don’t mind parking a greater distance (i.e. a quarter to a half mile) from the WordCamp venue at redpepper Deavor.

Faces of WordPress: John Stevenson

Name John Stevenson

Employment Digital Content Coordinator

Primary website http://www.coaster101.com/

Twitter handle @johnrstevenson

How were you first introduced to WordPress? I was first introduced to WordPress in 2008. After using it for a personal blog, I switched my then Joomla-powered Coaster101 website to WP in 2009. And since then, I haven’t looked back.

What do you like about it? WP can be almost anything you want it to be, and you (as the creator) have total control. It can be as simple as a personal blog or as complex as a multifaceted website and e-commerce operation. The possibilities are near endless, and that’s not something I’ve found with other platforms.

What do you do with WP now? I own and write for Coaster101.com, a roller coaster and amusement industry website that I started in 2005. With the help of a very talented team of coaster-riding writers, C101 has become a leading source of roller coaster news, photography, insight and more in the coaster website universe (which surprisingly exists).

How has the WP community (local and beyond) helped you? I’ve found the WP community as a whole to be very helpful. From determining the cause of the dreaded “white screen of death” to tweaking a theme, I’ve been helped by countless members of the community. Locally, I was excited to see such an active WP community in Nashville after moving here last year. I look forward to becoming more involved with the community in the future.

Did learning WP lead to any significant professional, personal, creative changes in your life? Tell us how! I’ve been fortunate to use WordPress for freelance and community-related projects. And the coding knowledge that I’ve amassed over my years using WP has translated to other jobs and projects that didn’t directly involve WordPress.

What would you tell a brand new user? Even out of the box, WordPress is an amazing, powerful and flexible publishing platform. There is a learning curve, but because it is so widely used, there are plenty of resources online to guide you through the learning process. And as mentioned earlier, there are plenty of people to help you along the way.

Anything else we should we know? Because I’m often asked: my favorite coaster is (currently) Intimidator 305 at Kings Dominion in Virginia.

Faces of WordPress: Renee Dubeau

Name Renee Dubeau

Employment Author

Primary website www.reneedubeau.com

Twitter handle @reneedubeau

How were you first introduced to WordPress? I started my first blog on WordPress about eight years ago. A friend introduced me to it.

What do you like about it? It’s super easy to use, and allows me to instantly share my work. Linking my WP site and social media has helped me build readership, and confidence as an artist.

What do you do with WP now? I write creative non-fiction and self help for three sites! 🙂

How has the WP community (local and beyond) helped you? It’s given me a foundation to build my writing career on.

Did learning WP lead to any significant professional, personal, creative changes in your life? Tell us how! Yes. Using WP, sharing my work with the WP community has helped me gain confidence with my writing. It helped me find my voice, and become the author I am today.

What would you tell a brand new user? Be brave! 🙂

WordCamp Nashville 2016 – Guide to Camp

You’re registered for and attending Wordcamp Nashville 2016. Now what? Your WCN2016 organizers have created this handy guide to help you make the most of your experience with us.

First, for a big picture view of where you’ll be, check out our customized Google Map that our team created to help you navigate your camp weekend. It’s got all the goodies. For details, read on.

Where to park:

On Saturday, there is both a free lot and a pay lot next door to Deavor / redpepper on the east side of the building across 3rd avenue and a pay lot behind the buildings on the South side. On Sunday, parking in these lots will be restricted. For more information, see our post about parking.

On Saturday and Sunday, attendees may park for free in the state employee parking lot located at the corner of 6th Avenue and Harrison Street. Parking may also be found in the state parking lots located around the State Capitol.

ADA parking is available on a first-come first-served basis at the corner of 5th Avenue North and Harrison Street for persons with state issued license plate, placard or decal.

Where to Go:

Deavor / Redpepper
305 Jefferson Street
Nashville, TN 37208
Google map

What to Expect on Saturday:

Registration will be inside redpepper to the right of the atrium. Stop there to check in and get your nametag, pay if you haven’t already bought a ticket, and get a venue guide. When you’re done with registration, you’ll head to the left of the atrium to check out sponsor displays and upstairs for coffee and the keynote.
What you get? Swag is provided this year by these awesome companies: Bluehost, JetPack, WooCommerce, WP Engine, WP Ninjas, iThemes, BoldGrid, Content Connects, Pantheon, UpThemes, Kurate.it, ClickHost, GreenGeeks, Kanban, Forward Push, Berry Interesting Productions, WordFence, Resounding Echoes, and the Nashville Scene
What you’ll eat? Lunch options If you purchased a ticket ahead of time, you’ll be dining on delicious sandwiches from Mitchell Deli. Options include grilled chicken salad, grilled veggie, roast beef and cheddar, tennessee tuna melt or turkey brie – all include chips, fruit and snacks.
Coffee provided from Frothy Monkey
If you’re planning on venturing off site for lunch, Germantown Nashville has quite a few options for food. Nearby is 312 Pizza (located at 4th and Monroe) and Jack Brown’s Burgers (on 3rd Avenue)

What to Expect on Sunday:

Location – Sunday activities will happen entirely at Deavor, so you’ll need to go around to the front door of Deavor (facing Jefferson).
What’s happening? Sunday will be a combination of an full day of contributing back to WordPress core and community, as well as 3 in-depth workshops, 9am-3pm.
What you’ll eat? You’ll need to take care of yourself for lunch on Sunday. We recommend Jack Brown’s Burgers (on 3rd Avenue). If you mention you’re from WordCamp, you’ll get a free fried oreo with your purchase! For other options, check out the google map.
Coffee provided from Frothy Monkey

How to connect with the Nashville WordPress Community?

You can find out more and connect with the Nashville WordPress community at

http://wpnashville.com

Twitter

Facebook

Slack

Meetup

How to attend / get to the WCN2016 After Party?

About the After Party

The Family Wash / Garage Coffee
626A Main Street, Nashville, Tn 37206

LIFT: is offering new users a free ride up to $20 using the code WCN16

Directions: Head east on Jefferson Street toward 3rd Ave North / Continue onto Spring Street / Turn left onto Main Street and your destination will be on the right

Parking: Street & small lot accessible via alley off 7th Street and at Center 615 lot across Main Street.

Faces of WordPress: Simon Carr

Name Simon Carr

Employment owner of DesignUps – Digital Design Agency

Primary website http://designups.com/

Twitter handle @simoncarr

How were you first introduced to WordPress? Circa 2007 when I started using WordPress as a personal blog. By 2009 it was my default content management system.

What do you like about it? The total freedom and flexibility. WordPress can be simple and lean or extremely robust and customized. It seems to work for 98% of the interactive projects we work on.

What do you do with WP now? We build custom themes and modify pre-made themes to be tailored to our needs. The most common customizations involve Advanced Custom Fields and Events Calendar Pro.

How has the WP community (local and beyond) helped you? Have met great friends through the local WordPress community. I would callout Kenneth White in particular for all he has done for the local WordPress community.

Did learning WP lead to any significant professional, personal, creative changes in your life? Tell us how! WordPress is a core part of our business offerings and it has allowed us to work with large scale clients across the globe.

What would you tell a brand new user?

Don’t install all the plugins.
Start with a simple theme and deconstruct it.
If content is your thing, then keep writing – and be sure to use pretty pictures to keep us engaged.

Anything else we should we know? WordPress will probably eventually evolve to power AI – so might as well get familiar with it now!

Speaker Sponsor Dinner

The WordCamp Nashville Speaker & Sponsor dinner will be held at 6:30pm on Friday, September 16 at Pour House Burgers, Bourbon and Brews (730 8th Ave S, Nashville, TN 37203). The dinner is a gesture of goodwill and thanks to those who have taken time to prepare talks to present at WordCamp Nashville and the sponsors who have donated money or in-kind goods to ensure WordCamp is funded. Sponsors at all levels are invited to the dinner to connect with other sponsors, speakers, and planning team members. If this sounds like an event you’d like to attend, become a sponsor!

Faces of WordPress: Jenni Leeds

Name: Jenni Leeds

Employment: ChanceLight Behavioral Health, Therapy and Education

Primary website:
www.ChanceLight.com

Twitter handle:
@Bebopalicious

How were you first introduced to WordPress? I was first introduced to WP in a meaningful way at Nashville BarCamp 2008.

What do you like about it? Flexibility and ease of use for people responsible for updating our sites. We’ve grown from having two sites when I started with ChanceLight in 2010 to 11 this year. With our company’s aggressive growth strategy and our small but mighty marketing department of four (+ an invaluable intern), ability to easily update content is extremely important.

What do you do with WP now? Everything. ChanceLight (formerly Educational Services of America) made the decision to move our web CMS from Sitefinity to WordPress in 2013, and we’ve never been happier!

Working with our web/SEO partners, Kenneth White, Beth Downey, D’nelle Dowis, Ross Jones and now Nashville Geek, we’ve launched three sites and have five new sites + a custom map API on deck for development this year.

Do you use WordPress? Do you live in the Middle Tennessee area? If so, we want to feature you and your story of how WordPress makes your work awesome. Submit your story here.

Faces of WordPress: Bonita Kolb

Name: Bonita Kolb

Employment: Author

Primary website:
www.bonitakolb.com

Twitter handle: @bonitakolb

How were you first introduced to WordPress? My publishers, Routledge and SAGE, request that all authors maintain websites. In other words, we are now required to participate in marketing our books. Knowing nothing about websites I luckily found information about WordPress online and decided to save money by developing my own site. I used the videos produced by WordPress and had my site live in a couple of days.

What do you like about it? WordPress is a system where you can learn as you go. You can start with a single page and then have the site grow as you gain skills. When you want to add features you can always find a video clip and written instructions to show you how.

What do you do with WP now? I use my website to promote myself as an author and keynote speaker. The site is also where I post my blog. I use Publicize to send my blog out to my other social media sites.

How has the WP community (local and beyond) helped you? Being new to Nashville, I have not attended a WordCamp here, but I have attended local WordCamps and also WordCamp US in Philadelphia. I am always impressed that the most gifted developer is always willing to answer the most basic question!

Did learning WP lead to any significant professional, personal, creative changes in your life? Tell us how! Through my website I have received comments from readers of my books in many other countries. It is always rewarding to an author to know that someone has found their books helpful.

What would you tell a brand new user? Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Everything that you screw up can be undone. Someone else has already made the mistake and can help with the correction. While professional help would improve my website, with minimal technical skills I have a website that does what I need it to do.

Anything else we should we know? While I have been an author of marketing textbooks for years, I plan on introducing a line of short eBooks that I will self-publish. I am glad I already have the website developed to use as a marketing platform.

Do you use WordPress? Do you live in the Middle Tennessee area? If so, we want to feature you and your story of how WordPress makes your work awesome. Submit your story here.

Faces of WordPress: Shelby Webb

Name: Shelby Webb

Employment: Holistic Nutrition Consultant

Primary website: webbwellnessconsulting.com

Twitter handle: @webbwellconsult

How were you first introduced to WordPress? I began with a wordpress.com site, then moved over to wordpress.org in 2015.

What do you like about it? I like that WordPress is intuitive as I knew nothing about websites before I started my own.

What do you do with WP now? I use wordpress as a blog for my holistic nutrition consulting business.

How has the WP community (local and beyond) helped you? Free plugins and forums have been absolutely critical. They have helped me teach myself how to do all the basic things.

Did learning WP lead to any significant professional, personal, creative changes in your life? Tell us how! It definitely helped me spread my message about holistic health, and the more I learn, the more exposure my website gets.
What would you tell a brand new user?

Definitely use the free resources available to you online so that you can learn about plugins, etc. You can definitely learn this!

Do you use WordPress? Do you live in the Middle Tennessee area? If so, we want to feature you and your story of how WordPress makes your work awesome. Submit your story here.

Faces of WordPress: Pam Saxon

Name: Pamela Saxon

Employment: Saxon Creative – Brand Strategy, Web Design/Development & Marketing

Primary website:
http://saxoncreative.com

Twitter handle:
@pamsaxon

How were you first introduced to WordPress? I began in print design 16 years ago, and my clients began asking for web design soon after. In order to accommodate them, I taught myself HTML and started using Dreamweaver. Soon after that, blogging became more popular and I could see the writing on the wall that WordPress was the way to go. In 2007 I began using WP and have never looked back.

What do you like about it? Being a brand strategist and designer first and foremost, I like its flexibility and ease of use. WordPress allows me to design sites in a way that reflect a brand’s personality, while simultaneously offering the capability for my clients to post without having to contact me first, giving them ownership of their site(s). They like feeling self-empowered, and that makes me happy.

What do you do with WP now? I help small business owners brand their company’s websites in a unique and compelling way. I tackle big questions, envision the “big picture”, and am driven to provide outstanding strategic creative solutions that help my clients make more money, position themselves as industry leaders and support them in their quest to improve the world we live in. I love this stuff. Helping people put a shine on their brand is the reason I get out of bed in the morning.

How has the WP community (local and beyond) helped you? Getting involved in our local WP community has connected me with other WP users, helping me to solve problems for my clients and giving me a place where I can share ideas with others. I feel a real sense of belonging.

Did learning WP lead to any significant professional, personal, creative changes in your life? Tell us how! Once I learned WordPress, I never went back. Before, I was paying someone to develop my websites for me. This was fine, but he was so busy and I found I was waiting longer and longer to get the work completed. By learning WordPress, I was able to take that control back and get my websites completed at a much faster pace. VERY empowering.

What would you tell a brand new user? I would tell a brand new user, “Don’t be afraid of breaking anything.” If you become part of the WP community, there are always people around who can help you through it. Breaking things and making mistakes is how you learn.

On that note, the second thing I would say is, “Always remember to BACK UP YOUR WEBSITE!”

Anything else we should we know? In my previous lifetime in show business as a performer, choreographer and director, I learned from people like Leonard Bernstein, Gregory Peck and Harrison Ford that a good brand is successful because of the way it makes people feel. People just want to be happy. They want a solution to their problems, and they want to sleep well at night. I am helping companies find their “it.” And “it” is thrilling.

Do you use WordPress? Do you live in the Middle Tennessee area? If so, we want to feature you and your story of how WordPress makes your work awesome. Submit your story here.