What to expect at Wordcamp Kampala 2018 this weekend
November 22, 2018
Guest Post by Rogers Mukalele
The annual Wordcamp Kampala Conference is starting on Friday this week (tomorrow!). It is scheduled for Fri 23rd – Sun 25th November 2018 at Hivecolab, Kanjokya House, Kamwokya, Kampala.
Kanjokya House on Plot 90, Kanjokya Street in Kamwokya – Kampala will be the venue of the wordcamp. Taxi fare from the city center near Mapeera House Stage to Kamwokya Kobil Stage is UGX 1,000.
WordCamps are casual conferences covering everything related to WordPress, organised in several cities world over. WordCamps are attended by people ranging from blogging newbies to professional web developers and consultants, and usually combine scheduled programming with unconference sessions and other activities. WordCamps are meant to be low-key local gatherings that are affordable — cheap, even — to allow people from all walks of life to attend, meet, share, and learn. Sponsorships and donations make this possible, keeping ticket prices low.
In Uganda, the first Wordcamp Kampala was held last year 2017. Read about how it went down and more details about the wordpress kampala community. This year, Wordcamp Nairobi Kenya will also kickoff on 23rd Nov.
Open to all, content galore, shared with community.
WordCamps do not discriminate, and WordPress users, developers, designers, and other enthusiasts should all feel welcome at a WordCamp, regardless of their experience level. Sessions generally span a variety of formats, including lectures/presentations, live demos, Q&A, workshops, ignite-style lightning presentations, panels, interviews, and any other format you can imagine. Presentations are shared with the broader WordPress community by posting session slides/videos to the WordCamp channel on WordPress.tv.
The content of sessions is firmly focused on using and developing for WordPress. Issues around blogging, business, and social media that are related to WordPress use may be included, but the bulk of the program (at least 80%) is specifically about WordPress.
3- day schedule
This year’s wordcamp has several sessions by distinguised speakers. Click on the links for details.
Contributors Day – Fri 23rd November 2018
| Time | Activity |
| 8: 00 am | Arrival and registration |
| 8: 30 am | Breakfast |
| 9: 30 am | Gutenberg: How do we tell our story? Speaker: Laurence Bahiirwa |
| 10: 00 am | WordPress for Non-Profits Speaker: Ewangu Hillary Otine |
| 10: 30 am | 10 Reasons to use Jetpack and other must have WordPress plugins Speaker: Mukalele Rogers |
| 11: 00 am | WP language translation and CSS customisation Speaker: Laurence Bahiirwa |
| 12: 30 pm | Leveraging WordPress Multisites Speaker: Kasirye Arthur |
| 01: 00 pm | Lunch |
| 02: 30 pm | How to Redirect Users to Random Blog Articles Speaker: Julius Masaba |
| 03: 00 pm | How to Start a blog with WordPress and make money online in Uganda Speaker: Martin Tumusiime |
| 03: 30 pm | Yoast and other SEO options Speaker: Kasirye Arthur |
| 04: 00 pm | WordPress Debugging Tools and CSS Speaker: Laurence Bahiirwa |
| 04: 30 pm | Closing remarks |
Day 1 – Sat 24th November 2018
Day 2 – Sun 25th November 2018
| Time | Activity |
| 8: 00 am | Arrival and registration |
| 8: 30 am | Breakfast |
| 9: 30 am | The Future – WordPress as a headless CMS Speaker: Laurence Bahiirwa |
| 10: 00 am | SEO for WooCommerce Speaker: Kasirye Arthur |
| 10: 30 am | Cyber Threats &; Data Privacy Speaker: Nixon Kamugisha |
| 11: 00 am | So You wrote a Post, Now What? Speaker: Atwiine |
| 11: 30 am | WordPress site security Speaker: Marvin Alinaitwe |
| 12: 00 pm | Panel |
| 01: 00 pm | Lunch |
Great opportunities and Freebies
There is something for everyone. All participants are to get t-shirts for the conference. Several colors and sizes have been made. In addition, other goodies from wordpress including pens, stickers etc will be given out.
Pink Wordcamp Tshirt
Black Wordcamp Tshirt
Blue Wordcamp Tshirt
White Wordcamp Tshirt
Getting started at no cost: For the beginners who want to get started, I am offering to help them with free hosting for one year on the center4webpresence.com server. Online WordPress installations will be made for everyone so that even begginers can start practicing with the self-hosted WordPress CMS with a powerful cpanel, free domain names and free SSL certificates. Everyone is therefore encouraged come along with a laptop. Wi-Fi will be available. NB: Interested members can whatsapp/email me (see contacts on contact page) thier desired domain names and I start creating thier accounts.
Wordcamp Tickets
The ticket prices go for only $5 or UGX 22,000 which caters for meals and breakfast for both days, Wi-Fi, an after party and a WordCamp shirt. Your Ticket will give you access to all the activities that will consist of training, competition and fun. Several tickets have already been booked by participants who paid in advance as per the guidelines on the official Wordcamp Kampala website.
Some remaining tickets will be sold at the venue on Friday Morning on First come First Serve basis. For reservations, call +256759811704 as indicated on this flier
Accomodation for participants who cant commute from home
All participants who need accomodation are encouraged to travel early and first book thier accomodation for Friday Night and Saturday Night, before coming to attend the wordcamp. These will be private arrangements, because no accomoadation arrangements have been made by the conference organisers. Kampala has very many hotels and guest houses which provide classy accomodation, but the costs may be abit high, depending on your finanical standing. There are some affordable Guest Houses in Kamwokya town (which is near the venue) – This week I checked out Yahoo Guest House has self conatained rooms at only UGX 20,000 per night and Rank inn Kamwokya has rooms at only UGX 15,000 per night, among other places. Like I said, participants are encouraged to make accomodation arrangements early enough, or better commute from home rooo from thier relatives and friends places in Kampala who can accomodate them for the two nights.
Wordcamp Sponsors
As you can realise, this ticket price is highly subsidised. Without funding from sponsors, the price to meet all the conference costs would be way heigher. The sponsors for the Wordcamp include WooCommerce, Jetpack, Bluehost, GoDaddy, Digital Blend Uganda, and Andela Uganda Ltd . Please read more about these sponsors here. Some of the sponsor-representatives will have a word to share with the participants.
Fun. Fun! More fun!!
Networking and Fun at Wordcamp Kampala 2017
I almost forgot to mention the most obvious part of WordCamps: they’re fun! Getting to geek out for a day or two with other people just as obsessed with WordPress as you are is just plain awesome. You’ll meet people who are crazy smart, insanely inspired and inspiring, and maybe even a handful of talented singers. Most WordCamps follow the conference with an afterparty at a nearby location where you can have a few drinks with your new friends and hatch your (WordPress-based, of course) plot to take over the world.
