We have all of our speakers, topics and schedule wrapped up for WordCamp Fraser Valley well in advance of the July 16th event. I would like to thank the following speakers who will be speaking at WordCamp Fraser Valley…

John Chow – Residing in Richmond BC, and hailed as a Dot Com Mogul – John has received much publicity (The Province, Vancouver Sun, Entreprenuer Magazine, BC Business, Globe and Mail, and T.V.) for his ability to make money – LOTS of it – by blogging. His free eBook “Make Money Online with John Chow dot Com” is a huge success, and documents everything he did to take his blog from $0 to over $10,000 per month in just eight months.

Rebecca Bollwitt – She is a blogging and social media star. A Podcaster, hyper-local blogger, new media outreach wiz, mainstream media pundit ~ Vancouver’s new ‘blogebrity’ – Rebecca Bollwitt has been blogging about Vancouver since 2004 on Miss604.com, podcasting RadioZoom since 2005 and is a co-host of The Crazy Canucks Podcast. You can find Rebecca live blogging at many of the social media conferences around BC – watch for her!

Kulpreet Singh – Kulpreet Singh is the Communications Manager at Creative Gift Solutions, an award-winning Richmond-based corporate gifts company. He also runs Simrun Media, a business consultancy specializing in integrated marketing communications and eBusiness development. As an entrepreneur and volunteer, Kulpreet Singh’s goal is to help positive and inspiring causes prosper online. He has extensive experience in search and social marketing, content management, and writing/blogging. In his free time, he blogs about all of the above and more at KulpreetSingh.com.

Raul Pacheco – Raul has been blogging since April of 2006. He transitioned his blog, “Random Thoughts of a Student of the Environment” from Blogger to the WordPress platform in March of 2008. While Raul is a scholar in environmental studies, his blog is, by its very nature, very random. So one day you might find a serious essay, another day you might find a restaurant review and some other day you may find… well, a random post! He is currently Vancouver’s top ranked restaurant reviewer on UrbanSpoon.com. Raul has also done press coverage and live-blogging of several local events, including Third Tuesday, Vancouver Queer Film Festival, Cossette Convergence 2008, Projecting Change Film Festival, VIDFEST and Launch Party.

Kerry Sauriol - WordPress convert since January 2007. Under her Crunchy Carpets guise, she has been ‘mommy’ blogging for about two-and-a half years. Kerry launched Wet Coast Women in January of ’07 as a way to reach out to more women Bloggers and create a community that extends from the bottom of Baja California to the top of North America. Kerry has been interviewed by ‘Today’s Parent’ and also guested on CBC Radio One’s ‘Sounds Like Canada’ and ‘On the Coast’ to discuss hip parenting and mommy blogging.

Schedule

6:00 PM – 6:10 PM Introductions and Welcome

6:10 PM – 6:40 PM Raul Pacheco

6:40 PM – 7:10 PM Kerry Sauriol

7:10 PM – 7:30 PM Break and Networking

7:30 PM – 8:00 PM Kulpreet Singh

8:00 PM – 8:30 PM Rebecca Bollwitt

8:30 PM – 9:00 PM John Chow

Topics

Raul Pacheco – I Switched to WordPress, and So Can You!
Kerry Sauriol – Building a Community Blog the Simple WordPress Way.
Kulpreet Singh – Secure your WordPress Blog from Hackers.
Rebecca Bollwitt – Custom Page and Sidebar Templates for WordPress.
John Chow – Evil Ways to Increase Traffic to your Blog.

Prizes

We have t-shirts and sticker prizes on the way from WordPress to give away. If you would like to give away a prize for the event contact me to make arrangements.

They say that having quality content is the most important aspect to running a successful blog, but humans are visual animals and they want their information displayed in an aesthetically-pleasing manner. It’s hard to get through this first filter when your blog is all cluttered and looks like junk. No one is going to find your quality content if they find your blog to be absolutely hideous. At the same time, it’s also important to have a unique design so that you can distinguish yourself from the rest of the blogosphere.

Where, then, can you look for inspiration in terms of creating a unique blog design? Even if you are not able to code the custom theme yourself, you should be able to approach the person who will be designing and/or coding your blog template with some idea of what you want. Sure, you could randomly surf around the ‘net and see what sorts of websites you like on an aesthetic level, but why do that when someone else has already done that for you?

I came across a site called We Love WP and it is basically one massive WordPress blog design gallery. They’ve compiled some of the best looking WordPress-powered websites out there. I’m not saying that you should copy these designs, but they could point you in a certain direction and toward a certain type of theme. The individual sites are displayed as thumbnails and clicking through brings you to the full sites.

If you want to promote your own unique WordPress blog design, you can also submit your blog to We Love WP as well. It’s a win-win situation for everyone involved.

Last week we asked what percentage of your site income do you spend on hosting and 60% said you spend 1-10%. This weeks question is…

It’s always exciting (and nerve-racking) when you start up a new venture. It’s even better when you open your doors for the first time and enjoy a huge flood of business. This means that you have a huge opportunity to make a lot of money and truly achieve a great level of entrepreneurial success. With that in mind, will you be able to handle a sustained level of growth? What will you do if your business suddenly doubles or triples in size?

This is the issue of scalability and it’s an issue that many business owners tend to overlook. For example, if you decide to start an online business where you sell widgets through eBay, business may be relatively slow in the beginning. As such, it isn’t much of a stretch for you to operate the business on your own, putting up the listings manually, processing payments manually, and shipping out the goods yourself.

As business starts to pick up, it will no longer be possible for you to handle all of these manual tasks yourself. What mechanisms do you have in place to manage this growth? Will you hire staff? Automate the process somehow?

Regardless of what kind of business you decide to start — web hosting, e-commerce, a coffee shop, etc. — one of the areas that you should give some serious thought is scalability. Will you be able to handle the growth that your business may experience? It’s a good problem to have, to be sure, but it’s still a problem.

Nonprofits have been using social networks to get the word out since long before the Internet existed. So what happens when nonprofits combine the power of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc. to engage and expand their already-existent social networks? It’s kind of like a supernova of social change that’s addictive, fun, and often unexpected!

Joe will discuss amazing case studies of how nonprofits and social change makers are using Web 2.0 tools to get the word out and inspire action. Joe will also talk about his recent experiences working on the Knowmore.org Firefox Extension, which won 2nd place at the NetSquared Conference.

When is the event happening?
Tuesday, June 17, 2008 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM

Where is it happening?
The Network Hub – 3rd floor – 422 Richards Street - Vancouver

Registration
To register for this free event you need to RSVP at meetup.

Since announcing WordCamp Fraser Valley we have had a great response. We are just finishing up our speakers schedule and topics which will be posted shortly. The event is already 20% full so if you are planning on going you should register today.

For WordCamp in Fraser Valley we will be holding it at the luxurious Cascades Hotel in Langley. I had the opportunity today to tour it and choose all the options to ensure the event is successful. I would like to take the time to thank our event sponsors for WordCamp, the event would not be a go without their support.

The co-sponsor for this event is Newport Business Media. Newport specializes in marketing using various viral solutions.

Our media sponsor for the event is Miss604. She will be live blogging the event and working on any PR that WordCamp Fraser Valley can muster up.

Thinkreferrals Business Network was kind enough to sponsor the WiFi so we can all be connected to the Internet.

Lastly we have our projector sponsors to thank, Sprite Computers.

If you have an opportunity please take a second to visit our sponsors sites.

We still have an opening for Coffee & Snack sponsor. If you are interested in being a sponsor contact me.