WordPress Community Archives

WPBlab: Encouraging Community Members To Speak At WordPress Meetups And WordCamps

September 25, 2017 Jennifer Bourn

This past Thursday Bourn Creative founding partner, Jennifer Bourn, joined Jason Tucker and Bridget Willard for WP Blab, a WordPress-focused, conversational interview show. WPblab streams live every Thursday at 7:00 pm Pacific and is part of the Watercooler Network.

As a co-organizers for the Sacramento WordPress Meetup, co-organizers for WordCamp Sacramento 2015, and lead organizers for WordCamp Sacramento 2016 and WordCamp Sacramento 2017, Jennifer and I book a lot of speakers and beg a lot of community members to share their knowledge with us through speaking.

You Need A Break To Get Things Done

April 15, 2017 Jennifer Bourn

WordCamp San Diego is a WordCamp that we attend every year. Yes, we have many friends in San Diego and I was invited to speak — which makes the event extra fun — but more important, the event offers an curated business track.

A lot of WordCamps offer a business track or business related content, but the sessions are all based on whatever happens to be submitted. WordCamp San Diego does it differently. More specifically, Chris Lema does it differently. Instead of relying on what gets submitted, Chris takes a more proactive approach. Each year, he hand-crafts the entire business track, selecting the topics of each sessions so they build on each other and create a cohesive curriculum. He then identifies the right people to deliver those talks. It makes for a much better attendee experience because all of the talks and speakers compliment each other.

WordCamp Sacramento 2017 Embraces Peace, Love, And WordPress At The Sacramento Convention Center

March 23, 2017 Jennifer Bourn

After an incredible inaugural WordCamp Sacramento in 2015, that sold out in only two hours, it was clear that our Sacramento WordPress community wanted to improve their WordPress skills and meet other WordPressers in the greater Sacramento region — and that a weekend conference, separate from the monthly Sacramento WordPress meetup was very appreciated. I signed on to be lead organizer for WordCamp Sacramento 2016, moving the event to the Sacramento State University Alumni Center, where we welcomed 31 speakers and 350 attendees of all skills levels for a weekend of learning, eating, networking, and fun.

For WordCamp Sacramento 2017, I am once again lead organizer, and once again moving to a new venue — a larger venue we won’t outgrow and hopefully can continue to host WordCamp at years to come. WordCamp Sacramento 2017 will be held September 16-17, 2017 at the Sacramento Convention Center, just steps from the California State Capital, historic attractions, and amazing restaurants, as well as mere blocks from the brand new Golden 1 Center and K Street Mall.

It was really difficult to turn people away after tickets sold out last year because of venue capacity, so I’m really excited that this year we’re taking over the entire second floor meeting space of the convention center and will have enough space to welcome everyone who would like to join us (as long as they buy a ticket by the pre-event cutoff date). We’re expecting around 500 WordPressers this year!

WordCamp Sacramento 2016, Two Days Of WordPress Focused Learning

July 20, 2016 Jennifer Bourn

It’s official! The Second Annual WordCamp Sacramento is back and it is bigger and better than ever.

Bourn Creative’s Jennifer Bourn and Brian Bourn give back to the WordPress community by donating their time as co-organizers of the monthly Sacramento WordPress Meetup, sharing their knowledge and expertise by speaking at WordCamps, and helping to bring WordCamp to Sacramento for its inaugural event in 2015. This year, Jennifer is the Lead Organizer for WordCamp Sacramento and Brian Bourn is on the event organizing committee.

After selling out last year’s event (150 tickets) in just over two hours and fielding a lot of emails and phones calls from unhappy folks who were unable to get a ticket, we knew that we needed a bigger venue for 2016.

WordCamp Sacramento 2016 is expanding to a two-day event, happening October 22-23, 2016 at the beautiful Harper Alumni Center at Sacramento State University. With a capacity of 350, we’re more than doubling the number of tickets available.

February Sacramento WordPress Meetup: Visual Storytelling Through WordPress Theme Design

January 21, 2016 Brian Bourn

The Sacramento WordPress Meetup kicked off 2016 with a fabulous new venue — The Urban Hive — and an event with 40+ guests attending, even on a super wet and rainy weekday night. Big thanks go out to everyone who made to out to the event!

February Sacramento WordPress Meetup

The next Sacramento WordPress meetup is happening at 6:30pm on Tuesday, February 2, 2016 at The Urban Hive. All 2016 events will be at this new venue, which also provides a hot coffee and tea bar for your enjoyment.

The topic, presented by Jennifer Bourn is Visual Storytelling Through WordPress Theme Design

Most discussions and talks on WordPress theming are focused on development, but to write the code for and develop a WordPress theme, you first need design. And, while the design of a WordPress theme plays a supporting role to the content, it is critical in setting the tone for the feeling of a website, focusing visitors’ attention, guiding them through the site to a conversion, and providing flexibility for future site enhancements and expansion.

In this talk we’ll cover:

Growing Sacramento WordPress Meetup Moves Locations For 2016

January 1, 2016 Jennifer Bourn

The WordPress community as a whole had a big year. In his tenth annual State of the Word, WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg shared some pretty impressive statistics regarding WordCamps and WordPress meetup groups. In 2015:

There were 89 WordCamps, with 21,000 attendees in 34 countries.
WordCamps were put together by 601 organizers — 60% being first-time organizers
1,600 speakers presented at 2,100 sessions at WordCamps around the world.
40,000 people attended 2,000 Meetups across the country.

Our local Sacramento WordPress community has a lot to be proud of as well — and I’m not just saying that because Brian and I are two of the organizers along with Jake Goldman and Joe Boydston. In 2015, the Sacramento WordPress Meetup Group:

Held 11 monthly Sacramento WordPress meetups
Had an average of 30-40+ attendees at every meeting
Hosted the first ever WordCamp Sacramento with 8 organizers, 19 speakers, 21 sponsors, and 180 attendees
Livestreamed the entire WordCamp Sacramento Advanced track for WordPress users around the world to watch
About 75% of all WordCamp and Meetup speakers were from our local Sacramento region
WordCamp Sacramento sold out in just over two hours

WordCamp Sacramento 2015, A Day of WordPress-Focused Training Is A Wrap!

November 10, 2015 Jennifer Bourn

From the initial logo design and site development, to the content planning and blogging, the social media, email communication, the signage, name badge, and program design, and taking care of other event details and errands, for months, Brian and I have been neck-deep in WordCamp planning.

Now that WordCamp Sacramento is a wrap, we’re elated to call the event a tremendous success.

Driving out to the event Saturday morning, I was nervous and excited, and just hoped we’d have a smooth event — and that people would actually show up. We got registration setup, the signage up, and volunteers began to arrive. It was all coming together and it was do or die time. My stomach was doing some serious flip flops.

As people began to arrive and mill around the Happiness Room with coffee, snacks, and waters, they began chatting up the sponsors and grabbing a seat in the track rooms, and it got real really fast. WordCamp Sacramento was actually happening. It’s something we have been talking about for years, and finally it was here, people were here — and it felt really good.

WordCamp Sacramento 2015 Brings Two Tracks of WordPress Focused Learning

October 27, 2015 Jennifer Bourn

Eleven Days. That’s It. There are only eleven more days until WordCamp Sacramento 2015.

I can hardly believe it.

We’ve been working with WordPress for seven years, and we’ve been attending WordCamps since 2011. We’re frequent WordCampers, traveling to WordCamps across the west coast as they fit into our schedule. We love them, love the WordPress community, and are always happy to see our friends and meet new WordPressers at the events.

For years, we have been talking about bringing WordCamp to Sacramento among ourselves and with others involved with the WordPress Meetup in Sacramento. Almost a year ago, I started calling locations, trying to secure a venue, and it’s thrilling to finally see it coming to fruition, to be part of the organizing team, and to have Bourn Creative as a sponsor.

Organizing Team

WordCamp Sacramento wouldn’t be happening without the volunteer organizing team.

As WordPress enthusiasts, co-organizers of the Sacramento WordPress meetup, and agency owners, Brian and I are proud to be organizers of the inaugural Sacramento WordCamp, alongside Bill Mead, Heather Hogan, Jake Goldman, Joe Boydston, and students Jen Meyer, and Emily Buonauro.

WordCamp Sacramento Sells Out, Bourn Creative Sponsors

October 8, 2015 Jennifer Bourn

The website content had been updated, the ticket registration form had been created and tested successfully, reminders were posted to Twitter and Facebook, a blog post was published, an email was sent to the email list, and the clock was counting down. Brian’s stomach was in knots. I almost felt sick. In just a couple minutes, we were going to flip the switch on the WordCamp Sacramento 2015 website and put tickets for sale.

The clock hit 10:00 am, we updated the page with 150 tickets available for purchase, and quickly published tickets now on sale announcements that went out via social media, email, and the meetup list. Then we held our breaths.

I knew tickets would sell, but still we were sitting there, looking anxiously at our computer screens, freaking out, and hoping please, oh please. I hope people buy tickets and it isn’t just crickets. I was sweating. — I’m not kidding.

Then it started happening. In the first two minutes six tickets were purchased! I was happy, thrilled, elated. Five minutes later, I was giddy. My stomach was doing flip-flops and Brian and I were high-fiving in my office, as 63 tickets were already gone. Watching the tickets fly off the virtual shelf was exciting — I couldn’t look away and neither could Brian. Adrenaline was pumping through our systems and with each ticket sale it pumped faster.

We knew at that point, nothing else would get done until the tickets were gone.

In only 30 minutes, 80 tickets were gone. They were getting snatched up like free WordPress t-shirts at WordCamp! By 11:30 am only 11 tickets of 150 were left. Then finally at 12:20 the last ticket was purchased and I could finally relax!

WordCamp Is Coming To Sacramento

September 28, 2015 Jennifer Bourn

I am so excited to share that WordCamp is finally coming to Sacramento, California’s beautiful capitol city! WordCamp Sacramento 2015 will be happening on Saturday, November 7, 2015 at The Art Institute of California — Sacramento.

WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress, the free and open source personal publishing software that powers over 75 million sites on the web. They are attended by a wide range of people, including designers, developers, business owners, bloggers, consultants, and anyone who uses WordPress in any way — from newbies to the advanced.

Brian and I have attended many WordCamps, multiple years in a row, including WordCamp Chicago, WordCamp Phoenix, WordCamp San Francisco, WordCamp Seattle, WordCamp Orange County, WordCamp San Diego, WordCamp Las Vegas, WordCamp Reno, and WordCamp Los Angeles.

Finally, We’re Having WordCamp Sacramento 2015

The Sacramento WordPress Community has been working to host a WordCamp in the state Capitol for quite a while, and as co-organizers of the Sacramento WordPress Meetup Group, Brian and I have been champions for the event and are thrilled to be part of an awesome team of organizers who are volunteering time, resources, and energy to make WordCamp Sacramento happen.

Jennifer Bourn “Ask Me Anything”

September 12, 2015 Jennifer Bourn

Ask Me Anything. I’ve seen links and chatter about Ask Me Anything (AMA) sessions on various websites, but didn’t pay too much attention because often I didn’t know the person and therefore, I didn’t have any questions.

Then ManageWP reached out and asked me to participate in their Ask Me Anything blog series, right after Page.ly co-founder and Pressnomics creator Joshua Strebel.

OMG. Of course, I said yes. Then I started to get really nervous.

What if the day was a flop?
What if no one asked me a question?
What if they asked me questions I didn’t know the answer to?
What if they asked me something weird — it was an ask me anything after all.

On September 9, my AMA discussion opened and hooray questions began coming in! Questions about family, vacation, games, Legos, and the Grateful Dead, as well as questions about developing client resources, the Genesis Framework, systems and processes, branding, family, managing workload, getting paid, and more.

Choosing Clients, Pricing, Project Priorities, And More

September 8, 2015 Jennifer Bourn

School has started, and the influx of autumn projects from business owners itching to get projects done (or at least started) by year’s end has kicked off with a bang. It’s hard to believe there are just a few more months left in 2015!

Not only does autumn bring a steady stream of new projects, but it also brings a steady flow of new interviews and shop talk.

Today my a blog Q&A interview for WPeka is live! Along with some standards like “what plugins do you recommend,” the WPeka team asked new questions that you normally don’t get in a WordPress interview. It was awesome because who wants to hear about the same old stuff!?

Here are a few of the questions I answered:

A change in your college major proved to be instrumental in starting your journey as a designer. Tell us more about it.
How do you handle a Catch-22 when clients do not know what they know what they want? What are your pet projects — small local businesses or giant conglomerates?
What is your pricing strategy — based on plans or hours?
What are your top priorities during a project’s design and development phase?
Genesis is the basic theme for all your websites. Why does the Genesis Framework have an edge over its competitors?

Brian Bourn Gives The Behind The Scenes Skinny In WP Elevation Podcast Interview

August 6, 2015 Brian Bourn

This past week, I joined for an interview on the WP Elevation Podcast. In the episode, I share what it’s been like to work as part of a husband-wife team, why personal brands are so vital to your success, and where I see Bourn Creative going in the future. I also talk about how we got clear on our ideal client, what I spend my average day doing, how we create content regularly for the blog and our marketing, business growth, ongoing support and maintenance, and more.

Hear all the details in the full interview, or check out some of the highlights and brief overview below.

Listen Now

How Bourn Creative Got Started

Troy kicks off the interview with discussion around how Bourn Creative got started:

Bourn Creative was founded in July 2005 as a pure design company, offering brand design, email marketing design, and print graphic design services. We quickly added web design services, began using a private label content management system, Light CMS, then discovered WordPress in 2008 at version 2.7. We loved the functionality it brought to our projects, but we stuck around for the community and it has been a mainstay of ours ever since.

Originally the business was started out of necessity. We had a 2 year old, Jennifer was pregnant, and we had daycare issues. Starting her own business solved those problems. At the time we did whatever it took to get up and running, get income coming in, and take care of our family as best we could.

From day one, I had always managed the financial end of the business, then a few years in, I began teaching myself to write code and eventually joined the business full time to lead development.

Over the years, our client profile has evolved and shifted, and today we work with small to medium-sized businesses in what we like to call the “not-quite-enterprise” space, providing a complete suite of design and development services, specializing in custom WordPress publishing solutions.

This year we celebrated our 10-year business anniversary and with each year has come greater clarity and focus about what work we want to be doing and what clients we want to be serving.

Prestige Conference Las Vegas: Exceeding Expectations

March 5, 2015 Jennifer Bourn

This past weekend, Brian and I attended Prestige Conference Las Vegas, the second event of it’s kind, with the first being Prestige Conference Minneapolis in October 2014.

I feel like I said this about the first Prestige Conference, but seriously, this event was by far one of my favorites — and not just because so many of our friends were also there…

Among the meetups, WordCamps, business conferences, and networking events, Prestige Conference has quite effectively carved out a solid position in the market. It serves business owners, agency owners, and freelancers alike, do business better — or at least think about their business with a fresh perspective.

With a mix of personal stories, lessons learned, business nitty-gritty, and actionable get it done steps, Prestige is quickly becoming the go to conference for those who are interested in upleveling themselves AND their businesses or careers.

WordCamp San Francisco Recap and The State Of The Word 2014

November 8, 2014 Jennifer Bourn

Ah WordCamp San Francisco, the mothership of WordCamps. The two-day event focused around WordPress, was the largest WordCamp San Francisco to date with about 1,000 attendees, and all three rounds of tickets selling out same day. Thank goodness that as a speaker I got to snag my ticket in advance, and that Brian got his in the first round!

Planned Beautifully

The event, organized by Andrea Middleton and her team, was planned beautifully — even with a fire alarm and building evacuation on the first day.

Registration and t-shirt pick up were both fast and easy, the schedule was kept on time and was updated when there were changes — and the food (especially the chili) was great. Thanks for the vegan/vegetarian/dairy-free options and for posting the menus in advance!

Prestige Conference Recap: When Like-Minded People Get Honest

October 13, 2014 Jennifer Bourn

Imagine a small, intimate setting where you’re surrounded only by like-minded people willing to invest in their careers, businesses, and success. Imagine all of those people working in the same space you are, but in different capacities and different ways, with different types of clients. Imagine being able to talk with them openly and honestly, to get real feedback and fresh perspectives, and to really have the opportunity to talk shop and learn.

Sounds amazing right?

This is exactly what I experienced at Prestige Conference. Prestige is a business & career development conference geared towards freelancers, entrepreneurs, and small shops operating in the digital marketplace.

I was thrilled to have been invited to speak alongside some ridiculously talented and accomplished business owners, and I knew the event would bring the value with Kiko Doran and Josh Broton at the helm. But what I didn’t expect was how different the event felt in comparison to a large WordCamp.

WordCamp Los Angeles 2014: WordPress, Fun, And Learning

September 9, 2014 Jennifer Bourn

This past weekend, Brian and I drove down to LA for WordCamp Los Angeles, which included three full days of WordPress, fun, and learning — and we both presented at the event.

This sold out event with about 750 (I think) attendees ran smoothly, stayed on schedule, and provided great content, speakers, and time to network. Plus, the speaker/sponsor dinner and the after party were both wonderful, as was the food each day, and the t-shirts!

So, before I dive into a recap of the event, I want to extend a BIG THANK YOU to the lead organizers Nathan Tyler, Natalie Maclees, Alex Vasquez, and Ryan Cowles, as well as a team of volunteers that worked hard to make this event happen.

You can check out the WP Watercolor WordCamp LA recap show here.

WordCamp Phoenix 2014 Recap: Learning, Community, Inspiration

January 25, 2014 Jennifer Bourn

Last weekend Brian and I headed to Arizona for WordCamp Phoenix, a three day event jam-packed with training sessions of all types! With 750 attendees, is the second largest WordCamp in the United States and was better run than some of the larger, most expensive conferences I have attended.

I have to give huge compliments to April Holle (Lead Organizer), the whole organizing team, and all the volunteers for doing such a stellar job! Plus the Schedule and Speakers were pretty impressive.

We arrived on Thursday and had a fabulous dinner with some old and new WordPress friends — WordPress t-shirts were everywhere!
Friday kicked off the actual event with longer workshop style sessions for the Beginner User, Advanced User, Designer, Beginner Dev, and Advanced Dev — they really had sessions for everyone. That night was the speaker/sponsor dinner where I got to meet many of the other speakers.
The Saturday sessions built on the skills developed on Friday with a choice of sessions in three different tracks, including Content & Design, Community & Commerce, and Extension & Development. My presentation on Strategies to Turn Content into Cash was part of the Content & Design track — See what attendees had to say about it on Twitter.
Then there was the after-party, which offered great food, an open bar, an ice luge, multiple bands, a mock casino, and more time to connect with other attendees.
Sunday, the final day of the conference, was a little more informal and was structured as more of a Biz Dev / Contribute Day, with users, designers, and developers all attending joint sessions supporting business of WordPress.

Every session I attended reinforced best practices, taught me something new, and got me thinking about ways to improve our own services, processes, and business — and as usual, the event was free from self-promotion, sales pitches, and hype, which is truly appreciated!

Now there is simply way too much to share in a blog post, but you can get a feel for the event, energy surrounding it, and some opinions on the speakers in the WPwatercooler Recap of WordCamp Phoenix 2014. (Hint: They mention me!)

Same Tools, Same Strategy, Different Result

August 12, 2013 Jennifer Bourn

I see it happen over and over: A coach or expert sells “how they did it” or their process for achieving results. A business owner wanting to achieve the same results hires them to learn how they did it. The business owner learns tactics, uses the same tools, and applies the same strategy… yet they don’t achieve the same results. In many cases, they don’t even come close to achieving the same success. Why is that? Why can you do everything exactly the same and not enjoy the same success?

There is one major difference that wasn’t accounted for.

You are not them! The person, the expert, the history, the experience, the story, the brand, the positioning, the relationships — the person at the center of everything is different. So while you can use the same tools and the same strategy, and you can achieve the same results, you can’t just copy a cookie cutter formula. You must adjust your approach and customize it to fit you, your brand, and your business.

WordCamp Sessions Are Great, But The People Are Even Better

August 5, 2013 Jennifer Bourn

Every time I come back from a conference or event, someone asks — well, a lot of someones ask: “What was the best part?”

I could tell you that the WordCamp San Francisco (@WordCampSF) sessions I attended as a whole were awesome. And, I could share that the event was well planned, well staffed, and well put together. Or maybe I could fill you in on the coffee, soft drinks, water, lunches, party food, libations, desserts, and free t-shirts that were included for the nominal event fee of only $40.

But honestly, the BEST part of WordCamp San Francisco wasn’t any of those things. It was the people.

Except for ONE really rude guy who was seriously not very nice (there’s always one isn’t there?), everyone I met — from advanced developers to new users — was welcoming, supportive, and nice.

As I shared in my post WordCamps: A Rising Tide Lifts All WordPress Websites, until now I had left the WordCamping to Brian. My perception was that it was only for developers, and that if you weren’t a developer you’d be an outcast — like high school (and sometimes Twitter) with the cool kids and the rest of the community. I won’t lie, there is still some of that happening — some people who act like they can’t be bothered to talk to you because they are so much more important. But these people, speaking from my experience, were the extreme minority.

WordCamps: A Rising Tide Lifts All WordPress Websites

August 1, 2013 Jennifer Bourn

Brian has been attending WordPress WordCamps around the country for a couple of years now, but I just attended my very first WordCamp this past weekend in San Francisco. A WordCamp is a mini conference or workshop all about WordPress with tracks and sessions appropriate for advanced developers, mid-level consultants. And newbie beginners alike.

What blew my mind is that the WordCamp San Francisco attendees were such a diverse mix of designers, developers, business owners, bloggers, employees, freelancers, students, consultants, and more.

You see, I left the WordCamps to Brian to attend because I thought I didn’t belong. I thought that because I am not a skilled developer and can’t talk code off the top of my head, that I would be out of place. But Brian kept telling me that I had to experience a WordCamp for myself to understand what it was about. So we bought tickets for WordCamp SanFrancisco and planned a mini vacation around it.

My perceptions about what a WordCamp was were shattered.

Recap: WordCamp San Francisco 2013, State of The Word by Matt Mullenweg

July 30, 2013 Jennifer Bourn

This past weekend, I attended my first WordCamp — and I have a lot I want to share with you about the experience and the WordPress community, which I’ll do over the next few blog posts.

I want to start with a recap of the WordCamp San Francisco talk I was most looking forward — The State of the Word 2013 by Matt Mullenweg, co-founder of WordPress (with Mike Little) and The State of the Word Q&A.

This was the first time I’ve seen him speak and I found Matt (@photomatt) to be professional, charismatic, funny, personal, humble, and engaged with the people who work with it and use it every day. With every word he spoke, he emanated passion for WordPress and the community that surrounds and supports the free open-source software he created 10 years ago. He called out and praised contributors, leaders, and volunteers by name, thanked everyone he could, and expressed gratitude for every member of the community.

WordPress is where it is today because of the people — The People That Attend WordCamps — who donate and volunteer their time to work on it, to constantly improve it, to grow it, to teach others about it…