There are a variety of WordPress events that take place around the world where users learn WordPress in person. Some are WordCamps, meetups, and others are WordPress specific but don’t use the WordCamp branding. Until now, there has not been an easy way to see all WordPress events on one page. ManageWP.org has launched a WordPress Events Hub which displays WordCamps, meetups, and non-WordCamps on the same page using a map overlay.
Vladimir Prelovac, Founder and CEO of ManageWP.com, explains why he created the site:
I was travelling the US last year and wanted to see what WordPress events I could attend along the route and there was no elegant solution to this problem. WordCamp Central lists only WordCamps without a map showing their location. There are also numerous meetups as well as non-WordCamp conferences like LoopConf, CaboPress, ThemeConf that are not listed anywhere. So I decided to build it.
Only registered users to ManageWP.org are able to create new events. On the event creation screen, there are fields to add an event’s address, name, type, date, URL, Twitter account, and Twitter hashtag. You can also add speakers as well. I found creating a WordPress meetup a little confusing since I had to set a start and end date.
I think the event type should be the second field underneath the event’s name. I’d also like to see a set of fields or options added that are specific to the type of event being held. For example, if it’s a meetup, there’s no reason to have an end date. Instead, the end date should be replaced with an option to set a time.
There should also be a way to configure repeating events, similar to how Meetup.com does it. This way, I don’t have to remember to edit the event’s details every month. Events are not moderated, allowing submissions to appear immediately on the map.
As the number of WordPress events across the world increases, it’s nice to have a resource that unites them on one map. In future iterations, it would be cool if users could create an itinerary. The itinerary would be saved to the user’s account and would be sharable through a URL. This way, users could get together and plan a road trip together.
Prelovac is keeping a close eye on the comments of this post, so after you check out the events hub, please leave your feedback in the comments.
Great initiative Vladimir! Since I moved from Israel to NYC on August 2014, the way I was notified about events is twitter / blogs. Unfortunately I can’t follow everything and many of the events are far away from me. Having a crowdsourced centralized map is valuable and for sure will help me to be more involved. Thanks!