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Jeff Chandler

Tickets On Sale For The First Ever PodsCamp

The First Ever Podscamp
The First Ever PodsCamp

Tickets are now on sale for the first ever PodsCamp. It’s being held in Dallas, TX on October 3rd, 2014, a day before WordCamp DFW (Dallas/Fort Worth) with a ticket price of $50 each. Each ticket grants you access to the event, BBQ for lunch, and direct access to the developers of Pods Framework.

The event will focus on what you can do with Pods and will feature sessions on topics such as an introduction to Pods, building applications, and a Q&A session with the Pods development team. For those not familiar with the plugin, Pods is a framework for creating, managing, and deploying customized content types and fields.

A First For The Pods Development Team

The event will mark the first time the entire Pods development team will be under one roof. Lead developer for Pods, Scott Kingsley Clark, said the team will be in Dallas, TX the Wednesday before WordCamp and will be working on putting the finishing touches on Pods 3.0.

Clark explains why the team hasn’t had a PodsCamp in the past. “We’ve been talking about and planning an event like this for years, but it wasn’t until the Pods team grew large enough for me to feel like we could really do something worth people’s time.”

No Conflicts With WordCamp

Initially, I thought PodsCamp was taking place at the same time as WordCamp DFW but since it’s a day before, it won’t interfere with the event. “It’s completely separate, in terms of organization and funding,” Clark told the Tavern.

A few years ago, PodCamps would sometimes be merged with a WordCamp to offer attendees a chance to attend two events with one ticket. However, WordCamp central frowns against this practice and now states that WordCamps must be focused on WordPress. From the WordCamp Central FAQ:

Q. Can I do a track at a BarCamp/PodCamp/other event and call it WordCamp?
A. No. The use of the WordCamp name indicates that it is a standalone event dedicated to WordPress, and to prevent confusion, WordPress “tracks” within larger events such as BarCamp or other conferences are no longer called WordCamps.

Sponsoring and Needing to Be Sponsored

The Pods Foundation is sponsoring the WordCamp DFW Contributor Day on October 5th, through a deal Clark made to secure the same space for both days. At the same time, PodsCamp is in need of more sponsors. If you’re interested in sponsorship opportunities, please get in touch with the organizing team. SiteGround, Chris Lema, Aesop Interactive, and Beil Media are just a sample of the sponsors already on board with helping the event.

I think it’s great to see events like PodsCamp where you can focus on a particular plugin or subject while not conflicting with a WordCamp that same weekend. I like the strategy on the part of Clark and his team for the event to be a day before WordCamp so people can attend both without worrying about missing sessions.

Will you be attending the first ever PodsCamp?

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10 responses to “Tickets On Sale For The First Ever PodsCamp”

    • While not as inexpensive as a WordCamp, $50 is really reasonable for a one day conference. Have you ever priced out any other conferences?

      PHP World, $700 for four days
      Css Dev Conf, $695 for 3 days
      HOW Design Live, $1995 for 4 days (lol, seriously)

      Most conferences, including those above, have early bird rates that are cheaper, even so, they are still more expensive than $50/day.

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    • I’d love to let everyone in for *free*, or $20, or even $30. But the reality is, we are flying in four members of our distributed team from across the US for this event and that’s not cheap, it’s also not cheap to feed people real food.

      I knew going into this event that I’d be investing a significant amount of my own money to make it happen, and that’s OK with me. I knew that. I also know that the benefits of this event for the attendees will be big, and it will help us continue to grow our project with more well informed users and developers. It’s also the first time our team will be together in one place, so there’s a team building aspect at play too.

      For the ticket price, it’s $50 to get in. That’s $30 more than a normal WordCamp, in fact it’s $30 more than WordCamp DFW 2014 that’s happening the next day across the highway from PodsCamp. How many sponsors does WordCamp itself have? Lots. How many sponsors does any WordCamp get right out of the gate, just for being a WordCamp? Lots.

      PodsCamp is a niche camp, it’s tough to get sponsors for something like that, especially when all we can afford to do is a camp for 30-40 people. I don’t know if we’ll sell all of our seats, I don’t know if we’ll get more sponsors before the big day. The cost is also a lot less than it should be, by *Lema standards*. Basically, the event will run at a loss, purely because I want to keep the ticket price as low as I can.

      Now, take away the WordCamp price from your mind for a moment, and then think about what this camp will have:

      – In-depth presentations about Pods and it’s related projects
      – One-on-one help and consulting from any of our 5 team members who will be at the event
      – Real Texas BBQ for lunch, which you sadly won’t find at many other WordCamps in the state

      At first glance, that’s not a ton of stuff going on, but consider it’s running from 9:30am (and before, if you opt-in to arrive early [up to an hour] and chat with our team) all the way until 5pm, and that you can even stay late if you need any additional help — that’s not a bad price. Heck, most developers charge $50-$150 per hour of their time, so that’s a bargain of a price for a $50 ticket.

      Now, I’ll make you a promise — should we get enough sponsors to cover the event’s budget, we’ll give everyone $50 each on arrival, and refund the no-shows afterwards. Same thing if we get enough sponsors to cover most of what the tickets would pay for — we could potentially hand everyone $30 and the net investment for everyone would match a $20 WordCamp ticket.

      Again, this was never about making money. If it was, Pods itself wouldn’t be free, we wouldn’t offer as much support as we do for free, and PodsCamp tickets would cost between $125-$200 each.

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    • WordCampers are spoiled by the $20-40 fees associated with WordCamps. Price out other conferences and then be grateful for the financial support the WordCamp Foundation provides for the regional community-based events that we’ve all profited off of….

      $50 for a 1 day conference w/direct access to the software developers is really nothing to complain about…. but again… it’s hard when barrier to entry into the WordPress community really costs very little and the return on that personal expense is huge. That’s atypical in ANY industry.

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  3. I think this is a great deal considering the amount of time and effort that the team in putting in, both before and during the event. How valuable is it to have someone right there to answer your questions or help you if you get stuck? Articles and tutorials are great but to have someone with experience available is priceless. I’m considering it an investment in my education and would gladly donate any ‘refund’ back to the Pods Foundation.

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  4. $50 for a full day, highly specialized conference, with access to the developers is a STEAL! One day general events from local networking groups around our region range from $99-$200. General Business conferences range from $250-$3,000 dollars. Other examples were mentioned above too… I agree that the WordPress community is spoiled by how cheap WordCamps are!

    I’m thrilled to see more conferences like this happening and agree with Chris that even at $50, it’s a low fee. I hope to see & look forward to these specialized event tickets more closely align with the value they are delivering.

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