Last Saturday (November 20) and Sunday (November 21) WordCampNYC 2009 was held in New York City, at Baruch College; at Vertical Campus on Saturday and at Mason Hall on Sunday. It was astounding WordPress meet-ups, where WordPress enthusiasts and web developers gathered and shared what they know and love most about WordPress.

There were plenty of sessions in WordCampNYC 2009, too many to write in one single post. However, many WordPress users showed their huge interest in a cool plugins demo performed by Beau Lebens. In the demo best WordPress plugins were introduced, including IntenseDebate, Add Content, e-Commerce, Smart SpellChecker:After the Deadline and Recommended Reading.

WordCampNYC 2009 attendees also got a golden opportunity to find out how a college publication Harvard Gazette, using WordPress, had transformed into an online newspaper.

For newbies, there was WordPress set up assistance for free. For those familiar with WordPress, there were lessons on cool WordPress features, including plugins, themes, content creation, etc. While CMS users might learn how to easily run a large-scale non-blog site using WordPress.

Web developers could get to know HTML/CSS/JavaScript and learn how to write plugins, customize themes, contribute to core, etc. While more advanced developers could learn more about plugin unit testing, security issues, etc.

There was also an introduction into BuddyPress, the new black in WordPress community.

And for those truly in love with code, there was Hacker Room, a special room set up for peeps who work on core patches for bugs to version 2.9, guided by trusted core developers.

With 50 WordPress Warriors on stage, WordCampNYC 2009 proved itself to be an epic WordPress conference. Let’s hope the next WordCamp held in Jakarta (January 2010) is as epic as that one.

Below were the speakers of WordCampNYC 2009:
- Barry Abrahamson (Systems Wrangler at Automattic)
- Kenn Bell (Graphic Designer & Indie Filmmaker)
- Sheri Bigelow (Designer, Developer, Photographer, Engineer at Automattic)
- John Bintz (Web Developer)
- Casey Bisson (Plymouth State University’s Information Architect
- Erin Blaskie (Entrepreneur, Internet Marketer)
- Amanda Blum (Creative Director of Howling Zoe Production)
- Jeremy Boggs (Creative Lead of Center for History and New Media)
- Lisa Brundage (Teacher at Brooklyn College and Hunter College)
- Steve Bruner (CEO of SlipFire LLC, co-organizer of WordCampNYC)
- Anthony Bubel (Engineer at Automattic)
- Keith Casey (CTO of Blue Parabola)
- Lin Chen (President of New Circle Consulting)
- Scott Kingsley Clark (Web Developer)
- Jeremy Clarke (Web Developer)
- Stephanie Cockerl (Owner of nextSTEPH)
- Allan Cole (Web Designer, Web Developer)
- Jim Doran (Engineer at Johns Hopkins University, Teacher at Community College of Baltimore County)
- John Eckman (Sr. Director at Optaros)
- Serena Epstein (Graphic Designer, Photographer)
- Corey Eulas (Senior SEO Specialist at LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell, Director of Search Marketing at Wine King, Founder of Ninety Seven Media)
- José Fontainhas (WordPress Warrior)
- Brian Gardner (Internet Consultant, Founder/CEO of StudioPress & AgentPress)
- Mikhail Gershovich (Director of the Bernard L. Schwartz Communication Institute, Coordinator of the Writing Across the Curriculum Program at Baruch College)
- Matt Gold (Project Director of CUNY Academic Commons)
- Dan Goldman (Executive Director of Interactive at WNET.ORG)
- Boone Gorges (Instructional Technologist at Queens College)
- Grant Griffiths (Co-Founder of Headway Themes)
- Jim Groom (Instructional Technology Specialist at University of Mary Washington)
- Shannon Hauser (WordPress Warrior)
- John Hawkins (Host of WordCamp, WordPress Warrior)
- Perry Hewitt (Director of Digital Communications and Communications Services at Harvard University)
- Noel Jackson (Uber Geek, Web Designer, Web Developer)

Celebrating Thanksgiving, WordPress.com holds a first-ever video contest. Though it is US national holiday, the contest is not limited to US residents only. Anyone from round the globe can shoot any stock he/she is thankful for and share it with the WordPress community through video.

To enter the contest, one must embed the video in a blog post tagged with ThanksgivingContest09, any time between November 23 and 27. Topic is on Thanksgiving. However, in its blog WordPress announces that they’re looking forward to see creativity, not the usual confessional interpretations on the topic.

Maybe it’s a montage of tiny moments that fill you with joy, a mini-documentary of your family traditions, or a strange stop-motion adventure about the things you treasure most.

Other requirements of the contest are:
- All entries must be rated G.
- All entries must be made in 30 seconds or less timeframe.

Any video does not meet those two requirements will be disqualified. But the price is so tempting. The first lucky winner can grab a Flip Mino HD camera and a one-year subscription to the VideoPress upgrade (or an additional year if he/she has it already). The runners-up will get Wordpress apparel and mugs, plus WordPress Moleskine notebook.

The contest ends at midnight Pacific time (UTC -8) on November 27. Good luck!

Let’s redo the success story of WordCamp Indonesia 2009. Next year, Jan 30, if you ever call yourself a WordPress enthusiast, come and join us in WordCamp Indonesia 2010. Let’s meet and share all you know about WordPress. It is going to be awesome!

In this 2nd WordCamp Indonesia, Beau Lebens is scheduled to be one of speakers appear on stage. Growing up in a tiny town in rural Western Australia, Beau has made himself into a well-known online brand since the early days of internet. After 10 years of development work in various companies and freelancing, he now joins Automattic.

WordCamp Indonesia 2010 is to be held in Gunadarma University, Depok, by Valent Mustamin. Possible sessions during WordCamp Indonesia 2010:

- Authoring – Google SEO

- Podcasting with WordPress TV

- State of the Word

- Community

- Media-related (Print, TV, Radio)

- Showcasing a WordPress.org Showcase

- WordPress Developers

- User-Generated Content

- Browser/OS

- Cloud Powered WordPress

- Content Management System / Benchmarking

- Intense Debate, BBPress, BuddyPress, WordPress MU

- Themes, Plugins, Framework, Codex

- Localization

- Copyright and Content Online

- WordPress Security

- Social Media

- Hosting, Database and Infrastructure

WordCamp is a Wordpress conference held around the globe. Users of Wordpress.com and Wordpress.org gather, share their ideas and get to know each other for the whole day (or two, at some places).

Here is the full schedule of WordCamp:
Nov, 13: Phoenix
Nov, 14: Victoria
Nov, 14-15: New York
Nov, 15: Bangkok
Nov, 28: Peru
Dec, 5: Orlando
Jan, 23: Boston
Jan, 30: Indonesia