WordPress 101 Meeting Summary

Austin WordPress Meetup WordPress 101 Class Notes

We want to thank WordPress enthusiast, Lysa Saavedra, who posted the idea for WordPress 101. Lysa Saavedra took the initiative to find and secure a venue and the 20 Austin WordPress members who attended.

This ‘viral’ Meetup was an amazing experience. It is gratifying that the membership of the Austin WordPress Group moved so quickly from expressing a need, to organizing a class to meet that need.  Patrick Ramsey, WPATX Founder, always says that the Austin WordPress Meetup is comprised of people passionate about WordPress. This impromptu, member-organized Meetup event proves that to be absolutely true.

The WordPress 101 Meetup has inspired a teachable moment for Austin WordPress Organizers, Sandi Batik and Jackie Dana.  Obviously, we have enough beginner WordPress members to justify a second monthly Meetup that focuses specifically on their issues. Our members suggested that  ‘Hands-on WordPress’ might be a better designation for the second WordPress Meetup of the month than “Beginners’ WordPress.  As Jackie and Sandi have already used the term Hands On WordPress for one of their recent classes, we thought, “Why not!”  The Organizers will also review the suggestion of starting a FaceBook page to communicate with the Austin WordPress Community. Like all things Austin WordPress, we need to find volunteers to staff the idea, before we can implement the idea.

The regular Austin WordPress Meetup will continue to meet at the ‘Same Bat-time, same Bat-channel’ — The first Tuesday of the month, 7 pm time at Cospace. The Austin WordPress Meetup will hold our first dedicated “Hands’ on WordPress” Meetup 7 pm, Thursday March 10^th.at CoSpace.  The majority of those who attended the WordPress 101 at the Brick Oven this evening thought that Monday evening would be a good night to set up our regularly scheduled Meetup. We will check with Kurtis Dixon, our Cospace sponsor for availability and announce the April and subsequent 2011 dates on March 10^th.

We polled the attendees for the types of WordPress-related classes that might be helpful and thought the suggestion of publicizing a schedule similar to an Editorial Calendar a good one. Jackie and I will meet to discuss all the suggestions made by tonight’s attendees and come up with a possible curricula plan for the balance of 2011.

Thanks  again to Lysa for securing the meeting room at the Brick Oven. It offered a warm inviting atmosphere that encouraged an informal discussion about how to best meet the needs of those just starting their WordPress Journey.

All Austin  WordPress Meetups and Classes are held at Cospace – our WPATX sponsor.

CoSpace is located at 911 West Anderson Lane #203 Austin, TX 78757 Cospace is home to a community of collaborative, professional, and entrepreneurial people co-working in a shared space. Cospace promotes coworking, but looks to go beyond it, by providing a mix of flexible workspaces, meeting spaces and the tools and resources necessary to turn ideas into realities. Through strategic partnerships and sponsorships, Cospace continually offers workshops, training sessions, and events that help the members of our community grow professionally.

Thank you for an invigorating evening. It was a pleasure meeting each of you and Jackie and I look forward to getting to know you better.

Here are the URLs for the resources we spoke about this evening:

Where to look for information, help and resources:

• Austin WordPress Meetup site
• The Austin WordPress Meetup Discussion Group
• The Austin WordPress Meetup Website
• Upcoming WordPress Classes
• WordPress Users Association
• WordPress CODEX Glossary