Jennifer Kusiak is the lead organizer for this year’s WordCamp Rhode Island, an organizer for meetup.com/WordPressRI, and Professional Cat Herder at the Linchpin Marketing Agency in Pawtucket, RI (http://linchpin.agency/).
Jennifer Kusiak, WordCamp Rhode Island Lead Organizer
In the past, the name of the annual WordPress conference has been “WordCamp Providence.” This year, in keeping with the statewide nature of the conference, the name has officially been changed to WordCamp Rhode Island.
WordCamp Rhode Island will be held at the East Greenwich campus of the New England Institute of Technology (NEIT) on Friday and Saturday September 25 and 26, 2015. Jennifer (JK) shares some thoughts and advice with WordCamp Rhode Island (WC RI) in anticipation of this year’s WordPress event.
(WC RI) What are your thoughts about moving this year’s WordCamp out of downtown Providence?
(JK) I am incredibly excited about the move. We are the smallest state and I think having it in East Greenwich helps us to be more inclusive of the wider community within the state.
(WC RI) What are your thoughts of the NEIT campus?
(JK) The NEIT Campus is a gorgeous new space with plenty of smart rooms and an amazing technology program founded on WordPress, it’s a win/win.
(WC RI) What is your favorite part of WordCamp?
(JK) Connecting with the amazing community.
(WC RI) What do you get out of it?
(JK) Amazing collaboration and I learn something new within every session.
(WC RI) What is your level of comfort with creating and maintaining websites?
(JK) I’m a project manager by trade. I don’t have a lot of experience with creating websites but I find maintaining them and training clients to do so very easy and intuitive.
(WC RI) What do you do with WordPress?
(JK) Mostly content updates for clients, but the company I work for uses it for 90% of our client projects.
(WC RI) How much coding/web development/other will an attendee need to know to get something out of WordCamp?
(JK) Zero, we make it incredibly easy for beginners or attendees in other spaces to take something of value away from every session.
(WC RI) What would you say to someone who says: “I know nothing about websites and will be totally overwhelmed.”
(JK) It’s a lot of info for everyone, but we post the session content & video afterwards so they can be easily referenced later on. You don’t have to worry about retaining everything; you can go back to your favorite sessions and digest at your own pace.
(WC RI) What would you say to someone who says: “I know so much about websites and WordPress there’s nothing I could get out of WordCamp.”
(JK) I would want to be them.
(WC RI) What impressions do you come away with about: the other speakers/volunteers/sponsors/the organizers?
(JK) I have always been impressed by how friendly and open everyone is with their knowledge and experience.
(WC RI) Any advice for a first-time WordCamp attendee?
(JK) Ha, bring business cards; you never know who will be there!
Follow us:
https://twitter.com/WordCampRI
https://www.facebook.com/wordcampri
http://www.meetup.com/WordPressRI/