For those who don’t know, WordPress Leeds is a WordPress user group based in… yes, Leeds in the UK. It’s also the group I help run and one of 3 groups in Yorkshire.
We normally do fairly tame events – monthly meetings with one general talk (with a publishing/blogging bent) and one WordPress specific which is often more technical. This general event we call Northern Bloggers and it gets a wide variety of peeps coming along including a few non WordPress users.
September’s Meet Up is going to be a bit different. We are doing a Dev night, which will include 4 great talks that are entirely Design/Developer focused. This time around we have people talking on:
- Theming using the new JSON REST API
- Using Composer in your WordPress Workflow
- Contributing back to Open Source projects
- Using WordPress via WP-CLI
It’s like a condensed mini conference, and just like a mini conference you need to get a ticket to come so if you would like one head over to the WordPress Leeds site and grab one.
Travelling to Leeds?
We have had a lot of interest from people in neighbouring cities about coming across so if you are travelling over then give us a shout either here, on twitter or via email. We maybe able to help organise lift shares and find you travel companions.
If you are planning on staying the night there are several good and reasonably priced (for a major city centre) hotels near by, from the no frills Etap 2 minutes from the venue, to the DoubleTree Hilton about 15 minutes away.
Who should come?
You! Well if you read my blog and you’re UK based you should come. I’ll be honest, I selected the talks primarily because these are people I want to hear talk on subjects close to what I like to hear and talk about. They are also topics that are often watered down at WordCamps and other user groups because of the need to appeal to a broad group of people.
The night is meant for Developers and Designers so anyone who is involved in that side of WordPress will I hope find it valuable but of course absolutely everyone is welcome including you.
Sponsoring
We are also currently looking for sponsors. The venue is provided by the wonderful Duke Studios, but we are looking for sponsors for Food & Drink as well as a sponsor for the bar afterwards. If you are in a position to sponsor please do get in touch.
Without sponsors events like these can’t remain free and it’s great way to interact and engage with a group that normal advertising simply won’t reach.
Scaling & Managing Workshop
On the same day, the 23rd of September, I am running a one day WordPress Workshop on Scaling and Managing WordPress, so why not combine the two and have a really packed day! For full details see Scaling & Managing WordPress Workshop.
The workshop is a great companion to the Dev night (or maybe it’s the other way round), but spaces are very limited with only a few remaining so if you are interested, please do get in touch soon!
Support your local groups
Here in the North of England we have 6 active groups: WordPress Leeds, WordPress Sheffield, Manchester WordPress User Group, WordPress Cumbria, WordPress York and WordPress North East, with Wordpreston starting soon. Each group has it’s own unique style and brings with it a unique crowd. Chances are there is a WordPress user group in your local area, so even if you can’t get to our Dev night pop along to your local user group.