It is with great pleasure that we announce Mike Schroder as our first speaker for WordCamp Ventura County.

He is an integral part of the WordPress community, contributing to WordPress core with features like Image manipulation in 3.5, or the Heartbeat API in 3.6. Most recently he was also Co-Lead for the 3.9 release, literally shaping the future of the software.

He’s a Los Angeles native, working from DreamHost’s downtown office in LA, and enjoys great coffee and sailing the waters. He’s also one of the nicest and most genuine people you’ll ever meet, very approachable, and always looking for an opportunity to help others.

Mike, we are very excited to have you!

After we secured the location and were moved to the main WordCamp schedule, it’s time to formally announce WordCamp Ventura County, and share some of our plans!

The Name

We’re calling it Ventura County because our local meetup group covers the entire county, moving around each month to make it easy for all people to attend our meetings. We also felt that a lot more people identified with Ventura County rather than “just” the city of Ventura. And finally it can also be seen as an homage to our sister WordCamp in Orange County, which has set a great example for WordPress events in Southern California.

The Venue

Green Art People is the most unique conference venue you’ll ever visit. It’s a community art center located on the historic Westside of Ventura and is so small, that we will only be able to accommodate 50 people total! This event will be by far the smallest and most intimate WordCamp in the United States all year.

The Speakers

Due to the size of the venue, we will only have one track with seven (or eight) presentation slots. We are beyond excited about the list of hand picked speakers that we were able to land so far! It features leading WordPress Core committers and contributors, including release leads, feature leads, security experts, and all around WordPress mavens. Once we have a confirmation from all seven speakers, we will announce them here.

The Date

WordCamp Ventura County will take place on November 8, this year. We will not have a second conference day. Or a contributor day. But we will have the most magical WordCamp on the calendar! That time of year the average temperature is 70F, so feel free to bring your shorts and sandals and enjoy the beach one more time before Thanksgiving!