We just got back from the WordCamp: Developers Speakers Dinner tonight and are getting ready to wrap up our last minute prizes, put the final touches on presentations, and make sure everything is ready for the big event tomorrow!

The Speakers Dinner was a smashing success! Keynote Speaker Andrew Nacin barely made it but was able to hitch a ride from fellow Speaker Justin Sainton who tweeted that he was driving up from Portland, OR. It was amazing to have the brightest web developers and designers together from all corners of North America getting to know each other before the conference tomorrow.

Each Speaker received a Thank You gift basket courtesy of Creative Gift Solutions based in Vancouver BC, which includes delicious chocolate biscotti, Danish cookies, cappuccino mixes, and decadent chocolate. If you ever need gift baskets for your event, Creative Gift Solutions is a really great local company to work with.

Thank you to everyone for making it out tonight. We hope you had a fabulous time!

We’ll see everyone bright and early at 8am for registration!

If you’ve been to an event in Vancouver you’ve seen Jeremy there, usually hiding behind a camera or two, capturing the moments for posterity with his signature two-finger trigger technique showcased in the self portrait to the right. A dabbling photographer myself I am always amazed how he manages to capture the essence and atmosphere of an event in his photos so when he contacted us and asked if he could be the photographer for WordCamp:Developers we needed only seconds to make up our minds.

Jeremy will be here, there and everywhere during the event so if you see him or his lens say hi, smile and be captured forever in one of his frames. We are thrilled to have Jeremy on our team, not only as a great event photographer but also because he’s a total WordPress geek himself, and we look forward to seeing WordCamp:Developers through his eyes in the coming days.

And it was that past experience organizing WordCamps that brought Duane and Dale on board for WordCamp:Developers. They know both what it takes to get an event like this off the ground and also how important it is for the community that such events take place and they took the challenge to heart. And to make things even better they are both coming to town for the event, Duane from Chilliwack and Dale all the way from Ontario.

The WordPress community is a tight knit group and friends like Duane and Dale from BraveNewCode make the impossible possible. If you have a chance, hit them up at WordCamp:Developers and talk mobile WordPress themes, Twitter aggregation and vintage Apple shirts.

We were lucky enough to get VaultPress on board as a Silver sponsor for WordCamp:Developers. If you don’t already know, VaultPress is Automattic’s cloud-based commercial backup and security offering for WordPress sites of all shapes, sizes and functionalities. As the web grows bigger and more complex and sites grow with it backup and security becomes more important, and finding the right solution can be hard. VaultPress is a customized solution designed specifically to fit and function with WordPress. And since it’s created and managed by the WordPress mothership itself – Automattic – the owners have a vested interest in making the service as user friendly, stable and secure as possible.

Not sure you need backup for your site? Anyone who has been hacked or has suffered a large server malfunction will tell you otherwise. And VaultPress might very well be the right place to go for both backup and security. As a bonus they are in Beta testing mode which means you can still get in on their reduced pricing.

To help us out we got assistance from the WordCamp Central team, and only hours after the first call to action WooThemes came on board as a Silver sponsor.

If you’ve worked with WordPress for any length of time you know the name WooThemes. Pretty much any Google search for the terms “wordpress” and “theme” will return a link or ten to WooThemes and their premium offerings are heavily featured in “10 best themes” articles across the board. But more importantly WooThemes is a huge supporter of the WordPress community and you’ll see them appear as sponsors for events like WordCamp:Developers and sites featuring tutorials and information on WordPress all the time. And for that we should all be thankful.

WooThemes was an integral part in knocking the price of attendance down for WordCamp:Developers and for that we all owe them a debt of gratitude. Head on over to their site and see what they have to offer both in terms of products and inspiration.

We are incredibly pleased to announce that Telus Shared Hosting has generously sponsored the video recording of all 12 Development Track and UX Track sessions! The videos will be shot and edited by the production team at SFU Harbour Centre and made available for free online after the event. Since the videos will not be streaming live, we hope that you purchased your ticket to WordCamp: Developers before ticket sales closed last night!

Having financial supporters is vital to an event like ours, and when that supporter also provides a solution that makes our jobs as organizers easier and saves us money we can only bow our heads in thanks.

If you are planning on hosting an event for which you have to sell tickets and you are hosting the event site using WordPress I recommend you take a look at Event Espresso and see if it may work for you like it has worked for us.

The keynote will be a one of a kind opportunity to get to know the man that went from relative obscurity to key figure in the WordPress core team in just two years and see what he has to say about the present, the future and how we can all push WordPress to the edge and beyond. And with Lorelle’s experience both talking WordPress and creating excellent podcasts at the helm the stage is set for something extraordinary.

I had the privilege of meeting and interviewing Nacin for a future podcast at WordCamp Seattle where he also did two sessions, one on how to code proper plugins and one on how to get involved, and I can honestly say that the claims the man is a walking encyclopaedia of everything WordPress are not exaggerated.

The WordCamp:Developers team is ecstatic to announce this unique keynote featuring two key people in the WordPress community, and we know you are too. Tickets are still available but the deadline for sales is Sunday May 1st at midnight, so get your’s now!

We asked all of our speakers to answer some questions so we can get to know them better. Here are Ray’s answers:

Why WordPress?

WordPress is an amazing tool that has really changed the designers and developers build websites. It’s flexible and powerful and so customizable that it’s hard to justify not using it for just about every client. I like having the flexibility to use a template or be in total control of the experience. Nothing compares to it in terms of power and flexibility.

Why did you decide to speak at WordCamp:Developers?

It was a great opportunity to give back to the community and in a way contribute to a project that has meant a lot to me. WordPress developers are a great bunch and this is an opportunity to meet a lot of like-minded people. I Sometimes it’s hard to get people around me who are not developers to get excited about some great new technique or programming discovery so sharing is a great outlet.

What are you most looking forward to at WordCamp:Developers?

Coming from Florida, getting to meet people so far from where I live that are into some of the same geeky stuff as I am. Plus, just having watched Tron Legacy again, I’m going to try to see if I recognize any buildings from Vancouver when I go there.

Come check out Ray and the other 11 speakers at WordCamp:Developers May 5th in Vancouver.

A few days ago we received a large box from their Ventura, California head office containing some pretty serious stuff to give away. lynda.com has been a strong supporter of open source for years and has several video training products directed towards the major open source platforms, WordPress included. In the package, for us to give away, was no less than 9 DVDs featuring the three major WordPress courses in the lynda.com online training library. They are Creating Custom Widgets and Plugins with PHP for WordPress by Drew Falkman, Creating and Editing Custom Themes for WordPress by Chris Coyer and WordPress 3 Essential Training by our very own Morten Rand-Hendriksen. These DVDs feature the entire training course including file assets and are valued at $99 each. Not too shabby.

But that’s not all. There were two more things in the box: A black manila envelope containing a prize everyone on the team wants for themselves and an added bonus for the swag bag of every single attendee at the event. And when I say “bonus” I don’t mean a pen or a USB stick. Let’s just say what you’re getting is worth more than half the price of admission to the event.

It’s only with the support of companies like lynda.com an event like WordCamp:Developers can happen at all, and when they step up and provide extras to make the event even better we can only bow our heads and say a heartfelt thanks.

Head on over to lynda.com and check out their extensive online training library featuring full length courses on everything from WordPress to Photoshop to photography and beyond. There is something there for everyone and the library is constantly updated and expanded so there’s always more to learn.