Belated WordCamp Dallas Gratitude, Part 1: The Sponsors

Two weeks later, I’m just getting to process my notes from WordCamp Dallas 2009.

What an amazing event! Two full-days of fantastic speakers, learning, inspiration, networking, giveaways – and food (!) – for only $30. My fellow campers and I were absolutely blown away at this weekend long shindig, which actually started off with a Friday night Welcome Party at AMF Richardson Lanes. Probably the best bang for the buck among tech conferences anywhere. This not-for-profit event wouldn’t have been even close to possible without these incredibly generous sponsors:

Woopra (Platinum) – the world’s most comprehensive, information rich, easy to use, real-time Web tracking and analysis application. And it’s free!

Layered Tech (Gold) – leading global provider of managed dedicated hosting, on-demand grid/virtualization computing, and Web services.

The University of Texas at Dallas (Gold) – UTD’s Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science, and the School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences. UTD provided logistical support as well as facilities, internet connectivity, and more!

TAYLORMARK (Silver) – Dallas based, Apple focused information technology professional services company.

Automattic (Silver) – Where it all started. The company behind WordPress.com/.org, Akismet, Gravatar, and more. Dedicated to Open Source.

ZipServers (Bronze) – Global, on-demand data center and hosting services from facilities across the U.S. Second year WordCamp Dallas supporter. Offered 3 months free to campers!

ServerBeach (Bronze) – A leading Dedicated Hosting provider that delivers powerful dedicated servers, convenient server management tools, and 24×7x365 support. Plans starting at just $75/month.

The WordPress Podcast (Bronze)- the #1 podcast for WordPress-related news, tips and information. Run by former WordCamp organizer Charles Stricklin.

X-Company – Bringing you Wordpressized. Everything Wordpress, from designing themes and creating widgets, to coding custom plugins, and hosting.

Just as important as the sponsors to this extremely well-planned and smooth-running event, were the many volunteers. Topping this list were John Pozadzides, aka “John P” (of iFusion Labs/Woopra, Layered Tech and OneMansBlog) and Cali Lewis (of GeekBrief.tv). John served as a very entertaining Master of Ceremonies and panel moderator. Cali gave an engaging presentation, and she and her team of volunteers live-streamed the entire conference (courtesy of GeekBrief.tv) and kept the presentations (mostly) on schedule and everything running very smoothly. The few technical hiccups were quickly resolved and accepted with grace and humor by campers. John and Cali (and several others I’m sure) must’ve spent countless hours on planning and logistics.

In Part 2 I’ll talk about my key takeaways from the great speakers and their presentations.

Tagged as: Akismet, Automattic, Cali Lewis, collaboration, gratitude, John Pozadzides, preferred partners, University of Texas at Dallas, WordPress