Jabalpur 2011, October 15th-16th

Amit is founder and director of AmiWorks. He provides the vision and technical direction to the team. A self confessed ‘dreamer, coder and blogger’… his friends just call him ‘the PHP guy‘. Amit is active in Pune’s PHP community and is actively involved in PHPCamp, the biggest unconference for PHP developers in India.

At WordCamp, Amit would be taking a session on “Custom Post Types and Taxonomies in WordPress 3.x“.

• Tell us a bit about yourself.
  I am founder of AmiWorks, a web applications development company. I am also organizer of PHPCamp, biggest un-conference for PHP developers in India, and Joomla Day Pune. I have been playing with WordPress since it was 2.1. and I have released few plugins on wordpress.org
   
• What motivates you most to use WordPress?
  It’s simplicity. The admin interface is very user friendly and extending it is easy task compared to other CMS’es, and one click upgrade is the best.
   
• What are your thought about WordPress Community in India?
  
  I have not yet interacted with WP community in India, in general, this WordCamp would be my first opportunity to do so. Though i think we need have regular WordCamp’s like we have Joomla days or drupal camp in India. I hope WordCamp Jabalpur will set the trend.
   
• Topic on which you are speaking?
  I will be talking about Custom Post Types and Taxonomies in WordPress 3.x.
   
• Why you decided to be a part of WC Jabalpur?
  I wanted to interact with WordPress community, and WC Jabalpur provided me with the perfect opportunity.
   
• What are you mostly looking forward to during this WC Jbp?
  To meet with other WordPress enthusiasts and users and learn from them.
   
• Who in WP community inspires you most and why?
  Andrew Nacin, In a very short time he has become the face of WordPress Development team.
   
• A one line advice you would like to give people about WordPress.
  It is a CMS, use it that way.
   

Rahul Banker is a 21 year old student and blogger from India. Rahul was caught in blogging by chance but now describes it to be his world that has made him learn new things in life and made him believe in himself. Within two years, thecopypasteblog now enjoys a very high Alexa rank and drives a huge traffic towards itself.

At WordCamp, Rahul would be taking a “Motivational Session for newbie bloggers, some important blogging tips, ethics to follow and also some insights about SEO and how blogging can be chosen as a career.“.

• Tell us a bit about yourself.
  It’s me, Rahul Banker. People usually know me by my last name as its a kind of a unique one. As they say, “If you want the job to be done quickly, give it to a lazy person and they’ll find a fast, short and smart way to do it” and that is what makes me a blogger. Accidental blogger and now it has become my world and the love of my life! Blogging has made me evolve my personality, my point of view and has made me believe in myself. Started 2 years back with http://thecopypasteblog.com and now I’ve recently launched my new big thing called http://skotgat.com with which I have some big plans and dreams set. Cricket, photography is my passion and how can I forget my love about collecting quotes! I’m a quote buff and you might be knowing this already if you’ve been already following me on twitter @bankerrahul
   
• What are your thought about WordPress Community in India?
  
  Currently in India, I know hundreds of bloggers using WordPress and many joining gradually and they all use WordPress but they don’t have enough knowledge of how they can mould WordPress and get it use to its full extent so even when there are many users, it is still in its basic part only. People still don’t know the real power of WordPress.
   
• Topic on which you are speaking?
  Well, I will be giving a motivational speech (something I love) for newbie bloggers, some important blogging tips, ethics to follow and also some insights about SEO and how blogging can be chosen as a career.
   
• Why you decided to be a part of WC Jabalpur?
  This is going to be the first conference I will be attending since I started blogging and It was recommended to me by one of my friend so its just my curiosity to meet new people has made me become a part of this and I’m looking forward to know what it has got!
   
• What are you mostly looking forward to during this WC Jbp?
  MAs I said, its my curiosity to connect with new people which is making me attend this and I am sure I am going to learn some new things from this WC and looking forward to it as of now.
   
• Who in WP community inspires you most and why?
  I am my own inspiration. There are many from whom I take help, advices but at the end of the day, its me and only me from whom I get new ideas, innovative ways to do things and lots of motivation to do well when I wake up the next morning.
   
• A one line advice you would like to give people about WordPress.
  Go out, play with WordPress and try to find out the real power of WordPress. It can make you forget HTML!
   

Puneet Sahalot, an electronics engineer by chance is CTO at Udaipur Times and a poet from heart. Apart from this Puneet is a Thesis expert, WP Troubleshooter and a person you must be looking at when planning to improve your blog performance and at times of Scaling up your website.

At WordCamp, Puneet would be speaking on “Tips for Optimizing WP Performance and Usability“.

• Tell us a bit about yourself.
  I am an electronics engineer by chance, a blogger by accidental profession, a graphic designer by interest, WP developer by curiosity and a bit poetic at heart. I started my online career with flockpost.com as co-author and then co-founded city news portal. I write on my personal blog puneetsahalot.com where I pour my secret passion for poetry. I also love traveling and photography. If you have some time to spare, check out my flickr stream.
   
• What motivates you most to use WordPress?
  I love it, I use it. It’s quick and easy to use, upgrade and maintain. Above all, it’s safe. The ability to extend the usability of WP is another great thing which makes me use it for all my work.
• What are your thought about WordPress Community in India?
   
  Till date WordPress is mostly used only by bloggers. We have a long way to go when businesses, educational institutes, government and non-profit organizations etc. will start using WordPress for their online presence.
   
• Topic on which you are speaking?
  Tips for Optimizing WP Performance and Usability.
   
• Why you decided to be a part of WC Jabalpur?
  It’s always good to be a part of something you love.
   
• What are you mostly looking forward to during this WC Jbp?
  Meeting new people, sharing some knowledge and learning a lot of new stuff.
   
• Who in WP community inspires you most and why?
  Matt is the man! Whose thoughts and ideas gave us a wonderful Blogging platform which was then extended to a CMS and now, it’s ruling the world. Other than Matt, I like to read tuts by Bill Erickson and Justin Tadlock.
   
• A one line advice you would like to give people about WordPress.
  Say good bye to HTML websites and start using WordPress.
   

Whenever it comes to naming Top Young Entrepreneurs of India, King Sidharth is unanimous choice among all. Recently listed as one of World 25 Young Entrepreneurs, King is 20 and a WordPress + Thesis cocktail lover. A dropout by choice recently took up Fines Arts at college in Chandigarh and enjoys helping Startups, public speaking and taking motivational sessions.

At WordCamp, King would be speaking on “ Design and Thesis theme framework for WordPress“.

• Tell us a bit about yourself.
  I am 20 years old, Designer, Artist and Entrepreneur. I love building things and experimenting. I usually team-up with developers to build apps / experiments. When I am not consulting startups about design and such I try to study Fine Arts at college in Chandigarh.
  I blog about at 64 Notes and I founded ‘the Friendz‘ and online teen magazine in my high-school.
   
• What motivates you most to use WordPress?
  Ease of use and flexibility. I just know how to get what I want from WordPress. It’s really really really easy to make it work the way I would like it to.
   
• What are your thought about WordPress Community in India?
  Emerging and shining. Almost every guy who is interested in tech interacts with WordPress someday. It’s taking hold. Cannot wait to see loads of passionate users emerging from the country to make a strong community.
   
• Topic on which you are speaking?
  I will be speaking on Design and Thesis theme framework for WordPress. I’ve never touched any other theme after I found thesis. My every site is on thesis and if it’s not WordPress, you’d still find some bits of inspiration in there. I’ve learned a lot about front-end code, CSS, Design, Typography and software from Thesis. So looks like a good option to speak about.
   
• Why you decided to be a part of WC Jabalpur?
  I’ve herd a lot about WordCamps from my friends abroad and the kind of talent that comes together there. Who would want to miss gathering of bright minds, using same software and intending to play?
   
• What are you mostly looking forward to during this WC Jbp?
  Looking forward to meet passionate people who want to build and ship stuff. It’s always interesting to hear new ideas and learn new stuff.
   
• A one line advice you would like to give people about WordPress.
  Use it, Bend it, Play with it, Break it and then you shall know it inside out. 😉

Aniket Pant, BITSian and is a coder since the age of 13. The love for C++ slowly shifted to HTML then to PHP and now to WordPress and CodeIgniter. Aniket, is heavily involved in CSS edits and tweaks to generate awesome themes from an already existing theme.

 
At WordCamp, Aniket would be speaking on “Theme Development and Customizing“.

• Tell us a bit about yourself.
  I am Aniket Pant and I love PHP. I started coding at the age of 13. Started with C++ and now I work on PHP, HTML and CSS. I love things which give output and what I see on the web is one thing which amazes me the most.
   
• What motivates you most to use WordPress?
  WordPress has a clean and interactive UI. I love it because of the ease with which I can edit and post content. It’s highly customizable. You can just go and add a new theme or a widget or a plugin. It’s just one brilliant package build on an amazing platform.
   
• What are your thought about WordPress Community in India?
  The WordPress community has a long way to go. We need more people to be aware of WP. More people to develop on it and make it better. Lots of new things are left to be done which we can’t think of but the potential still lies.
   
• Topic on which you are speaking?
  Theme Development and Customizing
   
• Why you decided to be a part of WC Jabalpur?
  Since WordCamps are a rare occasion in India and I was given the opportunity to speak. I thought that this would be the best way to open the doors of the world of WP to the people who aren’t aware of it.
   
• What are you mostly looking forward to during this WC Jbp?
  I wish to meet the awesome crowd, people who love WordPress and the other speakers I have been hearing about.
   
• Who in WP community inspires you most and why?
  It would be Matt Mullenweg for creating this beautiful app for us and also because he takes people’s comments on the themes he builds.
   
• A one line advice you would like to give people about WordPress.
  Just try it once and you will love it. (even the famous 5 minute install).
   

Gautam Gupta, 15year old wonder kid and Google Code-In winner is probably among youngest to deliver talk at any WordCamp across globe. Just returned from GooglePlex San Jose, Gautam us a recognized name in bbPress community and contributes heavily to plugin development cycles.

At WordCamp, Gautam would be speaking on “bbPress 2.0 – an overview of what’s new, the code behind it and extending it via plugins“.

• Tell us a bit about yourself.
  Hello folks! I am 15 years old, a Xth grader, g33k, and I’m obsessed with coding and somewhat photography. Also a WordPress and bbPress enthusiast! You can find more about me on my blog.
   
• What motivates you most to use WordPress?
  What motivates me the most to use WordPress is the community behind it which makes it fun to use! They’re really amazing people.
   
• What are your thought about WordPress Community in India?
  WordPress has become synonymous to blogging in India, rather everywhere in the world. We think of blogging, we think of WordPress. The community has really grown big in the recent years and it is interesting to see a lot of young minds getting involved in it. I myself had a blog on WordPress.com about five years back, when I was probably in fourth or fifth class, though it is not live anymore. 😉
   

• Topic on which you are speaking?
  I would be speaking on bbPress 2.0 – an overview of what’s new, the code behind it and extending it via plugins.
   
• What are you mostly looking forward to during this WC Jbp?
  [Same answer for both questions] I’d love to make new friends and meet the people in real life whose avatars I have always been seeing on my computer screen. 😉
   
• Who in WP community inspires you most and why?
  Everyone does! Everyone contributes to WordPress in some way or the other. And that inspires me. 🙂
   
• A one line advice you would like to give people about WordPress.
  It’s one simple great piece of software!

Ashish (Pocha) Sharma, heads Bussiness Development at StalkNinja. An IIT-M(2005 batch) alumni previously cofounded Minkle with two IIM grads. Prior to Minkle, Pocha was a successful freelancer, Google Code Jammer and holds two patents to his credit.

At WordCamp, Pocha will be speaking on “Hacking a WordPress Theme”

• Tell us a bit about yourself.
  I am Ashish (pocha) Sharma, founder StalkNinja. I love coding and building a business on top of it. Apart from coding I am a long distant runner, biker and a mountaineering aspirant.
   
• What motivates you most to use WordPress?
  The most tempting thing behing WordPress is the easy with with a layman can handle it. You have myriad themes and plugins to choose from. Even a newbie can create a professional website without writing a single line of code. From geeks perspective, WordPress is awesome because of the large community support you get whenever you get stuck somewhere or need help in any case.
   
• What are your thought about WordPress Community in India?
  The WordPress community is India still have a long way to go. Situation is changing slowly and more people are getting familiar to WordPress but still most of people are unaware of this powerful platform. Community should focus on giving exposure of WP to student and college grads.
   
• Topic on which you are speaking?
  Hacking a WordPress Theme
   
• Why you decided to be a part of WC Jabalpur?
  As I said, WP community should try getting more students oriented and help students to take up this platform. At WC Jabalpur, I am expecting to meet a lot of students and young grads. i want to share my thoughts with them and let them explore the World of WordPRess
   
• What are you mostly looking forward to during this WC Jbp?
  Meeting the college grads, young hackers and future of India.
   
• Who in WP community inspires you most and why?
  I overall like whole WP community, they are an awesome group of people working hard to give this platform.
   
• A one line advice you would like to give people about WordPress.
  Don’t just use WordPress for blogging, try breaking the code to do something new 🙂