Over 30 WordPress aficionados attended WordPress Kathmandu January 2017 Meetup which was held today at Knic Education Foundation Pvt. Ltd., Jawalakhel, Lalitpur.
Meetups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Anything that brings together 2 or more people to share their WordPress experiences counts — there’s no minimum number of attendees or required format. These events (commonly referred to as meetups, which can be confusing since people often use the same word to describe the group itself) take many formats: presentations/lecture series, hack-a-thons, social gatherings, workshops, co-working, running a WordPress help desk, contributor sprints/drives, and others.
The first WordPress Kathmandu meetup of the year featured presentations by two experienced members of the WordPress community of Nepal – Raj Kumar Tamang and Anup GC. Shiva Shanker Bhatta welcomed the attendees before handing the torch to Raj Kumar who began the session. His talk about the mistakes that designers make in their designs was simple-yet-informative.
GC’s session followed right after Tamang’s, a first-time speaker. He talked about why people should opt for WooCommerce to open up an online store in their websites and he even highlighted one of its limitations.
Prior to closing the meetup, Yam B Chhetri, the lead organizer for this year’s WordCamp Kathmandu, took the center stage. He explained why the WordCamp is being organized early this year. Previously, WordCamps were held in November. However, the chilling weather was a discouraging factor. Furthermore, one of the biggest and most awaited WordCamps of the world, WordCamp US, has been continually organized in December. This conflicted with the travel schedule of many earnest international WordPressers. Consequently, the organizing committee made a conscious decision to move the event to May.
In addition to WordCamp talks, he also expressed the intention of the WordPress Kathmandu committee to improve the conduction of meetups. According to Chhetri, the community members are looking for ways to make the event more participative and accessible for newcomers. However, with WordCamp Kathmandu 2017 only 4 months away, their attention is primarily focused on making the WordCamp event a huge success. In the near future, WordPressers can expect to see significant improvement in the standard of the meetups.
The event was concluded on a high note after a short refreshment and networking session.
For news on upcoming WordPress meetups or any WordPress-related goodies, please follow WordPress Nepal on Facebook.