“What took you so long?” We know, we know.

Honestly, we were hesitant to put out too much publicity about CLT WordCamp until we knew the interest was there. Well it looks like we are actually going to have to do this thing now, because the interest has been remarkable. Thanks for showing your support.

Touch base with us on Twitter here. Give us your feedback, stay up on the latest and greatest updates, and (hint) there may even be a discount offered for all the Twitter folks out there when registration opens up soon.

Registration will open very soon by the way. We need to wait until we lock in our location so we can be sure about covering all costs, but that moment is close.

Thanks again to everyone who has supported us so far. Looking forward to a kick ass WordCamp. By the way, according to the WordCamp Report, “this could be the first time there are two WordCamps in one state.”

WordCamp RDU is scheduled for October 4, 2008, in Raleigh/Durham, North Carolina, which is exciting. Perhaps some interstate rivalry can spur on both conferences.

Registration will be opening up soon, as soon as we finalize a location. But we do have some important news to share regarding our date and main speaker, both recently locked down. Along with some more detail on events of the day.

Date Finalized
Saturday, November 15th at 10am EST

Keynote Speaker Finalized
Mark Jaquith, Lead developer on WordPress

“A Floridian, a husband to a wonderful wife, IN UR NOUN, VERBING UR RELATED NOUN, an employee of b5media, a fan of Free and Open Source Software, six feet, four inches tall, 25 years old, a WordPress core developer, a Mac user, an independent WordPress consultant, a capitalist and a libertarian, a Roman Catholic, this guy right here:

Panel Discussions

We are aiming for 3 main panel discussions where we will be able to utilize some local experts in a very casual discussion format. The topics we are currently considering are:

1. WordPress Tech – From WordPress.com to WordPress.org, what are the technical pros and cons, the common pitfalls, and some tips and tricks of the trade
2. Content is King – Overused yes, but still too true to ignore. What are the keys to developing dynamic content for your blog
3. Traffic Solutions – Ok, so you have a blog up and running, you think you have good content, how do you bring it to the people?

Roundtables

We are planning two very informal roundtable discussions for now.

After Party

Yes, there will be a nifty happy hour for people to continue to meet adn greet and grab some beverages afterward. More to come on this as the details are dependant on several things still up in the air.

Ok, so just from email, tweets, and blog comments I am declaring we have plenty of interest to carry on with CLT WordCamp. Moving forward we have set up pages for Location and Date input from you as well as the actuall event programming. We have some feelers out to some local bloggers and personalities who have worked for some pretty cool online companies. We will keep you posted on those leads, but in the mean time, be sure to chime in on the where, when and what that you want to see. And keep spreading the word.