WordCamp Miami has been an annual event in South Florida for the past 8 years. It’s grown from a 150 person event from it’s first year to over 770 attendees in 2015. The scope of the event has also grown in that time to not only include talks specifically on WordPress but also blogging, content creation, SEO, designing, marketing, and developer related topics. It’s been on of the longest running non-profit tech conferences in South Florida. The 8th annual WordCamp Miami is happening next month – February 19-21 – at Florida International University. It has a full schedule lined up for everyone from those wanting to learn WordPress for the first time to those who are already skilled at developing with it. Here are some of the highlights: – If you’ve never used WordPress and want to learn, a full-day workshop is available on Friday February 19th. The class is limited to 100 individuals so that the instructors can take you step by step from learning hosting basics to being able to customize a basic WordPress site of your own. – If you are a freelancer (whether you use WordPress or not) there’s a full-day freelancer’s workshop on Friday February 19th. – Saturday and Sunday (February 20th and 21st) are full of talks ranging from how to improve your website’s SEO, security, and how to build an commerce site with WordPress. Sunday has a full track dedicated to business owners and agencies, along with a brand new “Learn JavaScript deeply” for developers. – The conference is especially family-friendly this year with a Kid’s Workshop Sunday morning (where parents and kids ages 8-13 can learn to create their first blog), an arts/crafts/STEM class in the afternoon, and then a kid’s panel to end the day (in which the invite is still open if you want to nominate your child who blogs to come and speak). Kids are welcome to attend both days on the weekend, and are free to attend. Outside of the knowledge provided by over 70 speakers from across South Florida and the rest of the world, WordCamp Miami has many knowledge sponsors on hand if you want to talk to anyone face to face about website hosting and security. There is a “Happiness Bar” staffed over the weekend by knowledgable WordPress users if you have a question about your WordPress site or need advice about your next website. What’s probably the most interesting about the event is the ticket prices. Because this is a non-profit event, ticket prices are a low $35 for the weekend (plus money if you want to attend a workshop on Friday). Discounts for students and teachers available. The event usually sells out so you might want to pick up your tickets as soon as possible. Weekend tickets include food, swag, t-shirts, and access to the after-party: 2016.miami.wordcamp.org/tickets