What’s New at iThemes This Week:

• New Version Release of Backup Buddy
• Child Themes – Astro 2.0
• Server Buddy News
• iThemes Builder Bootcamp – April 23-24
• Tips of the Week
• Featured Site of the Week

So in January, we hosted our first ever iThemes Bootcamp in Dallas (see the testimonial videos and photos here). Based on the overwhelmingly positive response we got from our customers who participated, our team came back energized and asked when the next one was going to be. In fact, so have many of you.

So I’m excited to finally announce details for and invite you to the next iThemes Bootcamp …. IT’S OFFICIAL!

Join the iThemes Team For Two Action-Packed Days
As We Show You How To Use WordPress
& iThemes Builder to Create Great Websites

iThemes Builder Bootcamp
Friday, April 23 and Saturday, April 24, 2010
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

What is It?

The iThemes Builder Bootcamp is an intense two-day workshop designed to help you build and customize WordPress websites and blogs for yourself or for your clients in our star product – iThemes Builder.

Who Should Attend?

The ideal person for this workshop is those just getting started with Builder to build sites for themselves … or those building sites for clients as a business. So it’s not for the super advanced web developer. But you DO need to know how to use WordPress and be familiar with what themes and plugins are and in particular Builder.

** This Small Workshop Is Limited To Only 50 People **
(including guests)
Registration Is First Come First Serve

3 Great Reasons to Attend

• It’s extremely affordable – We’ve lowered the price for this premium training event as much as we can so as many of our community can come. We charged over $297 a person previously, and although we don’t offer custom services or consulting, in the past we charged $125 an hour for this type of help and training. So for two days, you get in-person access to myself and our iThemes Team, including Builder lead developer Chris Jean.
• Learn how to build great, effective sites with WordPress in Builder – a custom websites can cost over $1,000, our aim is to teach you the skills and ways to build rockin’ websites affordably and effective with Builder.
• Meet other iThemes community members – One of the amazing things for me to observe at our previous Bootcamp was to watch the interaction between our community in person. Not only will you meet and get to know our team in person, but you’ll also be able to build great relationships and connections with each other.

What We’ll Cover

At iThemes Builder Bootcamp, we’ll cover these topics …

• The keys and benefits to using WordPress as a CMS
• How to install and optimize WordPress for search engine optimization and every day use
• The best tools to use for WordPress and Builder web design
  
• How to backup, restore and secure your WordPress sites
• What WordPress theme files do and how Builder works
  
• Graphic design tips and tricks to personalize your WP sites
• Tips for customizing Builder with Child Themes and CSS through Style Manager
  
• How to make your website a marketing hub for your clients and yourself

…AND…

The best part is … since this will be a small event (remember, only 50 people) you’ll have plenty of time to ask questions AND get personal help along the way from the iThemes Team!

Here’s why I’m personally excited for the event …. we get to meet YOU!

As I’ve traveled to different WordPress events, I’ve had the great pleasure of meeting many of our iThemes customers … but this time, we’ll have our own special party for you!

So be sure to register today and start making plans to be in Oklahoma City with us April 23-24, 2010.

The iThemes team and I look forward to meeting you.

–Cory Miller
Founder
iThemes.com

Hotel Reservation Information:
Hotel and travel is of course on your own. We have blocked a number of rooms at special rate for you at the event hotel. Make your reservations by April 7 to get this rate: $89.00 + tax per night OR $99.00 +tax per night with breakfast. Mention group name: iThemes.

Courtyard by Marriott Oklahoma City North
13511 Highland Park Blvd.
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73120 USA
Phone: 1-405-418-4000
Fax: 1-405-418-4001
Sales: 1-405-418-4000
Sales fax: 1-405-418-4001

Tenative Schedule:
8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. both days

What’s new at iThemes this week:

• BackupBuddy Launch News
• Server Buddy – from Plugin Buddy!
• Builder Child Theme “Default”
• Best Practices
• Builder Bootcamp April 23-24
• SXSW Trip and Blog
• and finally…Amazon Kindle Winner Announcement!!

We’re answering questions live right now …. so be sure to stop by and also check out our first official plugin called BackupBuddy!

We’ve decided to host the next iThemes Bootcamp in Oklahoma City because it is in our backyard and time constraints.

Plus, this allows our entire team to participate and be here for you!

Originally, we were looking at doing the next iThemes Bootcamp in Las Vegas but that destination has postponed that for the next one. We’ll announce those when we get more information.

REGISTER & RESERVE YOUR SEAT AT BUILDER BOOTCAMP TODAY!

In the meantime, check out this video where Bootcamp participants talk about their time!

Also, here’s some photos of the fun (and learning of course).

Many people have asked about our business and what our three core brands do ….

• At iThemes, our main business, we produce WordPress themes (this was the brand that launched our company over 2 years ago)
• At WebDesign.com, our mega brand that we acquired last summer, we provide web design training centered on WordPress. Check out James’ recent announcement about what’s on the agenda at WebDesign.com.
• At PluginBuddy, we will be rolling out premium (and free) WordPress plugins. Our newest team member, Dustin Bolton, will be leading that effort. For backstory on why we are entering the premium WordPress plugin market, check out my post on this subject.

Any other questions? Please leave a comment … or signup for the launch of PluginBuddy (or follow PluginBuddy on Twitter) and be the first to know when we go live!

WordPress 3.0, scheduled for release in May, will add an exciting new menu feature to WordPress. This new feature allows for the quick and easy creation of multiple sets of menu navigation. In addition, each menu set can have a combination of page, category, and custom links. This is a great enhancement to WordPress and will give people much more control over their navigation.

I really wanted to try out this new feature to see how it would work with Builder, so I got the latest nightly build of WordPress (the menu code is only added to these nightly builds currently) and started playing around. Fortunately, adding support for this new feature was not difficult, so the 2.3.0 release of Builder added support for the new 3.0 menus.

The video shows how the new 3.0 menu system works and how Builder makes use of the new feature to offer more Navigation Module options.

The team at WooThemes produced this new feature for WordPress, so I want to give a big thank you to everyone on their team.

For more about the WordPress 3.0 release, read Menus, the Merge, and a Patch Sprint!.

We’ve had that chance on several occasions as we’ve traveled whether that is at WordCamps in various cities (I’ve personally been to 6 now) or at one of our live event like the recent iThemes Bootcamp in Dallas. But rarely have we met them on our home turf, meaning in the office we affectionately call our “dorm room.”

So when Helen Castillo, a chef and FlexxTheme customer, emailed me to say she was in town and asked if she could drop by our offices, I said, “Sure!”

Here’s a quick video of me and Helen talking about her blog (she’s a raw food chef) and her experience with iThemes ‘in office’ genius bar support! It was a fun interview!

New this week at iThemes:

• Plugin Buddy – Launch News!
• Style Manager Update
• All Theme update – child themes
• Tips of the week
• Featured site of the week
• Child Theme Contest – what’s next?
• Nashville Recap

Watch now!

Join us live for the chat next time! Every Tuesday on www.ithemes.tv at 11:00am CST