Philly is hosting the first national WordCamp conference

Philadelphia is going to host the first WordCamp US conference the winter.
The conference, geared toward WordPress developers, historically had its main event of the year in San Francisco, with local offshoots around the country, including one in Philadelphia since 2010. But this year, WordCamp opened up applications for cities that wanted to host the conference.
Philadelphia won out.
That’s thanks to an effort from YIKES Inc.’s Tracy Levesque and Jodie Riccelli, as well a team that includes WebDevStudios’ Brad Williams and WordPress dev Reed Gustow. See a full list of the local team here.
WordCamp US joins several national tech conferences that are coming to Philly this year, including the Open Hardware Summit and the JS.Geo conference.
Riccelli sent us part of their winning application. See how they sold Philly below.

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Q.4 Is there something you want to make sure we know about your city, your team, your venue? If it’s important to you we want to hear about it.

Large WordPress community in Philadelphia and its suburbs (City Meetup has ~1500 members)
Large, growing, diverse Millennial population
Walkable, pedestrian- and bike-friendly city
Team of experienced WordCamp organizers, knowledgeable about local conditions, attractions, and specialties, that is able and willing to work with broader national team
Active tech-creative community participation
Very diverse population; open to all
Vocal support from the Convention Center and Philadelphia Visitors Bureau

Q.9 Why do you think your city should host WordCamp US 2015?

Philadelphia is the birthplace of our nation. The United States started here, and so should WordCamp US.

We’re ideally situated on the East Coast between New York and Washington DC, and the halfway point between the West Coast and parts of Europe.

With a population of 1.5 million, it is the 5th largest city in North America, and is a cultural hub for all things food, music, art, and technology. It is well known for its many excellent medical and educational facilities, including the University of Pennsylvania, Temple University, Drexel University, and the University of the Sciences.

With over 1,200 daily inbound and outbound flights, Philadelphia is easy to reach from anywhere in the world. The average hotel room and cost of living, is far below any other major East Coast city, and nowhere else has cheesesteaks like we do.

Q.10 Please list any WordCamps that have been held in your state.

Lancaster, PA (2015, 2015)

Philadelphia, PA (2010, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015)

Scranton, PA (July 2015)

Pittsburgh (Planning stages)

Q.11 Please list the URLs for WordPress meetup groups in your state.

These can be on the official meetup.com group or not. This helps to give us an idea of how much WordPress-related activity is your area.

http://www.meetup.com/Philadelphia-WordPress-Meetup-Group/

http://www.meetup.com/philly-burbs-wordpress-meetup/

http://www.meetup.com/Harrisburg-WordPress-User-Group/

http://www.meetup.com/nepawp/

http://www.meetup.com/WordPress-Lancaster/