A couple of years ago, I had the pleasure of presenting at WordCamp YYC on my experiences using WordPress for political campaigns. Earlier this week I stumbled upon the posting of the full talk on WordPress.TV, so I figured it was time to share for those who weren’t at WordCamp Calgary 2017.

With the another round of municipal elections set in Alberta for October 2017, we are about to be bombarded by candidates vying for our votes and attention. But what makes a good Political Campaign Web Site? What makes people take notice of a candidate? And are there lessons about design, branding and functionality that we can learn from campaign web sites to enhance our own business and non-profit web sites. This honest and frank talk will dive into the world of political web design to provide you with ideas on how better tell the story of your organization and get people to buy in to your message.

For the third straight year, Armadillo Studios Inc., was a not only a sponsor of Calgary WordCamp 2016, but one of the co-organizers. This year’s edition of Calgary WordCamp built off the tremendous success of the last two years and was a two-day WordPress extravaganza for a sold out crowd of 150 attendees.

It was an honour to be apart of WordCamp 2016 and to see the WordPress community continue to grow in this amazing city. The entire organizing committee is ecstatic at the reception we received from the community once again and are incredibly thankful to all our sponsors, volunteers and speakers who made WordCamp Calgary 2016 the best one yet.

Earlier this month, I had the chance to attend the inaugural “CAMP Festival”:http://campfestival.ca/ at Theatre Junction GRAND in my home town of Calgary. In conjunction with “FITC”:http://fitc.ca/, this conference was an intense two-day sprint session revolving around the fusion of art, technology, creativity and new media.

Throughout the two days, attendees were bombarded with traditional sessions and intimate studios conversations revolving around the emergence of art within the technology and creative sectors. Talks touched upon topics such as _Design and Happiness_, _Big Redesigns, Tough Clients and a Lot of Work!_, _Designing the Future of Augmented Reality_, _Rich Web Experiences and the Future of the Web_.

Really enjoying the chat from @repponen at #CAMPFEST14 on the design, pitch and UX process. Fantastic information. Lots of takeaways.

— Armadillo Studios (@armadillostudio) September 8, 2014

It was a mind melting two days of uplifting discussion and idea generating conversations about the direction of Web Design and the Internet. Artists such as _GMUNK_, _James White_, and _Sarah Blake_ delved in to their own personal style influences and how they create unique work for clients and their own personal pet projects that have driven their artistic voice. While creative agency veterans such as _Anton Repponen_, _Irene Pereyena_, and _Kim Alpert_ shared their collective experiences dealing with the business side of the creative industry; discussion such topics as client relations, project budgeting, the art of the pitch and team planning and resource management.

signalnoise getting raw & real. #campfest14 #vscocam http://t.co/kWnH5UN1CY

— Jason⚡Dorn (@jaydorn) September 9, 2014

CAMP Festival was a fantastic two days and a breath of fresh air into an otherwise stagnant local conference scene. The fusion of internationally renowned speakers and industry shakers with some of Calgary’s own local success stories, really created a unique experience. As an event it was fantastic opportunity to catch-up with every single one of our local friends from the the Calgary design community, meet some new friends and to hang out and discuss the topics that were shown throughout the day.

If CAMP Festival’s goals were to challenge and inspire the growing Calgary tech and creative industry, then mission accomplished. It goes without saying that pretty much all of the 330 people who attended this conference left with something inspiring or challenging to incorporate into their own business models or creative endeavours. For a first run conference of this magnitude, it was a pleasant and energizing surprise. So a massive thank you to all who was involved in the planning and organizing of CAMP Fest.

The big take always from #CAMPFEST14 are: 1) follow your side passions and heart. Just create. Don't fear the rest.

— Armadillo Studios (@armadillostudio) September 9, 2014

Plus they had S’Mores. Nothing beats a conference with Beer and S’Mores.

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On Saturday afternoon, members of Team Armadillo were able to participate in the third annual “UX Camp Ottawa”:http://uxcampottawa.org/.

The UX (User Experience) Camp in Ottawa is the largest conference of it’s kind in Canada, drawing not only designers and developers from the Ottawa/Gatineau region, but also from Montreal and Toronto. (Read More…)

We are excited! … *Correction*.

We are incredibly stoked to be a bronze level sponsor of “Drupal Camp Alberta this September 11th and 12th at the University of Calgary”:http://www.drupalcampalberta.org/.

This is the first time in it’s three year history that Drupal Camp Alberta will be held in our hometown. So to recognize such a great step forward for the Drupal community, we thought we’d provide “a bit of sponsorship”:http://www.drupalcampalberta.org/sponsors and a hand for this merry band of Lethbridge designers.

If you’re unfamiliar with the Drupal Camp concept, it’s essentially a two-day _tour de farce_ for everything Drupal.

The sessions are designed to bring the growing Drupal Camp community together to share ideas, techniques, tools and strategies that make this CMS one of the most powerful tools in the Web industry. Through Drupal Camp Alberta, we are hoping to see a stronger more tight-nit Drupal development community emerge in this fine city. The team at “RedWall”:http://www.redwall.ca/ and “Lethbridge Web Design”:http://lethbridgewebdesign.ca/ have already done an exceptional job of fostering the community down south and we look forward to seeing them in our hometown.

If you’re planning to attend Drupal Camp Alberta, keep an eye out for Team Armadillo’s own _Drupal Ninja_ – Ryan Boley. He’ll be in attendance this weekend and would love to spend some time talking everything Drupal.