WordPress turned 15 and we were there

The cold, and much-anticipated rainy weather in Cape Town did little to prevent dozens of web strategists, designers and managers from coming out and celebrating WordPress’ 15th birthday on 24 May 2018. Red & Yellow Creative School of Business kindly sponsored use of their Salt River venue for the evening cocktail function, whilst the monthly WordPress meetups will continue to happen at Brookside Office Park in Claremont, Cape Town.

Hetzner, one of the sponsors of the monthly meetups, has been a long-time supporter of the WordPress community in South Africa. Mingling with and chatting to the attendees at the 15th birthday celebration, we found that this community is a collective of ardent, loyal, WordPress fans. Here’s what a few of them had to say:

Tamsin Hall WordPress Front-end Developer, Hetzner customer	“What’s wonderful about WordPress is the extensive, free resources and its inclusive WordPress community.” thefirststep.co.za (Hosted by Hetzner) Some of her work: mayaonmoney.co.za gorgeous2go.co.za frankmagwegwe.co.za
Deb Butler Front-end Developer, Hetzner customer	“I have used WordPress since 2014. The platform is as easy or as hard as you make it.” startumproject.co.za (Hosted by Hetzner) Some of her work: communicare.co.za scarhair.co.za
Thokozani Zuma Co-founder, Appmania	“We’ve just started out, and we’re experimenting with platforms, and WordPress is coming up tops. It’s an awesome tool especially if you’re like us and just getting into web design. We’re new guys in the tech space, and WordPress does it for us, especially the plug-ins. The forum is great too!” appmania.co.za
Amien Jacobs Founder, The Great Niche	“WordPress is one of the easiest content management systems there is. It occupies a huge chunk of the market, and it’s great to be part of its expansion. There is so much innovation in development and the plugins are fantastic.” thegreatniche.co.za (Hosted by Hetzner) Amien has designed 10 websites using WordPress.
Leo Gopal WordPress Developer, Hetzner customer	“I have been using WordPress for 12 years. Its main driving force is its democratisation of website development. No matter what you do or where you come from, WordPress is accessible.” serastudio.com (Hosted by Hetzner) Some of his work: go2africa.com
Niki Roux Web Designer, Hetzner customer	“I have moved completely to WordPress as a web design platform. It is so user-friendly that my clients can make their own changes.” Niki Design Studio nikidesign.co.za (Hosted by Hetzner) Some of her work: greendoorhabby.co.za demux.co.za
Wayne Spengler Freelance Website Designer	“I started using WordPress in 2014 and haven’t looked back. It’s a great, user-friendly platform. Even though I am a website designer, I advise people to build their own sites instead of paying someone to do it. WordPress makes it easy.” waynespengler.com (Hosted by Hetzner) Some of his work: scandihomedecor.com baristaboys.co.za
Tony Vetter Vice President, Strategy Development	“WordPress offers off-the-shelf capabilities, which are particularly good for us. We are in exploratory stages, but we are leveraging WordPress to create custom social networking for young innovators”. Digital Opportunity Trust dotrust.org (Hosted by Hetzner) The Digital Opportunity Trust supports youth to become innovators and leaders, and to create and apply digital solutions that have positive impacts in their communities.
Marc Perel (pictured right) Web Developer Co-founder & CTO of Obox	“We have used WordPress since 2009. It’s great at lowering the barrier for people to get into all facets of the internet.” oboxthemes.com layerswp.com
Candice Cloete UX Designer	“WordPress is an amazing platform! It powers half the internet and it’s not hard to understand why. It’s easy to use, both from a UX perspective and the end-user side. It’s super-easy to customise.” In the process of building her own company.