We’re delighted to announce that thanks to sponsorship from EURid, the European Registry of Internet Domain Names, WordCamp Ireland will be sporting the lovely .EU Power Station. You’ll be able to recharge your laptop, mobile phone, PDA or other standard gear in the main hall’s Power Lounge, complete with comfy chairs and cozy cups of coffee, and we’ll even let you DJ while you wait!

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We’ll be welcoming (and thanking) all of our speakers and sponsors who’ve made it down to Kilkenny in time with a private dinner at Langton’s on Friday night. The setting (and the food) will be very nice indeed but this is not a formal do by any means. Wear what you like – if you’re jetlagged, you can stumble downstairs in your PJs and we’ll be happy to see you (and give you coffee.)

We’ll be getting firm numbers for this event as we confirm speakers. You can bring your kids; we’ll be asking you about that as well.  Dinner will kick off at about 7:30 or 8 and we’ll update with details as the schedule firms up. Thanks!

©Nikolay Bachiyski

It’s only 72 hours since the official Planning Day but WordCamp Ireland 2010 is now planned, live and ready to go. Yesterday we confirmed – and in fact, are taking over entirely – Langton’s Hotel in Kilkenny for a two-day conference on March 6th and 7th. WordCamp is on, baby!

We are absolutely thrilled at the immediate response from the speakers and sponsors we’ve approached in the last 24 hours, and would like to give an enormous smooch to our very first speakers and sponsors, many of whom said yes when the only thing we knew was “WordPress, March.” We’ll be adding many, many more fabulous speakers and sponsors soon.

Meanwhile, we’re incredibly excited because we think this is going to be an outstanding conference. The first 100 tickets are €40 each (after that they go up) and the weekend includes:

• Registration, coffee, and nosh on Saturday and Sunday mornings
• A swag bag that’s definitely different
• A full schedule of talks on three distinct tracks (Intro, Bloggers, and Technical) to match different interests
• Included lunch on Saturday and Sunday
• An optional dinner that night (extra cost applies, sorry!)
• Plenty of breaks and conference-wide talks so that everyone is together enough to meet and talk.

In addition, we’ve designed this to be a family-friendly conference; you can bring your partner and/or kids and not have to leave them behind for a full weekend away. Kilkenny is a great city with loads to do, but we’ll also have an on-site, supervised playroom for parents to avail of as needed. On top of that, we’re selling extra tickets for lunch and for Saturday’s dinner so your partner and/or children can hang out with you through the days.

It should be an absolutely fabulous weekend to get your WordPress on; if you have suggestions, please add your comments.