Chattanooga in running to host WordCamp U.S.

Chattanooga has a growing tech community, including facilities such as TechTown, which is shown above. The city has also attracted major national events, and area residents are hoping to host WordCamp U.S. (Photo: Staff)

Chattanooga is one of six cities in the running to host WordCamp U.S.

"WordCamps are held worldwide, but the official one has always been in San Francisco, until they made the decision recently to move WordCamp U.S. around to various cities," Jeremy Moore, who helped put together Chattanooga's application, said. 

WordCamps are informal, community-organized events put together by WordPress users. They focus on all things WordPress. Participants include people who range from casual users to serious developers.  

Moore, who is also the CFO of Cleveland-based WordPress development company WP Ninjas LLC, said that—after talking with some other like-minded people who thought it would be cool to have the event here—he decided to get information together for the proposal. 

He couldn't share too many details about the proposal, but officials are looking for cities with a venue that could host up to 2,000 people. The location needs to have multiple rooms for breakout sessions and should be walkable to plenty of lodging options, he said. 

"We're also proposing that it happen in the fall, which we think is a fantastic time to visit Chattanooga," he said. 

The event is not-for-profit, so he also focused a lot of the proposal on making sure that the plans would fit into a budget that still makes tickets affordable, he said via email. 

"Of course, we also highlighted our blazing-fast Internet and growing tech community, along with proximity to so many great things, as reasons why we'd be a great host city," he also said. 

He isn't sure exactly what goes into the decision-making process, but he is hoping to hear the decision in the next couple of days. 

Landing the event would be big for Chattanooga, Moore said.

While the decision is pending, he's trying to drum up support on Twitter using hashtags such as #WordCampUS, #GigCity and #GigCityWordCamp. 

"This would be a huge win for Chattanooga and continue to cement us as an up-and-coming tech-friendly community," he also said. "We're definitely the David among Goliaths in the finalist pool, with Chicago, Phoenix, Philly, Orlando and Detroit all being much larger cities."

Source: Chattanooga in running to host WordCamp U.S.