I am absolutely thrilled to be speaking at the first WordCamp Lyon on June 5! Lyon holds a special place in my heart, being the first city I lived in upon arriving in France back in 1996, and where I eventually moved and started my career in the web a couple years later.
My first agency was born in the living room of our apartment rue Neuve, just above the restaurant le Nord de Paul Bocuse. We then moved into a commercial space, a sort of old mosque that we converted into an open-space loft, just behind the Place des Terraux. After going freelance, I traversed the Place and starting making my way up into the pentes, first in a fabulous shared office space rue Romain, affectionately called the “656 Lab” and where I have some of my fondest memories; then a bit further up on the Montée Saint-Sébastien where I spent my final year in another shared space with a beautiful view of the city before making my move to Paris.
The venue chosen for the event couldn’t be more spectacular or more Lyonnais: La Plateforme, a giant barge, or péniche, converted into an event hall. The program looks top-notch too, if I do say so myself wink So far, at just a couple weeks from the event, the organizers seem to be really outdoing themselves. And the food…it’s Lyon after all, so my expectations are high.
I will be speaking on the topic of website maintenance, a subject that has become of particular interest and importance to me over the past year; one that, looking back, seems to reflect the evolution of my business over the years, and the impact of working with content management systems, and WordPress in particular. I do look forward to connecting a few dots.
You may have seen the recent survey I did. If you took the time to reply and/or helped with an RT or a share, thank you! I’ve been digging in, analyzing the results and sending out follow up questions. While I’ll be publishing more detailed results after WordCamp Lyon, I would like to share an overview of the participants with you now. Again, the goal of the survey was to get a better of idea of what agencies and freelancers in the WordPress community are charging for technical maintenance, what specific services they are offering, and what tools they are using to get the job done.
For those who replied and don’t have a maintenance offer, the responses are just as interesting and full of insight. One thing is clear from my survey: the question of site maintenance is far from cut and dry.
Out of a total of 125 participants:
- 55 (44%) work at or run an agency.
- 70 (56%) are freelancers.
They came from all over:
| Belgium | 1 |
| Bulgaria | 13 |
| Canada | 5 |
| Denmark | 2 |
| France | 34 |
| Germany | 7 |
| Hungary | 1 |
| Ireland | 1 |
| Japan | 1 |
| Netherlands | 9 |
| Norway | 1 |
| Pakistan | 1 |
| Poland | 1 |
| Romania | 1 |
| Serbia | 2 |
| South Africa | 1 |
| Spain | 1 |
| Sweden | 1 |
| Switzerland | 6 |
| United Kingdom | 15 |
| United States | 21 |
96 (77%) offer maintenance plans, while 29 (23%) said they do not (though upon further investigation, I may need to adjust those number a bit!).
Stay tuned for the rest!