Sponsor Spotlight: Skype

I am excited to announce that Skype is now an official sponsor of WordCamp Chicago ’09 – it’s really great to know that a fantastic company like Skype supports the WordPress community!  I made a trip to my business mail drop today because they called to say that I had six rather large boxes waiting for me and if I didn’t pick them up today, they would have to start charging me for the space they were taking up.  I couldn’t remember ordering anything that big, so curiosity was the motivating factor for me to get my butt up and head down there to check out what these boxes contained!

To my (very pleasant) surprise – the boxes were shipped from Skype.  And the mail drop lady was right – they were HUGE.  I opened one of them and found that inside were hundreds of Skype starter kits – enough to give one to every single attendee and speaker at WordCamp Chicago!  WOW – thanks Skype!  The starter kit includes:

• One Skype headset with microphone
• One voucher for up to 30 minutes of free calls

For those of you unfamiliar with Skype – it is software that you can download to your computer and use it to place phone calls – you can call other Skype users and even place calls to ordinary phones with Skypes low per minute rates and monthly plans that they have available at their website at Skype.com.  Users are also able to recieve phone calls from their friends on Skype for free and you cna get a personal number that reaches you on Skype, or forward your Skype calls to your cell phone when you’re offline.

I have been a Skype user for several years, and know several of my collegues and pals use it to keep in touch, as well.  It is a really great way to stay connected.

I want to extend a heartfelt thanks to Skype for providing WordCamp Chicago attendees with the starter kits.  I also hope that you all will find it to be a helpful bonus – – for existing users of Skype and for those of you who haven’t tried it yet – this is the perfect opportunity!