Connecting with the WordPress community
The event was amazing: I love seeing the local (and not so local!) WordPress community get together – all seeking to add to their knowledge – and we were not disappointed! There was a lot of content in the talks and I enjoyed hearing all the speakers I saw. It was also a chance to meet up in person with some friends I know in the WordPress world. It was great to see old friends again and finally meet people I’ve only spoken to on social media or Slack!
As with all the WordCamps I’ve been to, the always growing community is made up of motivated people with good ideas, who are in love with the platform. It’s really magical how people can be so connected and form real friendships by collaborating, contributing to the local and global community and talking about WordPress.
Sharing Knowledge
There were so many great talks related to the WordPress ecosystem – Not just for developers (which were the ones I attended) but also relevant to people in design, marketing and more! Sharing all the great work really helps to strengthen the community even more, which is brilliant.
I attended several talks but three of these really stood out for me:
- WordPress fundamentals to get you out from basic – this talk was excellent because even old developers could learn from it. There were a lot of functions, code, schemas and things for developers. Some good stuff was shared and everybody learned a lot
- Theme Design for WooCommerce – this talk, presented by Anyssa, was outstanding. She talked about how to develop themes when you know the WordPress structure and of course how to use good design to increase profits – everybody loves profit!
- Alive homepages: from interface design to system programming – Leo Baiano talked about a case he had in his current job, when he needed to build a website in a different way: using WIDGETS. That talk was so fascinating!
All the speakers were amazing – If you’re reading, thank you! Without you, we wouldn’t have such an awesome WordCamp!
Winding down with the WordPress ‘family’
You do meet a lot of people at the event, which is fantastic but it’s been said – and it’s true – that the best place to really get to know people is at the after party. This was a great opportunity and I am so glad I went because we stayed up talking about everything: Our jobs, programming, design, WordPress (of course!), so we were able to make much stronger connections than in the quick chats between talks during the day.
Go WordCamping!
I really love attending WordCamps and highly recommend that you go (and be sure to attend the after party!) if you can. They are amazing places to get to know people and to explore a lot of great ideas. It’s a place where you can share all of your thoughts and know that they will be welcomed. Not to mention that fact that, for a relatively low investment, you can see a lot of great talks from amazing speakers. I honestly think it is one of the best places to learn about WordPress.
What do you think about WordCamps? Have you been to one and how did you find it? Do share your experiences in the comments below! :)