Why WordCamp Was Worth Attending
So another weekend goes by, and boy was it a good one – just got back from WordCamp yesterday, and I can certainly assure you that it was money well spent!
Not only was I able to attend the event with a few of my best friends (Cory, Brian, Nathan & Bryan), a number of cool things happened. I will certainly plan to go to WordCamp San Francisco in 2009, and hopefully will stay longer to enjoy the city a whole lot more.
5 things that made WordCamp San Francisco worth attending:
- There were 426 attendees that were there – not including some great speakers like this guy and this guy. I was able to meet a lot of people using Revolution, and it was great to finally put a face to some of the names I’ve seen!
- I learned that a really neat function exists, where you can do a search and see what people are talking about. I think I had this search refreshing all day long to see what was being said.
- On Friday afternoon, we took a spin out to see the Golden Gate Bridge – something I had never seen before in person. You can see proof that I was there.
- I finally met a few people that I have been wanting to meet – guys like Matt Mullenweg, Aaron Brazell, Mark Ghosh, Jason Schuller and Lloyd Budd – and the post WordCamp party was a blast!
- Lastly, and this made the trip worth taking all by itself, I had a fantastic conversation with Automattic’s CEO Toni Schneider about the direction and future of WordPress themes. For those who don’t know, Automattic is the company that developed WordPress, and finally getting to meet Toni (and being fortunate to have 30 minutes of his time) was a huge pleasure. Thanks Toni!
Great to finally meet you, Brian!
Aaron
Yes, it was a total pleasure to meet you as well – glad we had the chance to talk, as well as brainstorm about upcoming stuff!
sounds like a BLAST!
Dave
Yes, it was a blast – can’t wait for next year’s event!
Good times. Thanks for the invite BG. I learned a some valuable tips and make some new friendships.
Peace Out,
Garlic Boy
I also had a blast. It was definitely fun to get together with so many people you talk to or read about each day and finally be able to put faces with names.
Thought the conference was well planned and although it was short (only 1 day) they definitely packed in a lot of great information. I too would like to go for longer next year and actually get to do a little more site seeing.
I also really enjoyed hanging out with Brian G., Nathan, Cory and Brian L. It’s really fun when you get to talk to people that actually understand what you do for a living.
Well, had a blast and looking forward to the next one. Maybe a little less Redbull and Vodka though at that after party.
@Bryan Hauer
Naa man, you handled it well
@BG
Hopefully, you’ll be able to attend Dallas next year too. SF was cool though, for sure. Awesome on all fronts.
Brian, Bryan & Nathan
Yes, it was all good times, and we had a ton of fun wreaking havoc in San Francisco – definitely memories that I’ll hold onto, that’s for sure!
Glad you had a good time and enjoyed meeting everyone. Thank you for sharing some of your experience with the rest of us. I can for some reason see you all wearing T-Shirts that say What Happens at WordCamp stays at WordCamp!
I would have really liked to have attended WordCamp but it is just so far away. I bet that there is so much to learn from attending those sorts of conferences?
Hey Brian
I am excited to hear about BuddyPress. I read 1.0 is due in December. What was the general vibe on that?
Thanks again for the music theme.
Matt
Wow! That gives us something to aim for next time round in the UK. Mind you, we are only a small island
. That’s a huge number of folks, it really must have been a buzz! The recent WordCampUK was heading towards or so and that felt like a big deal. The Automattic team and great, as is the WordPress community.