What a weekend.
I attended WordCamp Minneapolis this weekend. I’d say it was great, I had a great time, met a lot of interesting people and learned a lot, but it was a WordCamp, so that’s a given. Have you been to one yet? There’s one near you this year. There are over 500 a year. Whether you’re new to WordPress or a seasoned pro, you need to go.
“What is a WordCamp?” you ask. It’s a weekend conference where WP enthusiasts, and we are enthusiastic, get together for learning, community building and general schmoozing. This year WordCamp Minneapolis was a three day affair, including three all day workshops on Friday named appropriately Foundation Friday. The three tracks were Intro to WordPress, Intro to Design and Intro to Development. I did the development track, lead by Dan Beil. We did a step by step tutorial on building a theme from scratch. I exponentially expanded my understanding of how WordPress works. I might even start calling myself a developer instead of a consultant. Nah.
On Saturday there were four sessions every hour, times seven. That’s 28 great presentations. It’s hard to decide which ones to go to. That’s OK though, they’re all videotaped so you can check them out at WordCamp TV. I started out with Never Launch Without Training presented by Becky Davis. I’m down with that. Becky gave me some great insights on approaches to getting the job done. Actually, it’s never done, it should be ongoing.
Next up was Travis Totz Defining a Clear Path , about the upfront work in the design process. Know your client, know their business and define the goals before you start to design. That’s my mantra and Travis had really great insights into that process. Travis is a great presenter with a deep understanding of the design process, and a very interesting young man. He and his wife spent last year living in an Airstream and travelling around the country, working remotely. If you get a chance to attend one of his talks, go for it.
Another highlight of the weekend was Chris Lema’s talk, Be Yoda, Not Luke. You’re not the hero of the story, the client is. Good advice. Interestingly the next talk I went to also was full of Star Wars analogies. Maybe not so strange considering the crowd.
On Sunday Jarrett Guccci showed how to create a schedule that makes 20 blog posts in 30 days easy. Maybe for him. His presentation had great tips for bloggers. I went to a great talk by Josh Broton on React. It’s Javascript… but it’s not. It went completely over my head but the presentation was so entertaining I really enjoyed it. Josh made Javascript funny. Now that’s talent.
Remember you will be able to see these talks on WordCamp TV. I know I’ll be checking out some of the ones I missed. I’m working on that two places at the same time thing.
Thanks to the volunteers, speakers, organizers and everyone who showed up for making it another great WordCamp!
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