WordCamp Orange County 2018: Awesome Moments

WordCamp Orange County 2018: Awesome Moments

WordCamp Orange County 2018: Awesome Moments

This year, once again, I traveled to Orange County for WordCamp for the sixth time. In case you’ve never heard of Wordcamp, it’s a conference that focuses on all things WordPress. It’s run by volunteers and has the friendliest and most generous people of any conference I’ve ever attended. If you haven’t gone, you simply must go! And if you’d like to read some past posts about WordCamp, here are the ones about Orange County:

business meeting photo

The People Are Key

Some of my very favorite people are at WordCamp, such as Pam Ann Aungst of Pam Ann Marketing, and Bridget Willard, my besties for years and years. This year, the three of us met after not having seen each other for five years.

People at WordCamp Orange County

People at WordCamp Orange County

 

Being Surrounded by Smart, Enthusiastic People

What I’ve found at Orange County Wordcamp in particular is there are so many people having cool conversations. You could talk about nearly any topic with anyone here. If you work alone, like many of us do, then having meaningful conversations is doubly important. I look forward to seeing so many people every year.

business meeting photo

Fun and Interesting Topics

Some of my favorite topics included Intermediate Google Analytics by Pam Ann AungstRansomware: Don’t Pay That Toll! with Yvonne Conway-Williams, and 90 Days: Finding Your Place in the WordPress Community by Joe A. Simpson. The image above is Joe Simpson speaking about the health scare that caused him to change the course of his life.

Joe Simpson at WordCamp

Joe Simpson at WordCamp

The Venue

For the past three years, Wordcamp Orange County has been held at University California at Irvine. It’s so comfy that we tend to take it for granted. There’s plenty of parking, electrical outlets all over the place, and good WiFi, too. And air conditioning.

Bridget Willard with a Big Hello

Bridget Willard with a Big Hello

 

The Awesome Swag

There were many fun pieces of swag, but my favorite was the Lego person you could build  yourself. GoDaddy had the best swag this year, in my opinion.

DIY LEGO Figure from GoDaddy

DIY LEGO Figure from GoDaddy

The Food Trucks

Who doesn’t love food trucks? This year, there were more food trucks and the lines didn’t seem bad at all. I suspect this had to do with the wonderful volunteers.

Lunchtime with Food Trucks

Lunchtime with Food Trucks

Have You Ever Been to a WordCamp?

If you have, let me know in the comments! And thank you.

venue location photo

 

 

WordCamp Orange County: Top Ten Reasons You Need to Go

WordCamp Orange County: Top Ten Reasons You Need to Go

WordCamp Orange County: Top Ten Reasons You Need to Go

 

The Pre-Party AKA K2 Racing

Racing with other WordPress fans? Such a fun time!

The Swag

Here are just a few of the lovely items, including the third place for racing with the other tortoises. Overheard: “I wouldn’t want to pass anyone. Someone might get hurt!” And a heartfelt thank you to host Dreamhost for sponsoring WomenWhoWP and this event.

WordCamp Swag

WordCamp Swag

The Friendly Faces

Bridget Willard and I went to our first WordCamp Orange County in 2013! It’s become a ritual for us. You might have a WordCamp buddy, too! If you’d like to read about past Orange County WordCamps, here you go:

The Volunteers

There were way more volunteers than shown in the picture, but here are a few! There were people helping everywhere, with parking, with snacks, with coffee, etc.

More Swag

This year, the swag was beautiful. In particular, I truly appreciated the gorgeous notebooks from Dreamhost!

The Generosity of Chris Lema

Chris Lema gave away his structure for how he blogs. How incredibly generous is that? Go follow him on Twitter and check out his blog!

Reconnecting with Friends

So fun to reconnect with Verious B. Smith III, Yvonne Conway, and so many others!

The Learning

Speaking of which, Yvonne Conway gave us a wonderful session on Cybersecurity, Russian hackers, and you!

The Selfies

Selfie with Bridget Willard and Amy Hall

Selfie with Bridget Willard and Amy Hall

Capturing the Selfie

Jason Tucker caught us! Pretty funny!

What Were Your Highlights?

What was your top reason for going?

Spotlight on WordCamp Orange County: Ten Reasons Not to Miss it!

Spotlight on WordCamp Orange County: Ten Reasons Not to Miss it!

Spotlight on WordCamp Orange County: Ten Reasons Not to Miss it!

Are you considering going to a WordCamp? WordCamp is a conference with its main focus on WordPress, run by volunteers from the WordPress community. Here are some of my reasons to go to the one in Orange County! This is my fourth year. Here are reviews of previous years:

Free lunches really do exist!

Free lunches really do exist!

It’s a HUGE Bargain

And by huge, I mean ginormous. For the entrance fee of about $40, you get classes from experts on blogging and plugins, two lunches, snacks, coffee and other beverages, networking, honest opinions, swag, and much more.

Meet Your Peers

Those people you’ve seen online, those friends of friends, and the people whom you didn’t know you needed to meet? They’re all at WordCamp! And Orange County WordCamp is my absolute favorite for friendliness!

Support Others

There’s always someone you want to support because they’re speaking and they’re a friend of another friend. Nothing beats giving them an in-person shoutout.

concert light photo

Give Back to the Community

The WordPress community is wonderfully generous. And you can give to the others who’ve helped you along the way, as well as meet people who might need your expertise. And others may end up answering your questions as well.

Discover New Plugins

This year’s Plugin-Palooza showcased four new plugins. Hearing about how people developed those plugins in person, and getting to meet the developers was a wonderful thing.

Add plugins

Add plugins

Find Collaborators

You might need people to test something with you, to be co-conspirators on a new project, or collaborate on another WordCamp. Going to a WordCamp is how you meet those people.

Take a Deeper Dive

Much of what I took away this year was the emphasis on soft skills during the business track. Also, that “Blogger Support Group,” where you can do 50 posts with Scott Buscemi (not Steve Buscemi) looks pretty sweet! We’ll see what happens with that.

discussion photo

Grow Your Little Gray Cells

Three out of four people agreed that attending WordCamp Orange County makes you smarter. You could also do some of the things in this article: If You Do These 20 Things, You’ll Become Smarter.

The Fun You’ll Have

You might go to WCOC to learn, and then suddenly you’ll be having fun. All WordCamps are like that, but especially this one.

The Swag, The Swag!

The t-shirts, the mugs, the stickers, while not the reason to attend, are nice bonuses! Do you have other reasons to attend? Please leave me a comment! Thank you.

Swag is a nice bonus for attending #WCOC

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