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!

https://twitter.com/CarrieForde/status/873323651617112065

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.

https://twitter.com/theisaac/status/873676764735655936

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!

https://twitter.com/devturtle2015/status/873967717166047232

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!

https://twitter.com/jasontucker/status/873275431889190912

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

WordCamp Orange County 2015: Why Go?

WordCamp Orange County 2015: Why Go?

WordCamp Orange County 2015: Why Go?

There are so many wordcamps around the world–there are many in the United States, Europe and Asia. So why should you attend the one in Orange County (WCOC)? If you’re anywhere nearby, I highly recommend this Wordcamp. And if you’d like to read recaps from Orange County WordCamp 2013 or 2014, please do.

Everything WordPress

If you’ve been writing your own blog for awhile, or if you’re thinking about starting a blog, you can get plenty of friendly advice here. From hosting to plugins, to how to use a content calendar, you can find it here, or you can find someone to ask.

Everything WordPress

Everything WordPress

Friendly Volunteers

At WCOC, there’s a non-competitive vibe that prevails, with people willing to offer you their time and opinion on just about everything. The entire camp is run by volunteers, too, so if you’d like to give back to the community, there are many ways to do so. From helping people park to signing in the participants, there’s a job for everyone.

A Huge Bargain

At $40, WCOC is the best bargain you’ll get for any conference, hands down. That $40 includes two lunches, all the sessions, a t-shirt, mug, and tons of bling.

The Wordcamp Bandana doubles as a blanket

The Wordcamp Bandana doubles as a blanket

The Bling

Yes, we’re not supposed to be all about the bling. But WCOC has such good designers that all the stickers and t-shirts and mugs every year are fab. It’s like a branded event at a million-dollar conference.

Wordcamp Swag

Wordcamp Swag

The Sessions

This year, the sessions were the best I’ve ever heard. From Sunday’s business conference to William Bay’s session on SEO, they were each packed with so much information, that there was no way to remember it all. Luckily, there are videos and slideshares!

The Friends

Tweeting to my bestie Bridget Willard, I told her that Wordcamp is 1000 times better with friends. In classic introvert fashion, here are our shoes (above). And meeting lots of new friends (see below).

Crazy Inspiration

At every turn, WCOC is filled with inspiration. You might be in the hall waiting for the next session when you overhear someone talking about something you’ve had an issue with. Or out having fish tacos with your bestie when you realize what you have to do next on your blog. Picture below by By Mendel (@ifyouwillit).

WordCamp Inspiration

WordCamp Inspiration

Controversy

Perhaps the most controversial session I attended was the one in which Jarrett Gucci outlined how to create a blogging calendar for 20 posts in 30 days. And no, it’s not like one of those feats where you work up to it and then slack off. It’s a lifestyle change. Yup.

SteveZehngut shared Shia LaBeouf’s video at the opening of the Business Workshop.

Call to Action

My call to action for you is to put Wordcamp Orange County on your calendar for next year. Just do it!

WordCamp San Francisco: Why A Blogger Should Go

WordCamp San Francisco: Why Bloggers Should Go

WordCamp San Francisco: Why Bloggers Should Go

This isn’t the first WordCamp I’ve attended, and it won’t be my last one, either. There are so many reasons to go, I can’t even begin to list them all. Here are a few highlights. If you haven’t read any of my other  posts about WordCamps, here are a couple of my faves: WordCamp Orange County 2014: Awesome Moments and WordCamp San Francisco: Favorite Things.

The Bill Was Fabutab

Frankly, I was more than a little excited that WordCampSF had so many women speakers this year. You could practically spend the entire two days and not listen to one single man, which is unusual at a technical conference, and even more unusual in San Francisco, where even Pinterest events are filled with men. This is awesome in so many ways. More on the particulars below.

The Bloggess

One of the biggest draws for me at the 2014 WordCamp was getting to see and hear The Bloggess. If you’ve never read her blog, you should. Come back here after two and a half years, when you’re done laughing. Yes, she’s that funny. If you don’t come back, I don’t blame you. Whatever. I was a little bit afraid to hear her speak because she has reached that stage of awesome in my mind, but she did not disappoint. In fact, my favorite moment came from her talk.

She was talking about trolls, which we all get as bloggers, especially on the more successful posts. And she said “It’s my house, so if you’re going to comment, entertain me. And if you don’t, look out!” Since her blog is curated, she can change the comments of trolls, which she does. Simple, but brilliant, right? Then when the troll returns (they always do!), she can again change their comment from the extremely negative to the extremely positive.

WordCamp San Francisco: Buttons Are Everywhere

WordCamp San Francisco: Buttons Are Everywhere

WordCamp San Francisco: MailChimp Cat Apparel

WordCamp San Francisco: MailChimp Cat Apparel

The Freebies

Yes, this might seem trivial, but deep in our hearts we all love the cheesy t-shirts, mugs, and free things we get at conferences. Even the stickers help make a lackluster conference better. This year’s winner was clearly MailChimp’s cute knitted cat hat. They had full-sized hats for people, too. I’m not sure how much my cat loved the hat, but she’s fussy that way. Anyway, she put up with it long enough to get a picture.

Meeting People

Hobnobbing with the other WordPress nerds is always a highlight, and this year’s WordCamp participants were no exception. I got to hang out with my buddy Peter Woolvett, too.

Crafty Chica was a huge and welcome surprise as well. She’s @CraftyChica on Twitter, by the way. You’ll love all her glitter and positivity.

Getting Retweeted. By Matt Mullenweg. Twice.

If you don’t know who Matt Mullenweg is, Google him!

Giants. Fans.

As in the “Orange Tide” was right outside the door. When we wandered outside, we’d see planes with banners, people dressed in orange, tailgating parties, etc. Did I mention dogs wearing orange and black shoes? As thousands poured through SOMA, up King Street and over to the stadium, it was impossible to ignore. Walking out of WordCamp and into the insane orange-and-blackness that engulfed San Francisco was incredible.

Will You Go? Have You Been?

I’d love to hear from you! If you’re planning to go next year, let’s meet up for coffee!

WordCamp San Francisco: Giants Fans

WordCamp San Francisco: Giants Fans

WordCamp Orange County 2014: Awesome Moments

WordCamp Orange County 2014: Awesome Moments

WordCamp Orange County 2014: Awesome Moments

Recently, I attended WordCamp Orange County 2014, not to be confused with WordCamp Orange County 2013. Here are a few of my favorite moments.

The Women

Mary Baum’s class on responsive design was Sunday’s funniest seminar. She kept us entertained while educating us on design challenges. And apparently, she loves golf!

Chris Lema

Chris Lema helped make the conference a community. He followed his own advice of being helpful. Getting the Most from Your Blog was definitely not about any get-rich quick schemes. Chris Lema set the tone for much of the conference.

Live Tweeting

You may have read my blog post about Live Tweeting at Conferences. Live tweeting is a fab way to connect with new friends. In fact, two of my besties (Bridget Willard and Peter Woolvett) were both people I met through Twitter. Some people we met couldn’t believe you could actually meet people from Twitter. Who knew? And here’s a partial hashtag report, in case you think live tweeting doesn’t make a difference in amplifying an event.

Wordcamp 2014 STATS_2 copy

Offsite Meetups

Offsite Meetups at WCOC 2014

Offsite Meetups at WCOC 2014

Another favorite moment was going to Café Vitaly with friends for extra-strong doses of coffee or the best sorbet and gelato around. Strolling on the beach, walking back from the Durty Nelly’s after party, and seeing some unusual trees (and giant cockroaches) along the way were also good ways to “play hooky.”

Jason Rosenbaum’s Business Coaching Workshop on Contracts and Proposals

Jason Rosenbaum’s talk was surprisingly useful. As a result of hearing his talk, I’ll be changing how I word some of my proposals. For instance, no more 100% guarantees—especially if clients want to “do it themselves.” Good, solid advice.

Slide Presentations and Videos at the Speed of Light

As we watched on Twitter, the presentations started to appear online. Many presenters uploaded their talks even before the weekend was over. How awesome is that?

Food Trucks

Gourmet food trucks, with items like Coconut Risotto (A Bite Truck), Mexican food, and bacon (of course!). Worth the wait. Also the gourmet mini-cupcakes, Skittles, and gluten-free brownies.

Artwork at Cafe Vitaly

Artwork at Cafe Vitaly

Style Revisions

Derived straight from the creatives at Minecraft, WordCamp’s new direction feels somewhere between Super Mario and Flappy Birds.

The style is everywhere, from the giant mugs and t-shirts to notebooks, stickers, and buttons!

Chance Meetings

Meeting people like Justin @student_otc at one of the first talks, connecting online with @DownTownRob who met me and my friends at Durty Nelly’s. Meeting attendees and speakers while waiting in line.

Generosity and Friendliness at WordCamp Orange County

Generosity and Friendliness at WordCamp Orange County

Generosity and Friendliness

Without the volunteers and sponsors, WordCamp Orange County would not have been such a success.

Finding Work/Life Balance As a Remote Worker

Jon Brown’s  course outlined ways to stay sane while working remotely. And he was even more fun when he went off-script and discussed all the tools he uses (such as electronic devices to bring while backpacking!).

Did I Leave Anything Out?

What were your favorite moments?

 

Live Tweeting at Conferences

 

Live Tweeting at Conferences

Live Tweeting at Conferences

You may have been to a conference lately and wondered about people who live tweet. This post is how to make your experience easier. With just a little bit of planning, your live tweeting can add to your conference experience. For other tips on conferences, read Entrepreneur’s The Art of Hacking a Conferences.

Why Live Tweet?

Aaron Hockley Recommends This "Friend Maker"

Aaron Hockley Recommends This “Friend Maker”

Live tweeting lets you connect to other Twitter users, and amplifies what’s happening at the conference or live event. Live tweeting lets the speakers know that you’re listening to them, since you can interact with them. Often, a conference such as WordCamp San Francisco (#WCSF) will have a live Twitter feed. The #SFGiants interact with their audience through live tweeting. You may have read my post about the San Francisco Giants and how they can improve your game.

Before the Event

  • Search for the Hashtag. If your conference has a hashtag, search for it. For instance, I’ll be attending WordCamp Orange County (#WCOC), and have been following the hashtag. You may find out about extra parties or discover more about your favorite speakers. For instance, there is a pre-event golf game for #WCOC.
  • Follow speakers whose talks you’d like to attend.
  • Follow fellow attendees.
  • Create a list in Twitter for the event. When you add someone to a list, they’re alerted on Twitter. Once people are on a list, you can more easily hear what they’re saying and cut down the noise of Twitter.
  • Create a Pinterest place board for bonus points! My pal, Bridget Willard, created this Orange County WordCamp board that’s both a place board and a group board (so I can pin to it, too!).
  • Make a list with the participants, their handles, and the hashtag on your smart phone.
  • Print a list using Post-it notes. Yep. I found it on Pinterest.

Stuff to Bring

Extra chargers, fully charged phones, an extra extension cord (aka Friend Maker), and your already-made lists.

Follow the Conference Hashtag

Follow the Conference Hashtag

During the Event

  • Use the hashtag at the end of every tweet. You could use tweetchat.com for this (adds the hashtag automagically!). People who are watching remotely use the hashtag as well as those at the conference.
  • Follow the conference hashtag (you can create a column in Tweetdeck or HootSuite to make this easier).
  • Listen for Interesting Quotes. Add value to the conversation by cherry picking the best quotes.
  • Tweet your own questions or comments.
  • Use abbreviations. Here are some common ones: OH (Overhead), h/t (hat tip), MT (modified tweet).
  • Meet New Friends. Since you’ve already been following people (and hopefully engaging with them), they will probably be more open to meeting. So don’t be shy!

Do You Enjoy Live Tweeting?

What would you add to my lists? Please leave me a comment. Thanks!

What I’ve Learned from 100 Blog Posts

What I've Learned from 100 Blog Posts

What I’ve Learned from 100 Blog Posts

If you’ve been reading my blog, first of all, let me say how much I appreciate you. I am very blessed that I’ve gotten so many comments, and learned so much from all of you, out there reading these words. Because I’d heard all kinds of horror stories about people blogging for YEARS and never getting one. Single. Comment. I’ve been lucky enough to have extremely engaged readers and comments on nearly every post.

Now that I’ve written 100 posts, here’s some stuff I’ve learned. By the way, thanks for the inspiration to Randy Clark and his What We’ve Learned From 300 Posts.

Use Beautiful Images

Images are one of the most important aspects of a blog. Some people, I’m convinced, don’t read at all, but skim the headings and look at the pretty pictures. So I make an effort to use Flickr’s Creative Commons or my own photos whenever possible. Maybe in the future, blogs won’t even have words, just images. When I began, I stuck to the formula of two photos per post, but now sometimes use more.

Mistakes Were Made

I once made the mistake of using someone’s photo and got a “takedown notice.” Since then, I make sure to check in Creative Commons by using the Advanced Search and only using those available for commercial use so that doesn’t happen again! Wow. That was embarrassing.

Secret Killer Aliens from Outer Space!

Headlines matter. A lot. And stacking the important (read: SEO-centric) words towards the beginning of the headline is important. For instance, rather than saying “Most Important Hashtags on Twitter,” say “Twitter: Important Hashtags.” And shorter is better on headlines, too, for ranking. Not that every headline has to follow a formula, but it’s something I’m more aware of now. I learned about the SEO-centric headlines from friend Pam Aungst Marketing.

WordCamp!

Going to WordCamp provides inspiration and inspiration is the juice that keeps your blogging engine fueled. So I highly recommend finding a WordCamp and attending. I’ve gone to both WordCamp Orange County and WordCamp San Francisco (the mother ship!). And each time have made numerous new friends, as well as meeting online friends like Peter Woolvett and Ruby Rusine!

My Secret Weapon

My Secret Friend

My Secret Friend

Yes, I have an editor friend. See? There she is behind that tree. She promised me I could take her picture–and she didn’t really lie. She is a real person, and she has helped me when I’ve painted myself into a grammatical corner many times. She doesn’t help me with every single post, but you can definitely tell when she does help. Because those posts make a whole lot more sense (and also contain more references to clowns)! Also: subject-verb agreement For The Win!

Syndication

My blog is syndicated on Business to Community, sometimes appears in Yahoo Small Business! and Women of Technology. That has helped with traffic and probably brought me more followers and fans.

Don’t Worry That You Won’t Have Topics

I’m convinced that writing has helped me with my listening skills. Now I’m always listening for the question that someone might have. Many posts are inspired by my followers or fans. And I’ve been surprised at how many friends I’ve made among other bloggers, too. It’s a little community.

Unexpected Results

Blogging has helped me to go to cool places in my own imagination. I very often start writing and don’t know where a post is going. Some of my favorite posts have come out of times when I really didn’t feel like writing, but forced myself. What do you get out of blogging? Do you have a secret friend who encourages you to write about clowns?

 

 

WordCamp San Francisco: Part 2

 

WordCamp San Francisco 2013: Part Two

WordCamp San Francisco 2013: Part Two

By now you might realize how awesometastic WordCamp San Francisco is. If you don’t, you might want to read my first post about WordCamp San Francisco. Helpful and friendly people, volunteers everywhere, delightful bling…but wait! There’s more!

Happiness Engineers

Right at the top of my list goes the amiable and accessible Bryan Villarin (@bryan on Twitter), Happiness Engineer at Automattic. I have to say that chatting with Bryan was my most favorite “session” of WordCamp. I’d been having a problem with scraping on my blog, and he explained a few different things I could do, such as a Google search for unique sentences from my blogpost. And the next day he introduced me to the Automattic “Dotcom Protector,” Jenny Zhu, who was well versed in content theft as well.

Nom Nom Nom

WordCamp San Francisco Lunch Buffet

WordCamp San Francisco Lunch Buffet

Feeding 700 people is a big job, and doing it well is something like magic; the buffet was way beyond the usual sandwiches and pizza. There was no pushing, and everyone had a place to sit and many choices, including vegetarian ones.

Six Stories of Joy and Despair

My favorite session at #WCSF was Natalie Mac’s.  I love reading about failure (especially really atrocious ones), so I was excited to hear about this session. The worst failures contain the seeds of success. Who said that? Was it me? Or did I unconsciously steal it from someone? Anyway, there’s nothing like a good failure, and for some reason startup people love failure. Natalie Mac did not disappoint. The story of Lloyd, who didn’t want anyone contacting him through his website, was a particular crowd favorite. (If you’d like to know about first steps for startups on social media, that’s the subject of another post.)

The Venue

The Mission Bay Conference Center is a tall-ceilinged place with bright colored walls and long clean angles, perfect for WordCamp.

O2 is the New P2

Beau Lebens talk on O2 was another favorite. With 80% of Automattic’s internal communications now being held in P2, it holds the promise of being used as the internal communications system for many companies. Apparently, Automattic employees rarely use email any more. I love the different threads of conversations that P2 enables, the transparency of the interface, and the searchable format. And the play on words–“Communication is the new oxygen” made the new moniker perfect!

Have a Favorite Story from WordCamp?

I’d love to hear your favorite story. Who did you meet at WordCamp? Let me know in the comments! Thanks!

 

 

WordCamp San Francisco: Favorite Things

WordCamp San Francisco State of the Word

WordCamp San Francisco State of the Word

WordCamp San Francisco

WordCamp San Francisco (or #WCSF) hadn’t even begun yet, and I could tell already that limiting myself to just one post was going to be very difficult. Now, if you’ve never been to a WordCamp, it’s a community of people interested in WordPress who gather to present, share, and tell stories. At the volunteer dinner, there were already some cool things to share. For starters, we got volunteer t-shirts from the uber friendly Automattic folks, and got to break bread (well, thick-crust pizza with spinach) and fancy-pants salad with the other volunteers. Not only that, but I got to carpool with Phyllis Garland! If you’re curious about how WordCamp San Francisco compares to a smaller WordCamp, you can read my post about WordCamp Orange County.

WCSF Automattic Headquarters

WCSF Automattic Headquarters

Accessibility

One of the first things you notice at #WCSF, is how accessible everyone is, and how genuinely happy they are to see you! It was as if the souls of golden retrievers had magically been transferred to humans: everyone was that happy to see you.

WCSF: Library at Automattic

WCSF: Library at Automattic

WordCamp Run by Volunteers

Secondly, getting to meet the other volunteers at WordCamp and seeing Automattic’s library, was an eye opener. The library includes t-shirts from previous Wordcamps from all over the country, a cool wooden map of Automattic’s location, as well as swag, like stickers, buttons, and water bottles.

WordCamp San Francisco Badge

WordCamp San Francisco Badge

Laminated Badges

Third, a detail that might get overlooked is the wonderful laminated badges with our avatars and Twitter handles right on them. And volunteers had them all organized when we got there, complete with the lanyards that would be recycled later. Yes, everything ran smoothly because all the details like badges were covered.

Friends Online and IRL

Fourth, and my most favorite thing about WordCamp, was getting to meet  new friend Ruby Rusine (@SocialChirps on Twitter) in person. We had met and tweeted to each other, but had never met in real life. Live-tweeting is one of my favorite things and it turns out that Ruby also loves to live-tweet. So we happily retweeted each other’s tweets while sitting right next to each other. Nerd Heaven!

State of the Word

Fifth was the State of the Word address by Matt Mullenweg (@PhotoMatt on Twitter). Secretly, I was afraid that I would be trapped inside a hot conference room for a long, boring talk, but was pleasantly surprised. He’s a great presenter, funny and witty, and the crowd absolutely adored him.

Have You Been to a WordCamp?

What did you like best about your WordCamp experience? Tell me in the comments below!

WCSF Me and Ruby Rusine

WCSF Me and Ruby Rusine

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