WordCamp is easily one of my favorite events of the year. Meeting our fantastic community and geeking out over WordPress is the best. Plus, JJ and I were pretty excited this year since we launched WP Screencasts. So, we always make it a point to go (sorry to say that JJ did miss out on all the fun this year, but it looks like he was busy).
Anyway… Now in it’s thrid year, WordCamp anticipated the all the new attendees by holding it at the super new UCSF campus in Mission Bay. It was the first event I’ve been to there and I can see why I see more and more conferences fitting over this space. It was unreal… you would have never know that you were surrounded by traffic, freeway entrances and warehouses. The only real hint that you were in SF was that you could see the tops of downtown buildings and AT&T Park from the courtyard. There was definitely a lot offer this year. The event was split into 2 tracks this year, one for typical users and another for developers. And since I’m a little of both, I had to separate myself between the two. It did get a little difficult to choose at times… like was I really suppose to go to a session about secure coding when Ben and his LOLcats were talking upstairs? Sorry Mark. Anyway, I saw that John Pozadzides was taping everything so hopefully that is out soon so I can catch up. There was also a Genius Bar (like Apple) to help people with their WP questions. I didn’t help out this year, but it looked to be a success so maybe next time.
Some other highlights:
- Lorelle insisting we continue to break WP - Lorelle is so amazing, I’m so glad we have someone like her in our community. I’ll do my best!
- Andy and the state of BuddyPress - I can’t wait for this to come out later this year
- Matt and the state of the Word
- Crazy Horse, 2.7 and WP user testing - I’m not really convinced eye tracking was necessary but Matt said they got a good deal and the results look great.
- Chuck Lewis, the SEO Rapper’s Exclusive WP Rap
Things wrapped up with a great party at Pete’s Tavern - Tron and Hackers on the screen, Heather and her DJ skillz, and of course my fav… free Guinness. All in all it was great to catch up with new friends and from what I remember I some how voulenteered to help out with WordCamp Hawaii so stay tuned on that one.
