First time speaking at WordCamp
Photo by Frank Corso
The past couple weeks have been a whirlwind of activity for me – I flew to Raleigh (finally, a direct flight!) for WordCamp Raleigh, and had a great time on Saturday listening to some really great talks, seeing lots of people again, and meeting many new ones! The organizers did another great job of making a very smooth-running camp, and I’m glad the tent they always put up over the lunch area finally was useful. (-: (it rained on Saturday afternoon) I was asked at the last minute to fill in an empty speaking slot, so Sunday was a bit of a blur between preparing for my talk, and then giving it, but afterwards it was nice to talk with more people. All in all, it was a great experience!
Because we’re trying to grow WP Stagecoach, I want to learn more about marketing, and Frank Corso’s talk on growing your user base was really relevant, and my favorite from the weekend. Several of the dev talks about workflow for large projects were really interesting as well, and Ben Meredith‘s talk about being empathetic while providing support was a good reminder to think about things from users’ perspectives. I didn’t get a chance to attend any of the other classes on Sunday morning because I was trying to prepare for my talk called Zen and the art of WordPress maintenance. I needed a little more Zen myself, because of course I spoke too quickly, but, I’m sure that has never happened to anyone else their first time speaking!
I’m really looking forward to another opportunity to speak at a WordCamp (hopefully with a little more preparation time) but I’m helping organize our WordCamp Seattle: Beginners Edition is this weekend, and I’m kind of glad I don’t also have to speak there!
