After many months of planning, hours of conversations, dozens of emails and private blog (p2) posts, lots of small tasks, hard work, and a pint here and there, WordCamp ATX 2014 is finally over.
It’s a lot of fun and not a little effort to put on a WordCamp. When it’s a two and a half day event with over 400 attendees, 45 speakers, countless sponsors and a small army of volunteers, all organized by community volunteers in their spare time, it’s definitely not a project for the faint of heart.
WordCamp Austin was a massive success today. 400 people attended, and we had packed sessions, great conversations, fun and games, and learning galore. People got help with their websites, attendees learned about WordPress security, theming, and coding,
If you live in Austin, you either worship good BBQ… or you’re a vegan and don’t know what you’re missing. Tonight the Automatticians in town for WordCamp Austin and the Audrey Capital team met for dinner at Freedman’s. We enjoyed melt in your mouth brisket, pork spare ribs with meat that literally fell clean off the bone, and amazing sides and desserts. Everyone loved the roasted beets with chevre (they were almost like candy) and jalapeno bacon mac & cheese. The smoked banana pudding and smoked and salted chocolate mousse were pretty fantastic as well. I don’t usually do product or venue reviews because I’m the kind of person whose favorite meal/book/movie is the one I’m currently enjoying, so don’t take this as a restaurant review, though in all honesty, I don’t see why people wait 4 hours for lunch at certain local establishments starting with the same letter as Freedman’s, when there’s a place not that far away with a great ambiance … Read more…
I have a confession. On Saturday morning I’ll be giving a presentation at WordCamp Austin. WordCamps, for those who don’t know, are community-driven WordPress conferences that are held all around the world to talk about and learn new things about WordPress. In this case, I’m on the organizing team, and just happen to be the Speaker Wrangler. And despite what I’ve told all my fellow speakers, and despite knowing better, I still haven’t finished my slides for my presentation. Now to be fair, I know exactly what I’m going to talk about, and it’s very similar to other talks I’ve given. My presentation is the kickoff for our Beginners’ Track, and is simply, “Getting Started with WordPress.” However, I hate making slides, and I just can’t seem to get motivated to finish them. I do much better with live demos than canned talks. So, even though writing blog posts has been hard, I’d rather do a new post than finish my presentation. I’ve even done the … Read more…
Whew! The first day of WordCamp Austin is over! It was a fantastic event. As one of the organizers, it will likely take me days to process everything that happened, but here are my first thoughts. The most striking part of WordCamp Austin is probably also the least surprising: We managed to gather together an inspiring group of WordPress lovers: attendees, speakers, sponsors and – OMG! – our volunteers! It was a joy to coordinate the eager posse of volunteers who jumped in to help out before WordCamp Austin and then busted their butts during the day to make the event run so smoothly and ensure everyone had a great time. Recycling locations appeared like magic. Trash disappeared just as quickly. And happiness flowed like beer on a hot day in Texas at our Happiness Bar. Our sessions were equally impressive. I heard over and over again how much people learned from our presenters. Even our JQuery pinch-hitter got high … Read more…