The best part of any WordCamp is seeing all of your friends. The worst part is leaving friends. This is the truth, any WordCamp attendee will agree. WordCamp San Diego 2016 was no different. Day one was a bit of a surprise. There was a room dedicated to plugins and a separate room for developers. Most WordCamp organizers will group these two together. The reasoning behind this is due to the second day of WordCamp being all about beginners and business. Again, most WordCamp events have these days switched around. I applaud you, WordCamp San Diego Organizers.
Here’s what you need to know about WordCamp San Diego. Chris Perryman did an amazing job as a lead organizer. I really feel attendees got their money’s worth. Each speaker stepped up their game and gave praise to the speaker before them. Having each speaker validate one another shows how cool our WordPress community truly is. The Venue made me feel like we were in Hawaii. We had the windows open, in all three rooms, both days. The sense of freedom was something I’ll never forget. Chris Lema gave amazing Keynote talks, as usual. The food was great and there were a ton of sponsors. One of the sponsors used a waffle iron to make cookies. The entire room gravitated towards the booth. Smart. Very Smart.
The Venue at WordCamp San Diego
I did not take a lot of pictures of the WordCamp Venue. I was involved in WordCamp and learning all that I could. However, I can tell you how the venue made me feel during WordCamp. You can ever check out the #wcsd twitter channel. The venue made me feel like I was in Hawaii. The WordCamp event was on an old U.S. Navy training facility. It had been sold and repurposed. There were a ton of restaurants and local business.
There were palm trees and canopy trees along the streets. You could hear the ocean and smell the fresh cut grass. Each WordCamp room had the windows open so these amazing smells could come through. This place was night and day, compared to last years venue.
The Speakers at WordCamp San Diego
With all of the talent at this years #WCSD, I felt like this was the first big West Coast Camp of the year. There are too many speakers to list. I mentioned earlier, each speaker vouched for the speaker before them. I think it’s important to show the local community.
One of my favorite talks involved Pippin Williamson. His season basically allowed anyone to ask him questions about plugins on the WordPress Repository. He basically told people things that didn’t want to hear, but they were told the truth.
The Highlight of WordCamp, for me, comes from a quote I just found. I’ll leave you with this quote and some pictures.
I’m not putting this under talks because, well it wasn’t one. Russell Aaron led one of the most unique WordCamp experiences I’ve ever been a part of, and it was great. – Roy Sivan | The WPCrowd.com
WPEngine even wrote a blog post that included a photo of me, and a nice little write up about the open discussion I lead.
https://wpengine.com/blog/wordcamp-san-diego-in-photos/
You and Roy already wrote your recaps and I’m still processing it all. It was so different for me this time because instead of being an attendee 80% of the time, I was also an employee of a Sponsor. Not only that, but I was the Twitter nerd for WCSD so, it was intense.
I always learn so this time was no different, it’s just harder to put into terms.
Also, that after party selfie. LOL.
I agree. Pippin’s presentation was super valuable. Here’s the link just in case anyone wants to watch https://wordpress.tv/2016/05/07/pippin-williamson-ask-me-anything-about-plugins/