Last year at WordCamp 2007 in San Francisco, I got a chance to meet up with my long time online buddy and WordPress guru, Andy Skelton. Living on the road myself, I was thrilled when Andy announced he was riding his motorcycle to WordCamp – but not from Texas to San Francisco. He road from Texas to the East Coast of the United States and then across it to San Francisco then back to Texas.
I traced much of his travels in the WordPress Wednesday news reports on the Blog Herald as he made his way through all kinds of terrain and weather that very hot summer.
I drove from Oregon to San Francisco in my father’s old Class C motor home to get to WordCamp 2007. So both of us crossed a few miles to get to our first in-person meeting, sleeping when and wherever we could along the way.
When he arrived in San Francisco, we had a joyous meeting and he even escorted me back to where I was staying in San Francisco. Donncha O’Caoimh caught the momentous occasion on Andy’s new bright red Gold Wing motorcycle and uploaded the image to flickr – and I couldn’t find it. Andy finally found it for me and here it is.
Just as Andy and I traveled across the country, one of us the long way, it’s your turn. I challenge you all to attend a WordCamp event and meet an old, or new, friend.
Attend a WordCamp Event and Meet Family
I bring it to your attention because I want to share with you the special magic that is a WordCamp adventure. I will be speaking and attending some WordCamps over the next few months, including WordCamp Portland, Oregon, on September 27, 2008, Podcamp and WordCamp Hawaii on Oct 24, 2008, WordCamp Israel (hopefully), and WordCamp Las Vegas 2009, in Las Vegas, Nevada, January 10-11, 2009.
I urge you all to be a part of a WordCamp experience. It doesn’t matter if you just attend or you are part of the team that brings a WordCamp to your area.
WordCamp is a chance to meet other WordPress and blog enthusiasts, but also a chance to learn more about WordPress and how others are using WordPress for their blogs and CMS sites. It’s a chance to meet WordPress developers, experts, and Plugin and Theme authors. It’s a chance to learn how to push WordPress to the limit and find out what’s hot on the WordPress horizon.
Most importantly, it is great fun. It’s a chance to leave the virtual world behind and get real, honest hugs and face-to-face meetings with creative and innovative folks who understand the power behind a blog is not just WordPress but the blogger and their hard work.
I’ve been to many WordCamps over the past year and a half. I attend and speak at a lot of conferences on blogging, social media, web technology, and education every year, and I look forward most to WordCamp events. No one is selling me anything, there is no pressure, no force, no stress. It’s like a reunion without the old politics and back biting history. It’s relaxing, education, but most of all friendly. The WordPress Community is the best.
I’ve started contributing to the The WordCamp Report on WordCamp news and events, and we’re looking for WordCamp attendees to live blog or report on the WordCamp events they are attending. If you are interested, email me or use the WordCamp Report Contact Page.
You can learn more about WordCamps near you at WordCamp Central, The WordCamp Report, and my weekly WordPress Wednesday News on the Blog Herald.
Here are a listing of upcoming WordCamps and blog events:
- WordCamp Philippines – September 6, 2008
- The Boston WordPress September Meetup – September 18, 2008
- Blog World Expo, Vegas – September 20-21, 2008
- WordCamp China – Beijing and Shanghai – September 20-21, 2008
- WordCamp Tokyo 2008 – Tokyo, Japan – September 23, 2008
- WordCamp Utah – Provo, Utah – September 27, 2008
- WordCamp Birmingham – Alabama – September 27, 2008
- WordCamp Portland, Oregon – September 27, 2008
- WordCamp Vancouver 2008 – Canada – September 27th, 2008
- The Dallas/Ft. Worth Area WordPress September Meetup – September 27, 2008
- WordCamp RDU – Raleigh/Durham, North Carolina – Oct 4, 2008
- WordCamp New York – New York – October 5, 2008
- WordCamp Toronto – October 4-5, 2008
- WordCamp Bangkok 2008 – Bangkok, Thailand – October 19, 2008
- Podcamp and WordCamp Hawaii – Oct 24, 2008
- MinneWordCamp – Minneapolis – November 15, 2008
- WordCamp Australia – Sydney – November 29-30, 2008
- WordCamp Las Vegas 2009 – Las Vegas, Nevada – January 10-11, 2009
Upcoming WordCamps not scheduled or confirmed:
- Wordcamp Ed(ucation) Twitter for Educators using WordPress
- WordCamp Israel
- WordCamp Washington D.C. 2008
- WordCamp Denver 2008
Attend, volunteer, sponsor, speak, or allow someone to sleep over who is attending – be a part of a WordCamp near you or fly to one anywhere in the world. You will be welcome. As a WordPress fan, you are part of something bigger than WordPress. You are part of the WordPress Community family.
-
- Mark Mullenweg, Andy Skelton, Mark Jaquith at WordCamp San Francisco 2008
-
- Mark Jaquith, Lorelle VanFossen and Aaron Brazell at WordCamp San Francisco
Site Search Tags: wordcamp, wordpress event, conference, wordpress news, wordpress conferences, wordpress community
Subscribe 
Via Feedburner 
Subscribe by Email 
Visit
Copyright Lorelle VanFossen, the author of Blogging Tips, What Bloggers Won't Tell You About Blogging.
Lorelle on WordPress 
29 Comments
Hi Lorelle,
very nice article about it all and i am really sad sometimes that the united states are far away with all their great and interesting wordcamps (and communities, of course).
It might be a nice hap that i wrote an little article about a wordcamp idea in my little blog. it is german, so.. but maybe the google stuff tranlation might be a choice.
Really nice pictures! I only could imagine how great such events could be.
Sorry for my bad english.
Have a nice day
Greetings
Chris
One day… one day… haha. 🙂
Still waiting to see what this great… dumdeedumdeedum thing is!!
Lorelle, great to hear that you might be coming back to Israel for this year’s edition. Look forward to seeing you again.
you see i was wondering, is there ever a london (or UK) based wordcamp?
Any wordpress camp planned for Florida ?? I would love to visit
Nice post with lots of nice photos. It is surprising that with all the tech to go around, we still have the attendance thing. WP can get the camps professionally video graphed then make this available to who ever missed out. It can even be made into a DVD and sold for the price of postage and media. Those on narrow band wouldn’t mind sparing a few bucks. These discs could even be made redistributable so that others can copy it from their friends. Similarly webcams can provide streaming coverage of the important bits.
So you are not coming to the Toronto Wordcamp? Heck I come back from Europe jetlagged on October 3rd. and I am still coming 😛
@ amolpatil2k:
There are many videos done by volunteers (often professionals who donate their time and equipment) at WordCamps around the world. Many of the speakers offer their slide show programs freely, too. Check out Slideshare, Viddler, and YouTube for many WordCamp presentations.
As for selling them, that’s not in the WordPress Open Source Community mind-think. They love giving things away freely. 😀
@ Jacob from JobMob:
I’m really hoping my schedule will permit it. We had SUCH a great time last time. I expect it will be better than ever. With Tal and the rest of the fantastic WordCamp team, I trust it will be. Look forward to seeing you there.
@ Lazy:
WordCamps are NOT restricted to the US. Goodness, no! I’ve been to WordCamp in Israel and this past couple weeks saw one in South Africa and another in the Philippines and China. They are everywhere. There was just one in Germany – and I expect a WordPress Meetup group formed as part of it to keep the energy going. If not, start one.
A WordCamp doesn’t have to be hundreds of people with speakers from all over the world. It can be ten people sitting in a park talking about WordPress and sharing their own lessons, trials, and tribulations.
I haven’t been to a WordCamp yet, but I’ll be at WordCampPDX in a couple weeks. I’m not sure what to expect, but seeing as most of my work revolves around WordPress- I thought I should check it out.
See you there!
Hi Lorelle, I’m hosting WordCamp:Las Vegas in January. Is there any chance you’d be able to attend and speak at the show? We’d love to have you.
I’ll be at BlogWorldExpo in a couple weeks and we can speak more then!
Cheers!
Hi there,
this kind of event was really good.
danzrev
Who is the POC for Wordcamp Washington, DC? I’m happy to help. Pete
As Sam H asked, will there by one for the UK?
@ vegasgeek:
I would love to be a part of WordCamp Las Vegas, and I’m really looking forward to Blog World Expo, too. Please come find me! I give free hugs.
ALL: If you are interested in helping with a WordCamp event, contact them through their sites. I’ve listed them when they are available. The list on this article is the known WordCamps being developed at the moment. You can find an updated list on WordCamp Central or on the WordCamp Report.
There have been WordCamps in the UK, South Africa, and other places requested, so find out how you can get involved in next year’s conference. If you want to start one near you, check out those references for tips on how to get one started. It’s really easy but requires a lot of work and support. I recommend you start with a monthly WordPress Meetup to test the enthusiasm in your area and build up a volunteer base.
And I’d love to speak at as many WordCamps as possible, so let me know if you are interested in bringing me to one near you! I just love meeting WordPress fans.
I’m driving down from Washington to attend the Portland event this month. It will be my first and I’m really excited. I hope I can get a chance to meet you there!
Hi Lorelle! Thanks for mentioning Wordcamp Philippines! Hope to see you here if ever we come up with a 2009 Wordcamp :p
@ drew:
Oh, I would LOVE to be there this year, next year, or any year. I heard it was really amazing!
Hello Lorelle! Drew is being modest — we will do WordCamp Philippines in 2009. And I’m glad to know that you’d like to be part of it! I’ll be in touch. 🙂
@ Blogie:
Wonderful! I’m always surprised at how much traffic my blogs get from the Philippines, so I would love to meet some of my readers whom I have come to care so much about. WordPress is family and that family is breaking down borders all over the world. It’s so wonderful. I’m so glad it was a success.
Hi Lorelle – yay! I’m so excited to meet you in WordCamp Philippines 2009 😀
Any news on WordCamp DC?
Yahuuuuuu!
Its final right? Lorelle will be at wordcamp 2009?!
YEY YEY YEY
See you!!!
Thanks for this – I checked – next thing you know I’m signed up for WordCamp NY Oct 5th – looking forward to it – RH
@ rrhobbs:
So glad you are going. It is going to be a great WordCamp!
@ Andrea:
You’ll have to check in with the organizers. I haven’t tracked down any specifics yet. If you find some, let me know!
Looking forward for the next WordCamp Philippines in 2009! Saw the video last Sept. 2008 with Matt Mullenweg. Now I know what “Unlucky in Cards” means. 🙂
Oh, I sure wish I could have been there. Wouldn’t fit into the travel schedule. It sounded like it was too much fun and I expect it will be BETTER this coming year.
4 Trackbacks/Pingbacks
[…] me informed and up-to-date on what’s going on around the WordPress Community. Getting to know WordPress fans at WordCamps and blogging events teaches me a lot about how they use WordPress and push it beyond its limits. But the knowledge I […]
[…] just came across this post on Lorelle’s blog where she has listed the upcoming WordCamp events (for WordPress users, […]
[…] Attend a WordCamp and Meet Your WordPress Family […]
[…] Attend a WordCamp and Meet Your WordPress Family […]