Way back in September of 2015 I attended my first WordCamp. I learned more in that weekend than I’d learned in months of internet searching about WordPress. I was positively blown away that I could speak to humans that actually wrote some of the WordPress code (I have since found those humans are called ‘core contributors’). I was amazed that the entire thing, including 2 lunches, ran me ~$40. And further, it’s 100% volunteer run. Hooray open source!!!!
I’ve since attended WCUSA and WCMIA. At WCUSA a WCTPA organizer saw me in my WCTPA t-shirt and we got to chatting. They mentioned that Jax might be having a WordCamp and that one of the organizers was a speaker at at WCUSA. So I chased down said organizer and exchanged email addresses. I think I basically said something like:
I love Jacksonville, and WordCamp (and tacos) and if those things happen to intersect at some point…well good luck keeping me away.
I thought it might be fun to talk about how I use WordPress in front of people that are sucking up wifi while working on their laptops and mostly ignoring me and my slides with silly pictures. However, the talk I submitted was not selected for the developer track, rather the user track (in case you cannot tell by the subtext…I’m nervous).
So…here I sit one day out from presenting at my first WordCamp in my favorite city wondering what I should have for lunch (tacos).
I’m super energized. Like I’ve had seven cups of coffee (I have only done that one time in my life).
No idea how it’ll go…I talk fast…especially when I’m nervous. So, I’ll probalby talk too fast tomorrow…or overcompensate and run out time, or stutter, or burp into the microphone. But, maybe I’ll help someone out in a meaningful way. That would be ?.com
If you’re @ WordCamp Jax ’16 come tell me I did a good job…even if I didn’t! It’ll make my day.