konfabulator widgets: Attend a WordCamp and Meet Your WordPress Family

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 [...]

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:

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.