Maximising WordCamp Gold Coast – Three keys

I realise by writing a title like the above I could be mistaken for a WordCamp veteran… This would not be the case as actually, I’ve only been to one, WordCamp Melbourne which happened earlier this year. I did however come away from that event completely inspired and challenged by the possibilities of both the software and the WordPress community so in the intervening time I think it’s safe to say I’ve done a reasonable amount of work to maximise my understanding of WordPress and to strengthen my personal connections to other WordPress users. So much so that I’ll be at WordCamp Gold Coast as a speaker this weekend. (I know, don’t these people know me? Oh goodness…)

Now… did you see that? That attitude is exactly why, while I got a lot out of WordCamp Melbourne, I didn’t get more. I spent too much time intimidated by how much everybody else seemed to know… and by the fact that they all seemed to know everybody else… So, here I am 9 months later – going to WordCamp Gold Coast  as a speaker… and before I do go, I thought I’d give you a couple of keys to getting the most out of WordCamp when 1. you’re not really sure what you’re you’re doing there, 2. you’re not sure if you really know anything about WordPress, or 3. you’re not really sure you know anything about anything… BUT you’ve booked your ticket, you’ve scabbed a bunk off a friend’s friend who’s doing Arts at Bond and has a spare sofa and some pot-noodles and you’re counting down till your Tiger Qantas flight takes you to the Coast (and you booked a day early, just in case Tiger Qantas has industrial action or technical difficulties).

So, here we go… Welcome to WordCamp.

Key number 1. Talk to people. Connect, don’t be intimidated, everyone is stoked to be there because they all love WordPress like you do… they like talking about it… so engage in conversation, ask questions, I’ve found that no one is beyond answering n00b questions, and if they are, ask someone else… but we’ve all been n00bs at sometime… I was a n00b in February… I mean, I sat in a talk and the guy next to me sketched out what a child theme was on a sheet of paper so I’d get what the speaker was on about (and now I’m talking about child themes at WordCamp… cool huh?!). And if you don’t know what a child theme is, come find me, I’ll tell you all about it.

Key number 2. Follow the conversation and CONTRIBUTE to it on Twitter. The Web Princess brand was pretty much launched at WordCamp Melbourne with a whole flurry of action on Twitter and 4square while I live tweeted sessions I was attending. Twitter adds a great dynamic to the event – it’s such fun to be chatting to people about what you’re hearing while you’re listening to the speaker, and it’s really encouraging for the speaker to see people engaged with their content and to follow up and chat about it afterwards. Twitter is also a great ‘low-key’ way to ‘meet’ people when maybe walking up to them and baldly introducing yourself to them might be intimidating… AND, once the event is over, keep the conversation going… my anticipation of this WordCamp is actually all about connecting up with people I’ve been tweeting with all year. And if you want to tweet my session? My twitter handle is @thewebprincess

Key number 3. Take notes. Seriously, there are SO many sessions and so many ‘ah hah’ and ‘oh WOW’ moments in the course of a day that it can be really difficult to remember come the next week back at the office, which plugin it was that did that thing you really need, right now. You’ll rack your brains trying to shake loose from your mind which speaker mentioned it so you can go back to the video but it’s evaporated, and while you’ll really want to watch ALL those videos again to try and find that awesome plugin, you also have to spend time doing all the rest of your life that you do… so it will go by the wayside until a meetup when someone gets up and talks about it and you think “Finally! THAT was the plugin* I was looking for, that time”…

Not that I’m speaking from experience… or anything…

There you have it… for me, just those three things sum up how I plan ‘to WordCamp’ on the Gold Coast … engage with the others there, engage with the twitterverse and engage with the content… it’s like anything really, the more engaged you are, the more you get out of it…

I am SO looking forward to seeing you there! PLEASE come and say Hi (and while I may go by the name The Web Princess, it’s ok… you don’t have to curtsey or anything… just calling me “Your Highness” will do).

*ManageWP