WordCamp For The Win – Savannah 2010

This past weekend I had the pleasure of attending WordCamp Savannah.

“WordCamps are low-key community conferences that celebrate all things WordPress and bring together local WordPress users, developers and fans.”

To read more about this particular WordCamp, visit WordCamp in Savannah GA.

Before I talk about the actual event itself, let me drop a little bit of background on my history with WordPress.

How Did I Find WordPress?

I’ve been working with web development as well as programming in different languages since I was a teen. There is just something about submitting and retrieving data using code and a database tickles my fancy.

For extra cash, as well as the stimulation of programming itself, I was developing websites for friends of mine.  While doing this I was also creating my own Content Management System to enable my clients to log into their websites and make changes on their own.

Little did I know how important this kind of action would become in the next couple of years.

After having made it pretty far along with the CMS I stumbled upon a free piece of software called WordPress. As soon as I installed it and tried it out, I immediately knew I would never need to work on my own CMS again.

WordPress was not quite where it is today, but was leaps and bounds farther along than my solo CMS, as well had a large support environment online, and plenty of people focused on making it better and safer.

Since that day I have been programming less and hacking more. WordPress gives me a strong  platform to grow on

Having been developing a CMS, the background functionality of WordPress enticed me.

Enter WordCamp Savannah 2010

Now that I have been using the software for a while and spreading goodwill about it, I decided to take the plunge and really see about getting involved in this community and attend my first WordCamp. I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

I enjoy putting on and hosting events myself, and something that I have noticed is when you bring together a large group of people, many times it is hard to maintain a certain vibe. There is a good chance for controversy and or ill will.

WordCamp Savannah smashed that idea.

Every single person that I met, and I talked to quite a few, was kind, generous, and generally just cool to be around. Maybe it has something to do with the vibe that can be found in Savannah, but I think this community feel stretches around the globe.

That vibe at WordCamp resonated throughout the entire event and alone would have made it worthwhile to be there.

Add in the fact that several of the core members of the WordPress team showed up to present and just hang out and share…

No egos to be found found here, just people sharing a similar interest and trying to build a great community. Everyone, regardless of title or experience or responsibility was down to earth.

As a developer I was able to really get my nerd on in the developer track and was stimulated and inspired.

The biggest thing that I noticed about this event was that everyone is giving. Giving of their time, their knowledge, whatever they have to give, they are giving it.

This also inspired me and has given me the desire to give back to this community as well.

I am not exactly sure how or when or where I will fall within this community in the future, for now I will continue to use and support it, especially locally here in Atlanta and Savannah.

Keep an eye out people, you will be seeing a lot more of me in the future 🙂

If you have any kind of online presence, a business site, a blog, anything…and you have not experience WordPress or WordCamp, I challenge you to check them out.  I promise you will find something you like.

As an added bonus I wanted to share some links to some of the amazing people I met while there. All of these people are heavily involved in WordPress and know things that you can learn 🙂

Daryl Koopersmish – Developer
John James Jacoby – Developer
Ptah Dunbar – Developer
Mark Jaquith – Developer
Jane Wells UX designer + Amazing Coordinator
Sara Cannon – Designer
Andrew Nacin – Developer
http://ma.tt – Founder
Amanda Plum – PR
Nikolay – Translations
Otto – Developer
Chris Cree – New Media
Matt Thomas – Design/Development

Other WordCamp Savannah attendy reviews

WordPress Savannah 2010 – Steven Miller
New Tricks – Judi Knight
Just Ask Kim – Kimberly Castleberry

Official WordCamp Savannah Sites

WordCamp Savannah 2010
WordCamp Savannah TwitterWP MU – Slides From WordCamp Presentations
Foursquare Listing

Thanks for reading my WordCamp Savannah review! Tell your friends 🙂