WordCamp Kent 2018 Recap
What an incredible weekend we had last month! Thanks for coming and spending your weekend hanging out with other WordPress users/developers.
Saturday opened up with a very special keynote presented by Kyle Maurer of Sandhills Development reminding us all that WordPress isn’t about the software. WordPress is about the community. We come together to collaborate and help each other out, contribute endless hours to the open source project, and gather around on a weekend to ask great questions and spend our free time bettering ourselves and our craft. The soft skills you develop and the connections you make during a WordCamp or at a Meetup can be easily applied to another software, another CMS, another organization.
“It’s not about software…it was never about software. It’s about people.” @MrKyleMaurer had some awesome (and inspiring!) opening remarks at #WCKent2018. Can’t wait to get more involved with this community over the next couple of days! @WordCampKent
— Chloe Clark (@cclarkcreative) June 9, 2018
The sessions on Day One focused on running a freelance business, marketing your business, and ways to become a better developer. Adam Warner taught us how to convince clients that website security matters. Dustin Hartzler shed new light on WooCommerce for those looking to start or run a low-maintenance online business. Attendees new to WordPress got a sneak peak at the Gutenberg project with Jessica Gardner. First-time speaker Megan Borling sold us on selling ourselves. Lee Drozak and Alex D Riddle shared time-saving tips for freelancers and business owners. Steve Grunwell, Amit Rathi, and Eric Malcolm rounded out the development track with practical knowledge on testing, career transitions, React, Beaver Builder, and WordPress Multisite.
Our WordCamp featured some especially great talks focused on SEO including talks from Corey Hammond of A2 Hosting, author and digital marketer Stoney deGeyter, local SEO expert Josh Gellock of Expander Digital, event marketer and mastermind behind NachoRitaFest Sandro Galindo, and marketing strategist John Centofanti.
“If you don’t know what to do, go with Google My Business.” – Josh Gellock talking about Local SEO #WordCampKent2018
— WordCamp Kent (@WordCampKent) June 10, 2018
We enjoyed an After Party at Kent Lanes Saturday night where speakers, sponsors, attendees, organizers, and volunteers could unwind after a long day of learning.
Needless to say, the bar was set quite high for Day Two! Sunday’s schedule highlighted the community/getting involved, business and marketing tips, and a WordPress 101 track covering everything from the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org to beginner developer topics!
Our community track tackled a variety of subjects like mental health in the tech industry, preparing your business for a health emergency, using your skills to help others in the WordPress community, and giving back to the community through Cleveland GiveCamp. Pappy Oyler shared his personal experience about suffering a heart attack and the impact it had on his business. Michelle Ames opened our eyes to all the ways to get involved in the WordPress community and help others through running unique Meetup formats, speaking at WordCamp, and volunteering. We were very happy to welcome into our community Matt Trask of Open Sourcing Mental Illness as well as Jonathan Knapp of Cleveland GiveCamp. We even had attendees from two different organizations that benefited from the Cleveland GiveCamp!
Using Your WordPress Powers For Good with @michelleames #WCKent2018
— Paul Oyler (@PappyOyler) June 10, 2018
Joe Querin provided an excellent beginner track to WordPress which covered topics such as where to find a theme, the difference between themes and plugins, all the way through an introduction to WordPress development. We are fortunate to have such a passionate member of our community. – His wife and daughters even volunteered!
Sunday also featured speakers Adam Silver of ConciergeWP, visual creative and active philanthropist Leif Fairfield, and Udemy instructor Bruce Chamoff!
It was so great to meet and get to know everyone! Especially at our Networking Lunch we had on Sunday.
My favorite part about #WordCamp is the people. I met some incredible, passionate, individuals this year. I hope everyone was able to walk away with some new connections that will grow into friendships. #WCKent2018
— Megan Borling (@MeganBorling) June 11, 2018
Thank you again to all our AMAZING speakers – Kyle Maurer, Adam Warner, Dustin Hartzler, Steve Grunwell, Alex D Riddle, Stoney deGeyter, Lee Drozak, Amit Rathi, Jessica Gardner, John Centofanti, Eric Malcolm, Megan Borling, Corey Hammond, Joe Querin, Matt Trask, Bruce Chamoff, Paul Oyler, Josh Gellock, Michelle Ames, Sandro Galindo, Adam Silver, Jonathan Knapp, and Leif Fairfield. They generously volunteered their time not only for the event, but in the time they spent writing their talks, preparing slides, practicing, and answering all of our questions.
Our gratitude also extends to these incredible sponsors who allow us to put on such a large event for only $40/ticket – BoldGrid, WooCommerce, Jetpack, Bluehost, A2 Hosting, DreamHost, GoDaddy, DevriX, Yoast, thunder::tech, StickerGiant, and KHM Travel Group. Without them, we wouldn’t have been able to have our amazing venue and tacos or our sweet stickers and badges!
We have gotten some good feedback from all of our attendees on the post-event survey so far. Keep it coming! 🙂 Thank you for all your ideas to make next year even better! – If you missed the survey, please fill out the contact form so we can resend the link. If you’re looking for speakers’ slides, please visit each of their session pages for those links! (If any are missing, let us know via the contact form as well and we’ll dig them up.)
Please stay in touch with us via Twitter, Slack, or Facebook. Or catch up/tell us about your experience at our upcoming Meetup!
We’ll see you next year! 🙂
