Over the course of the past few weeks, I had the opportunity to attend two WordCamps. Both were in locations near and dear to my heart.
I started off the month of October in Arizona for WordCamp Phoenix. After attending WordCamps all around Ohio for the past couple of years, this was my first out-of-state experience. The location however was no stranger. I had the good fortune to call Arizona home for a number of years when I was starting out my career. So I jumped at the chance to attend a camp there (and spend an extra week catching up with great friends).
WordCamp Phoenix was a different experience than my past camps. With about 400 attendees, it was almost twice the size of camps I’d attended in the past. It was also interesting to be in the back yard of companies like GoDaddy and SiteLock. It was really cool to meet the faces behind these products and have some drinks with fellow craft beer fans at the after party.
This past weekend, I attended the inaugural WordCamp Cincinnati which was held at the University of Cincinnati’s Tangeman University Center. I was touched by a sense of nostalgia as this was the most significant amount of time that I had spent on campus since graduating from the school’s College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning back in 2000. It was fun to see how much the campus and surrounding area have changed while parts have remained exactly as I had remembered them.
Each of these two events had all of the key elements that I value in a WordCamp – great sessions, powerful sources of inspiration and the opportunity to meet people that I could help, people who could help me, fellow designers who love to share tips and some new friends.
I’m looking forward to next spring when we will be putting on our 4th WordCamp Dayton. Come join us!