WordCamp Seattle 2012
Seattle is a west coast gem – and not just a northwest coast gem, mind you. A world class destination with exceptional culinary shops and restaurants, a vibrant and iconic music scene and, this past weekend, location of not-to-be-missed WordCamp Seattle 2012.
Seattle Art Museum
The day got off to a great start with fine weather and good strong coffee at the Seattle Art Museum – a fantastic venue within close proximity to Pike Place Market in lovely downtown Seattle. Things were hopping at the sponsor table when I arrived, so I didn’t have time to sample the delicious treats I noticed were being offered at the coffee station. I did have time to enjoy some great conversations with folks who stopped by to talk about their mobile sites and pick up an </allnighter> shirt or pin. As to be expected, I met a great group of WordPress peeps with a wide range of backgrounds and interests – from developers to ministers to marketers.
It was very difficult to choose from the amazing selection of sessions for the day. I ended up taking in ‘Going Beyond the Basics’ with Lucy Beer of Web Training Wheels, and ‘The Art and Science of “Premium”‘ with Shane Pearlman of Modern Tribe in the morning. Both sessions were chock full of great resources and useful insights. The morning sessions also included Scott Berkun’s keynote address, ‘Lessons from History and Blogging Everyday’. Berkun delivered a memorable and thought-provoking talk on the importance of the writing process and focusing on content.
Kudos to the organizers of WordCamp Seattle for providing a lunch that was both delicious and easy to grab. The lunch bag format kept lines moving quickly and ensured everyone was quickly able to get down to enjoying lunch over more great WordPress conversations. A big plus!
Our </allnighter> shirts and pins on the sponsor table at #wcsea
In the afternoon I slogged my way through Automattic’s Daniel Bachhuber’s talk, ‘WordPress at the Command Line – An Introduction to wpshell and wp-cli’. Bachhuber’s presentation provided lots of useful information and was peppered with fun, geek-quips like, ‘You can’t mention a GUI in a presentation that talks about wp-cli’. I also very much enjoyed Laura Kimball’s ‘How to Promote Your Blog Without Losing Your Soul’ and picked up a ton of great takeaways from Justin Brigg’s ‘SEO for Bloggers’.
When things began to wrap up just after 4pm it was hard to believe a full day had gone by. WordCamp Seattle organizers and volunteers should be very proud of their accomplishments in putting on a fantastic WordCamp event! Can’t wait for WordCamp Seattle 2013!
WordCamp Seattle 2012 – An outline of the event in tweets we posted and shared from WordCamp Seattle 2012