What is WordCamp?
WordCamp is an all encompassing term referring to a conference, a community organised and officially sanctioned to deal with all things WordPress. To you reading this, welcome to WordCamp Harare 2018, Zimbabwe.
“WordPress” is an online, open source website creation tool written in PHP. It is probably the most easiest and powerful blogging and website content management system in existence today.
WordCamps include sessions on how to use WordPress more effectively, from beginner level, like the benefits of a WordPress website; to advanced techniques, like security, etc.
The first WordCamp was organized in Francisco by Matt Mullenweg in 2006, and since then local communities around the world have organized hundreds of others.
WordCamps are attended by people ranging from blogging newbies to professional WordPress developers and business executives, and usually combine scheduled programming with unconference sessions and other activities.
WordCamps are economical manageable. They are all run with support from WordCamp Central and are not-for-profit. Organizers don’t take a penny for their work, speakers and volunteers give their time for free. This keeps costs down for everyone attending. So cost definitely is not a barrier.
The fact that Speakers are not paid and are able to put their names forward and propose talks instead of just being invited also makes for a diverse and ever changing line-up of speakers at every WordCamp.
Speakers are not all experienced veterans of the speaking circuit, in fact most of them are “ordinary” WordPress users and developers who want to share their knowledge with other people in the community. you are welcome to come and share in WordCamp Harare 2018.
So that’s some background on WordCamps, but what will you get from going to one?
Why should you attend one too?
1. You’ll Learn. Lots.
Most WordCamps have more than one track of talks aimed at different audiences or skill levels, so you might find a user track in one room at the same time as a developer track in another. This means that there’s a huge range of topics being covered by the talks and a wide range of levels they’re pitched at.And outside the formal sessions you’ll meet people whom you can learn from too. Speakers at WordCamps are only too happy to chat to people about their topic and to answer questions, and aren’t too proud to learn from the people who attended their talk and have complimentary ideas. And there are plenty of other people you can learn from. During the coffee breaks and social events you’ll get talking to people with a diverse range of experience and knowledge of WordPress: you’ll get ideas from them and learn how to be better at WordPress yourself.
2. You’ll Be Inspired.
In attending the Wordcamp, it is the inspiration one get from the WordPressers. For those running their own blogs will gain huge inspiration about ways on how to take their business forward and explore new opportunities. Personal stories of the attendees and the way they have developed their careers with WordPress is shared.
Aside from all the things you’ll learn at a WordCamp, you’ll hear about new trends in web development and ideas for taking WordPress further. You’ll meet people working with WordPress in a way you haven’t thought of but would love to try. And you’ll learn about career opportunities with WordPress that you might not even have known existed.
You’ll also be inspired to make a contribution to the WordPress community: at many WordCamps there’s a contributor day, where you can learn how to give something back from people who are already making a valuable contribution to WordPress. Unsure how to give your five for the future? After attending a WordCamp you won’t be the same again.
Be inspired by the people you’ll meet and learn from. Because of the fact that WordCamps have a large and varied group of speakers, some of them speaking at their first web event, you’ll find that new and different ideas are explored in a way you don’t always find at more traditional web conferences, where speakers may be talking about a topic they’ve been working on and speaking about for years. Some of these talks will be specific and detailed and open your ideas to new methods of development that you didn’t know about.
3. You’ll Meet Some Amazing People.
The best thing about WordCamps, and about WordPress in general, is the people. WordPress has a massive community of users and developers with an ethos that’s quite different from many other sections of the web industry. People from the WordPress community aren’t afraid to share their knowledge, expertise and code, and no-one worries about trade secrets.These are the people you’ll meet at a WordCamp. People who are more than happy (eager even) to share their knowledge and experience with you and help you learn about what they do. People who don’t worry that you’ll steal business from them if you know what they know, because that’s not how WordPressers think. People who are very welcoming and don’t treat new WordPress users any differently from how they treat old hands.
Don’t be afraid to go to the social events if you’re on your own: people will welcome you and if you’re prepared to talk to them, they’ll happily talk to you. After all, you have got an instant conversation opener if you ask what they do with WordPress. A lot of job recruiters go to WordCamps with the specific aim of recruiting developers and designers.
There is also the Swag given to attendees, ie t-shirts ,stickers etc and after party session to spice up the conference.