WordCamp Las Vegas 2013 Summary

If you didn’t already know, we’re huge fans of WordPress here at 34SP.com. It’s kinda like sunshine and jet fighters – free and exceptionally powerful. And there are less missiles, definitely less missiles. We’ve been running WordPress sites and WordPress hosting just about since it’s inception in 2003 by co founders Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little (a Manchester local we might add!).

In 2014, we’re looking to get even more hands on with WordPress – we’ve got some exciting product developments coming online and we’re also bursting at the seams with excitement about being a headline sponsor for WordCamp Europe 2014. For those in the dark about WordCamp – the single or multi day events are casual conferences for local enthusiasts, developers, bloggers, designers, vendors, in fact anyone with a passion for sunshine and jet fighters. No wait, sorry, WordPress!

In order to prepare for WordPress in 2014, we recently attended WCLV – WordCamp Las Vegas – to hit up the tables, I mean – see how our transatlantic friends put on a great informative show. While there we spoke with lead organiser John Hawkins of 9seeds.com. Here’s how he described the event.

1. As lead organizer – what was the highlight of the event, and what stands out in your mind as the main takeaway from the event? ”Selling out the event. This was our 5th year running the event and the first time we sold out. It’s a testament to the growth of WordPress and the Vegas WordPress community. My main take away is the amazing community we work with. Everybody is so generous with their time and knowledge. It’s very inspiring!”

2. Did we learn anything new or interesting about the WordPress community as a result of getting us all together in one place? ”As the lead organizer, I spent the better part of WordCamp worrying about things and running around. I didn’t get a chance to catch much of any of the sessions. We have them all recorded and I’m very interested in checking them all out. Just based on what my company is up to these days, plugin unit testing and the theme customizer are the two sessions that I’m most interested in.”

3. Anything you want to add? ”If you have never been to a WordCamp before, stop what you are doing and start making plans to attend one. Take a look at http://wordcamp.org to find one near you, or in a place that you’ve been wanting to visit.”

We couldn’t agree with John more – we’d encourage you to start scouring the WordCamp Europe listings right away for 2014 – even if its just to say ‘hi’ to some of the 34SP.com team who you might bump into at events through next year.  If you do, they’ll probably buy you a pint too, so don’t be shy.

If the two day WCLV is anything to go by, you really won’t want to miss out. The event sold out 200 tickets in record time, and was a riot of information and fun. For writers, developers and even first time bloggers looking to dip their toes in the WordPress water, I couldn’t imagine a better experience. A genuine sense of community infused the two day meetup and every single attendee was happy to share their insight and knowledge with others.

We heard from the likes of power blogger John Lynn on how to smartly monetize a blog and security experts Dre Armada and Tony Perez from website security firm, Sucuri. SEO to CSS, performance to plugins – the speakers covered just about any angle you might have an interest in. Every last speaker had something useful to teach, and even myself, a blogger of nearly a decade, walked away with plenty of new ideas. (Note: you can watch previous WordCamp speakers via WordCamp.tv).

So stay tuned in 2014, we hope to see you during WordCamp Europe events, and raise a pint together in honour of sunshine and jet fighters.