What is WordCamp?
WordCamps are community hosted events that welcome business professionals to come together, share their ideas, and collectively express their passion for doing business online.
The conference is a welcoming environment for both experienced WordPress users, and those armed with newfound entrepreneurial ambitions who are looking to get their feet wet for the first time. Enthusiasts of all comfort levels are invited to build their abilities and familiarity with WordPress, and more generally, what it takes to run an online business.
Most of the teaching and guidance is delivered to attendees by industry veterans through 30 minute to hour long talks about a wide array of topics; from designing a website development workflow that mitigates loss of progress, to implementing search engine optimization (SEO) best practices on your site.
WordPress is the largest CMS in the world by a large margin, holding a 60% market share while also hosting more than 25% of all websites. WordPress users are just about everywhere worldwide, and WordCamp conferences follow suit. Perhaps a WordCamp conference is coming to a place near you!
What Made Montreal 2018 Special?
I, along with my colleagues in the SEO department, were fortunate enough to attend this year’s WordCamp conference in Montreal. The renowned John Molson School of Business (JMSB) played host to the event in the heart of downtown Montreal.
On any other day, JMSB is a bustling university campus for Montreal’s best a brightest business hopefuls. Amphitheaters, spacious classrooms and wide open lobbies proved to be a more-than-ample venue for the near 450 people in attendance.
Speakers and those wishing to participate in Q&A were given microphones that were patched seamlessly into the school’s sound system to improve audibility across the large spaces. Having endured many sound-based technical issues during my JMSB attendance, this was no small feat. Kudos to the preparation/technical team for pulling it off without a hitch.
Sponsors lined the lobby with kiosks promoting their services. Most memorable of which was BlueHost, who, in keeping things light and fun on the weekend, had a Nintendo 64 set up at their booth to offer attendees a break from the conference and engage in some friendly competition with peers and like-minded individuals over a game of Super Smash Bros.
Montreal’s WordCamp also emphasized eco-responsibility across the conference. The event’s two included lunches were served using ceramic dinnerware and steel cutlery. Coffee was offered in biodegradable cups, and attendees who brought their own travel mugs on both days were entered into a raffle-prize draw. The combination of these efforts all but eliminated plastic waste at WordCamp which was really awesome to see.
Was it Worth Attending?
As I alluded to earlier, Montreal’s 2018 WordCamp was designed to have something of value for everyone regardless of experience level or expertise. The reality of a one-size-fits-all solution is that it, at best, approximately meets the needs of any one individual. This has a lot to do with the expectations you have going into an event like this.
WordPress experts should expect to only derive value from the talks on some of the more complimentary subjects like Defining your Target Audience, or Bridging the Gap Between Developers and Designers. Similarly, those less technically inclined should expect talks like Workflow Development, or Schema Markup to go over their heads.
All this to say that you need to be strategic to reap as much benefit as possible from WordCamp. Reach for topics within your grasp, and substitute others with time spent striking up business opportunities with other attendees by the coffee machines, or engaging with sponsors at their kiosks to secure the best services possible for your business.
The learning continued into Saturday evening at the WordCamp “after-party”. Hosted by Osmo Café adjoining the Notman House — one of Montreal’s flourishing entrepreneurial hubs — the after-party was the perfect opportunity to exchange ideas and laughs with fellow attendees. The amicable crowd was full of like-minded local and international developers, entrepreneurs, marketers, designers, and web hosters. The WordCamp themes flowed into the networking conversations, which sparked many more creative discussions about expanding our approaches to online business.
WordCamp’s festivities are the manifestation of a committed and impassioned on and off-line WordPress community. In case you missed the conference, you can still join the community at WordPress MeetUps in your area or be part of the conversation on WordPress Forums.
To Sum it All Up
My SEO colleagues and I all took some neat tidbits away from many of the talks, and met some interesting business professionals along the way. All in all it was a really interesting and memorable way to spend a mid-august weekend.
A huge thank you to WordPress for their community focus, JMSB for playing host, sponsors for making the event possible, and WordCamp organizers and volunteers for tying it all together. Lastly, thanks to Bloom for being continually invested in the professional development of its employees, unequivocally supporting our pursuit of growth.
