WordCamp Portland #wcpdx
September 21st, 2009
I had the good fortune of attending my first WordCamp this weekend. And though I was reluctant to give up two days of mid-September gardening, I knew I should give it a go.
But I had reservations about how I’d fit in. It turned out to be a totally interesting crowd of very diverse people–and fun! Here are some of my observations, in no particular order:
- I was not the oldest person there. Sure, there were the young wiz kids who had computers in kindergarten–but there were plenty of others who remember when “delete” meant “dab w/white-out”!
- I was not the coolest person there. I’m NOT being smug! I mean that it was a socially interesting/outgoing crowd–not the stereotypical group of introverted code jockey nerds.
- I was not the least cool person there. (This, perhaps, one of my biggest concerns.) You know, gauged, tattooed, vintage, etc.–you know–a designer!
Turns out, lots of people were a lot like me…and not. Almost everyone I connected with were one-person shops looking to build knowledge and contacts–just like me! Yet we offered complimentary skill sets/business models upon which we all could draw.
Need someone who specializes in Photoshop? Have some pics that need touching up? Red-eye gone? Exposures fixed. Give a holler to Hand2Mouse.
Need someone to build your business website or blog with WordPress and you don’t need custom design? Contact MidColumbiaWebs.
Need your home office organized? Visit TheHomeOfficeOrganizer.
Need a church website? Visit Vintom.
And in addition to meeting all these cool people–I also learned lots about WordPress–especially the ethos behind it. I’ll share that in another post.
Yep, it was a good conference and definitely worth letting the weeds slide by one more weekend!