This year, I get the opportunity to speak at WordCamp Miami. Even more, it’s on the year of WordCamp Miami’s 10th Anniversary!
Last year was the first time I was exposed to WordCamp Miami and my first WordCamp ever. I really enjoyed the community, especially because the attendees were coming from so many walks of life.
Some were travellers from other countries, others from other States, some were programming experts and some were just excited to learn about anything new. This variety of learners helps to make WordCamp’s (and our Miami WordCamp) a great environment for learning. It is great to see little groups of strangers instantly connected by software talking as if they were long time friends.
That’s the way I feel when I meet someone totally unfamiliar to me and once we start talking about what we have in common (WordPress), it’s like we’ve known each other all along. I’m not fooled, I don’t really know much about anyone personally, but their desire to share what they’ve discovered gives me some happiness.
Working as a freelancer/business operator can become lonely. Not because I don’t have people around me, but because I don’t have people around me that shares my interest–WordPress!
My last WordCamp experience was not WordCamp Miami 2017, but WordCamp Orlando 2017 last November. The venue was awesome and the people were great. It felt smaller, but it could have been that we were in a larger facility. The atmosphere was just as great and I was glad to hang out in the Happiness Bar and answer and help some people.
Now, I get to give a Lightning talk (a ten minute talk, with 5 minutes for Q&A). I am not nervous about speaking, but excited to see how much I can help others learn about WordPress. I am also volunteering as a Room MC Coordinator. I have other volunteers that will be Room MC’s (basically there to help remind speakers of their time and help out as best they can to move the speakers along). Everyone is a Volunteer! That is a great thing because everyone is focused on giving.
As a bonus, the founder & CEO of Automattic, Matt Mullenweg, will be showing up to celebrate WordCamp Miami’s 10th Anniversary.
I can’t wait and hope that you can join us there or watch on the LIVE Stream here.