Event Recap: WordCamp Phoenix and WordCamp Riverside

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November 8, 2017 by Guest Contributor

As usual, the last couple of weeks have been busy for the BoldGrid team. In addition to the regular work on making one of the best and most powerful plugins for WordPress even better, a few of our team members spent some of their time promoting BoldGrid. WordCamp Phoenix took place on October 28 and 29, and WordCamp Riverside occurred November 4-5. Both camps turned out great, with very diverse offerings. 

WordCamp Phoenix

WordCamp Phoenix turned out fantastically! Blessed with an outstanding reputation for excellence, this year proved no exception. Held at Galvanize Phoenix, a modern working space in the industrial area of downtown, the setting perfectly matched the tech-forward nature of this event. BoldGrid’s own MikeDemo arrived on Friday to set-up our booth, then went to the Speaker and Sponsor Dinner at the Bluehost offices. Bluehost’s office still had that “new office” smell following their recent investments in the Phoenix area. If you happen to have an excuse to visit their offices — take it — the new space looks great. On Saturday, the networking began. MikeDemo reports successfully connecting with dozens of people about BoldGrid during the weekend. Many wanted to know about the innovative features of BoldGrid as an all-in-one site building plugin, while others just wanted to get a photo with Boldie, the BoldGrid Banshee. https://twitter.com/kouteki_/status/924305553899134976 Food trucks served up lunch each day, offering a welcome change to the all too common standard catering fare one experiences at many such industry events. Unlike typical WordCamps, with overlapping speaking tracks that force visitors to choose which presentation they want to see while missing another, WordCamp Phoenix opted for a single track in the main room. This allowed everyone to hear the same content and really spurred discussions in the open areas among all the guests about the subjects of those talks. While all WordCamps produce a greater sense of community among WordPress users, this unity of speaking topics really made this camp feel even more like a shared experience. Due to a technical difficulty with our new booth, the crew had to stop by our booth manufacturer for a quick repair. Alan Campbell, of the security core team of WordPress, joined them. Thanks to his connections with GoDaddy, the team got to take a quick tour of their offices in Tempe, Arizona. As you might expect, GoDaddy’s offices look quite amazing and included some really cool facilities (like a slide). MikeDemo opted not to go down the slide because he did not sign the waiver. After a nice dinner with Erin and his wife at a local Mexican restaurant, Mike and crew headed back to finish work on the slides for Mike’s talk the next day. MikeDemo gave his talk called “Two Sides of the Same Coin” about embracing open source as a community in general, rather than focusing on smaller pieces of that group. The talk went well and served as a great way to end the weekend. After saying their goodbyes, the BoldGrid team packed up and shipped the booth to California to get ready for WordCamp Riverside next week.

WordCamp Riverside

For a first year event, WordCamp Riverside did a great job. Stretched over two days, the event took place at SolarMax Technologies, a converted warehouse space with a cool blend of tech and industrial styling.  MikeDemo arrived at our Los Angeles office early in the week to hang out with the West Coast team. WordCamp Riverside had a special dinner event for speakers on Friday, allowing this new community to get in some great networking time with each other.  MikeDemo and Chris, from the West Coast team, arrived early on Saturday morning to set up the new booth. Fortunately, the technical problems that plagued the inflatable backdrop in Phoenix did not reoccur, so it was smooth sailing. Chris volunteered for the WordCamp, so he did double duty, helping the organizers keep things running smoothly while MikeDemo and Boldie manned the booth, networking and spreading the word about the benefits of BoldGrid. Because this was the first year for this event, the anticipated crowd was a little small, so many vendors opted not to come. That was fine with the BoldGrid team since they got to have almost exclusive reign over the vendor area in the building throughout the entire weekend.  Boxed sandwiches and cookies served as lunch both days. While lunch typically serves as a good time for participants to check out vendors, at this event everyone used the lunch break as a time for real networking and camaraderie. Conversations trickled over from lecture rooms and continued well past the hour. The level of engagement at this event was truly inspiring. On Sunday, MikeDemo gave his famous “Which Way Does Your Duck Face?” speech in the morning. The crowd Sunday dwindled a bit from Saturday’s turn out, but still shared the previous day’s enthusiasm. As the day wore down, Chris and MikeDemo packed up the booth, said their goodbyes, and shipped everything across the country to get ready for WordCamp Orlando.