This past Saturday marked my second foray into Vancouver’s WordCamp. Last year’s WordCamp was pretty awesome, but I remember sitting there, the day after I graduated from BCIT feeling like I didn’t understand most of the things that were coming out of the presenters’ mouths. While there was certainly A LOT that was over my head this year, I was able to get a lot more out of WordCamp and was even able to ask a few questions. At it’s core though, WordCamp is a place to exchange knowledge, and I soaked up everything I could. Below are my three favourite takeaways, in no particular order, from what is rapidly becoming my absolute favourite work event of the year.
- Provide premium service/we’re in the customer service business I really pride myself in striving to give my clients the best service I can. There were some people at WordCamp though, that take it to the next level! Jeff Brock, of Jeff Brock Studio, gave us some insight into his killer system for support that he offers his clients after he launches a website. His talk started my day, and while he talked a lot about one of my fave plugins, Advanced Custom Fields, he talked about it in the context of giving the client a great experience when they log into their website to write a blog post or update a page. His talk inspired me to up my game this fall, and make sure that I’m supplying better customer support, after the site is built. I haven’t quite mapped out what that will look like yet, but I’ve got some ideas, and I’m excited!
- I love networking I’m not going to lie, I kind of hate the word networking, but I love actually doing it! This weekend, I had some incredible chats with people that were not only helpful to me, for exchanging ideas, but also because they are just rad people in the WordPress community. Seriously! Developers have this reputation of being awkward, non-social beings, but trust me, they’re not. I had so much fun meeting new people and I could hardly find an awkward one in the bunch.
- Balance is important The overarching theme of my favourite talk (which was actually a panel), “Running a WordPress Business,” was that balance is super important. What really made me happy about this panel is that it was four men (Shawn Johnston, Grant Landram, Justin Sainton, and Curtis McHale) and was moderated by a guy, Morten Rand-Hendrickson, but they all talked about balance with their work, families and their hobbies. Though I would love to have seen a woman in that panel, I think it’s super cool that most of these guys run a business for the reason that it allows them to spend time with their kids and spouses and on hobbies they love that have nothing to do with WordPress. This is a conversation, that until Saturday, I had mostly heard between women. They all, also, had really amazing business advice, including how to ensure great customer service, how to charge properly and how to make a first hire. It was an amazing hour! I really hope that WordCamp Vancouver makes that panel a recurring feature … but with a woman or two on the panel, as well!
Kate Moore Hermes 