WordCamp Portland changed my WordPress life.
I went to and spoke at my first WordCamp in 2009. I was young(er), nervous, and I’m pretty sure there was a copious amount of “ums.” Luckily, this is Reno and there were only about 20 people in the room to see me crash and burn.
By the next year I’d had more practice with both WordPress theming and speaking in front of crowds without sweating quite so much, so I decided to apply to speak at my first non-local WordCamp: WordCamp Portland. Why Portland? During the week my boyfriend and I took there the previous summer, I promptly fell in love with the city—hipsters and all.
The Portland WordPress community was overwhelmingly warm, welcoming, and brilliant. I met people who shared my love of the Doctor, design, the web, and fried pies. I met my future fellow Automatticians Jane, Spittle, Sheri, and Alex. I met staples of the WordPress and Portland web communities: Jaquith, Aaron, Aaron2, Kelly, and so many others.
WordCamp Portland (and Jane) inspired me to start contributing to the WordPress UI group, and jump into contributing to WordPress. WordCamp Portland was where I started growing my WordPress roots.
A year later, I’ve been working for Automattic for coming on three months and have been contributing to the UI group since the last WordCamp Portland.
I’m also planning on moving to Portland in December. Seriously, the pie is amazing.
WordCamp Portland 2010 kickstarted my participation in the WordPress community. I can’t wait until WordCamp Portland 2011.
WordCamp Portland will always be one of my favorites!
Your chat at wcpdx 10 was one of my favorites and the whole camp opened my eyes to WP. Nervy about the mainly unconference format of this year tho, your thoughts?
I went to CLS in Portland last month and it was great. I think Portland is one of the few places where an unconference WordCamp would really work. Last year’s sessions were really interactive with lots of people from the audience jumping in for Q&A. I’m actually pretty excited to see how it goes :]