The last few weeks and days have been pretty crazy for me. As you know I was planning (back then) to attend Wordcamp Philippines and so the way I did it was I slept in office to be able to come early to the event. Eventually I did, through the help of a good officemate named Chigs who offered to accompany me to the event.
Ok now back to the event. I arrived early as in really (6:30 am, event is 8am) early. I stayed in McDonalds for half an hour and went to Benilde at around 7. The organizing team was kind enough to welcome me even though they were surprised I was that early (shame on me!).
Anyhow I just waited patiently. And after quite some time, I met my friends named Paul Gerard and the hyperactive Eymard in the event. These are the same guys whom I met in iBlog event last year.
So this year was kind of like different from the previous year. This year, they had 2 parts. First one is the breakout session and the latter part is the Plenary. Most of the talks in the breakout session (w/c was held in different rooms with limited number of participants) were kind of like fundamental to me but I know its really really valuable especially for the right person.
The Plenary talks were interesting. Topics that were covered are: Social Media powered by WordPress, Blogging Ethics, Google University talk and some sponsor talks. They were of great value and its nice that a lot of people ask questions with regards to it.
The most interesting part though is the Q and A with Matt Mullenweg, the founding developer of WordPress. A lot of people asked interesting questions and its nice to see Matt answering all of them in a very straightforward matter. Questions related to plugin marktplace, Thesis theme and even the Hello Dolly plugins were all asked. Lastly, Matt encourage everyone to approach him personally if we ever have questions or we want to take pics with him. Now thats something not all famous persons would say.
I really like Matt a lot, I mean he’s a smart guy and a very nice person. You may have seen him speak in interviews and stuffs but in person he’s really really such an approachable person. So Matt if you’re reading, its nice to meet you! 😀
Some images
So just to make this post longer (lols) and seriously just to give you some of the neat stuff in Wordcamp, here are some images.
To see more photos from this event, kindly just head on to my photos page.
Conclusion
Overall it’s a nice event as I was able to personally meet Matt and some others there as well. Networking-wise, I failed badly since I hardly talk to anyone aside from my friends. I’ve planned a lot for this and even prepared a document with regards to networking and making more friends in the event. Unfortunately, I’m very shy and it didn’t help that Eymard and Paul weren’t as engaging as well.
But all in all, it’s really nice. The breakout sessions is something that I think is unique. I liked most of the talk and the event overall was great. I’d like to thank the organizers avatar media for really working hard on this event, the sponsors, Matt and everyone who attended the event. Now I’m excited for Wordcamp 2011. 🙂