Five of our teammates attended WordCamp Bucharest, and each of them got touched differently. It’s the first time when the new folks outnumber those who already have a taste of WordCamp events in general, and this is what makes this edition even more interesting.
Radu on being a volunteeer at WordCamp Bucharest
The experience of WordCamp was a bit different for me this year because I was on the other side of the fence. I felt that it’s time to push the boundaries and try something new. That’s why I chose to be a volunteer and make sure that everything’s going great during the conference.
A big part of the day I was involved in the registration session where I had to make sure that each attendee gets his kit. It seems like a childish task, but when you find out what’s your job description with just half an hour in advance the perspective change quite a lot.
I had the chance to talk with a lot of other people for the rest of the day, which I really enjoyed it. This is how I managed to find about a team that creates e-commerce websites and what are their struggles when it comes to implementation. Also, I mingled with a wider range of people who work in different ways and I was interested to hear more about how they approach the day-to-day side of things.
I hope more folks will volunteer for WordCamp Bucharest because even though you miss the speeches per se, you learn plenty of things about how to run an event.
Răzvan S. on building connections of all kinds
For me it was the first time I attended the WordCamp Bucharest conference. I was impressed by the fact that a fairly small amount of individuals can generate so much positive energy.
All of the attendees were professional, passionate, friendly people who were interested in knowledge sharing and networking.
I found the talks to be relevant and up to date, exploring all kinds of aspects of the WordPress ecosystem. Crafting a branding story, SEO benefits of Accelerated Mobile Pages, navigating efficiently through GDPR’s ocean of consent & cookies, and methodologies for bringing WordPress in the enterprise world are just a few topics covered by the speakers. This diversity made me understand that there is room for everyone in the Wordpress community, no matter the niche.
WordCamp Bucharest 2018 inspired me to work harder at becoming a top-notch developer and knowing the ins and outs of WordPress. I can’t wait for the next one!
Andrei on the power of the WordPress community
Although I have played with WordPress in the past and even built a few websites with it, I’m definitely a newcomer to this universe. By going to WordCamp Bucharest I became aware of the scale and amount of people that are apart of this movement.
I’m calling it a movement because, after being a first-time participant, I saw that people don’t just use WordPress as a way to make business or push their stories out in the world.
Instead, they do actively care about WordPress, are putting their heart and soul into this product and even use it to make the world a better place.
That might sound corny, but for someone to dedicate their free time to work on improving a piece of software just to make it work better for others and help them tell their story or do business is something truly amazing. And meeting the people that embrace the Open Source mantra helped me to get a sense of the time and passion invested by others. Kudos to them!
As a marketer, I wasn’t quite sure how this event would benefit me, but I believe I got more useful information from it than my more technical fellows. I was pleasantly surprised about the number of talks oriented towards marketing (SEO, page speed optimisation, storytelling) & business strategy.
The best thing was that each speaker shared insights related to what we’re doing on a daily basis and the products most of us are building, something that other events will hardly come close to. I’m signing up for the next one for sure.
Răzvan on expanding perspectives beyond code
Even though it didn’t turned out to be what I expected it to be, I really enjoyed this edition of WordCamp Bucharest. The main reason is that, apart from a few talks, many of them were not technical at all.
As developers, we too often fall into this bottomless pit of writing code, documentation, maintenance, releasing updates, reading articles on new technologies and what not.
This year it struck me more than ever before. The WordPress community isn’t about those who write code. It is in some sense about theme and plugin developers, about core developers and contributors, about webmasters who optimize and maintain their website(s). But it’s also about people who just use WordPress as a publishing platform and even about those who consume their content and may never get to see the WordPress dashboard.
It has been a great occasion to gather knowledge from people from both inside and outside the WordPress ecosystem sharing their experiences through well thought-out talks and also some pretty interesting Q&A sessions.
Cosmin on discovering the size of WordPress
WordPress, I feel like Wordcamp Bucharest 2018 was the proper introduction in the Romanian WordPress community, but not only.
From presentations regarding innovative ideas, to the ones that were showing how we could improve old habits, I had a lot to learn, especially on the creative side of things, like storytelling, user friendly experiences, but also, and most important for me, the technical aspect.
I was blown away by the amount of different ideas and takes on even the very small details that hinted there were problems.
From WordPress time related issues, to creating the perfect server environment for Wordpress, everyone was learning from the others and also mixing it with their own ideas or advices, showing me what is the true meaning of the term “community”.
Surrounded by so many professionals, seeing what drives them to improve day by day, and the things that they discovered or created, I felt really happy and impressed by the sheer power of the community I can say that now I’m a proud member of. I am happy for being through this experience and I just can’t wait for WordCamp Bucharest 2019!
That’s the magic of attending such conferences. You have the chance to change the lens you are seeing WordPress through and becoming a better player within this community. No matter if you work in customer support, development, marketing, if you are an amateur or a pro with several years of experience, WordCamp Bucharest is definitely a go.
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