Sabrina Dent: Freelance web designer, developer and internet marketer living in Cork, Ireland with one dog and a husband in no particular order.
WordCamp Ireland: The Aftermath
WordCamp Ireland 2010 wrapped up this afternoon, and at exactly 4PM as the last punter walked out of the amazing Set Theatre, I melted into an incredibly pleasant state of complete and total relaxation. Doing this again may be worth it just for that sleep deprived, adreniline fuled, frantic-rush induced state of Nirvana.
WordCamp was, in a word, fun. I’ve posted a quick thank you post over on the blog, but I also have some more random thoughts as I sit here enjoying my swanky hotel room for one last night before going back to the real world.
We could not have pulled this off without the amazing staff at Langton’s. Everyone raved about the hotel. Nothing was too much trouble. You don’t know how many people are coming to dinner? Not a problem. You need two sets for the stage? Not a problem. You need snacks we don’t stock for the kids, and you need them right fucking now? Also not a problem because we will get in a car and DRIVE TO THE SUPERMARKET FOR YOU.
Failure of snack planning aside, much ado was made about the fact that this was a family-friendly conference with child care. I’m not sure anyone who attended had ever been to a conference with child care before. I’m not sure Katherine and I had ever been to one either, but it never occurred to us to do anything else. And, honestly, it was easy. I’ll write more about it later but basically: two babysitters, €60 worth of kid tat from World of Crap, an activity schedule and you’re away.
Everyone should do this – the kids were not disruptive, they were not noisy, and every single child (including our favourite escape artist) was cooperative and very well behaved.
Kids aside, there were two distinct camps of attendees at WordCamp. People who came from a BarCamp sort of background had, in general, a great time. The venue was big and plush, speakers were both impressive and totally accessible, and if not every camper could fit into every session they wanted to attend, well there were a zillion other sessions and coffee in the ballroom.
The tiny percentage of people who came from the Vegas – Le Web – NextGen circuit were less happy. There were not always enough seats, these folks didn’t seem to circulate well in the frequent coffee and meal sessions, and they generally seemed undewhelmed. On the other hand, I expect people from that sort of background to be able to do the math on their ticket price and adjust accordingly. SXSW is $395. MIX is $1400. Le Web is €1,200. WordCamp is €50.
Is WordCamp Le Web? No. But it’s not €1,200 either.
The speakers who were scheduled for the Conservatory were champions. We had two days of glorious sunny weather – in March, in Ireland – and it killed this glass-topped room for projectors and as a workable venue. Loads of speakers switched to a white-board presentation style effortlessly and far more smoothly than I would have been able to, and I admire every single one of them (and apologise and promise to sort that for the next WordCamp Ireland.)
I gave a talk – luckily not in the Conservatory – on using WordPress as the base for your social networking world domination plan, and it was solidly mediocre. In all honesty, given the fact that I had had five hours of sleep in the preceding 72, I was tremendously pleased with myself for doing even that well. It was not my best performance, but doing it was by far the biggest effort I have ever made to get on stage and stay cognisant for 45 minutes, and it felt nothing short of triumphant to pull it off at all.
Katherine did rather better, having had a grand total of 11 hours of sleep since Thursday, and I was delighted for her that her presentation was so well received. Neither one of us, however, is ever speaking at a camp we are also organising ever again. It is simply too much to take on.
And because it will take us more than a year to recover, we’ve also decided that the WordCamp Irelands we organise will be every-other-year events. It’s not feasible, given the time commitment, for us to do this every year, but we have already opened the calendars and flicked forward a few pages to look at when we might do WordCamp 2012.
Edit: Fuck it, we’re up for 2011. It’s on!
And yes, there will be more sandwiches.
Photo Credit: Donncha O Caoimh
08 Mar 2010
| In: Events + Social Networks |
Well, I thought it was super! Thoroughly enjoyed it. Don’t listen to the begrudgers!
08.03.2010, 1:38 pmHopefully you are not sick of me saying thanks and well done, but thanks and well done! I cannot believe that anyone would have had any complaints. If the rest of us had heard, they would’ve been hung by their toes and photographed in embarrassing positions! I’m so glad that you are even thinking of having another, after the threat you made on Twitter saying that you’d NEVER do one again.
08.03.2010, 1:42 pmcongrats to all those involved, I will pencil in 2012 right now. :D
P.S. I really like that WP mug in the picture
08.03.2010, 1:43 pmMaybe there’s something to be said for running your presentation on a whiteboard…
08.03.2010, 1:52 pmYes It was great! A lot of new friends and good atmosphere around the Langton. BTW, how did you transfer the sticker into the tea cup?
08.03.2010, 1:56 pmBrilliantly organised conference. I learned loads and very sociable too. Best value for money conference I have ever attended.
08.03.2010, 2:06 pmYou will always get the naysayers and the begrudgers and these are EXACTLY the type of people who would NEVER put themselves forward to organise an event like that OFF THEIR OWN BACK!!! We got it when we organised BarCamp Cork 2009 and anyone who organises a future event will get it. Its part and parcel and fuck the begrudgers should be the strapline for any voluntarily organised conference or event from now on.
Anyone who didn’t learn something either from the presentations, or the networking simply cannot be helped. You need to be open at events like these, you never know who you are going to meet, what you are going to learn and what the top SEO expert in the world is going to say about your site!!! ;)
Huge congrats to both of ye, just don’t take too much time off after this as we are all now brimming with ideas that we need help with!! :D
The champers is well deserved, and yes, it *IS* still unopened in the boot of my car.
08.03.2010, 2:14 pm[...] 2! Sabrina has written a thoughtful post about WordCamp Ireland. I for one had a great time there and so did everyone I spoke to. I totally [...]
08.03.2010, 7:36 pmHear! Hear! It was a fabulous weekend. I met lots of interesting people and had great chats. Adam was happy in the kids zone, my wife was happy she was away for the weekend.
It’s a credit to you and Katherine and everyone who helped to make the weekend happen. Thank you!
08.03.2010, 7:41 pm“The tiny percentage of people who came from the Vegas – Le Web – NextGen circuit were less happy”
Are you shitting me?! Are these people for real?
What a bunch of muppets.
Sounds like WCIRL was fantastic and I for one am kicking myself for missing it.
08.03.2010, 10:27 pmMy kids cried at having to leave, in fact they made me stay for the last two talks (and I’m really glad that they did) – they were excellent. (The talks. My kids were kind of annoying at that stage.)
They will be begging to be allowed back to the next one – whenever it is – what leverage! Please let me know will in advance as it will ensure best behaviour…
08.03.2010, 11:28 pmThanks for all the nice comments! I’m really, really glad you guys had such a great time and it was *wonderful* to meet so many ace people in Kilkenny.
To be perfectly frank, though, the people who were not so happy had legitimate issues. The tech track was twice as crowded as we thought it would be, and lacked seats. The conservatory will need custom blackout drapes next year. And the huge number of walk-in registrations put us way over estimates for lunch on the first day .
But 97.5% of the people attending took these setbacks in stride and got on with having a fantastic weekend. I mean, how great that the speakers are so wonderful, people were hanging onto the door frames just to get an ear in the room! How exciting that there was so much interest in WordPress in Ireland that we ended up with 20% more people than we estimated as our maximum (and 20% less lunch…) And God knows, nobody in Ireland is ever going to complain about a clear and sunny day :)
All of the kids were great fun; thank you so much for bringing them and we’re looking forward to seeing them next year! It was great to meet/see you, and thanks for all the help :)
I finally made it back home. But before I flake out and sleep for 24 hours straight I just wanted to say thanks to everyone for making me feel so welcome. It was one of the best conferences I’ve been to for a long while. And I’ve definitely never spoken anywhere as beautiful as the Set Theatre. What a venue.
09.03.2010, 12:11 am“Edit: Fuck it, we’re up for 2011. It’s on!” <== This is great to hear :-)
I was only disappointed at one thing and that was Garrett not delivering his presentation through the medium of modern dance like he said he would the night before ;-)
09.03.2010, 12:33 pmThanks once again for all your effort over the weekend and leading up to it. I had a great time and would not miss the next.
Good to hear about 2011.
09.03.2010, 3:41 pm[...] again, huge congratulations are due to Sabrina, Katherine and their team of volunteers. I see that they have just signed up to run WordCamp in 2011. I’m already looking forward to [...]
10.03.2010, 10:04 amHats off to you for putting it all together!
12.03.2010, 9:15 pmI drove down from Dun Laoghaire on the Sat and Sun and, as a WP newbie, found it all really stimulating.
One of the nicest aspects was the mix of people there. I knew no-one and didn’t know what to expect, the fear being that it would be populated by either geeks with heads stuck in laptops, or cliques who all seemed to know one another. And it wasn’t like that at all.
The only unfortunate thing was that there were a few sessions that clashed and I couldn’t get to everything!
I am not sure what others expected from this, but I learned a lot and enjoyed the talks.
The only complaint I could make was that the lack of signage in the first hour of the camp made finding the right room confusing – but they were up after the first talk and everything else was great. The amount of info I got on WP was fantastic and it was obvious that the organisers and speakers really cared about their subject.
Any lack of socialising on my part was not a rejection of Wordcamp or snobbery – I’m just a shy retiring person. I’d definitely go again.
16.03.2010, 12:03 pm