Although I only attended WordCamp San Francisco via the Live Stream it was the first that I have followed. I’d followed a couple before through videos and Twitter but I never actually followed all (or most) of the talks LIVE.
I have to say it was a great experience listening to all the great minds that spoke about everything WordPress and beyond. That’s why I’d like to share some of the best parts from WCSF with you right here, right now.
Below I’ve put together some of the best bits from throughout the weekend. So here you go…
Fire Alarm! Wait… what?
That’s right. The WordPress guys were too hot for the venue! One of the fire alarms went off forcing everyone to leave the building for a short period of time. Some attendees even took this opportunity to “bump into” some of their WordPress heroes.
This was just a tiny setback though as the WCSF organisers quickly got things going again and all the scheduled talks were still presented as expected. Great work guys.
We're pretty sure this is a First for #wcsf pic.twitter.com/6GGbfy5qzA
— WordCamp SF (@WordCampSF) October 25, 2014
Catch up on some awesome talks with these slideshares
I managed to put together a list of some of my favourite slideshares from WordPress talks and presentations. Have a look through them, there’s some really awesome stuff inside!
- State of the Word 2014 – Matt Mullenweg
- Matt gave a great State of the Word this year with plenty of great news and tips for the future of WordPress. There’s no point in me explaining each one since the list would be too long. Just go ahead and view the slideshare. There’s plenty to keep you interested.
- Migrating 17 WordPress blogs on WIRED.com – Kathleen Vignos
- This was the first talk for WCSF and it didn’t disappoint. Kethleen certainly delivered a great talk that kept everyone in their seats listening. She proved that even the most popular of sites don’t start out as a well oiled machine, but with WordPress they managed to get things working smoothly and in an organised manner.
- Typography & User Experience – Sara Cannon
- We’ve all heard about typography but unfortunately not everyone takes it seriously. Sara Cannon’s talk explains perfectly how bad typography will result in a bad user experience, and she also shows us some best practices and what to keep in mind when designing our typography. This is a subject I’ve always been interested in and I can honestly say it was one of the talks I enjoyed the most throughout the weekend.
- Building your Brand with a Blog – Chris Lema
- Many people lie in wait for a Chris Lema talk with many others even suggesting he switch blogging for public speaking and he didn’t disappoint here either. Chris brings up some very valid points on building your brand with a blog and even shares his own experiences with this. He’s one of the many persons that are living proof that a good brand takes time and dedication to build.
- Design with Personas: A Lean Approach – Davide Casali
- To be honest I actually missed the first few minutes of this talk but as I caught up I made it a point to rewind and start from the beginning. Davide Casali gives us a very interesting overview of what personas are and their role in designing your WordPress site. If you run a blog of any sort I urge you to have a look at this one and research a bit about personas.
Audience is ready for @photomatt’s State of the Word. #WordPress #wcsf #wcsf14 pic.twitter.com/NNKhlGpK2T
— Aaron Hockley (@ahockley) October 26, 2014
Some other interesting bits from throughout the weekend
I’ve managed to find a few articles & blog posts regarding some of the best points brought up by various speakers too. Check them out:
- Aaron Hockley’s lightning talk with some Photo Tips for WordPress
- Aaron Jorbin spoke about How to Contribute to WordPress Core
- Luke Wroblewski presented a talk about Multi-Device Web Design. Deborah Edwards-Onoro sums it all up for us in this post.
Some cool & inspiring quotes from #WCSF14
“Art is done on a whim. Design is done to solve problems.” – @jenniferbourn
“Design without intention is just decoration” – @jenniferbourn
“You’re the expert. Help your clients figure out the solution to their problem” – @jenniferbourn
“Web design is 95% typography” – @saracannon
“Don’t write code you know you’ll need to fix later.” – @joedolson
“The worst thing regarding accessibility for your site is waiting to do it later.” – @joedolson
“You can contribute to WordPress without thinking it’s a noble quest. You can do it because it makes business sense.” – @boone
“Personas are not created. Use data to shape the personas.” – @Folletto
“Purging data is like moving, you do not want to take bad or useless things to your new home.” – @kathleencodes
State of the Word 2014 from Matt Mullenweg
[wpvideo GmPDhkyi]
My First Taste of a WordCamp Experience
I might have left some stuff out. In fact I’m sure I did, but it was impossible to follow all the simultaneous talks. I relied a lot on the social feed on the WCSF website as well as Twitter to keep updated with what’s going on. If there’s anything you think is definitely worth a mention just let me know and we can add it in.
In case you missed the event altogether you need not despair. Most of the talks will be posted on wordpress.tv at a later date.
I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the last WordCamp SF to be held at Mission Bay after 7 whole years. According to Matt next year it will become a WordCamp US (working title) that will work along the lines of WordCamp Europe but more details will be revealed later on.
What was your favourite lightning talk or presentation? Were you there yourself? Let us know more in the comments below and let’s keep making WordPress great!
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