It has been almost two weeks since we wrapped up our second WordCamp Sacramento conference, and I am still thinking about it and basking in warmth of an awesome WordPress community here in Sacramento. It was an amazing event, and such a great opportunity to connect with so many current and former students and Art Institute faculty in a powerful educational setting.
In 2015 we ran our first annual WordCamp, which was a huge success, thanks to an amazing group of people who came together to help me pull it off. For the second year, most of the same organizing team came together, this time with Jennifer Bourn of Bourn Creative in the lead role. She and her husband/business partner, Brian worked tirelessly to make the second year even bigger and better than the first year.
Tirzah Johnson, one of our Ai Grads, got the record for largest attendance at a single talk. Standing room only!
WordCamp is an unusual conference, as it brings together designers, content creators, web developers, business people, and marketing specialists from beginners to advanced levels to discuss ways the amazing WordPress platform can be used to further everyone’s goals. I went to the WordCamp conference in San Francisco for years, until it got too big and they decided to take it national. A mind blowing 25% of the web is running on top of WordPress, and as an educator in the design and development fields, it is important to be a part of this community and share.
I decided to take goofy selfies with all my students. Here are a few. Jon Trujillo, Cristina Robinson and Timofey Ritkov all presented amazing talks at WordCamp Sacramento 2016!
Even running a small conference is a ton of work, and it would not happen without a lot of people coming together. Beyond the organizing committee, this event could not have happened without the support of Art Institute of California – Sacramento. If John Andersen, the President of the campus had not been so supportive and donated space at Art Institute for the first WordCamp Sacramento, I don’t think we would have ever even gotten this conference off the ground. For the second year, Art Institute remained an important sponsor, even though the conference out grew the space at that location, Mr. Andersen helped us secure the funds to make the second year a huge success.
Special thanks to Jen Meyer (current Ai student) for participating on the organizing committee and who’s excellent eye for details and organization skills helped keep this conference on the rails. Also for drafting her husband Matt as a videographer on Saturday.
For me personally, it was like a huge reunion event, with a professional spin. So many of my current students and proud Art Institute alumnae, returning to present talks, learn from others and volunteer to help video record the sessions, or help register attendees, or help with the thousand other things that need to get done for a successful conference. There were also plenty of new people to meet and I had great conversations at lunch and at the after party with people who had traveled to Sacramento from all over California to attend our WordCamp. One of our attendees from WordCamp 2015 has since become a fantastic faculty member at Art Institute, and it was great to see her back at WordCamp this year as well. Sure, we had our share of minor snafus, in this case, mostly to do with the new venue, but the overall vibe was so positive and affirming.
David McCormick, also a previous Art Institute student, and now a professional at Blast Media in Roseville, gave a great presentation on search engine optimization.
Now we get to look forward to next year, and I am so excited to see WordCamp in the mix of the boom in growth that Sacramento seems to be enjoying finally, now that the great recession is behind us. Meanwhile, if you want to get involved in the Sacramento WordPress community, there is lots of opportunity to do so. Jennifer and Brian Bourn also run the monthly Sacramento WordPress Meetup group, which meets on the first Tuesday of every month at Urban Hive in midtown Sacramento.
More goofy photos! Tirzah Johnson, Ben Cuslidge, Rosalinda Huck, John Cremer, Dawn Pedersen (former Ai Faculty who also presented!) and current Ai Faculty Kevin Trivedi.
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