My WordCamp San Diego Preview

WordCamp San Diego, along with WordCamp OC are two of my favorite WordCamps (even though I’ve organized another Camp. Those two hold a special place in my heart.  That said, I’m super excited about what’s coming up this weekend. Here’s my preview of the things I want to catch while I’m there.

So, this camp is going to be crazy, crazy good. There’s a lot of great talks lined up. I’m not going to get into all of them, though. I’ll tell you what I’m excited about and why.

Saturday Talks

I’m keeping my butt in the Dev. track most of the day. It’s a “murderer’s row” of speakers this time around.

Konstantin Oberlin kicks things off (which seems to be a recurring thing with that guy). Not only that, he’s an Automattician and their Minister of Height, a chiseled, CrossFit-enhanced male standing at a very tall 6’7″, K-money always tackles high-level technical discussions and manages to keep them interesting. I’m definitely looking forward to his talk.

Stephen Carnham of Desktop Server fame steps up next to talk about one of the most popular tools available to WordPress developers: WP-CLI. It’s a wonderful tool that allows you to interact with your WordPress sites from the command line. Many plugins, like WP DB Migrate Pro, have built-in functionality that allows you to interact with them also from the command line. It’s a tool that I’ve used on occasion, but never all that much. There’s a lot of power left on the table, I think. And that’s what I’m looking forward to learning more about and see how folks are using it. I know a lot of developers use WP-CLI to run mass updates and a whole host of other things. Getting some inspiration here is what I’m looking to do.

Josh Pollock drops knowledge about the WordPress Javascript API (WP-API). He’s already written extensively on the topic. The guy is among the very best technical writers in the WordPress space and is such a great presenter. I’ve done zip with the WP-API, so this is also a good talk to get my learn on.

Carlos (Carl) Alexander. That guy, if you don’t know, is a gem. If you didn’t know, he’s been writing some pretty boss-level technical articles over on his website for years now. Many developers have referred to and thanked him for, his work over the years. He’s just that cool. He’s going to be covering a lot of dev ops related stuff. I think that’s probably a little over my head, but still worth knowing. Our job requires that our hands are on so many things, so it’s something you can’t really ignore. But don’t let that take away from the fact that this guy knows his material, inside and out, thus, you will too!

When Pippin Williamson says “Ask me anything about plugins” people shut the f*ck up and ask the man about plugins! He’s kind of “the guy” who knows about plugins, selling them, giving them for free. He has built a digital empire that is monstrous and sustainable. He’d accomplished so much all while being a good person who gives back and helps others. Just about anyone in the community can point to Pippin and say “Yeah, that guy helped me in some way.” The talk looks like it’s going to be a mix of topics, but being able to ask someone who knows so much about the WP ecosystem is just a can’t miss talk. Honestly, it sorta sucks to be the other speakers going at the same time as he is.

Social media is hard. It requires work and you can’t cheat effort. Verious Benjamin Smith, a fellow Meetup Organizer steps up to deliver a talk about a pretty awesome subject. I think many of us want to set and forget solutions to promoting your content and brand. Verious is going to drop some knowledge on some useful tools and tactics to super-power your social strategy. It should be a worthwhile talk.

Also, I’m interested in seeing Josh Cummings’s talk about development environments. I think it will be a good talk covering some stuff I know a lot about already and probably offer up some things I hadn’t considered.

Sunday Talks

A few years back, the organizers of WordCamp San Diego did something bold. They made Sunday into a full day of business track discussion. It went over super well. All those talks were amazing, in fact, you can review them here: The Business Track Talks.

This year is bringing back the business track with a fury. The folks taking part are the sort of people you’d want mentoring you and some of them already are a mentor to me in one way or another. The track is hosted by Steve Zehngut, Carrie Dils, Jason Rosenbaum, Jennifer Bourn, Tom McFarlin, Chris Ford, Tony Perez.

Zehngut has mentored me quite a bit over the years, particularly in client management through the tough talks. His advice has been golden to me. Tony Perez. I wish I could bottle that guy up and take him out whenever I need a pep talk. He’s intense and he speaks from the heart every time. Carrie “effing” Dils? She’s a dream. She’s humble, funny, and wise; and she shares all that cool stuff she’s learned over the years to help us get better at what we do. Here’s the thing, people, there are folks out there who give good advice. They can read the books, but they haven’t “done the work.” Carrie Dils has. She’s been in the trenches and built a solid business for herself.

Chris Ford is my spirit designer. That. is. all.

If you haven’t guessed, I’m going to be parked in the biz track all day. Literally, each talk is something I’ve specifically asked and wondered about through the years. This is going to be a treasure trove of info.

Final thoughts

This is going to be a packed event. It’s sold out for good reason. There’s a ton of great content for all users. Business and dev are my main points of interest.

The one thing I’d advise is to get out there and talk to people. Everyone is approachable. Ask questions, make friends, and learn something new. That’s what these events really are about.

Big, big kudos and thanks to the WordCamp San Diego organizing team. This is going to be so much fun.