The last time I attended WordCamp Toronto was in 2008 and I was terribly disappointed, no – not with the swag but with some mis-communication and unfortunately a fair amount of boredom. I did, in fact end up leaving a few hours early on the first of the scheduled two days and didn’t return. At the time, it made more sense for me to get my sleep at home rather than at a public event.
I skipped WordCamp Toronto ’09.
This year I decided to give it another shot, and I need to be honest, I was pleasantly surprised at the organization and the speakers this time around. For me, the first session “Blogging and Social Media” with Jeremy Wright, was the highlight of WordCamp 2010.
Jeremy Wright speaking at WordCamp Toronto. Although what Jeremy discussed wasn’t a new idea for me, it was great to hear someone outside of my own creative team talk sensibly about social media. Jeremy brought back the idea of focusing on the “Social” rather than using the “Media” as an outlet for spamming and bad social behavior, and he also addressed the myth of needing to be on Facebook or Twitter for business. I can only hope that the people attending the event, took the right notes and were paying attention to what he was saying a bit more than the two camels in a small car.
Getting a chance to speak with Pam and Dean and other attendees at this WordPress event, I realized that all of the other people were gaining something different out of the event. So I have to say, I think the event was a success. Not to mention the lunch was very good.
One thing I’d personally like to see for future WordCamps is a larger range of topics, with more advanced or thought provoking lectures. To me, it seemed the event was focused on the newbie and at least in my opinion if the WordPRess community is going to grow, then we need to help with the technical and professional level development as well. Perhaps making WordCamp a 1-day event with simultaneous discussions would be a way to accomplish this, at least for me it would enable me to leverage my social time.
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