I was pretty excited to get back to WordCamp Minneapolis/St. Paul after meeting so many great people and learning so much at their 2015 event. And also because I still had some questions about a giant spoon and cherry (what?) in the area. So my colleague Dee and I set out on our mission within a mission.
The McNamara Alumni Center is an amazing space and a great WordCamp venue. Thursday was full of workshops ranging from design thinking to client management and on-boarding programming, and a little bit of Woo Commerce. And at the Speaker/Sponsor Dinner, Dee and I drew in the crowds while we played Bears vs Babies and finally got a group together to play Settlers of Catan.
Michelle Schulp (one of Nile's 13 influential women in WordPress) kicked off the first official day of camp with an amazing keynote on "Success, Generosity and the Business of People."
Outside of the official sessions, we talked to WordPress fans about what they’re building and excited about working on next, along with what they’d be doing if they had more time. James Ross Grumish had a nice submission:
Hallway sessions are great, but the official sessions were especially nice; I enjoyed Russell Aaron's talk, "For Blogging Out Loud! Use your voice to blog." Russell was really energetic and he inspired me to write this post using voice to blog, which is essentially blogging with a more conversational voice, as we’re actually talking, not writing a paper or sitting in front of a computer typing everything that we are trying to say. It's less mechanical and truer to my style. I am hopeful to keep trying voice-to-blog thanks to Russell.
Editor's note: Some of the special value and style from the author's voice-to-blogging for this post was lost in editing because editing.
Dee was excited to see Ellen Goodwin's, "How to be an Action Hero of Your Own Life." Ellen is an excellent public speaker, and she didn’t disappoint. She reminded us all that taking action is not just being in motion, but executing on an actual plan, how to make fewer decisions by building helpful habits, and how to eliminate distractions by rewarding your inner three-year-old.
As the event came to a close, we had a chance to connect with our local WordPress-supporting friends, the folks that organize WordCamp Phoenix, and of course we had to make a stop into the Mall of America and escape from Mars with 20 minutes to spare.
Oh, and that spoon and cherry? It’s an art piece, a really big, awesome spoon and cherry art piece. So I guess I’ll have to get back to WordCamp Minneapolis/St. Paul 2019 to see if I can get a bit closer and grab a few pics while I’m there.
