Why Attending WordCamp is Worthwhile, Even if You're Not a WordPress Fanatic

I’m still basking in the glow of WordCamp Seattle 2016 which happened a few weeks ago.

For those of you who don’t know…

WordCamp is a conference that focuses on everything WordPress. WordCamps are informal, community-organized events that are put together and run entirely on volunteer power. They happen all over the world and everyone from casual users to core developers of the WordPress software participate, share ideas, and get to know each other. Alas, sadly, they do not generally involve roasted marshmallows. But they do involve lots of other really great stuff.

I had a unique opportunity to be part of the organizing committee for WordCamp Seattle this year, and so while I’ve attended several WordCamps in the past (and always L-O-V-E-D the experience), this year, I got a first-hand look at what all goes into making a WordCamp great (which Seattle’s was) and the amount of effort they put into making it a worthwhile experience for all kinds of people in the WordPress ecosystem – whether you’re a hard-core developer, a designer or theme developer, a heavy-hitter blogger, or a business owner whose website happens to run on WordPress.

It’s these business owners who I think most often tend to miss out on the awesomeness that is WordCamp because they think it’s really not for them. But I’m here to make a case for why you’re wrong about that and why you should look up the next WordCamp in a city near you and get your small-business behind to it pronto!

WordCamps are for everyone

I’ve met a huge cross-section of people at WordCamps. I can attest personally to the fact that WordCamp organizers go to great lengths to make sure that the sessions cover a wide breadth of subjects relevant to lots of different people. (Trust me – we put a ton of time into making sure the speakers and their sessions apply to a broad spectrum of interests and experience levels.)

So because there is such a wide variety of people, they are super friendly and great networking opportunities. I am a died-in-the-wool introvert and really have to push myself to be out there ‘networking’. But when I attended my first WordCamp, I felt like I had finally found my people. I went in expecting a bunch of young whipper-snappers with long hair and beards and tattoos, but the majority of folks there looked just like me. And like me, they were mostly in business for themselves and trying to make their way in that world with the WordPress tool as a commonality – whether they developed on it or just used it to support their growing business.

And if you’re a coach, especially if you’re focused on helping people grow their businesses, you’ll find all kinds of potential connections here if you extend yourself.

The WordPress community is incredibly open and accepting

WordCamps go out of their way to be inclusive events, actively recruiting folks from diverse orientations, backgrounds, cultures and experience levels as speakers and attendees. Even though I don’t necessarily fall into too many of those ‘diverse’ buckets, I’ve never been in a situation where the atmosphere felt so open and non-judgmental. The whole community is just so blasted accepting.

It doesn’t cost a lot of money, but the payoff is immeasurable

WordCamps, especially in the bigger cities, tend to be on par with major tech conferences with the size and quality of speakers. But whereas big conferences charge hundreds of dollars to attend, WordCamps strive to make sure tickets are no more than $20/day in order to make it as easy as possible for anyone to attend. And this usually includes lunch!!

There’s always an SEO session

Search Engine Optimization can feel like giant black hole of a subject, but in today’s day and age, while it may not be your primary marketing strategy, you just can’t get away without making sure you’ve at least got the basics of it down on your site. Your business website absolutely has to show up in search engines, even if it’s just for your name. And WordCamps almost always include some kind of session on SEO to help you get more comfortable with how to make that happen.

Beyond the technical

I’ve noticed a trend at WordCamps this year to stretch beyond just the technical aspects of running an online business. There have been several sessions about posture and life balance and health. We had a session this year at WordCamp Seattle called Common Desk Job Postural Ailments and What You Can Do About It! that was not only a discussion about how to have better posture and the problems that working at a computer all day cause, but she also taught a Zumba! class – in the middle of WordCamp. So much fun!

You discover new ways to use WordPress

One of my mastermind buddies, Lisa K. always talks about the importance of using your own website – making sure you’re on it and using it as a business tool all the time – not only for your clients and visitors but to actually run your own business. And one of the most interesting sessions we had at WordCamp Seattle this year had to do with different tools you could incorporate into WordPress to actually run your business – whether it was finding ways to generate and send invoices through your website or using WordPress as your Customer Relationship Manager and Project Management systems.

There are innumerable ways that you can extend WordPress so that it works better and makes your site more of an investment and a tool for your business as opposed to a pretty piece of marketing fluff sitting out there all lonely on the interwebs with no one paying attention to it.

WordCamp US is coming up this weekend

WordCamps happen literally all over the world. (Here’s a list of some of them that are coming up: https://central.wordcamp.org/schedule/). All it takes is a passionate community of WordPress users to come together and decide they want to put in the time and effort to make it happen. They tend to be more locally focused but the WordPress foundation also sponsors some big ones like WordCamp Europe and WordCamp US which is coming up this weekend in Philadelphia. If you don’t happen to be in the Philly area, they offer free live streaming of the event, so you can sit at home in your jammies (like I’m going to) and partake in all the fun virtually.

Yes – you miss out on the networking opportunities when you’re not at the live event, but many of the sessions are worth hearing. Some that I think sound particularly interesting for the small business owner or solopreneur are:

And of course, don’t miss WordPress & SEO in 2016 by Joost de Valk who is the author of one of the most widely used SEO plugins in the industry. (Told you – there’s always an SEO session).

And I’d bet dollars to donuts, at some point in the next year, there’s a WordCamp happening somewhere within a few hours of where you live. You won’t be sorry you attended. It could be one of those unexpected boosts to your business you didn’t even know you needed!