Last weekend was so much fun and so crazy! I LOVED WordcampPDX this year. Last year was great but this year really rocked it! I have a ton of ideas floating around in my head of things I want to do to my site as well as other activities I want to work on related to Wordpress. One of those activities is WineCamp PDX. I got the brain child while I was sitting in one of the sessions last week. I mean, the Portland area has great wineries and a real wine following. Why not have a one or two day unconference related to wine. I tweeted about my idea last week and got a bit of interest. This weekend I decided to make it official.
I got the http://www.winecamppdx.com domain and another Twitter account @winecamppdx. I spent most, if not all, of Saturday creating a wiki for people to start helping plan and put their ideas. It’s at http://winecamppdx.pbworks.com/. It’s been really great to see people posting ideas and comments on the project. I also got the WineCampPDX site up as well. Right now the site is just a single page with some general information about WineCampPDX and a subscription box so that I can find out the interest in the project. I got the site up yesterday and in about 3 hours I had 15 people subscribe. That’s 15 people interested in WineCampPDX. My iPhone has been going off like crazy with people following @winecamppdx or my twitter @jltitus. I’m so excited and hope this really takes off. I’ll keep those of you reading this updated.
Today was day one of WordCamp PDX and let me just say.. it was AWESOME! I attended last year and really enjoyed myself. This year was even better. I couldn’t believe all the people there. There were WAY more than last year.
Here’s a summary video.. or you can read below. Note that the video isn’t that great because I did it right into YouTube (Won’t be doing that again).
Jason Grigsby – Speed Up Wordpress. Make Readers Happy and Your Site Green
The talk was very interesting and really made me think. Jason pointed out that since 2003 web page size has tripled and the number of objects on the page has doubled. Now that may not sound like that big o a deal but what I also learned was that this increase means more servers and more servers means more energy usage. I can’t remember the exact numbers but I remember Jason saying something like the amount of power used by the increase of servers can power all of Mississippi for a day. I’m sure I got that wrong, but it was something like that. I have to say I was blown away. I mean I just never made that connections. Jason went on to show us how to optimize a site and reduce the energy load that it’s using. Basically how to minimize the server drain and optimize the site. It was so neat! After seeing this presentation I’m going to optimize my site in the next couple of weeks and share the information with other bloggers in hopes that they too can help decrease the footprint on the environment.
Cami Kaos / Dr. Normal – Bondage: How to be your podcast’s Dom, not its Sub
The next presentation was by Cami Kaos and Dr. Normal. They share with us all about podcasting and things to consider when starting your own podcast. I think the biggest challenge for me would be to be consistent with it. They do such an amazing job of bringing great guests on the show. I love it.
Matt Mullenweg – WordPress Q&A
Matt Mullenweg was the next presenter. His session was more of a Q&A session with people asking hims all sorts of questions. It was interesting to hear the questions but also to hear his thoughts on WordPress. I also learned that you can post a blog posting from MS Word. Interesting stuff!
Shayne Sanderson – WPMU and Ecommerce
Shayne talked about WPMU and ecommerce and how to monitize your blog and start selling things. He did a great job discussing ecommerce and the plugin for WP that helps with that. I think the bummer was that the wifi wasn’t cooperating and so that made it hard but he was a trooper.
Unconference topic – Using Wordpress as a CMS
I have to say this was interesting too. Not just because it was a non-conference topic but what began as a “how do you use WP as a CMS” really turned into what plugins do you us that help make WP a CMS. I loved the conversation and the recommendation of plugins I now have a TON of plugins to research and see if they could help in my blog(s). Thanks for the great conversation and ideas!
Tyler Sticka – WordPress-Powered Portfolios
Tyler was the last presentation of the day. I think it couldn’t have been better timed. I loved the topic of using WP for Portfolios. I really liked the fact that Tyler didn’t use bullet points in a presentation but used sketches to convey what he wanted to say. It was so nice and refreshing. He got me thinking about reposting my portfolio of ISD work and other things that I do. I really like Tyler’s website and how he has it arranged. I think I’m going to have to look at it more closely and see what I want to do with mine.
Now that I’ve attended the first day I have a HUGE list of things to look at. I thoughts I’d get them down here in case I lose my notes or someone has more to add.
List of things to check out now
Gzip
Sprite Me
PHP Speedy plugin
Podcaster iPhone app
Podpress
blip.tv
intensedebate plugin
sitepoint.com
wordpress.org/showcase
wordcamped
wordpressme.org
wordpress.tv
bluelimemedia
exclude pages plugin
page mash plugin
flexi page
custom post templates
wiki plugin?
more fields plugin
flutter
pods plugin
customize post listing plugin
multilevel navigation plugin
breadcrumbs plugin
roles and responsibilities plugin
advanced category excluder plugin
Final Thoughts
Today ROCKED! I can’t wait for tomorrow. I also got spurred on by the conversations and things. I’m now thinking about working with those that are interested to start blog/site for corp training, informal learning etc. I think it could be really cool. Bring together “training” people and “techie” people. If you’re reading this and interested, DM me on Twitter (@jltitus) and let me know.
