Why I love Word Camps

I love WordPress wordcamps.  The recent 2-day community get together for learning, sharing, reconnecting, laughing, story telling, commiserating, celebrating and troubleshooting is always great and this is why they work so well:

1. The Cost:
   $55 for 2 very full days of wide ranging info sessions, with lunch, coffees, a drink token for the Saturday night party and WP flavoured tshirts to last a lifetime. Crazy immense value. 
2. The Community
   I've not met another web development tribe who have as warm and generous spirit as the WP community. I'm reminded of this every time I get out of my pyjama-themed home office clothes and venture into a fully volunteer-run Monday night meetup, but seeing this in action over 2 days of carefully choreographed content delivery at a WordCamp is great. From the conversations in the registration queue to the wrap up on Sunday afternoon, it was a well oiled word pressed machine.
3. The Information:
   From the reassuring Gutenberg keynote by XWP's Luke Carbis, through development deep dives, business challenges and Dee Teale's (Human Made) masterful client communication management, Summit Digital's wonderful Lady Boss, Stephanie Campanella's practical outline for hiring before you drown and Kate Toon's session on managing facebook groups -  equal parts info, entertainment, strategy session and big girl undies application manual, every session delivered the new, the exciting and the reassuring.

   Sharing WordPress 5.0 fears and anticipation with an auditorium of believers and sceptics and getting the confidence to dive in (thanks to which, I'm typing this in Gutenberg right now) was a highlight, as was peaking behind the curtain with Phase Creative's Cath Hughes' interview with the volunteer wordpress design team.

I had great chats, met interesting colleagues doing wonderful work, learnt about new services, looked at beautifully built WP sites, had dinner with superwomen and learnt until my head ached.
Greatness achieved.