WordCamp Sacramento 2018

Word Camps are always fun places to go to. This year my first Word Camp was the #WCSAC. I was super excited to be with the people who speak my language and I was not disappointed.

I met some wonderful people, made new connections over networking sessions and lunch. The sessions were awesome and well planned. There was something I could attend every hour.

The event was held at the Sacramento convention center which reminded me of the Seattle convention center where I had helped organize the Word Camp in 2016. 

Here are my favorite parts of the weekend:

Happiness bar

There was a separate room for the Happiness Bar. They had tables and chairs where I could just go and unwind if needed. As much as I love to attend sessions back-to-back, I sometimes feel like taking a break. Especially, if I attend a developer session where there is a lot of code, my mind just needs to absorb all of that before I can move on to the next session. So, the happiness bar room helped a lot. It was away from the noise from the hallway, which made it easy to unwind or even talk to some of the awesome volunteers and speakers in there.

Lunch with the food trucks 

On Saturday, we had a choice of lunch from 4 food trucks. It was a gorgeous day and Capitol Park was perfect for having lunch. The organizers took into consideration the various dietary needs which was nice. I had good vegetarian options to choose from.

The networking reception on Saturday

Usually I don’t attend the after parties because I am tired at the end of the day.  So, when I am out of the venue, I just want to go to bed. The networking reception being in the same venue helped. It was nice to eat something while having fun conversations.

Sunday schedule

Sunday was a late start and I am so thankful for that. I really needed that extra time to sleep in and recover from Saturday. The snacks on Sunday afternoon were nice.

Sessions

Leverage Linting To Be A Better Developer – Matt Vanderpol

This was a great start to my Saturday. I have been a developer for a while and have been using linting. Matt explained linting very well and gave some excellent resources. He talked about CSS, JavaScript and PHP all of which I use on a regular basis.

Optimizing The WordPress Admin For Users – Cristina Robinson

Christina’s talk was very informative. We all have been using WordPress for a while and have been developing websites for clients. We are always looking at improving our client experience and making things easier for the client. Making the dashboard customized and easy to use is one of the best ways to help the client navigate through the various options in the WP dashboard. I learned a lot of things from her talk.

Speed Networking: Meet Other WordCampers And Grow Your Network

I loved this idea. I am an introvert when it comes to meeting new people and introducing myself. Once, I am acquainted with someone, I feel very comfortable to talk endlessly. But, taking that first step is always hard. This session helped me fine tune my elevator pitch and make new connections. Since this session was right before lunch, it was easy to continue the conversations during lunch.

Single Page Applications In WordPress Built With AngularJS And The WP REST API – Kenneth Schnetz

This was a very good session. Kenneth made it seem a breeze to develop single page applications. He went through the entire process from start to end. There was so much code, but I loved it. I was able to sit through a code heavy session right after lunch which really was a confirmation to myself that development is what I love to do! Now, I just need to get the slides and start working my first single page application!

Building Blocks: Atomic Design In A Gutenberg World – Michelle Schulp

Michelle talked about Gutenberg from mainly a designer’s perspective. I love the positive spin she put on the new editor. She talked about how web design and development evolved and how Gutenberg can help fix some of the problems we have been having all along.

She talked about the ‘A, B, C, D, E, F’ of the ideal content management experience. That was awesome!

Dealing With Problem Clients: Fencing In The Friendly Monsters – Nathan Ingram

Nathan’s talk was very refreshing at the end of the day. He talked about how we can use ‘Clarity’, ‘Commitment’, ‘Communication’ and ‘Documentation’ to keep our bad clients in check.

How Gutenberg Will Empower WordPress End-Users And Professionals – Alonso Indacochea

This was another awesome Gutenberg session which was very impressive and encouraging. Alonso and his team built some amazing Gutenberg blocks which were very visually appealing and also some of the most common ones that are needed in the WordPress system.

Alonso gave the demo of all the blocks they had built and I made me see all the possibilities we have with Gutenberg.

I also had a nice conversation with Eric Debelak, Alonso’s partner at wpblock.party.

I was very happy to see so many talks on Gutenberg from different perspectives. I personally like the new editor. I know that there is a lot of room for improvement and many users might not like it right away. But, from a developer standpoint, there is so much that can be done. Loved all those talks!

Once again I thank all the sponsors, organizers and volunteers for a great event!