WordCamp Raleigh 2015: An Unsuspecting Organizer’s Wrap-up.
We just finished WordCamp Raleigh 2015, and I wanted to take a few minutes to verbally process what went down.
First, I was not an organizer, and feel like the height of an imposter when I call myself one, but my name tag did say “Organizer” right there on the bottom, so I suppose I was indeed an organizer.
But to be clear, there’s a process involved with becoming officially an organizer that includes being interviewed by someone with the authority to make you an organizer, and I was not.
Steve Mortiboy, who is in all senses an organizer and has been since the beginning in something like 2009, made me an off-books organizer for my role in wrangling and managing speakers/the speaker’s dinner, some AV issues, and other miscellaneous pre-conference communication on the blog.
I’d love to officially help organize next years. Here’s my high level recap with some shoutouts.
All of the talks I sat in were fantastic: the speakers were energetic, professional and helpful. I spent much more time this year running in and out of talks making sure that the video cameras were running than I did listening, but the bits I heard were great.
The coffee was great, the swag was awesome, and the BBQ on Saturday for lunch was off-the-charts.
I told the fine folks who catered the BBQ that I’ve only been to one other tech conference where I anticipated lunch as much as the talks, and that was last year’s WordCamp Raleigh, also catered by them.
While we are on the topic of helpful and food, I’d like to give a massive shoutout to Frank Bloom, the marketing and events director for Hibernian Hospitality, who bailed me out when the venue for the speaker’s dinner left us high and dry three days before the event.
Frank’s email said simply “Let me make some calls, we’ll take care of it.” He found a spot for 32 people, fit it in under our budget, and the food, drinks, and service were awesome at our private room in the back of Dos Taquitos Xoco on Glenwood. You can bet I’ll be doing business with them again.
There were some frustrating bits with my first pseudo-organizer WordCamp, but they were far overshadowed by the fun, the new friends, and the WordPress community.
I say we do it again next year. 🙂
Check back for the entertaining recap of my talk, which I hope to get out sometime late this week or early next week.
