I spent most of the day attending WordCamp Denver downtown today. Based on what I’ve read about other WordCamps and now having attended one, I think I can safely say that each one is a different experience.
I have to confess it wasn’t entirely what I was expecting, but that’s not entirely a bad thing… Some of the speakers were great — I particularly enjoyed Matt Mullenweg’s opener and Ben Huh’s morning session closer. They were both very engaging, well spoken and clearly prepared to speak. Jane Wells also gave a concise talk clearly explaining the needs for more volunteers. Very concise – I bet she used less than half her allotted time, but she got the schedule back on track.
The afternoon session started with an overview of the Carrington framework by Alex King. I’d looked this over when it was first announced and wasn’t all that interested. However, now that I’ve seen the overview I’m much more interested… There’s some easily tapped power here.
Another plus is that I ran into an old friend and co-worker from years ago. I think we were both surprised to see each in the WordPress “scene” (we both were very much the Enterprise types back in the day), but I had a great time catching up a bit and planning some upcoming ventures with him. Stay tuned for more on that later…
The venue was the Denver Art Museum and the location of the morning session was excellent. Comfy chairs, good visibility and decent leg room. The complete lack of cellular service (at least Sprint) was a bit of a bummer though. The afternoon’s tech track was in a different building and not quite so great. The acoustics were spotty in places and the ventilation system was a bit noisy. Nothing major.
I would’ve paid more to get a served lunch… but the pub we ended up at was certainly worth the walk. I had a hard time looking at (the claimed) Denver’s largest selection of Single Malt scotches without going on a massive sampling spree!
All in all I’d say it was a good first effort and I hope it can become an annual event.
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2 comments
Rich G.
March 1, 2009 at 12:33 am (UTC -7)
I’ve got Carrington lined up in my queue to try on my site. I had it for a bit, but need to tweak it some to suit first.
Alan VanNice
March 1, 2009 at 8:05 pm (UTC -7)
I second your assessment of “Wordcamp-Denver” Matt Mullenweg was much more charismatic and personable than I imagined and Ben Huh was absolutely dynamic and very funny. The Carrington framework appears to be very well engineered and I plan on investigating it further. I also second that I would have gladly paid an extra five bucks for a Cup of coffee and some muffins.
By the way – your Blog theme is very nicely done.