The year was 2012. My first WordCamp San Francisco.<\/p>\n
At the time, I\u2019d been investing in the WordPress community for a little over two years. I\u2019d met a number of people online that were well known WordPress developers, designers, and business owners.<\/p>\n
I knew WordCamp San Francisco was the place to go to interact with more WordPress professionals in one place than anywhere else in the world.<\/p>\n
The format for the conference was a little different that year. In 2012, the\u00a0main event was one day, so I knew it was going to be tough to meet a lot of people.<\/p>\n
And I was right: \u00a0it was an absolute whirlwind. I met hundreds of folks whom I previously only knew by their Twitter handles and Gravatars. At WordCamp San Francisco, we got to chat over coffee, beers, lunch, and elsewhere.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s kind of amazing, looking back.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Friday before the event, Range<\/a> and Pressable<\/a> were hosting a WCSF pre-party. It was Range\u2019s launch party, and they invited me to come along. I didn\u2019t know at the time that I\u2019d end up working there, but here we are: that night I met the folks that founded the company that I\u2019m now a part of.<\/p>\n On Saturday, I was bombarded by outstanding presentations. WCSF isn\u2019t like other WordCamp. It\u2019s the WordCamp that collects the top speakers\u00a0from other WordCamps so those folks can bring their best to WCSF.<\/p>\n I learned more in one day than I could in weeks on my own. I even started a public Google Doc<\/a> that many other attendees helped me take notes on, and hundreds of people viewed. We were all there, learning, taking notes, and enjoying the day.<\/p>\n While the conference was one day, there was a second day for a core development hack day. I was a bit nervous about attending; after all, I\u2019d never contributed a patch to WordPress core at that time. But I was convinced by a friend that I should go, and I did.<\/p>\n It turned out that there were lots of teams that I could get involved with.\u00a0And I was able to sit with Noel Tock, Beau Lebens, Mika Ipstein, and other kind folks, and we outlined what would become the WordPress Core Handbook<\/a>. I\u2019m so glad I decided to go.<\/p>\n I joke with friends and family about my \u2018internet friends\u2019 \u2014 people that I interact with only through blogs, Twitter, and chat. At WordCamp San Francisco, you get a chance to convert internet friends into real-life friends.<\/p>\n I attended WordCamp in 2012, and again in 2013. I absolutely wouldn\u2019t miss it this year. It\u2019s the most fun WordPress event of the year, and 2014 looks to be better than ever.<\/p>\n I hope that you and I can stop being just internet friends and become real life friends. I hope you\u2019ll join me in San Francisco.<\/p>\n Brian is the Director of Operations at Range<\/a> and the editor of Post Status<\/a>, a blog all about WordPress. You can follow him on Twitter @krogsgard<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The year was 2012. My first WordCamp San Francisco. At the time, I\u2019d been investing in the WordPress community for a little over two years. I\u2019d met a number of people online that were well known WordPress developers, designers, and business owners. I knew WordCamp San Francisco was the place to go to interact with … Continue reading My First WordCamp San Francisco<\/span> Turning internet friends into real-life friends<\/h3>\n
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