WordCamp Birmingham was…awesome

This was my second WordCamp (of any kind), the first being WordCamp San Francisco just a few weeks ago. I wanted to list out the key differences between camps:

WCSF had somewhere between 800-1,000 people. It was mega.
WPYALL was just over 200 people. It was very intimate.
At WCSF, I was kind of “in awe” of all that was happening around me. Every time I turned around there was a “celebrity” (hey, they’re celebrities to me) and a dozen people huddled around them asking questions.
At WPYALL, the same celebrities were there but were much more approachable.

The smaller setting was much more my style. Some really cool things happened:

Lunch with Lema, Marucchi, and Norcross (and Lema paid).
SEO talk with Robert Neu and swapping stories about scary babies and road trips with Nickie O’Brien.
Drink PBRs with Otto and have an hour-long (non-WP) conversation about Android, beer laws, Memphis, and how all code is basically shit.
Talked politics, religion, gun control, AND education reform with William P. Davis, Norcross, and Thomas Griffin.
Called Brian Krogsgaurd a dick for not following me on Twitter. (It was all in good fun and he DOES follow me).
Embarrassed me in front Sara Cannon (I was the ONLY ONE still wearing a name badge at the after-party).
Plus, many more interesting conversations with Doug Cone, David Laietta, Kevin Dees, and the guys from Sideways8.

It all happened and was pretty amazing.

But the highlight of the WPYALL?

I sat down behind the help desk just to chat with Rachel Carden, and ended up helping half a dozen people over the course of an hour. It blew my mind that I blew their minds with things I do with WordPress daily – that seem daunting to them. (One lady, had no idea you could copy/paste text into the post editor!)

I’ll definitely be attending and volunteering next year and have already joined the Birmingham WordPress MeetUp.

Thanks to the organizers (Brian Krogsgaurd, Andrew Searles, and Sara Cannon) for their hard work. I had a great time!