I have been doing a lot of work with WordPress and helping some of my customers setup there presence on the Internet with the software. We use WordPress for the Professional IT Community Conference web site and have just started scratching the surface of what we can do with it. I have found that there are so many ways to get things done with WordPress.
On Saturday November 5, 2011 I went to my first WordCamp in Philly. It was a good conference and the price was right. The conference cost was $20 and the parking was $14 so a full day conference for $34 is a good deal. So for my $20 I got an ok t-shirt and a full day of talks on how to make WordPress better as well as how to make my blogging better.
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Now for the down side of the conference….the WIRELESS Network! WordCamp was held at Temple University and you would think the wireless network of Temple could take the load of about 450 people. The network kept dropping throughout the day. This is the sort of thing that is a BIG pet peeve for me. I know that I am supposed to be there to learn new things but I also like to be able to put what I am learning right into effect on a test site and if the wireless is down I can’t do that. The other thing about the network that got me a little upset was that the network ports weren’t “open”. I don’t use standard ports for my SSH services on any of my servers and because the network had only port 80 open I couldn’t get to my servers.
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Other then the Wireless Network the conference was great. I was able to hang out with my buddy John Lemasney for the day and catch up and hear what he is doing with WordPress and what’s going on in his life. I am already putting some of what I learned from the 2011 Philly WordCamp into effect on my clients sites.
So if you work with WordPress you need to go to a WordCamp. To see if you have a WordCamp in your area check out WordCamp Central.