WordCamp Long Beach is one of my favorite camps!
Not only did it take place in sunny Southern California, but the organizers, speakers and attendees of this camp are wonderful!
WordCamp Long Beach was held on October 5 and 6 at The Pointe under the Pyramid at Cal State Long Beach. This venue is extraordinary!
Since I live in the Los Angeles area, I drove down to Long Beach on Friday afternoon to attend the speaker/sponsor dinner that night.
Speaker/Sponsor Dinner
The dinner was held at SteelCraft in Long Beach, a unique venue where different eateries offer various types of food in a comfortable outdoor area. The group had reserved the back patio where long wood picnic-style tables were lined up under umbrellas.
Upon getting there, I met Christiana Mohr, the Lead Organizer of the Long Beach camp and meetups. She knew who I was right away!
I then made my way to the back patio and was greeted by Renee Johnson, another Organizer whom I met at WordCamp Orange County.
Lots of Friendly Faces
There were other people I had met at that camp, including Joe Simpson, Mike Demo and Matt Kopala. It was so nice to see them again!
WordCamps people are like an extended family.
I then spotted Justice Anderson from Kansas City. I met Justice when I attended WordCamp Kansas City back in June. What a surprise to see him in Long Beach!
One of the organizers who I had been communicating with, Alex Vasquez, spoke to the group and thanked all the sponsors and speakers for being part of the camp.
I also met some of the other awesome organizers, including Se’ Reed (Se’ told me her beautiful name is French), Sarah Wefald and Ara Agopian. I also had the opportunity of meeting the Santa Monica Meetup organizer, Scott Vosburgh and promised him that I will attend some of his local meetings!
After chatting up with many of the attendees, each of us went to the eatery we had chosen and picked up our dinner. I had chosen a margarita pizza which was just delicious!
The night seemed to come very quickly and we had an early wake-up call the next day. I decided to say goodnight and go back to the hotel room and make sure I got enough rest for this exciting camp.
First Day of Camp
At 7 am, I made my way to the Pointe where I met with our CEO Trey Gardner. Trey was driving from LA with all of our GreenGeeks swag.
While Trey and I started setting up our two tables, we were joined by our new Ambassador, Michael James.
People started coming in and we were all busy answering questions and talking to those who were coming to our tables.
Exploring a Few Sessions
I had the opportunity to attend a few morning sessions as I would not be there in the afternoon.
Chris Reynolds delivered an interesting presentation on How the Block Editor in WordPress Changes the Conversation. His talk highlighted some of the ways Gutenberg changes how we build things as well as the types of things we can build to enhance and improve the WordPress editing experience.
Later in the morning, Mike Demo spoke about If You Build It, You Can Sell It. Unfortunately, I was only able to watch the beginning of his presentation as I had to go back to the table.
Time for Lunch
At 12 pm, lunch boxes were set up on a table in the middle of the hallway – we were excited to be the lunch sponsor as people seemed to really enjoy their food.
We enjoyed a two-hour lunch (after all we are in SoCal) outside in the breezy California sun under shady umbrellas. It was the perfect place to savor my Chicken Thai wrap and have some nice conversations at the table.
I had a lot of fun at WordCamp Long Beach 2019
After lunch, I went around and said my goodbyes to everyone. I will meet a lot of the other sponsors, organizers and speakers at WCUS later this month! That is certainly something to look forward to.
I took one last picture of Renee Johnson with one of the wonderful volunteers before leaving.
Another WordCamp has wrapped up for me. I will miss the wonderful people I have met and hope to see them again real soon.
Till next camp…