A short recap and some thoughts before it’s too long gone. Yeah, another WordPress event with lots of inspiring, smart and fun people. A big Thank You to the organizers and everybody who had a share in making it possible. More of it!
In a way I feel sorry I can’t be in London for the upcoming WordCamp. Then again I do need some time to implement all the stuff I learned in Berlin and in Leiden. But back to Berlin for now.
WPCamp Berlin took place on November 9th, 2013 in Berlin. November 9th as a date is connected with lots of events throughout German history. To name just the two most memorable:
- November 9th, 1938, the Night of Broken Glass took place when Nazis ransacked Jewish synagoges, businesses and homes and killed many people.
- Then there is November 9th, 1989, the Fall of the Wall. The latter I still remember, even though living in the far west of Germany back then. It was an amazing time since we had never thought it to be possible.
It felt good that the organizers of WPCamp Berlin made mention of this special date.
Back to 2013 and WPCamp Berlin. Like WordPress itself WPCamp in Germany is a fast growing event. It was only scheduled for one day but we ended up having four tracks parallel which was overwhelming. You just missed so many interesting sessions and it was almost a no-go to skip a session in order to connect or just take a break. If you held a session yourself (we actually were involved in two sessions) there was hardly any spare time.
So for Hamburg 2014 (Yeah!) there have already been a lot of inquiries whether we could make it a two-day event. Hopefully!
Other than that… I really enjoyed myself. WPCamp Berlin 2013 actually was my fourth WordPress Camp. While I still felt a bit lost at WPCamp 2011 in Cologne I now know quite a few people and I also feel a lot more involved with WordPress and it’s community. We even went home with the “mandate” to start a WP Meetup here in Munich. (If you are interested in getting involved or taking part please check WPMeetup München.)
Sessions I attended*:
- The keynote by Frank Bültge; I think he did a very good job. See slides
- Listening to Torsten Landsiedel with “Validation and HTML5” made me aware of some client related issues and I actually got to know some tools I want to try.
- Caspar Hübinger talked about “Finding the perfect theme for your project”. Just looking at his slides was fun. Lots of the situations he described were just so familiar. 😉 He did a nice job of putting some stuff in a nutshell that is REALLY familiar but you never broke it down into these little bits and pieces.
- MetaMeetup Session: Get together of German Meetup organizers and attendees
- Session to discuss how WordPress professionals could improve collaboration. See new Google+ group (German) for more
- Last but not least: Birgit Olzem gave an overview of the Xtreme One framework. You can get a free download of 1.6 beta until November 30, 2013. Slides on Slideshare
* I will add links to slides as soon as possible. There also should be videos available.
Like I said there would have been a lot more interesting sessions and I would have liked to spend more time just talking to people I know or getting to know people I don’t know yet.
But it is just amazing to see this community grow and flourish. I am excited to be able to be part of this.