WordCamp Chicago
Whew! WordCamp Chicago is over and it was a long yet amazing weekend. Highlights for me include:
The speaker’s brilliant presentations (even through some really tough critics using the #wcchicago hash tag!) and for the underlying theme that was: be social, get out from behind your blog and utilize the tools that exist. Some people thought some of the ideas were too basic yet I’d challenge them to look at their existing site to see where they are or are not excelling themselves.
Meeting Matt Mullenweg, the creator and genius behind WordPress. This was a total highlight for me because I’ve secretly (well, not so secretly) had a professional crush on this guy for years. He is genius, humble and completely laid back – very cool to meet him.
Meeting Brian Gardner & Cory Miller. Both of these guys have created amazing WordPress themes that I have loved for years and pushed to all of my clients (although, the themes don’t need much pushing to be honest!) and it was cool to finally put a real face to their name and Twitter profile pics.
Meeting all the other cool peeps. I loved seeing some familiar faces, meeting some new people and getting to chat with some of my clients that I have never been able to meet in person. What a great, social and interactive day. It was also great for everyone to get to meet my h-band who came along as well. It was his first business conference with me so it was awesome to share that experience with him and for him to see what these events are all about.
All in all, it was a great day filled with great speakers, great food and most of all, just the ability to meet people that I hadn’t had a chance to before. The other cool thing is that I got asked to speak at a WordCamp on the East Coast next year so I’ll definitely be making my rounds! That and I’ll also be purchasing my tickets for WordCamp Montreal!
Oh, and check out my slides on Slide Share!
Technorati Tags: WordCamp, WordCamp Chicago, WordCamp Montreal, Brian Gardner, Cory Miller, Matt Mullenweg, Rebecca Zwar, Debbie Saro, Larry Null, Erin Blaskie, WordPress, WP, blog, blogs, blogging, blogger
WordCamp Chicago LIVE!
WordCamp is LIVE! I go on at 1:45pm Central (2:45pm Eastern) and you can watch live here… 
Technorati Tags: WordCamp, WordCamp Chicago, live, Erin Blaskie, WordPress, WP, blogging, blog, blogs
Heading to WordCamp Chicago!
Woohoo! It’s arrived… The night before my h-band and I leave for Chicago for WordCamp Chicago 2009.
Now, we’re not going directly there and, as with most things, we’re taking a bit of an indirect route. We’ll be leaving our home tonight at 2am (once my sister arrives to watch our puppies for the next four days) and then we’ll be driving straight to Cleveland, Ohio. We’ve never been to Cleveland or to Ohio so I am looking forward to that. Why are we going there you ask? Well, we’re heading to the infamous Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame. It’s been on our “must-see” list for some time so we’re just going to do it!
After spending tomorrow night in downtown Cleveland, we’ll be waking up to head to Chicago. Friday, we’re going to see a baseball game and then get some rest as Saturday is the BIG day… WordCamp Chicago kicks off and I speak at the conference — just after lunch. I am receiving the honor of sharing the stage with Matt Mullenweg (creator of WordPress), Liz Strauss (the epic blogger) and soooooooo many other amazing speakers. Check out the website for full details. Lisa (one of the coordinators of WordCamp Chicago) also featured me on the blog which you can check out here.
I’ll be blogging our adventures down and posting them to my Erin Blaskie YouTube channel and then Steve (h-band) will also be filming my presentation so I can post that to YouTube as well afterward. Watch for that after the event.
I’ve got my camera ready so I can take tons of photos with my idols and I’ll post those to the blog after the event. Iiiiieeee… to say I am excited is an understatement.
So, watch the blog and I’ll try to post from the road although I will be driving an ENORMOUS amount of miles (or kilometers, whatever you prefer) over the next four days so I’m sure I’ll be exhausted! I’ll see you all on Monday.
E.
Technorati Tags: WordCamp Chicago, WordCamp, WordPress, conference, YouTube, Erin Blaskie, Matt Mullenweg, Liz Strauss, Cleveland, Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame, blogger, blogging, blogs, blog
