This weekend, the inaugural WordCamp Canada took place in my hometown of Ottawa, at the Infinity Convention Centre. My journey to participate this year was a bit of a convoluted one. At first, I was one of the organizers, but stepped back in late December 2023. Due to circumstances out of my control, I was unable to commit to attend for a good chunk of 2024. Cue an enforced job (and position) switch. My current manager was extremely receptive and quick to approve my PTO time to attend, and I thus bought my ticket lickity-split.
But simply attending a WordCamp is just not in the cards for me any longer. I agreed to be a last minute volunteer, and indeed I did that. Circumstances also arose that there was an empty slot on the schedule, so I filled in on a panel. More on that later. Let’s recap the weekend, shall we?
Contributor Day
Thursday was contributor day. For those unaware, here is a good summary taken from the WordCamp Canada website.
Contributor Day brings WordPress users together to contribute to the WordPress open source project. WordPress is created and maintained by people like you. You can make a difference, even in just one day. Contributor Day activities include translating, writing documentation, fixing bugs, testing, and so much more!
I was not yet on volunteer duty, so this was my opportunity to actually participate! Deciding to go with my interests first, I joined the Accessibility table, led by Amber Hinds. The morning was filled with wonderful discussions on how to improve the Accessibility portion of the Theme Handbook. We went through the latest WCAG 2.2 requirements, and outlined what we thought was missing.
In the afternoon, needing a change, I was planning on joining the Core Performance table – but as always, things pivot. Moving to the Hallway Track (more on that later too), I chatted with friends, new and old, in the foyer, and helped the organizing team with moving things around, stuffing swag bags, and small things of that nature. I didn’t make it to the table – next contributor day, I suppose.
The day wrapped up with the Speaker/Sponsor/Volunteer dinner – in which I was tasked as the advance crew, and “registration”. Good beers and conversations ended off the night.
Day One – Friday
First day of sessions was on Friday! It was also my designated volunteer day. In the morning, I worked the information desk – which is exactly what it sounds like. I handed out swag bags, encouraged folks to sign up for the Happiness Bar, and generally answered as many questions as I was able. I was also honoured to help a fellow volunteer and attendee, as they were brand new to WordPress. We got their volunteer shifts moved around, and this person got to attend the morning sessions.
In the afternoon, I shifted to MC duties. This was fantastic, as it meant I got to attend some sessions during the day.
The first session I MCed was for Marc Benzekein. He had a session called “The Problem with WordPress (not a rant session)”. Indeed, it was not a rant session. Marc thoughtfully, and rationally, polled the WordPress community via social media, and presented his findings. A lot of highlighted concerns were not new to me, as a longtime WordPress community member, however, there were some that gave me pause. I highly recommend watching this on WordPress.tv once it gets published – but keep an open mind.
Right after that, was Harmonizing Creativity and Code: Collaboration in Design Systems with Jesse Dyck and Bryenne Kay. This was fantastic, and I highly recommend any designer or developer working in a collaborative environment, such as agencies, get up to speed. Design systems will save everyone (not just aforementioned designers and developers) time, money, and headaches. Having been a developer for most of my career before my switch to solution architecture, this is something I wish had been prevalent early in my career, not just my final year or so working in an agency.
After a quick introduction for Christina Garofolo for her workshop on building a custom translated REST API endpoint, I ducked out for more hallway tracking, until it was time to give end of day closing remarks.
What is the Hallway Track?
I’ve mentioned the Hallway Track a few times. This is the unofficial name for all the networking, chatting, and all related items that take place outside of the official sessions. There are usually large hallways, or foyers, leading from session room to session room, so thus, it’s been dubbed the Hallway track. Some WordCamps even have their sponsors in this area, but the larger, flagship ones are usually in a separate room entirely. The Hallway track can also be used for pre and post camp chats, not officially at the venue. This is how I’ve gotten my last two jobs.
Day Two – Saturday
The second, and final, day of the WordCamp was on Saturday. I was off the clock as a volunteer, so I could attend any session I chose.
I started off attending Robert Windisch’s session on the State of Multilingualism in WordPress. He did a fantastic job highlighting the difference between multilingualism in the admin dashboard vs. the front end (your content). Robert even touched on some settings in the larger multilingual plugins such as WPML and Polylang that I was unaware of. Considering I now look at ways to help improve performance, this was great to know, and it has been placed definitively in my back pocket.
Immediately after was Cory Miller’s deeply personal session Crash and Burn(out): Navigating Through Rock Bottom of a ‘Forced’ Sabbatical. Hearing mental health being discussed at conferences, and especially from a well known name in the community, was heartening. You could see how cathartic this presentation was for Cory, and I’m so happy for him that he is in a better place mentally now, and is constantly evolving.
Next up was Joey Kudish’s presentation on Mastering Web Performance: A Guide for WordPress Site Owners. Joey’s presentation was perhaps not geared towards me, but I enjoyed listening to how he highlighted items such as LCP, FCP, and Google Lighthouse. He gave site owners a good toolkit for checking on their performance metrics at a very high level.
The last session I attended was a panel, Impact on Underrepresented Communities. This was a wonderful conversation between the panelists on their experiences, stories, and things everyone could do to help elevate those who are underrepresented, but with respect.
Site Clinic
In my introduction, I mentioned how I was a last minute panelist. Unfortunately, one of the confirmed speakers was unable to come at the last minute, so there was an opening on the schedule. At the speaker dinner, I was chatting with a few of the organizers, and friends. The site clinic was proposed, and I said I’d help out. Well, the next day, my name was on the schedule along with my friends Marc (who presented on Friday), Sandy Edwards, and Nathan Ingram.
For the site clinic, we reviewed a few websites. They were projected onto the large screen, and we each took a turn giving suggestions. These ranged from content, CSS updates, and further features that could be added. Sadly, I was not really able to put on my SA hat, since we did not dive into the code or any tools such as New Relic.
After the site clinic, and more hallway tracking, the wrap-up of the camp began. Following the last conversation on stage, there were appetizers in the foyer, and then, it was the afterparty. I did not stay long, but it was great to chat with people, and enjoy some smoked meat and poutine.
Final Thoughts
First off, major kudos and thanks to the organizers. I have been in their shoes, and they did an amazing job with the first edition of WordCamp Canada. Zero complaints. I cannot sing their praises enough.
The same goes for (my fellow) speakers, volunteers, and sponsors. WordCamps could not happen without these people.
I highly recommend checking in on WordPress.tv. Not only for sessions from this weekend, but from various WordCamps across the globe. You’ll be surprised by what you can learn.
This was my first in-person WordCamp since 2019 that I was able to attend sessions, and my first WordCamp that I was able to participate in Contributor Day on the day of. Normally I’m running around as an organizer, with zero time to learn. How refreshing this weekend was.
What’s next? Well, WordCamp Rochester is coming up this fall, and I will be applying to speak. We have our Canadian track after all that road trips down, and since I had a conflict last year that prevented me from attending, I need to make it up this year. After that? Who knows. I just know that I feel invigorated again, and ready to contribute more to the WordPress community.