Let’s start with a bit of a recap of WCEU, and a bit of post-WordCamp, which needless to say, was a bit interesting for me.
Over two weeks in Porto
As a media partner of WCEU, I will admit I fulfilled what was required as a partner and beyond. This of course comes natural to me when I attend any WordCamp. Now having arrived in Porto a few days before it even started, Judy and I were able to enjoy our first day just getting the feel of Porto. Needless to say, we fell in love with it at first sight.
Also, the pre-WCEU brought some very special WordPress moments for me. From seeing some of my fellow WordPressers show up at the hotel we were staying and some very cool events.
The slew of these events were kicked off with a small lunch hosted by Do the Woo co-hosts, Jonathan and Anna. A great starter for some awesome conversation and food.
Then there was a small group that cruised the Douro Valley River, 4 hours in total, and organized by SauCal. Mitch, co-founder and CEO of SauCal, has been on the podcast but it didn’t measure up to anything like the four hours with him and others on this cruise. Simply amazing.
The second cruise was the Pagely cruise, a party on the water where I found old and new friends, and simply a great time with a group of pirates.
The day before, or I should say evening was graced with a networking event from WCEU with speakers, sponsors, partners, organizers and volunteers followed by a dinner later with StellarWP. Both were filled with food, drinks, conversations, laughter and some serious WordPress goodness.
This was all before WordCamp Europe even started.
WordCamp Europe, it was the best
As much as I would love to tell you every detail of those two days, well, it would not bode well with your listening time. But I will say that this was likely the most amazing WordCamp I’ve been to in my 13 years of going to WordCamps. The diversity of people, skills and conversations were beyond incredible. So much going on, too many great people to connect with. As with other WordCamps, I still missed connecting with so many. But, hey, there’s always a next time.
I also let a lot of various people take over the podcast. I lugged a lot of equipment across the world to make sure I was covered. Without going into any details, well, you will be hearing them come out over the next few weeks. I basically gave the mic to others, as that is how we do it at Do the Woo. You won’t be hearing from me but from all the cool people who attended.
Now with technology comes challenges and, again, I learned some lessons. Might make for another interesting conversation but doesn’t fit here or on DTW. Maybe someone out there would like me to come on and talk about that part on their show. So if you are listening, let me know if that is up your alley. But in a nutshell I did have some technical issues with my soundboard and SD card, and two things happened.
The last afternoon I missed on out a few shows that people wanted to do.
I didn’t actually know if the shows we had done were salvageable. And wouldn’t know till I got back to the office. (They were BTW, so you will get to hear them soon)
UPDATE: Eight of the podcasts make it through and you can check them out here.
I could go on and on and on about those two days, but let’s shift a bit here into some post-WCEU.
And the unexpected stay in Porto
A day after WCEU Judy and I had a fun day doing a private cruise on the Douro River and a few other adventures. That evening we were planning out last two days in Porto for our continuing our anniversary celebration. We were also anticipating a private tasting at a port winery the next day. The next morning I was suddenly under the weather a bit and I tested positive for Covid. Now I don’t want to make this about Covid or anything around it. I made the choice to attend WCEU and that is that.
The interesting thing was I was instructed to isolate for 7 days according to the Health Department in Portugal. That made sense to me as I didn’t want to go out and pass it around, and Judy was able to fly home. So I spent the next 7 days, alone, in a hotel room. Me and my thoughts. I don’t recommend getting Covid, but I will tell you this 7-day experience was interesting, amazing, sometimes boring, but never too much. It consisted of me doing a bit of work here and there, watch reruns of CSI and some older movies and sometimes just sitting and thinking.
The latter was spent on a small balcony my room had, no bigger than a place to stand. Sometimes I would go out there for a few minutes, other times longer, I would people watch or just get lost in my own thoughts.
On a side note, due to modern technology, I was able to text and FaceTime Judy when our time zones didn’t clash. In addition, I had numerous chats via Slack with WordPress friends who brought me laughter and sanity, as well as offers if I needed anything. This was extra special to me.
Well, what the heck does this post-WCEU experience have to do with Do the Woo. Most of the time I wasn’t up to working I have already shared a bit of what I was doing. But when I started feeling better, I was able to start working on deleting all the tutorials on the site and focus on what it’s all about, the builder community. Also during this time it gave me a chance to think through our next phase of DTW which had already been set in place somewhere in my brain to start thinking on. And I sure did.
In fact, if you know me, you may find it a bit frightening to think of benign locked up inside Bob’s head for 7 days. Nevertheless I survived.
So some new exciting stuff will start to transpire over the next several months for Do the Woo.
Now just a couple more things before I go.
First I want to thank the organizers, volunteers, speakers and sponsors for making WordCamp Europe such a great event. And a special thank you to the team for all the great communication that they shared publicly leading up to the event keeping everyone informed as done so well. Kudos to all who were involved.
And on a side note, a personal tease. I will be starting a new podcast with someone in the WordPress space, but it’s not going to have anything to do with WordPress or Woo. Or maybe it will creep in. But I kind of doubt it. I’m being very vague and we are fine tuning things to make a podcast where we just will have a lot of fun. More of a personal project. So stay tuned for that.
If you would like to see some of my photos for WordCamp Europe, just check Do the Woo out on Twitter.
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