Almost 14 years of meetups off and on
Which brings me to a bit of refection on meetups, and some of my first exposures to meeting in person with an open source community . And what a wild ride it has been. For me, I joined my first one in 2009 or 2010, the Seattle WordPress meetup. Became an organizer in 2010. I look fondly back on those days with meetups of over a 100 people just having a great time with one thing in common. But also a lot can happen over close to 14 years. And of course when Covid hit, well we don’t even need to relive that one.
One interesting highlight in those years was when my friend Michael Tieso and myself started one of the first Woo meetups. And yes, it was in Seattle. Originally we wanted to focus on store owners, but come to the quick realization that most store owners were not going to take one of their precious evenings and drive to an event to talk Woo. We eventually turned the focus more to developers and builders, but it never really took off. Seattle is suppose to be a tech mecca, but we learned otherwise. I only bring this up as it was a great lesson in what would transpire over the next several years.
Now I’m not going into why things changed, even before Covid. Nor speculate anything. But I will say it does my heart good to see new meetups popping up again, and most importantly, worldwide.
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State of the Word 2023 watch parties
With that said, it brings me to a related topic. And that is State of the Word that is happening in Madrid. The yearly event Matt Mullenweg presents at. For now I’m not going to get much into the fact that I will be attending for the third time that it’s been outside of a WordCamp. I’ll save that for later.
But when it comes to meetups, I did want to mention that the opportunity for you to do a watch party for State of the Word is in your hands. Listen to what Devin Maeztri, Community Engagement Specialist at WordPress has to share with you.
Hello fellow WordPressers. Here’s an exciting opportunity. How about hosting a WordPress event? And one of them could be the upcoming State of the Word watch party. Whether it’s an in-person gathering or a virtual meetup, we’ve got you covered with a helpful handbook to make it a breeze. WordPress events are more than just meetups. They’re vital for our community. They’re an opportunity to connect, collaborate, and share knowledge.
Save the date for the main event in Madrid, Spain on December 11th at 15 UTC. If you’re not in the area, don’t worry. You can still join online. Spread the word. Mark your calendars and let’s make these events a shared experience.
It’s not just about celebrating together and catching up on the latest from Matt Mullenweg it’s about fostering the sense of community that makes WordPress special. Are you ready to organize?
Well, I’m going to leave it at that as you will be hearing more about State of the Word and watch parties Monday here on WordPress Event Talk plus some other exciting news.
So enjoy your weekend and we will be back with more shows before we head into the holiday season. Cheers.
