In 2017, WebDevStudios (WDS) was present at 16 WordCamps. Some we attended, while at others we conducted sessions or volunteered in some capacity. That’s just one of several ways WDS gives back to the WordPress community. As 2018 has just begun, our first WordCamp of the year is WordCamp Phoenix, February 16-17.
Shayda Torabi, WDS Director of Marketing, is one of the featured speakers at this event. As someone who has gone to a lot of WordCamps, Phoenix is one that she always looks forward to.
“They have a really strong WordPress community locally, and a lot of friends that I’ve made throughout the entire community usually show up, so it’s like a reunion of sorts,” says Shayda. She describes WordCamps as opportunities to connect with the WordPress community in person.
“So much of our interactions happen online these days, that it’s nice to have a reason to come together,” she explains, “Plus, I find that WordCamps are great experiences for anyone with any skill level whether you’re looking to learn more, make key relationships within the industry, or even find a job in WordPress.”
Shayda’s WordCamp Phoenix session is titled “Eat, Blog, Love: How I Stopped Waiting and Started Doing,” where she will discuss her own personal experience with making changes in her life to take charge and live life to its fullest. A couple of sessions that Shayda is looking forward to include “Content for the Modern World” by Machielle Thomas and Aaron Campbell’s “Why the Open Web Matters.” Catch Shayda’s session on Saturday at 11:45 a.m.
WDS Frontend Developer, Shannon MacMillan, will also be at WordCamp Phoenix. In fact, it will be her second time attending. But what makes this year extra special is that it will be the first time she and Shayda will meet in person. The remote-working coworkers are equally ecstatic about that. Like Shayda, Shannon is also looking forward to the sessions.
“I’m excited about really nerdy sessions, like ‘WPGraphQL: Interacting with WordPress Data in a New Way’ and the workshop on ‘Using Proper Object-Oriented Programming in Your Plugins,’” says Shannon. See a list of all the sessions and workshops here.
Keep up with all the WordCamp Phoenix action by following the event’s Twitter profile PHXWordCamp and the hashtag #wcphx. And if you spot our WDS-ers while there, say hi.