Celebrating our 10-year anniversary resulted in an amazing week of festivities, and each team member at WebDevStudios (WDS) thanks everyone for their support and best wishes. Of course, it wouldn’t truly be a celebration without a party, right? So with that in mind, WDS hosted an online event on April 25, 2018, at noon EDT. Some party participants stayed just long enough to congratulate us, while others remained for the whole ride, with our favorite songs from 2008 playing in the background. Here’s a quick wrap-up of what went down at the WDS 10-year anniversary party.
- Some of the notable attendees included Brian Richards, creator of WPSessions (and former WDS employee); Matt Danner of Liquid Web; Kevin Dees, CEO of Robojuice; Patrick O’Keefe, host of the bi-weekly podcast “Community Signal;” Liam Dempsey, founder of the Philly ‘burbs WordPress Meetup group; Evan Herman, WordPress engineer at GoDaddy; Cory Miller, founder of iThemes; Lindsey Miller of Liquid Web; Reed Gustow, WordPress expert and owner of Delta Angel; Raquel Landefeld, co-founder of Mode Effect; Dwayne McDaniel and Tessa Kriesel of Pantheon; and Matt Hart of WP Engine.
- Of course, our own WDS teammates were there, too!
- We learned that the first official WDS website was for the “Mad Max Morning Show,” which our CEO, Brad Williams, acquired after cold-pitching the radio show and offering to rehaul their website free. He received a lot of morning show mentions for it and considers this first project a great jumpstart.
- The first WDS Camp (our annual company retreat) was held in 2013 at WordCamp San Francisco.
- And not only are we celebrating 10 years in business, so is iThemes!
- When Lisa Sabin-Wilson, WDS COO, joined in 2013, she brought clients with her, but her priority project was redesigning WebDevStudios.com.
- In 2014, WDS presented the WebDevvy awards (internally), and not only was Brian Richards a recipient, he still has his certificate up on his wall.
- Everyone agrees: WordCamps can stop with the T-shirts and find new swag to give out. Brad wants blankets. Raquel and Tessa want to see leggings and yoga pants given out. And others mentioned portable chargers, battery packs, stuffed WaPuu toys, and laptop camera covers.
After one hour of laughing, reminiscing, and bonding, the love for WDS was clear to see, with Brad closing the party by saying, “You’re the reason we’re here. Pretty awesome to see we’re still here 10 years later. Thank you to everyone.”
WDS plans on continuing our celebration throughout the rest of the year. Next week, we gather for a retreat (and cake!) in North Carolina. Follow our blog and our 10-Year Anniversary page as we continue to share our festivities and gratitude with you.
