You never know where your travels will take you — or what you’ll learn on the way. I still think it’s odd that as part of traveling the world, I landed up living in Austin for a few months. Yep, Austin – Texas – USA. Not some remote place like Austin like when I was in Australia and got to waterski under the Brooklyn Bridge.
As it happened, WordCamp Austin 2014 is taking place during my stay.
And since I started getting into WordPress heavily as I traveled — due both to starting this blog and being robbed of my Mac and thus, my license to use Dreamweaver and Photoshop — I was thrilled by the timing!
So my very first WordPress volunteering is here in Austin.
I manned the camera and helped the speakers in the Themes & Design track all day today, and return for more tomorrow. The stuff in the track was all of interest to me, but was either stuff I knew 10 or more years ago, or is a bit over my level. But either way, it’s of interest and there was something new to learn. But the greatest part of WordCamp Austin was (and will again be tomorrow) the hanging-out time. I walked into the Help Room during lunch to help folks, and learned so much for myself.
- I found a great new backup resource, ManageWP.com.
- I found the framework I was looking for, and a theme I want to try for this blog.
- I learned much about how to custom-code my own theme versions.
- I learned more about responsive design, which is great because websites need to reformat to give users their best viewing information on each device or platform.
- I found ways I can help and things of the future.
- I met developers, users, women who are part of a women’s tech list I’d like to join…
- And, yes, I helped someone in the Help Room. Only I mostly helped her with the Mac end of things. But that’s no surprise; Mac Efficiency is one of the things I know best in life.
My head is swimming with new information. I’ve started with some things. More will work their way around in my brain as I try to sleep, despite my utter exhaustion. Some will be more fully worked out tomorrow. And there’s a whole lot more to learn Day 2 of WordCamp Austin.
How does all this matter?
- It enables me to make Tales Of Travel And Tech that much better.
- It enables me to build better websites for people who need a website and would like to hire me.
- Maybe it enables me to help at a future WordCamp or WordPress Meetup somewhere else in the world.