Taking a Bite Out of The Big Apple at WordCamp New York

It is always a good time heading to a WordCamp, but New York City is its own kind of special. The camp itself was amazing and all the people it came with was a delight. The city, for this not so city girl, was a little rough. It took 2 days to get my bearings and then it was pretty much time to leave.

We arrived around lunchtime on Friday and usually, this is enough time to have about 3-4 free hours before any speaker events, but it took over an hour to get from the airport to the hotel and then the room wasn’t ready so the sites we wanted to see were put on hold.

The speaker, sponsor event was amazing! We had a tour of the Four Freedoms Park on Roosevelt Island. The history was rich and the sites were gorgeous. You could see Brooklyn on one side and the United Nations on the other. The park sits next to an old Small Pox Hospital that is in ruins and the whole thing sits on Roosevelt Island which has a unique history in and of itself. The dinner was at a rooftop lounge on a private building on the island and you could really take in the sites of New York from this amazing spot.

Saturday arrived and I got to tackle the hustle and bustle that is New York on the way to the event. Luckily we were not staying too far and it was only about a 10-minute walk. Convene is a fabulous venue and provides an amazing experience, lunch and all-day beverages and snacks. The venue itself is top-notch. I was able to attend several talks including Breanne’s talk on Events which was amazing and spot on! Saturday night was the after-party, dinner with the Pantheon Heroes team, and an outing with AJ to Starbucks Reserve! This day was absolutely amazing and it is always fun fostering amazing relationships with the wonderful people that make up this terrific community.

Sunday included a bit of fun. Chris came with me on this trip as he was also speaking and we took a side trip Sunday morning to B&H photo. We had a ton of fun looking at all the awesome camera gear and nerding out on everything. The store has a full conveyor belt system that moves product from the warehouse to the registers which are unlike anything I have ever seen. If you like camera, audio, video, computers, or anything techy this is a must stop when in New York. It was then time to head back to WordCamp to get ready for my talk. I spoke about what to do once you launch your website and it seemed to be well received. Once the talk is on WPTV I can provide a link. Heading to the Airport Sunday night we got to hang out with AJ and have dinner and talk about some of the awesomeness in the WordPress community. These are the parts I love the most of WordCamps.

New York overwhelms me a tad but being surrounded by friends and people that want to go have fun and enjoy the city as a group make the whole experience amazing! This is a WordCamp I highly recommend and maybe I will return next year… Only time will tell.

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