WordUp Edinburgh
Published on:
WPScotland‘s #WordUpEdinburgh on Saturday was a roaring success, and somewhat more importantly it was brilliant Proof of Concept for a new type of WordPress conference.
Moving away from the draconian WordCamp restrictions imposed by our Automattic overlords to a more simple model that is tailored around the community it serves; WordUp achieved all of its goals.
Below is my take on the Sessions given. There really was a huge range, some more polished than others, but each one was worthwhile. I was also really pleased to see that each session knew it’s intended audience, and each speaker was open to Q&A – some of which was very forthright. If this is the standard of the WordPress or indeed Open Source community in Scotland, then it’s in a much better state now than 3 years ago!!
I was really impressed by you all!!
Learning CSS using WordPress
by Jim Convey of Ladder IT
I sadly missed this session due to travel issues. That said Jim though was a major contributor to the discussions and QA through out the day, as well as a fellow Project Manager, and it was good to meet him at the Social.
WordPress in the enterprise: Can it work?
by Martin Young and Andy Gilpin of DFID
Another session that I missed, and the one I’m quite upset about missing.
I didn’t know that Andy was involved in it while writing this, but he’s the man I sat beside when I eventually arrived and we really had some great conversations all day long around this subject. Thankfully I’ll get to see a modified version of this deck at WordUp Whitehall in 2 weeks.
WordPress Theme Review
by Taryn Wallis
I managed to catch the last 20 minutes of this, which was actually far more more intensive than I thought it would have been – a good thing I assure you. Taryn was upfront on a great many things, as well as giving some really basic but non-obvious pointers on WordPress Theme design.
WordPress in the Voluntary Sector
by Alex Stuart, Mike Little and John Adams
A ‘townhall’ type of session that really was brilliant. Although centred around the use of WordPress in the charity (or third sector), this well moderated yet open conversation touched on almost every part of WP. I feel a little bad/guilty that at times I might have strayed off topic, but this session was really enjoyable.
Mike Little was humble and unassuming while exceptionally knowledgable, and John Adams really had the air of someone who could sum up your point succinctly that the two ensured cohesion in the session was the norm. Thats a huge compliment when I’m in the room ;)
Jim Convey, Michael Kimb Jones, Andy Gilpin, Heather Burns and [a lady near the front with pink hair whose name I never caught] were all really into this, and the conversation was flowing. Very few aspects of WordPress were left untouched, and I really felt we bottomed quite a few issues in a wonderful way. The session was extended by 30 minutes, and honestly it could have went on for another hour and I would have continued to get something out of it. Well done to all 3 men on stage!
EDIT: Like the idiot I am, I forgot to mention Ruth Cameron and Chris B as contributors to this session. (actually Ruth said very little openly, but I was sitting behind her and her drawing/note-taking combo was awesome to see brain stroming away)
How did you do that
by Neill Russell, Heather Burns and Michael Kimb Jones
A weird one this. Not in it’s planning or execution, which was really good, but in it’s actual content.
Kimb went first and discussed an innovative use of WordPress’ original Links post type. His example was excellent, real world, and clear. My only problem with it was it’s a really bad idea. I would definitely call it a 2 year old workaround / hack. As I write that, it sounds harsh. I don’t mean it like that, as Kimb’s solution was EXACTLY how I would have solved that problem 3 years ago; but for a “How did you do that” I would have loved to see a modern and scalable solution. That said, Kimb is such an engaging speaker and sound bloke, it was hard not to sit there and smile.
Neil Russel, who was introduced by Dan Frydman, gave a really good example of how you can utilise WordPress to fill in more than just the middle section of a webpage. We need more practical examples of Custom Post Types / Taxonomies / Fields / Meta-Data; and this was a really nice quick example. What I especially liked was the honest info that getting information into WordPress was a bit of a hassle with varied Custom SQL calls. Having done this quite often on site migrations, even with a well defined data-structure, its great to hear this getting some publicity.
Heather Burns was last but not least in this section. Heather said something with made me want to just run up and give her a big hug, when she spoke about NOT using WordPress for everything on the website. Brave, correct, and well done. It redeemed her in my eyes from falling foul of ” Free is too Expensive ” issue, where paying $200 for a working upgrade to plug-in was baulked at while instead working on weeks for a free solution. Heather’s insights into Scotland, local Government, development/abandoning of plug-ins, external APIs, and lovely accent made this attendee really happy.
All 3 sessions were worth while, and each added something unique to the day :)
Managing large networks of WP sites
Looking and sounding like a young Johnny Cash, Donnacha shot from the hip and hit his target. Discussing Multi-side, WP in the enterprise, developer rates, hosting, processes and everything inbetween he really was a joy to hear speak. Book this man for an hour next time !!
Responsive Design
by Ian MacKay
If you’ve read ” Responsive Design is Irresponsible ” (and you really should have), you’ll know that I was dreading this session just a little.
Ian had, without a shadow of a doubt, the most polished presentation and session of the day. Calling it professional would probably be a disrespect given how personable he was, but it was damn professional. While I personally believe that Responsive Design is not a good thing in most cases, I really enjoyed Ian’s delivery; and he had the room in the palm of his hand with many appearing to learn something new from each slide. The mark of a good session in my books!
How WordPress themes changed the World: UPDATED
Lets just sum this up quickly: It was 45 minutes of Kimb talking about things he knew and loved, followed by a QA where Donnacha, Mike Little and myself threw questions at him. To this attendee, it was awesome!
The Social
As a big believer of “What happens IN VEGAS on a conference social stays IN VEGAS on a social“, and thus severely limiting what I can write about… I wanted to highlight two people who brought home to me why this type of conference will prevail over one with strictly enforced rules that don’t align with the community.
- There was a man called Fraser Edwards
(I never asked his surname)who used WordPress to run his affiliate marketing and SEO business. Fraser is so far removed from the type of person that a WordCamp would attract, but he was intelligent and knowledgable and soaked up as much information as he could to improve his local business and his local community. - Mark McWilliams, a relative newcomer to WordPress in some ways, he was quick to sponsor the event at the same level as many local businesses, even though he had no business to promote himself. A young man, wanting to selflessly give back to the community that he’d gotten so much from.
Both were a joy to speak to, and humble in their opinions and experience, they optimised what I loved about #WordUpEdin.
Social Media posts from WordUp Edinburgh
Me: “hi, I’m Kev”
Dude next to me: “Hi Ke… wait, as in Kevinjohn Gallagher? I’ve heard of you…”
o.O
Dude turns to face away from me…
>.<
MikeLittle “WordPress AdminUI is getting more accessible in the future.”
But not in 3.3, where it’s going backwards with hover menus #wordupedin
Mike Little talking about vertical applications is the most exciting thing I’ve heard at at WordPress talk in years. Good Job!! #wordupedin
@MikeLittleZed1 would love to see an example of a WP vertical application somewhere. Really enthused about that part of your talk! Thanks #wordupedin
@wordskill used to be my favourite @wptavern commenter. Now he’s also my favourite WordPress straight shooter #kindredSpirits #wordupedin
#WordUpEdin can we all give another round of applause to @phenomenoodle and @dmwmartin!
Just wanted to say how thankful and impressed I was with the cross section of knowledge and conversation at #wordupedin today. Thank you all
Overall…
I thought the event was great, especially for it’s first time! Not only am I looking forward to coming to the next one, I’m going to be one of the first in line to buy Sponsorship. It really was that good.
Thank You WP Scotland
Organisers Martin and Taryn (and Alan) probably had a long lie in on Sunday morning, and I hope they awoke with the same smile that I did.
Don’t underestimate what you achieved this weekend.
My hat is well and truly off to you both!
Comments are closed (actually, they were never open).
Why not send me an e-mail?