It has been a very emotional and exciting few days for all of us at ManageWP at #WCUS. I think I can speak for everyone when I say thank you to all of the WordCamp US organizers, speakers, sponsors and attendees for making this an incredible WordCamp. We are already counting down the days till next year! I want to leave you all with a few of our impressions and key takeaways.

This photograph is a great snapshot of the WCUS feeling – smiles all around. Thank you Sheri for capturing this moment.

I am very grateful I was able to share this moment with my GoDaddy colleagues, Isaac and Noah.

GoDaddy & ManageWP Booth Action

Thank you all for stopping by, saying hello to us and supporting the GoDaddy Pro launch. Overall we’ve had very positive feedback, and that’s not just about the swag, or as Lilly calls it schwwaaag. It was helpful for us to see you and hear all of your thoughts, so for those of you who came over and shared their knowledge with us, another big thank you. This kind of contribution from our users is what makes our product grow in the right direction. After all, we always focus on making our dashboard user friendly.

Vladeta, Tara and Jesse owned the booth, for two days straight. They were handing out our awesome pins, hope you guys managed to grab one! Notebooks, bags and backpacks went quick, we can’t wait to see you guys working our swag, tweet us pictures with #godaddy.

Vladeta told me this morning, “We received an overwhelming amount of positive feedback from our users at WCUS regarding ManageWP and the GoDaddy integration and some awesome new ideas for brand new tools and existing tool upgrades.” 

Our booth was not the only one that got a lot of swag action, our sister company Media Temple, hands down had the most creative booth. You got to spin the wheel, and win yourself great prizes. This year’s theme was camping, so all of you happy campers were able to get your essentials.

Now I’m all set for camping when I go home. #wcus thanks @mediatemplepic.twitter.com/kQmyBDuCoO

— Val Vesa (@adspedia) December 3, 2016

I can’t wait to see what they will come up with next year, but for now here is a pic of this year’s booth.

WCUS Talks

This year was no exception, the talks were brilliant. A great range of speakers and topics, as always. It’s hard to single any out, and the ones I attended had concrete takeaways. The things which will stick with me from this WordCamp are:

• The first lesson I had to learn is that price is not a number. Price is a conversation. – Luca Sartoni 
• When speaking to your audience, the intention is important too. Are you trying to educate, or create desire? – Andrea Zoellner
• Remember humans don’t fit in a box, allow them to be diverse. – Tammie Lister

I was not the only one who had something great to say about the talks. Nemanja was one of many who also enjoyed them. He tells me,

“The more WordCamps I visit, the less time I spend listening to talks, and more talking to people on the hallway track. That being said, WCUS had a set of fantastic talks that helped me understand a couple of topics I didn’t know a lot about before.”

It’s great that the talks are so diverse, that you can pick and choose the ones you want to listen to, and the rest of the time network in the hallways. In the hallways you get to meet some familiar faces. We finally met Kristina from WP Elevation in the flesh, after so many great Zoom conversations, it was a pleasure to exchange a few thoughts with her in person.

… but WordCamps are also for some silly photos.

It turns out our GoDaddy colleagues share our sense of humor.

WCUS After Party

Night.At.The.Museum.In.Real.Life! Who said that movies don’t come to life? I think this is the most original idea so far, and it was fantastic. After two days of conferences we were greeted by butterflies, face paint and karaoke. Some of us are secretly incredible singers, Adam Warner I am looking at you! And others, enjoy embarrassing themselves in public by singing Disney badly (unfortunately I fall into the latter category).

Awesome setting for the #wcus #afterparty last night. Thanks for all the organizers and volunteers! @WordCampUS @millioneyez #millioneyez pic.twitter.com/R5tdFuzsaS

— Ohad Boaz (@OhadBoaz) December 4, 2016

  Yep, some of you got great shots 🙂   

RIP Harambe. @phikai@iamrobertv#WCUS#AfterPartypic.twitter.com/gWgq9U7Ty6 — Jeff Mulholland (@jeffmulholland) December 4, 2016

… and some got their face painted like glittery elves!   

Fantastic after party at #wcus a night at a museum to remember! pic.twitter.com/VlLlQmuPHj — Nevena Tomovic (@NNotsoclueless) December 4, 2016

WCUS Contributor Day

I can speak for all when I look around that we are tired, but we are here, because giving back to the community is what makes WordPress so special. That’s why we are here after all. So, I am happy to see so many of you here today. It is great how the community is growing with each day, and it’s exciting to see what the future of WordPress holds.  Alex is here, as one of the contributors. He says, “I am so proud that I am contributing to the training team and it is just one of the many teams here at WCUS, but since I am WordPress lecturer at our company the training team is the one closest to my heart.”  

Training team on the contributor day #wcus I am so proud that I’m a part of this event 🙂 pic.twitter.com/Qh5XH9l8ih — Aleksandar (@WPAleks) December 4, 2016

WordPress Tips From The WCUS Crowd

As a final thought I want to present you with a video that I took during my time here. It captures the atmosphere to the T.  I hope you enjoy it!