WordCamp US 2016 Recap – Part 2

If you missed Part 1 of the WordCamp US 2016 recap, you can find it here. This is Part 2 of the series. Again, I want to thank both GoDaddy and WPEngine for making my trip to WordCamp US 2016 possible.

WordCamp US 2016 Recap – Part 2

Day 1 After Parties

I went to two different after parties. They were a blast. It was fun just chilling with people I haven’t talked to for months, or only knew from online. I think some of them, it has even been a few years since I last saw them! That actually is shocking for me because I’ve attended between 4 to 10 WordCamps every year for the past 6 years.

GoDaddy

GoDaddy treated VIP guests to food, fine wine, and some beer at Fine Palate.

WPEngine

WPEngine held a large party at Brü Craft & Wurs. There was food, an open bar, and some did dance.

Day 2 Talks

• Scott Taylor – Internationalizing The New York Times
• Joost de Valk – WordPress & SEO in 2016
• Sakin Shrestha – Breaking social barriers and creating opportunities
• Shayda Torabi – Let’s Take This Offline: Making friends, and growing professional relationships IRL
• Nancy Thanki – Let’s Encrypt! Wait. Why? How?
• Dennis Hong – The Dark Side of Democratization
• Sal Ferrarello – Blogging – The Best Thing I’ve Done as a Developer
• Tessa Needham Synnott – How to embrace your WordPress mediocrity
• Ines van Essen – So you’ve released A WordPress product…. Now what?
• Lisa Sabin-Wilson – BuddyPress as the Foundation for Training, Distance Learning and Support for Business and Government
• Maile Ohye – A view from Google: The latest in Search and mobile
• John Maeda – Computational Design and Inclusion

Kicking off Day 2 at WordCamp US learning about internationalization (i18n) at the @nytimes from Scott Taylor #wcus. pic.twitter.com/hxJgHbECIy

— DeborahEdwards-Onoro (@redcrew) December 3, 2016

#wcus using BadgeOS plugin with BuddyPress to add a gamification element to barista training – Lisa Sabin-Wilson pic.twitter.com/ufPHci2asB

— mary (@einsteinsboi) December 3, 2016

The first step to fixing democratized publishing is admitting that there is a problem – Dennis Hong #wcus #wcus2016

— Dane Morgan (@danemorgan) December 3, 2016

Do you have a mobile friendly website? You should. #wcus @joostdevalk https://t.co/hOMfsLvhTQ pic.twitter.com/qVq6RdETVC

— Terri Orlowski (@torlowski) December 3, 2016

#wcus maile ohye
January 10, 2017 Google will release intrusive mobile interstitials update, demoting offending sites in search.

— Shelley Magnezi (@shelleymagnezi) December 5, 2016

Day 2 Hallway Track

Lots of fun on Day 2 in the Hallway. A lot of people learning from each other, and having fun!

State of the Word

The best way to summarize the State of the Word talk, by Matt Mullenweg, is to check out WordCamp US 2016’s Storify.

I went to the official after party, for an hour, but I couldn’t stay long, as I was scheduled to leave late that evening. The Academy of Natural Sciences was great. Chris Edwards and a few others took some great pics there:

Amazing night at the museum with #wcus Awesome after party! pic.twitter.com/rpgMZpoIUI

— Chris Edwards (@ChrisEdwardsCE) December 4, 2016

A Night at the Museum #wcus pic.twitter.com/kOyFG1H8ZH

— JanetteO'Shaughnessy (@JMDOShaughnessy) December 4, 2016

I could not get enough of the animatronic dinosaurs at the natural history museum tonight. #wcus pic.twitter.com/LGSP7jgwfU

— Melissa Walshe (@melissaipsa) December 4, 2016

After-party shenanigans at the museum. #wcus pic.twitter.com/Mw71GUki5A

— Dossy Shiobara (@dossy) December 4, 2016

I didn’t go to Day 3, which was Contributor Day, mostly because I’ve contributed a lot this year with speaking at 9 WordCamps, speaking at some of my local WordPress meetup groups, helping organize WordCamp St. Louis 2016 (and now 2017), spoke at BlogHer16 twice in 2 WordPress labs, and contributed translations to es_MX for several plugins and for WordPress core. Like Wapuu below, I’m ready to be tucked in… until 2017.

If you wish to have access to all the pictures that I took at WordCamp US 2016, in full size, you can find them in my WCUS 2016 Google Drive Folder. Credit is not necessary, but appreciated. You can use it for whatever you like, and even alter them too. I’ve set it so those who have the link, can view them.

Additionally, if you’re on Twitter, you can view ALL of my tweets, mentions of me, and retweets of #WCUS here. I try to cover events as thoroughly as possible, so there are a LOT of retweets.

Did you go to Day 2 of WordCamp US 2016? What was your favorite memory?