We wrapped up a successful WordCamp Raleigh earlier today and I figured I should write a quick post about it while it was still fresh in my mind. I also wanted to make sure I got a copy of my slides up from my talk about Gutenberg Phase 2.
Overall, the event was a huge success. The feedback I heard from attendees was fantastic. We got a nice rain on Friday to wash away the worst of the pollen and it held off exploding again until Sunday evening. There were Rise donuts on Sunday. What more can you ask for?
Traffic around the venue, the Engineering Buildings on NC State’s Centennial Campus, was a little chaotic on Saturday afternoon/evening with 40,000 attendees at the Dreamville Festival right next door at Dorthea Dix park. But otherwise it went very smoothly.
First Raleigh Camp as a Sponsor
This was the 10th edition of WordCamp Raleigh. As my local camp, I’ve obviously attended it a number of times, but for the last 3 years I’ve had conflicts and been unable to make it (weddings, etc). I was glad to finally able to get back this year.
This year was different though, as it was my first time attending the event as a sponsor. I started working for Bluehost shortly after last year’s camp.
I love going to camps and being at the sponsor booth. I don’t get to go to as many talks in that role—usually only 1-2 per camp—but I find I talk to so many more people than when I’m a regular attendee.
Future Possibility of a Contributor Day
One thing I brought up with the organizers was potentially adding a contributor day. It’s not something they’ve done in the 10 years of the camp, as there is already a lot that goes into coordinating a camp of this size, and there are only so many hours in the day.
I’m going to investigate leading that effort for next year, as I think there is definitely some interest from the community, and the camp is certainly large enough.
Gutenberg Phase 2 and the Future of WordPress
Last but not least, I gave a talk!
Over the last 6-12 months, there seem to have been a lot of WordCamp talks about the new block-based post editor that was launched in WordPress 5.0 from all angles—designers, developers, power users, new users, marketers, writers, etc. But very few talks about Gutenberg are about the project as a whole. Most only refer to what is essentially Gutenberg Phase 1, the post editor.
Not everyone follows core development that closely, so many people’s first awareness of new WordPress features are when the announcement post goes up describing the major changes in a particular release.
I wanted to give a rundown about what is coming next that is complete, what is in active research/design/development that will be coming within the next year, and some ideas of what might lie beyond the horizon.
Here are the slides from my talk, complete with lots of animated gifs!