It was a blur, it really was. Looking at my posts, I am incredibly far behind… but considering the digital life I live sometimes it’s nice to know I was so busy enjoying life beyond the screen that I miss a blog post… or five. I’m going to try to cover through fall and winter 2016 so in the next posts I can write about some of the fun events thus far in 2017.

WordCamp Phoenix 2016

After spending a decent amount of time last summer on the east coast, I returned in August and we spent the next couple of months really locking down the 2016 event.

I cannot emphasize enough how incredible the organizing team was that worked tirelessly to make WCPHX a success — from getting announcements out to wrangling sponsors and volunteers, the achievement was something to be proud of.

The weekend started with the speaker/sponsor dinner at GoDaddy — they helped out tremendously when our original party space fell through. The offices and space in Tempe are wonderful and the team at GoDaddy, well I can’t thank them enough for helping to make the evening a success.

The beautiful indoor/outdoor space at GoDaddy’s Tempe offices where we held the 2016 WCPHX speaker/sponsor party.

The next two days were a blur as I checked on the two tracks, ensuring speakers were where they needed to be and helping things run smoothly as needed. I was honored to be a part of organizing WCPHX 2016, and I have to say I was impressed with the talent that submitted to speak and showed up to deliver that weekend.

WordCamp US 2016

The big kahuna of WordCamps in North America is WordCamp US, and I was happy to head back to my home state of Pennsylvania and brave the chilly December weather for the event. Philadelphia, as a city, has grown on me quite a bit despite the hometown rivalry between Pittsburgh and Philly, and the event itself was a testament to how wonderful the WordPress community is. I was thrilled to spend time with old friends and made many new connections as well.

Winter 2016-17

I prefer to travel as little as possible in the winter, explicitly because that’s the best time of year to be in Arizona. I was back in Pennsylvania for a second time in December, this time in Pittsburgh, to see family for the holidays but following that I headed home for the blue sunny skies of Phoenix.

Following a quiet winter spent cozied up under the palm trees, I started gearing up for a very busy spring. My preparations began for speaking, traveling, and a great deal of fun. I’ll talk more about those events in my next couple of posts, as I think we’ve covered enough ground here as it is!

Posted in Blog, WordCamps