I recently joined Kurt Eng as an organizer of the Boston WordPress Meetup. I also got to help organize and run this past Boston WordCamp.
I’m pretty excited because I love the meetups as they are and I looking forward to contributing any way I can. If you haven’t been to a WordPress meetup yet I wanted share why you should care and why you should be attending.
Keeping Up With WordPress
A few months ago, I wrote a post discussing all the ways I keep up with developments in the WordPress community. Stephen Kane from the Orange County WordPress Meetup reached out to say he had shared the post at his own meetup. The great thing about attending monthly WordPress meetups is the collective knowledge of all things happening with WordPress so you don’t have to spend too much time trying to stay on top of what’s new. Everyone brings something new to the table and who better to learn from than each other.
Learn Something New
The great thing about these meetups is they adapt to meet the needs of the people who attend them. If you have a bunch of developers attending the meetup then you’re likely to get a good session about WordPress development. If there’s a healthy mix of developers and beginners then some meetups might do what we do at the Boston WordPress Meetup and split the session up into two rooms. Every topic is different from the last and attendees can recommend new topics through Meetup.com.
Meet Great People
Us WordPress folks are just great people all around. The type of people who attend these meetups are open to learning and meeting new people. There’s an awesome spirit of giving and camaraderie in the WordPress community that you can easily see at WordCamps and meetups.
Great Networking
Whether you’re a developer looking to pick up some extra work, or someone with an idea looking to hire a good developer. Maybe you’re a developer that just wants to meet other developers. WordPress meetups attract a very diverse audience with varying experience levels and needs. There’s some real talent in this space, especially here in Boston.
Get Your WordPress Questions Answered
I see a good number of developers and general users helping each other with their WordPress problems. Some meetups try to slot in some Q&A time where you can basically ask your question to the entire room. Maybe you can even recommend a topic for a future meetup that might answer your question. Ultimately, WordPress meetups are an excellent source to get help with WordPress.
Because It’s The Year Of The Meetup
Back in January, Jane Wells announced:
We hereby declare 2012 as the Year of the WordPress Meetup. You’ll want to get in on this action.
This basically means you can expect to see more meetups popping up around the country that will have access to better resources.
Why Do I Do It?
I just love having that time, once a month, where I get to geek out about something I’m passionate about. I love the people who come to the events and the friends I’ve made that keep coming back. It’s an awesome community that I’ve learned a lot from. I hope to keep learning and try to giving back whenever I get a chance.