A summer time work-related event, held on the weekend nonetheless, isn’t normally on top of my ‘must-attend’ list. Wouldn’t anyone rather be on the beach or on the patio to soak in the sun? However, when WordCamp Vancouver rolls around in mid-August, I’m always excited to go. WordCamp Vancouver gives me the opportunity to catch up with my WordPress buddies, network with other coders, and take home some cool swag.
This year, WordCamp Vancouver was held at the downtown BCIT campus, just a few blocks from the KIMBO Design office. We sponsored the event this year, and upon entering the campus, I couldn’t help but notice our KIMBO Design logo on several sponsor easels, shown off much larger than we’d expected. Thanks WordCamp Vancouver!
My WordCamp Vancouver Experience
The best part of WordCamp Vancouver was socializing with the other web developers, meeting new people, and, of course, learning new things about WordPress. There’s always something new to learn, and the KIMBO spirit is to always strive for more knowledge!
I met the guys from GreenGeeks hosting company, who currently host our KIMBO Design website. GreenGeeks is a good fit for us because sustainability is a crucial part of our design vision, and they focus on making sustainability a priority in their hosting work. That’s me in the picture with CEO of GreenGeeks, Trey Gardner. Also, thanks to GreenGeeks for supplying chocolate candy. We sure needed it to keep our energy up during the day!
As a coder, I was in heaven when it came to learning new things. I learned a few PHP lines of code that can be inserted into a WordPress multi-site theme, that I never knew existed. It will make my life easier the next time I program a WordPress multi-site theme. Sometimes browsing a WordPress website can be slow. I learned that WordPress could be sped up if I upgrade the hosting environment to use HHVM, which stands for HipHop Virtual Machine. This is definitely an option that will be worth exploring for future KIMBO websites.
I use Windows most of the time for WordPress programming, but I also occasionally use a Mac for programming iOS apps. There were a lot of Mac users at WordCamp. By socializing with these folks, I learned about the software that Mac users use for their programming. Some of these software programs were exclusively built for Macs, such as TextWrangler, BBEdit and Coda. I know all this tech geekiness isn’t for everyone, but for a coder like me, it really got my intellectual juices flowing.
It wasn’t all serious though! The crew at WordCamp Vancouver treated us very well. They served us coffee and pastries in the morning, and even supplied us with a complimentary lunch. They outdid themselves with the swag this year, giving us handbags, pens, notepads, stickers, cup cozies, a deck of cards, and a T-shirt with the WordCamp logo on it. The day went along seamlessly, except when a projector overheated. That put a wrench in the timing, but things all worked out in the end.
I really enjoyed the day and will definitely attend WordCamp Vancouver next year. With the great response we received and the value the event provides to our community, you can bet KIMBO Design will absolutely sponsor WordCamp Vancouver again next year!
Thanh Nguyen
Lead Web Developer, KIMBO Design
