WordCamp Austin 2013 – What a Blast

This was an awesome weekend.

WordCamp Austin officially came to a close Sunday afternoon after record-breaking attendance and a diverse group of attendees and speakers from all over the planet. Thanks again to the organizers for all their hard work to organize the event. The Austin WordPress Meetup continues to grow each year, thanks to the dedicated work of organizers.

Attendees came from all over the Continental U.S., from Portland to Phoenix to Tampa, Florida. But, the “I traveled farthest to come to WordCamp Austin” award goes to one of my favorite developers and bloggers, Konstantin Kovshenin. His transatlantic flight from Moscow to Austin definitely takes the cake. And the award for the best beards goes to Jared Atchison and Bill Erickson.

WP Engine sent everyone possible to WordCamp and developer day. Co-Founders, Jason Cohen and Ben Metcalfe brought our new COO, Heather Brunner, and our awesome VP of Dev/Ops, Chris Errett to the day. Representing support was Tony Fox and Christian Thompson. Shayda was running around with a checklist to keep everything running smoothly (like always).

Everyone spent time talking with attendees who stopped by the WP Engine booth, handed out our classic WP Engine T-shirts (super-soft cotton!), stickers, and let everyone know the positions that we’re hiring for!

We’re Hiring!

Pardon this slight detour, but if you haven’t seen our new careers page, or the number of jobs that we have open currently, you should check those out. At WordCamp, we met a number of amazing people who have already sent in applications. Future WP Engine employees will have the opportunity to go to WordCamp in their job description!

CigarCamp 2013

The second iteration of CigarCamp, the unofficial after-after party for WordCamp Austin that Pat Ramsey, Shawn Hesketh of WP101 and yours truly organize, was an amazing success. Last year it was a casual gathering of about 10 folks on the roof of the Omni by the pool. This year, more than 45 people came out to Easy Tiger. WP Engine covered the bar tab, and Shawn Hesketh brought 3 boxes of cigars with custom WP101 labels. The whole group stayed out till later than I care to admit. There might also have been a game of Cards Against Humanity that Chris Lema instigated (more photos below).

Dev Day

Dev Day was hosted in the WP Engine offices inside of Capital Factory in the same room that the Austin WordPress meetup is hosted. Mark Kelnar, one of our original developers, gave his presentation on using Git for version control on a self-hosted install of WordPress, and stayed to answer questions after.

Thanks again to all the organizers for an amazing WordCamp. Attendance smashed records with 450 attendees, which is huge for any WordCamp. We were even graced with the “kind but firm” presence of Andrea Middleton, all the way from Portland. As the city of Austin keeps growing, WordPress keeps gathering more and more share of the internet, the Austin WordPress meetup will keep expanding!

See everyone next year!

-Austin Gunter

Photo Credits: Shawn Hesketh