I attended the first all US and the largest WordCamp last weekend. It was awesome. I really learned a lot, and I was inspired.

First of all, Philly is a cool town. There is a great market, Reading Terminal Market, down the street from the convention center that has a little bit of everything. I found a great smoothie bar, and even got my kids some chocolate, chocolate mice! YUM!

Second, there were some awesome panels that I attended, and I can’t wait to catch up on what I missed. But the highlights I saw were:

• The creation of a new WP interface, Calypso. SO FREAKING EXCITING!
• Helen Hou-Sandí speaking about intent in design. She is bright and wise and challenges you to think about design from the default.
• Rachel Baker was pretty amazing and I enjoyed her exercise, er, talk even if I got lost in a few parts. Thankfully there are slides!
• Eric Mann was incredibly inspiring. You can tell he has a love for humanity and a wonderful way of presenting it. He made me want to change the world and made me feel like I could do it. 

The concept and movement to adding much more javascript to client side applications is not something I would have thought of consciously. I use javascript all the time for this and that and I realize the REST api is used in the checkout on Woocommerce. But adding it as a one page admin blew my mind. Not only is it faster but lighter, and, in light of the panels I attended, I realize the implications are game-changing.

My only complaint about the Camp is that some of the panels just weren’t long enough. The matter presented warranted more than 20 minutes!

Third, I was inspired to be a better person, not just in my daily life, but in my professional life. It reiterated to me the importance of working with open source software and the responsibility we have to try to make it better for everyone who uses it.

The democratization of publishing.

There is no doubt that technology, particularly mobile technology has made a huge difference to people all over the world.  People should have the right to tell their stories all over the world. Especially people without iPhone 6’s and 4G networks. The Camp made me realize how important it is to democratize publishing by democratizing the devices that people are using and the bandwidth that is available. By making our applications faster, we give it to everyone on the planet, not just those with big phones and better bandwidth. This is the push and the direction Matt talked about in the “State of the Word.” I never realized how captivating Mullenweg was in person. WOW. I mean REALLY, WOW! And really proud, because at every level, WPers are part of a larger goal, and it’s an inclusive invitation to the world to communicate. Impressive I say!

So, now I am home, and I INTEND to do my homework, be a better person, and play around with Calypso!

PS I forgot to mention, I met seriously nice people and already bought my ticket to next year’s event!