Hey guys! Guess what? I’m back with one more event blog.
Well, 2022 was a very eventful year for me with travel and networking. With the way 2023 is progressing, I’m guessing this year is going to be super thrilling and enlightening as well!
In the past year, I attended various popular networking conferences around the globe. AW Barcelona, AW Bangkok, IAS Delhi, and ad:tech Delhi were among the popular events.
Last month’s WordCamp Asia (Bangkok) turned out to be an extremely memorable and insightful experience for me. Therefore, when WordCamp Kerala was announced, I couldn’t help myself from visiting. Especially when it was happening in my country!
In this blog post, I’m going to talk about my experience at WordCamp Kerala. We will begin by discussing what WordCamp is, and then move forward to my personal experiences, the pros and cons of WordCamp Kerala, and who should attend this event in the future.
So, are you excited to experience this fun and exciting event along with me? Let’s dive right in!
What is WordCamp?
WordCamp is a global gathering of the WordPress community, including WordPress enthusiasts, bloggers, developers, designers, and experts. This event is organized by volunteers from the WordPress community worldwide.
The primary aim of this meet-up is to bring people together and promote networking and collaboration. The first WordCamp was organized by Mat Mullenweg (CEO of Automattic) in San Francisco back in 2006.
Since then, WordCamps have been organized regularly in over 1100 cities and 375+ countries.
This conference, which typically lasts between one to three days, offers various opportunities for learning and networking. These comprise speaker sessions, workshops, games, panel discussions, networking events, after-parties, and much more.
WordCamp was held regionally for the first time in Kerala and the response was absolutely astounding! The event was graced by 20+ influential speakers and more than 400+ participants.
The sponsors for this WordCamp were Jetpack, Hostinger, GoDaddy, Bluehost, MilesWeb, etc.
Now, let’s talk about my experience at WordCamp Kerala. If you’re a video person, you can watch my video experience below. Hope you enjoy watching! 🙂
My Experience at WordCamp Kerala
Collecting the Event Pass
The WordCamp Kerala event was organized in Kochi on the 25th and 26th of March 2023. It was held in the IMA House, which is a beautiful and luxurious hotel with a grand conference hall.
On entering the event hall, you could find booths to collect your event pass. The event pass was designed in a minimalistic way, with a beautiful green theme and elegant designs. The graceful elephant logo actually made the design pop out!
Visiting the Networking Booths
The networking area was buzzing with crazy energy! It comprised booths of WordPress-related brands you could visit and interact with.
Some of the popular booths were Hostinger, Yoast, Jetpack, Bluehost, WPRemote, etc. However, with the food stalls being in the same area, the entire space looked slightly congested.
Attending the Stage Tracks
There were two different tracks for the stage sessions. Track 1 was on the 4th floor and Track 2 was on the 1st floor. Both tracks hosted sessions around topics like WordPress development, marketing, security, data privacy, productivity, web hosting, business, and more.
I found the stage organization to be quite impressive! However, I barely attended any of the stage sessions this time! I spent most of my time forming connections and talking to brands and participants at WordCamp.
Enjoying the Delicious Food
The best part about WordCamp was that it offered snacks and food for free!
You could sip on some really energizing herbal teas and delicious snacks during the event. I absolutely loved the herbal teas. They were real and flavorful!
The food arrangements were also commendable! They had lots of options for both vegetarian and non-vegetarian foods. The food was delicious and appetizing.
Interviewing Professionals
This time, my focus was on interacting with people. I conducted a lot of short and engaging interviews with professionals from the WordPress industry.
These include WordPress plugin developers, theme developers, web hosting company owners, agency owners, etc. Let’s take a quick look at the professionals I interviewed.
Mr. Akshat Choudhary
First off, I met Mr. Akshat Choudhary, the founder, and CEO of popular WordPress plugins – BlogVault and WPRemote. He has been working in this business for over 10 years!
On being asked about the best advice he received in his journey, he revealed it was being patient! I also inquired about his opinions on ChatGPT, to which he exclaimed that “ChatGPT will change the world beyond anything we’ll recognize in 10 years.”
Mr. Rajesh Chauhan
Next, I interacted with Mr. Rajesh Chauhan, the founder of YouStable Hosting, based in Lucknow. He has been in the hosting business since 2015.
When I inquired about the best advice he has received, he answered it was about always listening to your customers and taking their feedback into consideration.
On being asked about the worst advice he had received, he stated it was, “Don’t trust your team members.” Not trusting your team is like not trusting yourself. You gave them an opportunity for a reason, and not trusting them would be really unfair.
Mr. Tarun Sharma
Next up, I struck up a conversation with Mr. Tarun Sharma, the founder of Chetaru, an Indore-based web development, and digital marketing agency. He has been working in the digital domain since 2010.
On being asked about the worst advice he received in his career, he stated it was when someone told him to reduce the cost of their services.
Mr. Naveen Jain
Finally, I interviewed Mr. Naveen Jain, the founder of a WordPress theme company – Jthemes Studio. He has been working for the last 15 years and has been in the WordPress themes business for the last 8 years.
On being asked about the best advice he received in his career, he stated that, along with being updated with the latest trends, one should also network with people and form good connections.
Next, I inquired about the worst advice he had ever received. He revealed it was when someone told him to avoid exploring and expanding in a different business when his themes business was running smoothly!
Collecting Free Swags
Every conference offers some freebies and collectibles to the participants as a token of remembrance. At WordCamp, you can collect free swags like bags, diaries, etc. Look at these super cool free swags I received at WordCamp!
Apart from this, you can also visit the booths of various brands and collect freebies like t-shirts and other collectibles. For instance, Hostinger was offering branded t-shirts on their booth along with free hosting for 1 year!
GoDaddy also did a giveaway where a WordCamp attendee won an iPad! I also took part in the giveaway and won a pen drive.
Pros of WordCamp Kerala
Super Affordable
The price for attending a WordCamp event keeps on varying as per the city. However, it is not expensive compared to the Affiliate World Conferences.
The pricing keeps on increasing as the event date comes closer. On opting in for the early-bird pricing, you can get the passes at pocket-friendly prices!
You won’t believe that the passes for WordCamp Kerala were priced at merely ₹500. This was inclusive of free snacks, lunch, and free swags as well!
The Affiliate World Barcelona was quite expensive than this one. If you’ve not checked out my experience at that event, you can watch this video!
Network with Professionals and Experts
Attending WordCamp events can help you interact with people possessing the same professional background. This could be an amazing opportunity to improve your communication skills and form lasting connections.
Learning Experience
Overall, WordCamp could provide a valuable learning experience for newbies in the WordPress community.
Conversing with professionals in the industry and attending speaker sessions could give you insights into the struggles they faced and how they overcame them.
Along with that, you could also learn the new strategies and tricks the world is implementing. You could use the same with your business to achieve successful results.
Crack Exclusive Deals
There are dozens of booths put up by popular brands. These include WordPress plugin brands, hosting companies, themes, etc. You can walk up to their booths and strike up conversations.
Who knows, you might end up getting insane discounts or cracking up exclusive deals with them!
Enjoy Freebies and Snacks
Interactive meetups like WordCamp offer free snacks, food, and collectibles. Occasionally, they might also organize giveaways of their products and services that you can take part in.
Cons of WordCamp Kerala
Arrangement Can be Improved
I personally did not appreciate the arrangement of the event much. For instance, the networking area was on a different floor.
Whereas, the lunch area was merged with the networking booths, which was a little awkward. A separate space could’ve been allotted for food.
Apart from that, Track 1, Track 2, and workshops were all on different floors. This made the event look unsystematic and cluttered. Overall, I think the arrangement could’ve been better.
Should You Attend WordCamp?
Yes, if you are related to WordPress, you should not miss the WordCamp event. It was my second time attending WordCamp, and I was thrilled with the energy and the vibe of the event.
Not only did I form impactful connections with digital professionals, but I also learned significant lessons from them.
Taking part in such events helps you widen your perspective and discover what’s happening in the world around you. Overall, anyone whose work revolves around WordPress should attend this event.
If you are a WordPress blogger, theme or plugin developer, designer, or manager, there’s something valuable for everyone here!
Conclusion
In conclusion, my experience at WordCamp Kerala turned out to be amazing! I got to network with experts and professionals from the digital industry and form lasting connections.
Along with that, I also learned a lot of valuable lessons from their experiences. Overall, it was a momentous event and I would certainly like to attend the next one.
Anyway, have you attended any networking or affiliate events? Which one have you been to and how was your experience? Share your thoughts in the comments box below.
I’ll be back with more such fun stuff soon. Till then, keep learning and stay safe. This is Kripesh signing off. Cheers! 🙂
