Northern Ireland hosted its first-ever WordCamp on Saturday 1st October 2016.
WordCamp Belfast brought 2 days of informative talks, workshops and WordPress-related fun to the historic Queen’s University campus.
The 34SP.com WordPress hosting team were in attendance to help support the Irish WordPress community, and hopefully, learn plenty of things along the way. Here’s our brief review for WPism readers.
Attendees arrived bright and early on Saturday morning for a jam-packed programme of talks. Split over 2 different tracks, the day’s talks covered a broad range of subjects including development workflows, business strategy, search engine optimisation, data protection to name a few.
We managed to catch Stewart Ritchie kicking off things in track 1 with his ‘WordPress Developer Operations For Beginners’ talk. Stuart shared his extensive knowledge of WordPress development practices including version control, automation, testing and deployment.
Meanwhile, over in track 2, Ahmed Khalifa presented ‘Endless Contact Ideas’ and shared some original and creative methods for producing content ideas.
The 34SP.com team man their stand
During lunch, we were treated to some Game of Thrones inspired cosplay, which is surely a first for any WordCamp anywhere in the world! The popular HBO series is filmed in a number of locations in Northern Ireland, and there were plenty of GOT fans in attendance. Our Support Technician Joe was delighted to join in with the swashbuckling fun and games.
The popular HBO series is filmed in a number of locations in Northern Ireland, and there were plenty of GOT fans in attendance. Our Support Technician Joe was delighted to join in with the swashbuckling fun and games.
34SP.com staff enjoying the Game of Thrones cosplay
The afternoon talks saw a packed-out lecture theatre gather in anticipation of Juan Felipe Rincón’s ‘Managing your online presence on Google Search’ talk. As part of Google’s Search Quality team, Juan was able to provide invaluable insights into the search giant and how to effectively manage your website’s online presence via Google’s software suite.
In track 2, Danny Dagan and Heather Burns closed the day with an afternoon focusing on privacy and data protection. An often overlooked and unheralded element of online businesses, these two talks highlights some of the key legal issues facing web professionals working in the post-Brexit UK.
With the day drawing a close, it was time to head over to Brewbot for the after-party. WordCamp are parties are always great, whether you prefer to network or simply blow off some steam, and this was no different.
We particularly enjoyed the ‘Wapuu’s Belfast Brew’ craft beer, that had been created especially for the event.
Wapuu’s Belfast Brew
It was hard to believe that this was Belfast’s inaugural WordCamp and enormous credit must go to the tremendous team of organisers and volunteers, who staged the event with the panache of seasoned professionals.
The event had sold out in advance and it is clear that the thirst for learning and sharing WordPress related knowledge is growing year on year.
We certainly can’t wait to return to Belfast next year.
– By the 34SP.com Team: 34SP.com is a UK based web hosting company, bridging the gap between sophisticated hosting solutions & affordable prices. The company provides managed WordPress hosting solutions and was also the sponsor of the inaugural WordCamp Belfast.
