WordCamp Geneva: a whole-day event after two years of pandemic

On Saturday I headed for Geneva to take part in one of the first WordCamps taking place “after” the pandemic. (I know we’re not really “after”, but let’s not wake up that sleeping dog.)

Even though I’ve largely stopped going to events (and giving talks) these last years, and have been enjoying some much-needed alone time, I guess two years of simply not having the option of meeting-mingling-networking did make me a little itchy.

Completely unexpectedly, I found myself live-blogging the talks I attended, like it was 2008 again. Old habits die hard. I had the chance to see some local people I know, catch up with an old friend I hadn’t seen in years, and get to know a handful of nice, interesting, passionate people. I really had a nice day — a huge thanks to the organisers who made the event reality, two years after it was initially supposed to take place. Also, it felt “normal”. I’m aware I’m privileged, not being particularly “at risk” with covid, but I was able to just relax and enjoy being around so many people.

It was a bit weird, though, to realise how much of the history of WordPress I’ve lived through. I moved to WordPress when 1.2 came out. No themes back then, no static pages… Here’s what I had to say when 1.5 came out, to give you an idea. And over the last years, I’ve lost touch with some innovations: Gutenberg, to say the least. (I am familiar with the principle of block-based layouts and editing, of course, but I hadn’t realised WordPress now supported it. Yay!)

The trip down memory lane also made me notice how mature WordPress has become, not just as a tool, but as a community and even an industry. Of course it was already mature years ago — but when you step away from something for a few years, and come back, everything stands out more sharply.

All this is giving me a kick in the pants to perform some much-needed maintenance around here!

Originally published at Climb to the Stars.