Phoenix Word Camp Inspiring Phoenix

Paul Kenjora 14 Nov 2009

I recently attended Phoenix Word Camp, organized by Chuck Reynolds for the first time in Phoenix, attended by 300 passionate bloggers, entrepreneurs, and WordPress aficionados. Of the 500 people in attendance, all but 3 were from Arizona and almost all were people using WordPress for business. It was humbling to realize how far Arizona has come in entrepreneurship. A huge thank you to Chuck Reynolds and team for bringing us together.

Phoenix Word Camp

Great choice on venue by the way, and a big thanks to GoDaddy for helping sponsor Phoenix Word Camp this year. Lots of compliments from the crowd on the power strips in the tables. Also heard very good things about the WiFi. Just looking around the room I can tell you every computer was open to a very busy Tweet Deck.

The mid-day roundtable with Matt Mullenweg, founder of WordPress, was very laid back as questions flowed easily from the audience. I was glad to hear WordPress is aggressively pursuing being seen as a CMS rather than just a blog platform. Having heard Matt answer some of these questions in person, I can tell WordPress is in good hands and heading in the right direction.

My favorite speaker was Merlin Mann from 43Folders on the topic of “Something Something Social Media: The Overdue Minority Report.” Merlin is absolutely a natural speaker, he’s also respectful enough to be direct and honest. His talk about confusing social media with personal gratification hit home with me when he asked everyone in the audience to answer the following:

Ask yourself, what is the point of all of this, why am I pushing all these buttons, where do I want this to go, who am I at this point?

Suddenly the AC was the loudest thing in a pavilion full of 300 people. Merlin did a great job sharing enough ideas with the room to have people start thinking about social media in a new way, in a responsible way. His message is that social media is a feedback tool, a connection tool, which is not the same thing as identity or branding. Make friends based on who you are with real friends, pretending is another form of lying, you’ll get caught eventually. That message really hit home for a lot of people, myself included.

Overall the day at Phoenix Word Camp was a solid “I’ll be there next year Chuck!”. I suggest you stop by next time and enjoy everything from a relaxed lunch on the grass with the RedPear team, to invigorating chats with the GangPlank crew. To all the organizers, speakers, sponsors, and attendees: Thank You!

PS: If I missed you at the conference leave a comment, I’ll connect with you!