I leave tomorrow for Portland, Oregon, where we’re producing Support Driven Expo, a conference for support professionals. I’ll be in a cab on the way to the airport at 5am Eastern, hopefully with completed slide decks on my computer and an agenda for the two days post-Expo where Scott (SD owner) and I will be planning for Support Driven’s future.
I’ve been with Support Driven for three months today, and I’m amazed by how smooth the transition has been. Maybe it’s because I was already involved with the community and helped organize the first two events, so it’s not something I had to learn from scratch. Or maybe it’s because I’ve worked with Scott before, so there wasn’t a huge learning curve with figuring out communication styles. Or maybe it’s because my primary focus is communications, which, 😍.
Whatever the reason, I’m in my element, and am feeling a wonderful balance of freedom, opportunity, and challenge. When I joined Support Driven full time, Expo planning had already begun, so I had some catching up to do. But I also got a chance to dig in and start organizing and documenting to make things easier for ourselves next time around. I’ve gotten a chance to write — a LOT — and I’m proud of the weekly Expo Updates we’ve been posting on the SD blog, the program of 80+ speakers we’ve put together, the comprehensive Expo Guide we compiled to help with any questions participants may have, and the app content we assembled to help more than 400 attendees navigate a schedule that includes talks, workshops, Support Bars, a Career Fair, and a Career Unconference.
And that’s just Expo. I’m vibrating with anticipation of helping organize Support Driven itself, which we’ve begun work on, and that I hope to accelerate progress on after Expo. I started a Support Driven LinkedIn page, which I’m super excited about. I totally lucked out on my first hire (Hi Sarah!), and I can’t wait to work with her on our next event, which is a Leadership Summit in the fall. We’ve started a new Groups section of the blog to help give some of the rich content from our community Slack a more permanant home.
The really cool thing is that while we’re doing all of this, I also feel a balance in my life. I spend time every day in my garden. I have space in my life for errands, for taxiing the kids around, for swimming and running taking breaks when I need them. After Expo I’ll take some time with my family, and go on a sailing trip with my husband.
But right now, I need to get back to the slide decks, schedule tweaks, attendee communications, packing…
I’m headed down to North Carolina this weekend for two full days of WordPress nerdery: I’m going to WordCamp Asheville. Yeeaahhh!!! I went out today and bought school supplies and was like a kid again picking out my composition book and writing implements. Crisp paper, inky blue pens… My laptop is a dinosaur and if I can’t sit next to an outlet it will die within minutes, so despite the high tech world we will be discussing, I’ll be the cave woman in the corner chiseling my notes on stone tablets.
I’ve spent the week studying the WordCamp Asheville schedule and I have finally nailed down the sessions I plan to attend. I know many of you, dear readers, are fellow bloggers, and I know many of you use the WordPress platform. Take a look at my course schedule below and if you have any questions you would like me to ask of the instructors, please let me know. If time and the instructors permit, I am happy to be your ambassador. (Blurbs in italics and the little icon below courtesy of WordCamp Asheville).
Blast off with Jetpack: Amazing Features powered by WordPress.com, taught by WordPress.com Happiness Engineer Evan Zimmerman: …In this session we’ll give an overview of Jetpack and talk about the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org. We’ll dive into popular features such as Stats, Widget Visibility and Contact Forms, and discuss the available Social and Media options…
Photos and Colors and Layouts Oh My!: Resources to Help You Make Good Design, taught by web designer and filmmaker Nancy Thanki: You’ve got your perfect theme picked out! It has this amazing layout that you know will be perfect for presenting you and yours in the best possible way. Bought, downloaded, and ready to rumble. Now the tricky part: how to make it look as amazing for you as it did in the developer’s demo? …
Getting Help with WordPress – a Beginners Guide to Getting Unstuck, taught by developer Russell Fair: No matter where you are with WordPress, a beginner, intermediate user, or ninja developer there comes a point where you just get stuck. This presentation will show attendees who are new to WordPress how to figure it out on their own…
Customize your Website with CSS for Beginners, taught by developer and designer Lydia Roberts: Ever wanted to change the color of a font, position of an image, or appearance of a page layout without having to rely on built-in theme options or calling a developer? You’d be amazed at the changes you can make with small edits to your site’s Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)…
Work, Life, Blog, Balance taught by Alicia Murray, founder and editor of BalancingMotherhood.com: Tips, tools, and action steps to a balanced blog life. This presentation will discuss how to organize and balance priorities between your day job, your life, and your passion for blogging…
Getting Found on Google taught by professional blogger and SEO consultant Rich Owings: Not showing up on Google? This introduction to search engine optimization (SEO) will fill you in on all the basics, from title and alt image tags to pretty permalinks, SEO plugins, and Google authorship. There will time for more advanced questions too, all to help you improve your rankings.
5 Steps for Building a More Active Online Community taught by Disqus pioneer Michael G. Calvert: There’s no magic behind building a successful online community (unless blood, sweat and tears count), but there are a few key actions that lead to increased engagement. With over 5 years of experience in building communities online (in various forms), plus data gathered from 4 expert bloggers, Michael G. Calvert of Disqus will offer real-world examples as a guide…
Working with Media in WordPress taught by digital media instructor Jonathan Ross: It’s no surprise that WordPress has been updated with a lot of features specifically dedicated to adding, managing and displaying media (images, audio,video). More and more, websites rely on images and other media to tell the story… instead of text. In this photo oriented session, you will learn about media settings, adding/deleting media, managing thumbnails, metadata, featured images, and essential plugins…
Using Google Analytics with WordPress taught by data analyst Chip Oglesby: In this talk, we’ll look at the basics of what you should be tracking on your site and why. There will also be a hands-on period for help and Q&A.
Intro to PHP taught by programmer John Dorner: WordPress is built with PHP. It helps to know the basics so you can understand and make changes to your theme’s templates. This session will not make you into a programmer, but will explain a lot of what you will see when you look at the code that powers your site. He’ll also share where you can find help to answer your PHP questions.
Butterfly Mind 