WordCamp Lancaster 2015 – Awesome Event

I attended WordCamp Lancaster on Saturday. This is my 3rd WordCamp since June of 2014 (4 if you count WC San Francisco which I “attended” via the streaming ticket). I was telling my wife this morning that I come away from these conferences with such excitement and renewed energy.

I can’t say whether it’s the content of the sessions themselves, the awesome swag provided by the organizers and sponsors, or the personal, one to one or one to many conversations that I had throughout the day and at the quick before-the-after-party-meetup. (My guess is that you know where this is going.)

I’d have to say that it’s truly a combination of the entire experience. While Joe Casabona did get things kicked off with style and humor, and Sarah Moyer helped flick the switch in my mind about Genesis hooks, filters and actions, I think that I was most inspired by Charlie Reisinger‘s keynote on how his school district is using open source software to enable their students to learn new skills, interact more and push their teachers to new levels, all while working within the confines of a very tight education budget.

If you think about it, isn’t that the heart of Exploring New Opportunities for everyone? I mean, if you can inspire high school students to get engaged, and to try something new, on their own, regardless of peer pressure, you have ignited the spark of opportunity-think at just the right point.

I left the event feeling very inspired, and it gave this well-past-high-school entrepreneur a fresh outlook on business, supporting others and stepping out of the comfort zone.

Thanks to the #wclanc organizers for an awesome event, and to Andy Stitt for pulling together the #genesiswp mini-meetup.

Already looking forward to next year.