WordCamp Y’all! This is one of the camps that means a lot to me. As I mentioned in my 2019 WordCamp Birmingham roundup, it was my first time speaking in English at a WordCamp. Much water has passed under the bridge since then, as they say in Costa Rica.
Many days, a pandemic, many WordPress and WordCamp experiences, more talks than I can and of course more WordPress friends.
This camp is close to my heart. Like the previous camp, we traveled from San Jose to Houston to Birmingham. Unfortunately it took him over two hours to leave on a flight from San Jose. So I missed my layover (the last flight to Birmingham) and had to spend the night in Houston.
Some people hate United. I think this is the case with any airline. It’s happened on almost every airline I’ve traveled on, but United probably does it a little more than others.
But the setbacks didn’t end there.
I wasn’t ready for the temperature. I didn’t know Alabama was this cold! So, after spending the night in Houston, I flew to Birmingham the next day, just in time for the speaker’s dinner.
venue
![venue](https://www.greengeeks.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/The-Venue.jpg)
The entire WordCamp was held in WorkPlay. This is like a live music his bar in downtown Birmingham combined with a cabaret style his theater. The cool thing is that the entire camp was hosted there.
From speaker dinners to after parties and of course the camp itself. This is usually not the case in smaller camps.
The place felt cozy and much better than it was in 2019. Reason being, this was in downtown Birmingham, not Homewood. The second reason is, like I said, everything was there.
Because this camp was small, the entire classroom and cabaret stage felt more intimate and appropriate.
Speaker and Sponsored Dinner
![Live play at WordCamp](https://www.greengeeks.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Live-Play-at-WordCamp.jpg)
S,o I arrived late and was baptized as “Mr.” Slow”. By who? Well, they were doing this whole murderous act in his dinner with his two actors on his WorkPlay.
I thought this was a great idea.
I’d never seen an entire plot like this played live at a WordCamp, but the speakers were given clues such as who the killer was and were (randomly) brought to the stage to be part of the act. I had to go up. .
It was gorgeous and very interesting. Having been to a few camps before, I am used to a normal dinner where people eat and talk. But all of this interacted with the audience and you were part of the whole play.
I thought it was lovely.
After a lot of laughter, I have no idea who the killer is. Honestly, only suspects. Once that was done, we got to see some familiar faces we hadn’t seen since WCUS, including Jesse, Neff, Nathan, Ryan, William, and Aida. Kathrynsomeone I haven’t seen since 2019.
I was very happy to see them again.
WordCamp Birmingham Day 1
![debug talk](https://www.greengeeks.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Debugging-Talk.jpg)
My presentation was ready. I participated in the camp as a speaker and enjoyed it. When attending in this way, it is different from sponsorship because you are not in the stands all day and cannot attend most of the lectures.
Some but not all are shown. But the network is always there, always cool. So it’s time for some talk.
This was the first talk I saw in Birmingham this year. No surprise. i love themI have seen Mika He has previously participated in quite a few camps, as have Bluehost’s crew. I have always had a deep admiration for his knowledge of development.
He’s also a great guy and always there to have a good conversation.
His talk was about proper debugging. Simply put, I, Marco Berrocal, with nearly 15 years of experience as a WordPress developer, do a terrible job at debugging.
His story was cool. Because debugging how WordPress started becomes part of the whole sequence, and instead of dumping something to the browser and seeing it, you can figure out exactly where your code failed and see what it was doing at that point. is more or less verifiable. Incorrect data.
The downside is that he talks using LocalWP and debugs in VSCode, whereas when I develop I use 10upDocker, which requires using Docker to communicate with each other ( 10upDocker to debug).
After lunch, it was time for my session with the famous gals and guys.
![Marco Berrocal at WordCamp Birmingham](https://www.greengeeks.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Marco-Berrocal-at-WordCamp-Birmingham-913x1024.jpg)
My talk was about a consent management platform. This is a consent element that you give regarding your privacy settings about what you want the website to do (and what you don’t want it to do). In my girlfriend’s words, not a techie, it means “the little box at the bottom where I hit ‘Accept All’.”
The talk covered what consent management is, why it matters, the key points to help people understand what manual blocking is, how it works, and even how to find a plugin that fits their needs. It was to know
Some people want automatic blocking, some want control over the design aspect, and some want to manually add cookies to handle.
The story went pretty well. I got the audience’s attention and they asked me questions. This is something that is always required in lectures.
My talk was the last one of the day, and since the camp was from Saturday to Sunday, the lecture was right after the first day. Frankly, I was exhausted, so I had a few beers and called it a night.
WorkPlay had bars and such, which was pretty cool. Like I said, everything is there, no need to move.
the 2nd day
By morning I was well rested and ready to leave. During the day I was networking a lot and was interested in two talks, but first I submitted my workshop to the WCEU. I wanted to The deadline was that Sunday, so I hadn’t submitted it yet.
I decided to enter the lounge room when Nev Harris walked in.
I have met Nev many times since WordCamp Miami 2020 in March. By the way, this was the last WordCamp I attended… well, you know what It happened in 2020.
Since then, I’ve seen Nev at WordCamp Europe, WordCamp US, and now Alabama. We didn’t really talk much, but he was there, so we got started.
He reminded me that I blogged about him in my WordCamp Miami 2020 wrap-up. Not only did he completely forget, he said, but it had a positive impact on his WordCamp experience afterwards.
The things we talked about and the fact that giving an opinion about someone had a positive impact on someone was really satisfying.
Neff, I look forward to more camps, talks and fun times with you here!
With the workshop submitted, it’s time to attend two more talks.the first one is Hakutan Slen It was titled “How to Do Lead Tracking in WordPress” and discussed the value of UTM, campaigns, and things specifically related to UTM.
He was very interested in the aspects of cookies I discussed, so he joined my talk.
Last but not least, my buddy, Stevika Goloshin We talked about WooCommerce and SEO. It was a great story.
And so the WordCamp ended.
End of a great weekend
![Marco and Jessie](https://www.greengeeks.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Marco-and-Jessie-677x1024.jpg)
After we finished some of us went for Indian food. With that, WordCamp Birmingham 2023 has come to an end.I think it worked and it raises the question I always have
which one is the best? Small, intimate camps like these, or larger camps like WordCamp US, Europe, etc.? It’s about enjoying what you are.
Until next time!