WordPress is a lot like craft beer. Bear with me on this thought. For one thing, both WordPress and craft beer have followings. For many drinkers, it’s craft beer or nothing. For many bloggers or web developers, WordPress is the platform to use, hands down. Asheville is well known for our knowledge of and affinity for craft beer. Now, Asheville has been given a chance to learn much more about WordPress. If you are someone like me with a die-hard passion for WordPress, there’s a conference series designed just for you. In fact, even if you’re not, but your website is one of the over 75 million that are powered by WordPress (which make up about 22 percent of the internet’s active sites), WordCamp can help you learn more about your site and how to make it the best it can be. I have been using WordPress as a blogging platform since 2010, when my friend Jim MacKenzie and I started our site, Stuff Monsters Like. In the last four years, we’ve have our share of up-days and down-days. We’ve struggled to write when all we wanted to do was sleep. We’ve celebrated together as our crazy schemes got picked up by popular websites and local media. We’ve lost focus, run out of ideas, and start project on top of project. Somehow, miraculously, we also kept writing for that initial site. When WordCamp Asheville’s admin team invited members of the Asheville Blogger Society to participate in the inaugural event, I jumped at the chance to submit a speaker proposal. In our years of blogging, and through our research of other blogs, Jim and I discovered how difficult it is to maintain a blog and to keep the words flowing. Our presentation, “Your 10th Post: How to Keep Writing after Your Initial Euphoria Winds Down,” was chosen to cap off the first day sessions. You can find a copy of the presentation here, wherein we offered some tips that have helped us at times when we felt less than divinely inspired. We spoke to a mixed crowd of people who hadn’t yet started their blogs, as well as experienced users who have struggled with blogging in the past. It was energizing to communicate with a crowd of bloggers who have had the same struggles. Over the course of the two conference, I picked up many tips and best practices for ways to improve my sites. I learned about Google Analytics, becoming a more dynamic writer, which plugins the experts recommend, and how to maintain that dreaded life-work-social-blog-family balance. I spoke to designers who were able to offer tips specific to my sites. I offered blogging tips to developers who want to get into the more human side of blogging. It was an incredible experience to feel like I was part of the conversation, instead of just being spoken at. Best of all, we were given the chance to attend an “after party” each evening at Wedge Brewery. It was not a closed or formal function, but more of a destination spot for people who wished to connect outside of the conference venue. The wonderful weather at the Wedge allowed everyone - speakers, attendees, and event volunteers alike - to chat about their sites and offer advice. WordPress was designed by an online community in order to make it easier to create communities online. The after parties allowed WordCamp participants who came from all over the country to come together on even ground over a glass of Asheville’s favorite IPA. Told you craft beer and web development went well together. About WordCamp Asheville Since 2006, WordCamps have been offered locally around the world to help designers, developers, and new and seasoned users build better WordPress sites. Asheville’s first WordCamp was held this past weekend, May 31-June 1, at A-B Tech’s Enka campus. The two-day conference featured four content tracks: Beginner, User/Content, Designer, and Developer. Dividing the topics allowed attendees to stick to one content track or move from room to room as topics interest them, making the event truly inclusive for WordPress users of all shapes and skill sets. Tickets for WordCamp Asheville 2014 sold out within a few weeks. It’s likely that the 2015 event already in the works may sell out even more quickly. Stay connected with WordCamp Asheville to learn more and get news before anyone else.