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Initial reflections on WordCamp US 2023

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This is more of a personal reflection than a newsletter. While I am still processing and recovering from two months of deeply taxing work, book ended by this huge social event, I wanted to put a few of my initial feelings down into words for you all, this Tuesday.

This was the largest WordCamp US in the history of WordCamp US. I don’t know exactly how many people attended, but it was definitely close to 2000, give or take a couple hundred. It was also the second WordCamp US I attended and the second one I spoke at.

I have mixed feelings about my talk – it was a 15 minute lightning talk, and I definitely tried to fit too much into it, it would have been better as a traditional longer talk for sure. On the other hand, I hadn’t spoken in real life since 2019, and it was really only my 4th talk in real life…ever, so while I may have spent many many hours going over all the mistakes I made, I made peace with it too, because I’m not a seasoned speaker and that’s okay. These things come with practice.

Going to such a large WordCamp was a unique experience. It was impossible to spend quality time with everyone I wanted to and even the little time I spent with some people zapped my social energy. I am an introvert and thrive best in 1:1 conversations or very small groups, with breaks in between. I didn’t go to nearly enough talks, so I’m thankful they were recorded but I did get to spend at least a little time with some of my favourite online friends and folks I’ve admired and been inspired by.

It was also the first big WordCamp I went to where I got recognized here and there. I’ve done a few interesting things in the community in the last few years and been a bit more visible, but of course, I went through the whole week with my imposter syndrome hovering between 9 and 10 on a scale from 1 to 10 – because that’s just where I’m at these days.

Being recognized by someone you don’t know is a practice in grace and humility. Also considering how much I shy away from going up and saying hello to people I admire, I was hyper aware of the courage it can take to go up to someone you follow online and say hi to, and did my best when I found myself on the other side of the equation. To everyone who came up and said hi to me, thank you so much. It was lovely to meet each and every one of you and hear what you’ve been up to and how WordCamp US had been so far for you. I hope meeting me wasn’t a let down. 😅

Some Conversational Themes

Some top level themes that emerged in my conversations during the event:

1. A lot of people have been focussing on work/life balance and professional sustainability. Because of that, there were a lot of conversations around, “what is your goal?” or "what's next for you?"
2. The number of people who were apologetic that they earn an income with WordPress and didn’t have time to do things for free was larger than I expected. Y’all – you are not required to create things for free, it is okay to need and want an income so you can be human and live a good life.
3. I got asked a lot who was on my list of people to meet, and I was chagrined because I never had a list – apparently I didn’t get the memo – although if I had had a list, I imagine I might have met more of the people I look back and think it would have been cool to meet.

On Diversity

I was keenly aware of diversity this year. Aware of the level of effort that had been required to create a diverse speaker roster, aware of the lack of diversity I saw in many high ranking circles and groups within WordPress, aware of how difficult it is to be considered diversity and always wonder why someone picked you or reached out to you, etc – a recurring theme in my conversations with some folks that are underrepresented in North America. I'm also keenly aware of what it feels like to strive from the other side of that diversity equation – the guilt of being picked and the guilt of not being picked.

I don't have answers or reflections on that beyond this, it's all a weird hot human nuanced mess. But I would have been remiss if I hadn't mentioned it.

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Right now, I’m absolutely exhausted but I know that once I’ve had some time to process and rest, I’ll feel energized by everything I experienced these past 6 days and I can’t wait to see what happens as a result of that in the coming months. :)

Happy Tuesday, y’all.

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Aurooba Ahmed ​​

113 Cherry St #92768, Seattle, WA 98104-2205
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