Yesterday I attended WordCamp 2013 at the Cape Town stadium. There was an interesting mix of speakers but in a marked change from last year, the talks weren't very technical in nature. Instead, the focus was more on the business side of things: the why and how of using WordPress and writing and blogging.
The conference took place in the Press room of the stadium and was a bit mixed as a venue. The auditorium was pretty good, but it’s not designed for all day event: there’s nowhere to sit inside apart from the auditorium, and there was only very limited access to the stadium seating. The food during the day was great, but this was the first tech-related conference I remember where I’ve had to pay for coffee (although the first one was free).
Themes
There were a couple of themes that ran through the day, popping up in several talks.
- Who your readers are is more important than how many readers you have.
- Know your users and understand them. Related: look at your stats and use them as a guide for making small adjustments.
- Write about things that interest you: your passion, your obsession. If you're bored writing about something, people will be bored reading it.