This is one of my first social media attempts in Toronto – the WordCamp Toronto 2010, or simply #wcto2010. Waking up at minus something before 7AM means I was really interested. I did almost everything right – ok, I forgot my business cards, I’m still not used to carrying them.
I arrived at the pickup point – Bloor-Yonge Station – about 7:45 and it was REALLY cold outside. Then I saw some people and I presumed they were also going to the wordcamp thing. After some socialization and some delay, we started to wonder if there was traffic or if we had been forgotten by the bus driver. We were lucky to have Shannon among us with some contacts on her cellphone, so we could find out on time what was going on. Guess what? HEY YOU TOTALLY FORGOT!
Since our arrival to Bloor-Yonge, we waited for one hour and a half until we were finally picked up by an yellow schoolbus. Charlie Brown feelings. :)
This was the only downside of the event so far. The speeches have been interesting and OMG THERE IS SO MUCH FOOD AVAILABLE. I’m also waiting to watch the speeches about WordPress MU.
There are all these different people here, since developers and designers to project managers, animators, and writers. I’ve been SOCIALIZING – that’s what SOCIAL MEDIA (BINGO!) is about, isn’t it?
I should make a giant hashtag about all the memes present at the event, but I’m too frustrated I had no chance trying the Nanaimo Bars. Maybe tomorrow.
Update: The speeches were great, as the after party. But I have some remarks.
I would have made the event more “condensed”. The strategy of serving tons of food at every two short speeches made it too long – it could’ve been a one-day only event – and, sometimes, tiring.
Saturday, after 3:30PM, I was not allowed to charge my notebook anymore (and I have started charging it like 15 min before!) because they were using the “Charging Station” to serve more food. Also, the coffee and tea were removed (tell me why??? – and, oh, it seems people who went on Sunday were COMPLETELY OUT OF COFFEE) and there were only some bananas and plums left, from the awesome brunch we’ve experienced before.
I have some complaints about this “food” thing – I believe it drove us away from the real focus of the event. Maybe less coffee-breaks, and enough drinks would have been enough, I think.
I got a real problem on the second day: after waking up on time, I remembered the subway starts operating at 9AM, and I was supposed to be at the bus at 8:30AM. Magic? I was counting on the subway and could not find an easy way to arrive at the pickup point on Sunday morning. A saturday-only event would also have solved this issue.
I’d definetely go to next year, but I expect a more conventional (more condensed) event, and I’d prefer it on a single day. And, oh, is it really necessary to start SO EARLY? I’d prefer not risking myself having problems with the TTC again.
Thanks Alexa, Matthew, Rick, Shannon, Don, Brian, Ben, everyone I met there and whose website I could find. If there’s someone missing, please add yourself to the comments ;)