WordCampUK Day 2

I finally can wander from BackPackers to somewhere in the pedestrian zone without any unplanned detours.

Birmingham is not a bad city at all; I am still not used to the idea that stores, big stores and malls are open on Sunday. Too many years of living has definitely damaged my outlook. The Apple Store gave me a UK extension cord for my Mac. That is right, gave me that cord that goes from the transformer box to the wall.  Enabling me to change from my current system of unwieldly 2-prong German plugged into UK three prong.  Didn’t I mention that the three prong Swiss/Italian plug doesn’t fit into any UK adapters?

Overall – I got some major lightbulb knowledge out of the conference. The presentations especially on mobile blogging, ecosystems, plug-ins and subversion were worth the trip up. Some of the more technical sessions were well above my head…

End result? Over the next couple of weeks in my copious <not> spare time, I am going to migrate over both my book site and the family website. As one of the participants asked – what about the kid’s non-pages? Well, since they seem to be able to cope with live journal, perhaps they can handle having a real blog.  (while I get the advantage of running several WordPress branches). 

Along with that, there are some simple structural changes that I can make in my file set up on the server which will make updating and backup a snap.

Interesting Participants

Tony Scott – organizer
Geoff Jones –  mobile blogging, hiking and comentary
Mike Little – software developer, music fanatic
Julia Gilbert –  personal blog
Sam Bauers – Word Press and Mac
Benjamin Ellis – Business Communications and Integration (technology & human integration)
Simon Dixon – website consultancy specializing in news and gov organizations.
Richard Williams – Mobile Blogging
Jon Bounds – named as one of the most influential people in Birmingham (bloggers do have influence)
Neville Hobson – podcasting, communications.
Ian Covey – collects the absolutely worst UK TV adverts
Chris Garrett – blogging and new media
Peter Westwood – WordPress usage and plugins
Rich Boakes – bit of this and that.
Simon Wheatley – WordPress plugins, Mac
Jonnya – WordPress as CMS. Perhaps the best site out there to get you thinking outside the traditional WP mindset