Creating WordPress Community Over Plugins and Pasta
Women Who WP celebrated the second month as an organized group in the WordPress community last night. Meeting for dinner and a lively discussion on WordPress, our group of women who blog, design, develop, and market with the well-loved website platform inspired and taught one another at Buca di Beppo in Huntington Beach, California. Seven members of the current 45 were in attendance, introductions were made and WP experiences were shared.
As personal stories were told, the impact of the WordPress community was ever present. Jen Miller shared her experiences using and growing a business with WordPress. Priscilla Christian recalled how the community drew together and historically offered one another support in code and in friendship. Bridget Willard told of how the Give plugin by WordImpress brought Orange County WordPress Meetup members together and fully funded Jason Tucker’s request for video equipment to be used at the MeetUp in less than 24 hours.
A Common Theme: Gratitude for the WordPress Community
Elizabeth Shilling defined WordPress plugins and reported on each, explaining its value, as group members added comments on those they had personally used. The upcoming Plugin-A-Palooza at Orange County WordCamp was explained and event details were shared on it and other upcoming WordPress community events. Plugins and tools discussed included Akismet, WordPress SEO by Yoast, Jetpack, Broken Link Checker, Thin Out Revisions, WP Smush, Kraken Image Optimizer, OptinMonster, Gravity Forms, What Would Seth Godin Do, W3 Total Cache, WP Super Cache, Screaming Frog, Crazy Egg Heatmap Tracking and Mashshare.
Yvonne Conway, a long-time Meetup organizer, shared insights on how to develop Women Who WP as a Meetup while Carin Arrigo-Zimmer recounted how her websites and blog contributed to her development personally and professionally. Linda Ivanov brought up a current project and sought answers on database management from the group. Questions were asked and answers were given. Throughout each conversion laughter, respect and friendship was fostered, leaving all in attendance energized and excited for the next meeting.
