Tyler ReedYoung Entrepreneur & Speaker

WordCamp South Africa was held this weekend in Cape Town and I must say it was an overall success. I never thought organising an event would be as hard as it was, it was a valuable lesson to learn. The weekend was quite eventful, so I will take you through pre and post WordCamp days too.

Friday, 22nd of August
I arrived at the airport to catch an early morning (06h30) flight with Denham Coote and Vincent Maher. We touched down in a semi-overcast Cape Town to meet Jason Bagley. We had a few client meetings throughout the day (which were tough without sleep).

After we checked into our hotel, we were off to the airport to fetch Matt Mullenweg and meet Warwich Poole, a fellow South African who works with Matt at Automattic and WordPress. Unfortunately, Matt’s bags were left behind in New York, so it was off to purchase some odds and ends for Matt. We then went out for a quick dinner and met up with the rest of the geeks for drinks at Asoka Bar.

I met a number of bloggers and tweeple (people who use Twitter) for the first time. I would type an entire list, but I might forget someone. The list that Sue Rutherford has put together should suffice.

Saturday, 23rd of August (WordCamp SA 2008)
The day of WordCamp SA 2008! The event kicked off at 09h30, but I saw attendees sneaking in as early as 08h30. The day was packed with bloggers and their laptops. The speakers kept the venue quite packed (apologies to those who had to stand). There were so many of us it made the Wifi at the Wild Fig very unstable, hats off to Skyrove for literally bringing in Wifi on wheels to assist the load. Zoopy also interviewed Matt and myself.

I will admit that there were a few bumps in organising the event and on the day. We have taken notes and will definitely improve things for WordCamp SA 2009. I have never had so much fun in one day though, a big thank you to everyone who attended.

After WordCamp Denham, Matt, Warwick, Jacques and I went to Sinns at Wembley Square for an awesome dinner. Shortly after, Dave and Chris joined us for some drinks. We then headed off to Chris’s house, thanks for being such a good host, even at 05h00 in the morning!

Sunday, 24th of August (trip to Stormhoek)
After checking out of the hotel, we quickly grabbed some KFC and headed off to the Stormhoek farm in Wellington. We got the grand tour of the valley and then had an awesome braai. Sadly, I can’t drink wine but everybody else enjoyed the numerous bottles of Stormhoek wine. Early in the evening, we had to head off to the airport to catch our flight (21h20) back to Johannesburg. The flight flew by literally, as I slept most of the way.

I would like to thank Jason Bagley, my fellow WordCamp organiser and colleague, for being my taxi for the weekend. A special thanks to all the WordCamp SA speakers and sponsors, but most importantly the people who attended. Although my Macbook got thirsty, the event was perfect. Thanks again Stormhoek for an amazing Sunday as well. Matt and Warwick, it was awesome to finally meet you guys, however the biggest thanks goes to Maya Desai for arranging all of Matt’s travel arrangements.

A special thank you goes to IS who sponsored me Wifi for the weekend and continue to do so, it kept me connected almost everywhere. Especially when my 3G connection wasn’t playing nice.

I will be flying down to Cape Town tomorrow morning, extremely early in the morning with Denny and Vincent Maher. The day will be crazy, what else do you expect when hanging out with Jason Bagley, jumping from meeting to meeting to all sorts of other things.

Saturday is going to be a really exciting day, the first WordCamp in South Africa will be taking place. Matt Mullenweg and a host of other speakers will be there. There is still a tiny bit of space left, so if you want to join us then go ahead and register.