Building Community from Scratch: Aaron Holbrook on WordPress User Groups and WordCamps
Building Community from Scratch: Aaron Holbrook on WordPress User Groups and WordCamps
The Interviewer
Mike Hall
Interviewer, community organizer at UGtastic
The Guest
Aaron Holbrook
WordPress Developer, Organizer of McHenry County WordPress Meetup
The Conversation
Mike Hall
Interviewer, community organizer at UGtastic
Hi, it's Mike with UGtastic again. I'm sitting down with Aaron Holbrook who has started up a user group, a WordPress user group in McHenry County, Illinois. And he's also spoken at several of the WordCamps and he's actually getting ready to start up another WordPress-oriented conference. So, thanks Aaron for sitting down with me. So, what is the McHenry County WordPress Meetup?
Aaron Holbrook
WordPress Developer, Organizer of McHenry County WordPress Meetup
That's right, and thanks for having me, Mike. I really appreciate it. Yeah, so I started just recently, in the last couple months, McHenry County WordPress Meetup. Basically, there was no user group, there was no really community out where I live, which is northwest suburb of Chicago, McHenry County. So, I decided to put one together.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, community organizer at UGtastic
Okay, great. And why WordPress, though?
Aaron Holbrook
WordPress Developer, Organizer of McHenry County WordPress Meetup
I'm a big WordPress developer. I've been using WordPress since 2005. I'm pretty fanatical about it and it's about 95% of what I do. So, I'm really dedicated to WordPress and using it in my business and really giving back to the community and helping other people learn how to use it and answer their questions. And networking with the community, so people that are also interested in WordPress.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, community organizer at UGtastic
Well, I think it's interesting because I've mostly approached WordPress as a purely blogging platform, but what I was reading up a little bit before we spoke is that it's a lot more than just that.
Aaron Holbrook
WordPress Developer, Organizer of McHenry County WordPress Meetup
Yeah, it really took a turn in about 2009. Custom post types or content types were rolled out and it turned WordPress from a blogging platform really to a full-fledged CMS with a lot of really, really good features. Especially the client ease of use. The client ease of use and the ability for end users to be able to use it to maintain their site is really, really good. So, that's a really nice feature of WordPress.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, community organizer at UGtastic
So, what's your format for your meetup?
Aaron Holbrook
WordPress Developer, Organizer of McHenry County WordPress Meetup
Well, like I said, we just started a couple of months ago, so we've only had a couple. But we've had open form with Q&A sessions where people just bring a list of questions. And we just kind of have some drinks and some pizza and dinner. We just kind of talk about what you can do on WordPress, what beginners should do, or what plugins are good. Our most recent meeting, we actually had Heather Acton, who leads the Lake County WordPress meetup. She's really smart. She gave a whole lecture on the best tips and practices for beginners and what you should do when you first get involved with your WordPress site.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, community organizer at UGtastic
How have you been able to reach many people? Is there a pretty vibrant WordPress online community that you were able to reach out to?
Aaron Holbrook
WordPress Developer, Organizer of McHenry County WordPress Meetup
In and around Chicago, there is a really tight-knit group of WordPress contributors and community members. I had gone to WordCamp Chicago in 2011. I got to talking with the organizer, Heather Acton, because I had applied to speak and didn't get accepted. I went up to her and asked why, and what I could do better to get an opportunity to speak. It turned out I had Git in the title of my presentation. They weren't sure if they should use that because it wouldn't necessarily be neutral. But I got to talking with her and met a great bunch of people.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, community organizer at UGtastic
Mostly I was asking about how did you reach the people for your meetup. Did you go online?
Aaron Holbrook
WordPress Developer, Organizer of McHenry County WordPress Meetup
Actually, meetup.com did a spectacular job of letting people know if they were looking for something like that. I didn't do any marketing. I just told people, and when I went to WordCamps, I let people know. But meetup.com did a great job; people just started showing up. I think we have about 50 people signed up in the group, but really it varies between 10 and 15 people who show up in person.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, community organizer at UGtastic
That's pretty good. I know how hard it is to get people out to meetings. I used to run a group called Software Craftsmanship in McHenry County. Is the focus of your group on how to use and administer WordPress, or is it how to develop plug-ins and PHP?
Aaron Holbrook
WordPress Developer, Organizer of McHenry County WordPress Meetup
I'm more of a higher-level developer, talking about version control and things way past beginners, and I would love to do more talks like that. But a lot of people are just learning about WordPress, so we have a lot of beginners, which is totally fine. We just have to gear the content and the topics more towards that. I would love to get more developers out to some of these, not only so they could help contribute, but to meet more developers.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, community organizer at UGtastic
Well, I can personally say that the SCMC group is looking to move their blog, and they could certainly use some help with getting off of Posterous.
Aaron Holbrook
WordPress Developer, Organizer of McHenry County WordPress Meetup
Well, give me a call.
Mike Hall
Interviewer, community organizer at UGtastic
All right, great. Well, thank you very much for taking the time to sit down with me. Really appreciate it.
Aaron Holbrook
WordPress Developer, Organizer of McHenry County WordPress Meetup
No problem. Thanks for having me, Mike.
Critical Insights
durable
"WordPress evolved from a pure blogging platform to a full-fledged CMS around 2009 with the introduction of custom post types."
time bound
"Meetup.com served as an effective, zero-marketing organic discovery tool for local tech communities in the early 2010s."
durable
"Local user groups often need to balance the advanced technical interests of organizers with the beginner-level needs of attendees."
durable
"Attending conferences and asking organizers directly for feedback on rejected talk proposals is a highly effective networking and growth strategy."