Well, where do I start?
A WordCamp is a fun, nice, open and free place to be. Informal and community-organized: everyone from casual users to core developers participates, shares ideas, and gets to know each other.
You are in doubt? Let me tell you about my first WordCamp: WordCamp Netherlands 2010. I hesitated for weeks. Is a WordCamp for me? Am I ‘WordPress’ enough? Would it be too low level for me, or too high level? Am I forced to ‘network’? In hindsight: blahblah.
I went and it was awesome: everybody is welcome, no barriers, all sorts of talks and great socials. A nice mishmash of people (devs, designers, students, bloggers, ..) with an open mind and even if there is no interesting talk at a given time: there’s always coffee and cool folks.
I remember I skipped a talk because I was too busy with another ‘random’ visitor. We sketched a potential solution on a napkin for a problem he had. A couple of weeks later he called me to let me know the sketched solution worked out! Till now we are still doing work together.
I just saw this tweet on my Timeline. How Carrie Dils simply describes it:
The #WordPress community is so generous of spirit. If you feel disconnected from it and want to be a part, message me & I’ll introduce you.
— carrie dils (@cdils) March 31, 2016
And if this testimonial doesn’t do it for you: fair enough 😉
Here some very good reading and watching materials:
Why You Can’t Afford Not to Attend a WordCamp
https://premium.wpmudev.org/blog/wordcamps/
Why Attend WordCamps
You should never attend a WordCamp
Claims Taco, community manager at Yoast, our Diamond sponsor. He makes a great argument, “I mean, who would want to meet new people, discover new tools, learn about new techniques and have a great time?”
https://yoast.com/dev-blog/you-should-never-attend-a-wordcamp/