In life we are inspired by certain experiences, they can be small things, but that somehow give a “key” in us for the personal moment we are experiencing.
That always happened to me with WordCamp Madrid.
In the 2018 edition it was the first time I participated as a volunteer, so I lived that WC in a very intense way. That year I saw the birth of the Spanish community suitcase, I met wonderful people who are still great friends today.
Therefore I will never be objective with this community, which somehow brings together all the groups in Spain as it is the event par excellence where many of us meet with enthusiasm every year … until the pandemic.
That pandemic that frustrated so many organizers, such as Carla Saiz, who saw how 2020 did not allow us to materialize our WCs planned for that year. I still remember being in that Zoom call of WC organizers from Spain, before the pandemic, all of us, with more doubts than answers.
Today in 2023the Madrid group can make up for this situation and held a large event, with 620 people who enjoyed incredible talks, workshops, in a unique space (La Nave), with cocido madrileño, traditional porras, chocolates and churros and above all, a lot of partying, as characterizes the WordPress community in Spain.
We “Galicians” tend to stick together. So Carlos Longarela was in charge of renting an apartment where we could enjoy some little battallitas: Sabela Muñiz, Yolanda Pasos, Lúa Louro and the great Fernando García Rebolledo, soul of after partys.
As a good fan of the energy of a great city like Madrid, and as is tradition for me, I’m going to enjoy the day before I can get lost in music stores like the record label: Liquidator. Specializing in reggae and ska, small pleasures that I do not have at hand in my city.
To be able to enjoy international food with a wonderful ramen. In other editions I was accompanied by Jose Luis. On this trip, that role was filled by Yolanda. 😇
That Friday we had the famous dinner for volunteers, speakers, sponsors and organization.
They took us to a beautiful place in Plaza España, with delicious tapas and of course, we ended up hugging and enjoying this wonderful community.
I laughed my head off and came out looking forward to the big day of talks.
My talk and LucusHost
I launched a workshop proposal entitled: “Caralladas de Google: SEO and WordPress Best Practices“. I was excited to revisit basic SEO concepts and explain them in real time with a website I made as a test for the occasion (very focused on love, I know, weird, but it worked).
I am grateful to the organization for having been selected. It was a great honor that I took with great responsibility and affection. ❤️
What I didn’t expect was the gift that Jonathan Martinez from LucusHost gave to Carlos Longarela and me. They sponsored our talk. It had never happened to me before and I was incredibly excited.
As I said in the workshop, I felt like a diva. They made me happy, not because of the economic part (which is also), but because they are good friends, a company from Lugo, and they have always supported our community.
I thank them for such a nice gift and it has been an honor to proudly carry the LucusHost brand not only for the quality of service I know they have, but for their values. Thank you 🙏!
The feedback from the workshop has been very positive. The room was full, there were almost no free seats, so I understand that I liked it and not only for the talk, but also for the goodies that I usually give away with the participation and questions of the attendees. Thank you for attending. 😇
I leave the video in case you want to laugh for a while at my analogies between Tinder and Google, showing ridiculous pictures of me.
I have overcome the little shame I have in having shown these photos publicly and in having exposed my heart and my “Luguesa-Coruña muse” in such an explicit way.
It was not a simple “storytelling“, it involved revealing personal and emotional aspects with total transparency.
The talks
As usual, it is difficult to attend many talks because of the number of people you meet and you want to spend some quality time with. That’s a lot of social interactions in a very short time.
Obviously I went to enjoy the workshop of my friend Carlos, who was amazing how he explained in a clear way all the interesting things we have inside the browser for web development.
In addition, the origin of that talk has a symbolic and emotional value for me, in which Jose Luis is involved. If you want to know, you’ll have to watch his workshop on WordPress TV.
I thought Lidia Marbán‘s talk “I don’t pay taxes” was brilliant.
For me, short talks are much more complex, because summarizing in 10 minutes a content implies a great capacity.
Lidia has managed to use an appealing title (the topic of taxes raises many passions) with a series of clear and simple examples of the correct tax settings in WooCommerce. Fantastic talk my friend. Incredible.
I was fascinated with the one by Elena Tur. A super creative copywriter with an incredible profile.
I met Elena on Friday, who by the way, had the coolest t-shirt of the event. He taught us in a few minutes some essential keys to improve our writing and get the most out of ChatGPT. Fantastic!
I loved Nilo’ s talk. He is a virtuous guy and one of the most important characters at any WordCamp.
He is a true hacker not only because of his technical skills, but because of his involvement in every aspect of WordCamps and the WordPress community in general.
His role as the official photographer, organizer, and facilitator of all WP groups is to be admired. Your short talk of incredible security. So a little gem that I recommend.
The one from one of the most sincere and funny Spanish-speaking bloggers: Rubén Alonso, wonderful: WordPress and Telegram, a love story.
Ruben is a virtuoso, a curious person and a good “fuchicator” who leaves us many valuable ideas.
Marina Febles ‘ talk on multipotentiality was super nice. It seems to me that she says out loud very important things that would help a lot of people. thanks Marina.
And although I could not see it live, I saw it later on video, the one by Sara Fernandez, SEO consultant is a gem. Title: “What is SXO? Discover how to unite SEO and UX“I think the proposal is brilliant.
Also at the volunteer dinner we were talking and telling battles and differences between being a freelance SEO and working for agencies. Very interesting Sara and it was a pleasure to learn about your work and projects.
I was looking forward to seeing Yannick (whom I was finally able to meet), David Pérez, Jesús Yesares, Néstor, Moncho, Fernando Puente, Diego, Araceli Bermejo, Ana Cirujano, and so many other people that I am not mentioning but it is impossible to attend all of them.
Already when you carry many WC the “pasilleo” becomes an essential part of these events.
Farewell and organizers
The data leaves no one indifferent:
- 620 tickets sold
- 137 papers received
- 40 talks by 43 selected speakers
- 29 sponsors
- 18 organizers
- 28 volunteers
Very touching Carla. He finally got rid of that thorn and was able to organize his edition of the WC Madrid.
Congratulations team, Fernando Tellado, as always a titan and an example to follow for all of us in this great family. ❤️
Fernando Lopez, an amazing SEO consultant, a good person, always willing to help, who made me excited to present me at the event. Thanks for that gift my friend. 🙏
Juanma Aranda, who with his ability to create content has nurtured excellent communication on the web, on Telegram, in his live shows, etc.
And to the rest of the team: Arantxa Sáenz, Axel José Loupias, Carlos Bravo, Carlota Galván, Elena Dosil, Gabriela Sánchez, Javier Salinas, José Ángel Vidania, Juan Oro, Maylén García, Miguel Díaz, Raquel Sebastián, Santiago Cerro and Viviana Otero. Thank you ❤️!
A highlight of the verbena. I refer to the photos. I had a blast with the outfits. And the subject of the “photomaton” fed my childish curiosity like there was no tomorrow. I went through that arena at least 3 times.
I have already told our president Sabela that the only thing I will ask her in our WC will be to put one of these gadgets. Pure fun with costumes and twirling? What more could we ask from life? 😉
I also want to emphasize that WC Madrid allowed us to join a small part of the organizers of the WordCamp Europe that this year we held in Torino, Italy.
Here is a photo taken by Jorge Casals from the marketing and public relations team.
I loved having many people from my community team as our leader: Liza Bogatyrev, Earl Cruz and Ohia, with whom I enjoyed so much in the Athens edition. ❤️
I loved the conversations with Patricia Brun, leader of the volunteer team. A delightful person with fantastic and very moving ideas for WCEU.
This type of large WordCamps has that magic. It allows us to connect many people that we usually see only on this occasion.
Contributor day
Saturday’s party ended as you can imagine. Very happy everyone. I went to dinner with the fantastic LucusHost team and friends 😉
And even though I went to bed very late, we were on the ball on contributor day. For me it will always be my favorite day despite hangovers and other results of tiredness and lack of sleep.
A very large contributor with a lot of participation. Fernando Tellado kicked things off by explaining what we would have that day.
Our WP TV table was led by Javier Salinas who was working on the recording of the workshops and collaborating with Fernando and Julio, our friends from Desafío Digital.
New people have joined the team, a great job that will be published on the same day 32 talks and workshops will be published.
After lunch, people begin to disperse. Big hugs, lots of memories and the characteristic feeling of euphoria of having lived a very nice experience.
Many start their trip that day, others the next day… I know that feeling from the organizing team of mixed exhaustion and euphoria that makes you wonder, “What will we do next year?”
Thanks to this team from Madrid for their commitment to all the communities of Spain, for having built such a beautiful meeting in which we all see ourselves reflected.
Long live and prosper WordPress!
