WordCamp Kochi 2017 – An awe-inspiring event!
We proudly sponsored and attended the very first one-of-its-kind WordCamp in the entire South India – The WordCamp Kochi!
The event was held on 19th of February, 2017, at Udyan Convention Centre, Vennala, Kochi.
The venue is located near Hotel Holiday Inn, by the side of NH47/NH66. Though the venue is not too far away from Vyttila Junction, yet it is very hard to locate. If Google Maps and Uber were not there, then we would have definitely struggled a lot to reach the venue!
Our journey as a Volunteer!
I had signed up as a volunteer as well. The entire team was amazing and they reached Kochi a day before. The interesting volunteers meeting was headed by Bigul who walked us through the various tasks involved. They then distributed the green tees of volunteers that were to be worn by us the very next day.
Our journey as a Sponsor!
Since it was our maiden experience as a team to WordCamp, so we happily relinquished the chance to setup a stall.
Our prime objective behind being a sponsor was just to show our support and encouragement to the WordPress Community in the South.
Still, we got the spotlight through the banners, standees, TV’s and of course, personal mentions. We saw people coming over us to connect with us and know us better. We were highly elated and overwhelmed by the response.
The Sessions and The Anchor (Special Mention)
Speaking of the sessions- we thoroughly enjoyed the fascinating sessions. The session by Sudar Muthu on ‘Developer tools’ was out of the ordinary. The session on ‘Customer Support’ by Mahangu Weerasinghe was very informative and inspiring.
Daphnée Laforest’s session on ‘Remote Work’ made us aware of the window full of opportunities in the domain. The sessions by Hardeep Asrani on ‘the importance of WordPress communities’ and Vivek Jain’s session on ‘client handling’ were equally knowledgeable and engaging.
The special mention is to Hari Sankar’s anchoring. He is a happy engineer working with WordPress, from our own city, and he did a spectacular job in anchoring the event. He kept the populaces hooked as well as entertained.
The event as a whole
Bigul is the man! – Bigul who is working with WPML was the main organizer of the event. It was a well-organised event that fetched us with a plethora of information. It was an enthralling experience, right from the distribution of the badges and goodies to the mouth-watering food. The event started on time, the sessions went as planned. We cannot thank enough to Bigul, Harisankar and the whole team for organizing such a magnificent WordCamp.
How special was WordCamp Kochi?
WordCamp Kochi gave us an extraordinary experience worth treasuring. It was our first WordCamp, and it was the one we sponsored for the first time. Bereft that, WordCamp Kochi was exceptional for many other reasons:
- It had a theme ‘Go Green’. They avoided the use of plastic, and even the pen in the cloth swag bag was made of recycled paper with a seed. This was done so that even if someone throws away the pen, it does not cause any harm to Mother Nature and rather give birth to a tree. Isn’t the thought amazing?
- It was the first WordCamp to introduce the WC Mascot Wapu as a couple- Appu and Ammu.
- It was the first WordCamp in the entire South India!
We have decided that we would make it a practice to attend the maximum of WordCamps we can from now on.
The upcoming one is in Mumbai, on 25th and 26th of March, and guess what, we have booked our tickets already! 🙂