LoopConf, a new WordPress conference created for developers, was held in Las Vegas last week with a world-class lineup of speakers. The event was such a success that the organization team is already planning for 2016.
#loopconf 2016?! We’ve committed to year 2 and are already making plans! Get on the super early interest list here: https://t.co/23y5pL4qWv
— LoopConf (@loopconf) May 13, 2015
Attendees were impressed with the professional planning of the event, speaker selection, and the quality of the venue.
“I’m going to say, with emphasis, what I think everyone is probably thinking: LoopConf is what you wish most WordCamps were,” Speaker and attendee John James Jacoby said in his writeup.
“I like that WordCamps are casual and inviting, and I like that conferences like LoopConf and the WordPress.com VIP Workshop strive to achieve something more professional. I think there will be some WordCamps that try to upgrade themselves to compete, and others that will purposely stay intimate and niche,” Jacoby predicted.
The entire WooCommerce development team was also in attendance at LoopConf and Patrick Rauland found interacting with other developers from the community to be the highlight.
“The biggest takeaway that I got from Loop was that conferences are about people,” he said. “Not that cheesy networking where you try to meet as many people as possible. It’s about meeting people and really getting to know them.”
Those who could not attend may have missed out on the networking, but videos for all of the sessions are now available on YouTube. One favorite session among attendees was Andrew Nacin’s presentation on The Anatomy of a Critical Security Bug, during which he revealed that the Emoji support added in WordPress 4.2 was also part of a larger plan to fix a two-year old security vulnerability.
Attendees also enjoyed Ghost founder John O’Nolan’s session on The Economics of Open Source, Ryan McCue’s “How to Build a REST API for 23 Percent of the Web,” and Google engineer Ilya Grigorik’s Performance Guide RAIL keynote presentation. If you have some free time to devote to improving your development knowledge, the LoopConf videos make up a small library of advanced learning on a variety technical topics.
LoopConf attracted 210 attendees as a brand new WordPress event this year. Glowing accounts of its professional handling are likely to increase the number next year. LoopConf 2016 is already in the planning stages, but the location is yet to be decided.
Source: WP Tavern
