It’s a guarantee that you’ll take something away from your WordCamp experience. The amount of information coming at you throughout the weekend will fill up your brain and your bag to the brim.

It’s helpful to put some intention towards what you would like to get out of the event. Our intention here is to give you an idea of what you can expect this year, as well as some ideas and insights for managing your physical and mental capacity.

Swag!

Let’s start with the most obvious “take away”, the swag.

What to expect:

If you are someone who prefers to avoid free T-shirts, notepads, tote bags, pens, socks, stickers and a host of other things, you can skip this section.

Otherwise, plan to be a bit overwhelmed with the opportunity you’ll have to gobble up years worth of office supplies and apparel.

We’ll be providing you an official WordCamp Atlanta 2019 T-shirt and badge, while many of the vendors will have branded items of their own.

A few suggestions:

We’ll provide you with a bag for all your swag… make good use of it to store your T-shirt and some other goodies from our sponsors.

Take the time to stop and speak with the sponsors while you devour all their goodies. They’re all in the family and likely offer a product or service that could be valuable in your own life – or that you can refer to someone you know.

Second, don’t take everything you see. Seriously, you don’t need all that stuff.

New People & Information

One of the main reasons to attend an event like WordCamp is having access to knowledge and ideas. There are so many people coming together that it’s hard NOT to find a subject matter expert willing to share and help others.

That said, with around 60 speakers over two days, plus workshops on a third day, your brain can easily turn to mush.

What to expect:

Expect to meet and befriend a ton of people.

You’re diving in to a group of people just like you who are all eager to learn and share together. Many are other introverts getting out of their comfort zone to make connections and enhance their businesses and lives.

I highly recommend writing the contact info down of people you meet, even if you get a business card.

A few suggestions:

With so much information coming at you so quickly, my first recommendation is to go in knowing you will not catch it all.

That’s ok because much like the swag, you don’t need all of that.

Take the time to review the sessions and build out a schedule for yourself before the event starts. Start by choosing the things that are absolutely relevant to you and your interests.

Bring a pen and notepad.

I just wanted to make sure that part stuck out.

Bring a pen and notepad. But if you forget you’ll almost certainly be able to snag those from a vendor table.

Don’t worry about writing down everything you hear in every session, since you’ll get to re-watch many of these sessions on WordPress.TV. (In just a few weeks.)

Save your notes for the ‘aha’ moments. Logging these will give you a reference to look into later when you have more time to digest everything.

Recap

• You don’t need all that stuff.
• Talk to the vendors and learn about them.
• Bring a pen and notepad.
• Be prepared to meet folks and network.
• Be prepared for an abundance of knowledge.

Have fun!