Participating in a maiden WordCamp always has you on your toes until the event actually happens. You have many questions like will it have a relevant audience, will it be well-organized or will it be flooded by college students who will come just for the swag & food, etc. Thankfully, all of those questions were answered on a positive note at WordCamp Udaipur, which took place a couple of days back on January 28 2017.
At Tyche Softwares, 100% of our business runs on WordPress. We sell Premium WooCommerce plugins focussed on niche areas. Registering our presence at WordCamps is something which we have been giving priority to since the last 6 months. Before that we did participate, but not aggressively. Like we would attend a WordCamp that is only in Mumbai or Pune & not too far away.
Attending WordCamp Singapore last year with the team was a phenomenal experience. That made me re-think that we should be attending as many WordCamps as possible & not just based on how close they are from Mumbai.
Since the last 6 months, we have been regularly participating in WordCamps across India & abroad too. We did actually miss WordCamp Pune that happened on January 15 this year. That was since our colleague & Order Delivery Date plugin lead, Moxa was getting married on January 17. But we did still register our presence with a Bronze Sponsorship.
We often get asked: What benefit do you get from sponsoring a WordCamp? Do you see an increase in sales? It’s an interesting question. My answer is always this: There is no direct benefit of sponsoring a WordCamp. We do it because it allows our team members to have a chance to interact with a varied range of people. We do it so as to allow current & new communities to host WordCamps with the utmost zeal. What happens if WordCamps don’t have enough sponsors? You won’t see a WordCamp happening again in that city. This has happened for many WordCamps across India & the world. We would hate that. And we sponsor WordCamps because:
Tyche Team
Like everytime, we participated along with 6 of our team members: Bhavik, Kartik, Myself, Chetna, Mansi, Apeksha & Khyati. This time though, before the WordCamp began, we agreed that each of them will talk to atleast 5 people they do not know. And learn from them as to how they are using WordPress. It’s important to know how people are using WordPress so we can have a wider thought process. Little Naksh was also accompanying us along with mommy.
Proud moment for Tyche Softwares
WC Udaipur had some magical moments for us.
1) Khyati Gala, our Plugin Testing specialist, was moderating a panel Women in WordPress at the event. She is the first person from our team to be speaking or moderating at a WordCamp. The panelists were Surbhi Jain, Nancy Thanki, Mansi Shah, Monika Rao & Nisha Singh.
2) I was part of a panel, Building a Successful WordPress Business. It was moderated by Nirav Mehta, with Devin Walker, Parth Pandya & Puneet Sahalot as my co-panelists.
3) We were Silver Sponsors at the event.
We haven’t had participation across any WordCamp in such magnitude. Thank you to the organizers for giving us this opportunity to share our thoughts.
Making new friends
I met so many wonderful people for the first time & was amazed by the openness by each of them.
The first ones were people from the organizing team. Rakesh Sharma & Mukesh were kind enough to pick us up from a drop point to take us to the pre-event Speaker/Sponsor dinner. Rakesh runs MindGrove eSolutions Pvt. Ltd., who provide a variety of digital services. Once we reached the dinner venue, we got introduced to many members of the organizing team. It was hard to remember them, because they were a big team, and a wonderful one. Let’s see how many names I can recollect: Puneet, Nidhi, Achal, Monika, Hardik, Priyanka… And that’s all I remember!
During the dinner, I met with Aslam Multani, CTO & Founding Director of Multidots. I have worked with Anil Gupta, Founder of Multidots & I also know they are doing excellent work in WordPress & other areas. I was expecting Anil, but since he was traveling, the Multidots delegation (yeah, 25 of them!) was lead by Aslam. It was a warm exchange where I also met some of their team members. One of their team member, Nirmal Desai, was also a speaker at WC Udaipur. I remember meeting him 3 years back in WC Mumbai 2014. I kind of imagined how he was feeling speaking for the first time, since I had the same feeling in Mumbai 2014 too. And you should look out for WordCamp Ahmedabad in the coming few months!
At the same time, I got introduced to Devin Walker as well. He is the Founder of GiveWP. Give is a WordPress Donation Plugin. Although we had met over emails a couple of days ago since we were speaking on the same panel at WC Udaipur, it was wonderful to learn about the story of Give. We had a similar story for Tyche Softwares too & it was an open exchange, not one of those types which people typically would have when you meet them for the first time. I also met his team member, Ravinder. I actually met Ravinder at WordCamp Nashik only to get a Give Tshirt. Got to meet him at length & also thank them for the Tshirt. 🙂
There are some regulars at WordCamps. You always happen to bump into them, no matter which WordCamp you are at. Some other such people who I met at the dinner were Rahul Bansal, Founder of rtCamp – the only WordPress VIP Agency from Asia & first in India, Bigul Malayi, QA & Support Analyst with OnTheGo Systems and also the Lead Organizer for WC Kochi, Vachan Kudmule, a WordPress / WooCommerce Expert & many others too.
While I was at the WordCamp handling visitors at the booth, my wife Riddhi & daughter Pahel were enjoying the city of Udaipur. Udaipur is a very popular tourist spot. They had their own share of good times!
Sessions
I will regret not attending many sessions this time. I only got a chance to sit in about 2 sessions. Largely due to the fact that we had visitors at the booth at almost all times & the team was attending the sessions while I was at the booth.
The one I got to attend was that of Rahul Bansal. He spoke about Hiring The Right Way in the WordPress Ecosystem. His session was very relevant to some of the practices implemented by recruiters in India. Particularly highlighted were his slides which mentioned that hiring is not like flipping a coin. And that you have to “Be Nice” to the person applying. That isn’t a “good to have”, but a “must have”. He has put up his slides here.
Another notable session that I missed was of Nirav Mehta, Founder of StoreApps. I was working with Nirav for 7 years. So I know him closely & also the fact that he has magical skills when it comes to delivering talks. He spoke on Why we Indian Developers Fail… And what we can do About it. One notable slide is shown below. It is in Hindi. It translates to: Good developers don’t grow on trees, they have to be nurtured, with love, dedication & sincerity. That’s gold!
During the WordCamp, I got introduced to Vinodh David, Founder of InfiniteWP. Although I didn’t get to hear their story, but I did share the story of Tyche with him. And I was pleasantly surprised that they are using our Abandoned Cart Pro plugin on their site! Vinodh spoke on Transitioning from Services to Product Development Business.
There were a few candid moments captured on camera, like the one below where me & Rahul were having a chat during the breakfast.
One such moment that captures the spirit of WordPress is shown below. Some people just love WordPress. Gagan Deep Singh was one such crazy guy! You can see almost all brands on him, including Taison. 😉
Thank you to the Organizing Team
WC Udaipur had Puneet Sahalot, Founder of IdeaBox Creations, as their Lead Organizer. He stands out in the picture below (in Orange)! Each one of us had a wonderful time during the WordCamp, be it the Sessions, the Audience, the Food & the pre-event party! A big THANK YOU to each one of you from the Tyche Softwares team.
We will look forward to meet more such wonderful people in future WordCamps!
WordCamp is a good idea and Udaipur is a good place for that.