 Thank you so much for coming. I appreciate it. This is my first talk at WorkCamp US. So bear with me if I have a little nerve. Thank you. So this slide here was how I started out, because you know this is US. I was trying to be serious and stuff, but I decided that this morning I'm gonna just be myself. Is that okay? So this is more me, okay? So this is a shout out to my Black Press people. This is us from last year, but this is a more the kind of a slide that I would be putting up, okay? So I am so grateful and thankful that you guys came this morning. How many here? This is your first WorkCamp ever? Wow. Awesome. Welcome. I love this community. I cannot wait to talk to all of you. And how many of you, this is your first WorkCamp US ever? Amazing. Amazing. So I thank you for joining me. So I put a lot of words on my slides because I am in a New Yorker. I speak fast. I have an accent. So you make, you can take all the pictures you'd like. So don't mind me. So I thank you for joining me as we embark on this journey. And I'm so passionate. I want this to be a vibrant, accessible community, right? So these are some of my ideas. Now, some of you like stories and some of you like the facts, which, you know, I call the numbers. So you're gonna get a whole lot of both today, okay? So she already told you about me. This is some of my artwork that's behind me here. But during the day, I am a florist. So I purposely came like this today. And the reason I did is because no florist artist that looks in my hair with all my hair to be, and this is part of why I really, really wanted to do this talk today. I want to dedicate this talk to my mom. She was into technology. This is a true story. My mom, when we were teenagers, came into the house with a brand new computer, and she said, look what I got. And then she said, how do I turn it on? And of course, you know, as teenagers, we started laughing like, ah, you bought a computer, you don't have to turn it on. And my mom was like, okay, watch me. My mom joined a computer club, and my mom began building computers from scratch. And before my mom passed away, she had her own computer company where she was building computers. That's how I got into technology, because my job was to put the programs on and make sure that they were working correctly. So this is for her. But this is also for every, and as a Latina, like I said, for every Latina who was told that you need to grow up, get married, have babies, have a good husband, and that'll be a good life, was not for me. And I thank God for my mom, because she was all about education. I also grew up in Brooklyn, New York. And when you grow up in a neighborhood like I grew up in, all they tell you is get a good job, and you really don't strive for a whole lot more than that. So this is for every one of you who may have been told that, that you're too poor to be intact, or you don't, you know, my husband has been a blogger for years, and that's how we met. And you know, he was told, black men don't blog. So for everyone who's been told that you are whatever it is, this is for you. If you were told that you don't belong in this space, I'm telling you that you belong. And I'm so glad that you're here. So this is our WordPress story. Like I tell you, I met my husband years ago, and he was the first one to tell me about what WordPress was. And he told me about these things called word camps. He was like, you ever heard of it? I'm like, no. And that was way back in 2014. But we did not come to our first word camp until 2018. So these are some of the pictures through the years, the one with the smiley face there that's us in word camp Miami, my very first word camp ever, where I not only volunteered at the 10th anniversary of word camp Miami at the registration table, which was total mayhem. Okay. I was like, oh my gosh. And then at a certain point they said, hey, we need to volunteer to be an emcee in the room. Would you be an emcee? And I was like, sure. So I was a room emcee. And then later on he's like, hey, you're talking with me. And I was like, what? He's like, yeah, you're going to come speak with me. And I ended up speaking. So at the end of the day, he comes to me, he says, hey, do you think you would be willing to do this all the time? And I was like, yeah, I sure would be willing to do this all the time. And the rest is history. We've been doing this all the time. We've been to Costa Rica, to Canada. We just came back from word camp Europe, where I was an organizer. So this is a wonderful place to get started. So why do I want to do this? The main reason I want to do this is, and you could read this, but I'm just going to tell you, I love this community so much. And there are so many people here that, as a matter of fact, by a short hand, how many of you are passionate about this community? I'm like, we're like, this is like, I don't even know how to explain. You know, people, someone said yesterday, it's like the WordPress cult. It can be. It's that kind of community. But there's so many things that over the years that I've seen that are starting to change. And I'd like to see us really get back to the basics, back to the beginners and the creatives, because there needs to be space for those who are creatives into this, in this community. And if we really want to democratize the web, we need to make sure that every voice is considered valuable and that everyone feels like they belong. So let's redefine beginners and creatives. So these pictures here, if you see the little kids, that's my daughter. Of course, that's one of my daughters. I drag her in on these pictures. There's also my granddaughter all the way on the, to you guys, all the way on the right. She's the one with the little bandana. My husband and I also have done what's called kids camps here. So those are from 7 to maybe 14 where they come and they learn about WordPress. And we, you know, put together activities for them. So in that particular one, the bandana that she has, it was a pirate theme. And we had the kids going around talking to the sponsors and to the volunteers and they had to collect pirate booty by taking pictures of it and bringing it back. But beginners to me isn't just someone who doesn't know anything about computers, okay, or anything about technology. A beginner could be some of you who've been here. This is your first time here. That's a beginner, right? A beginner could be a business owner who's been working on WordPress forever, but now all of a sudden they're like, you know, I feel stuck or they want to be a part of something bigger. So I don't want you to think of beginners as someone who doesn't know anything or someone who's not done this before. It could be someone who's just new to the community. And that's where my focus is, is not just they don't know how to use technology, but more this is someone who's new to the community. And when it comes to creators, I'm not talking about just artists because even people think, oh, an artist is, you know, a painter. I just happen to paint, but I also am a writer. I want you to think about musicians. I want you to think about that person down the street. You know, I grew up in New York City, so anybody here from New York? All right. Exactly. So you know, I don't know if you remember, but you know, if you go down certain streets in New York City, you see quite a bit of characters, okay? And they may not be artists, but in their own way they're very artistic and creative. And like I said, I did all of this not for show because I actually, this is mine and I love it, but I do this because I want you to look at people as people and know that every single person, you know, wherever you are, they're welcome here. Maybe you don't know how they'll fit in, but give them an invitation and find a way for them, and they'll find their way in. So, for the numbers. So, 20 years, right? 20 years of WordPress. Let's give them a hand. Yay! Happy birthday, WordPress! So, according to one website, 810 million websites worldwide are on the WordPress platform. 64.2% is the command of WordPress as of 2023. And 500 new websites are made on a WordPress website every single day. That's a lot of websites. That's a lot of people. And while this is huge, imagine how many people don't even know what WordPress is. A lot of people don't even know that their website is being powered by WordPress. So, even when we're out and we're talking, people else say, oh, you're a part of the WordPress community. And they'll go, what's WordPress? So, how many of you have found that? Have you come across that? Where you were talking to my WordPress? No one knows, right? So, I'm going to do something a little difference. I wanted to do the SWAT technique, but not in your traditional. So, we're going to use the SS strength, right? So, what have we gotten right? And then the W, instead of being on weaknesses, we're going to use them as warning signs. So, what are the things we need to look out for? And then O is for opportunities, overcoming challenges, and then T is for triggers and targets. So, recognizing the resistance and how can we overcome it? So, one of the things I am going to ask you today is two things. So, I normally walk around, so it makes it easier. So, it's kind of, I'm like, I'm stuck here. So, we have, I have this thing that we do in the classroom, in my classroom. It's called silent applause. So, if something I say resonates with you, you know, this is a silent applause, right? So, if you don't feel comfortable, you know, do that, that just keeps me like, okay, it's good. And then also, I'm going to ask you to take notes and be prepared, please, to share. Because this is what makes this community so great, is sharing. So, what have we gotten right? So, first of all, this community is awesome. I told you about WordCamp Miami. The one thing about it was, it was mayhem and it was crazy. And the way I went, people were, and I was kind of blown away because I was like, wow, everywhere you go here, everyone's like, hey, how are you? And they'll just sit down with you and then start talking to you. And when you consider how many people are in the room, that's pretty amazing. The WordPress and WordCamp communities are worldwide. So, like I said, we just came back from Athens. I have friends here from Costa Rica. I have friends that are in Calgary. And when I say friends, I literally mean, they're my friends. You know, we look forward to seeing each other. I said, I've met Ms. Carrie over here in WordCamp US. You know, we look forward, we see each other, we're like, oh my gosh, look, oh no, what, it went, you know, and it's not just me. This is everywhere. This is everyone. So, imagine the community, I tell people, this is my tribe, right? I can't remember your name anywhere else. But if I met you in a WordCamp, I remember you. I remember your name. If you're lucky, I remember where I met you. Most of the time I remember where I met you because I placed the camp and I placed your face. And I sometimes even remember what you do for a living. It's kind of mind-boggling. For someone like me, that's kind of like, wow, anywhere else, you'd be like, I eat and I'm like, oh my gosh, I don't remember. But here, this is my tribe. And I know that it's not just me. There are many of us who feel that way about here. WordCamp has a code of conduct that is enforced, which ensures a safe and respectful environment. And that's, it's really important. So, this is something that's great about WordCamps, because everyone here can come and feel safe. And if you don't feel safe, there is something that you can do. There's enforcement here. There are people in place that if you feel like you're on rights or you feel uncomfortable, you can go to them and it'll be addressed. So that's a great thing that WordCamp has. I mean, WordPress has in general. WordCamps are amongst the most affordable in technology conferences and they include delicious meals on a t-shirt. Now, I don't know about y'all, but have you, exactly, I don't know about y'all, but have you looked in the prices of other technology conferences? So when my husband and I started doing this, we were like, you know what, let's branch out. Let's go check out some others. And then we started seeing the pricing. We're like, oh, you know what, we'll save our money for WordCamp, okay? That's why we travel. We'll just say, you know what, we'll just go to a WordCamp because unbelievable the pricing on those technology. And listen, these are professionals. These are people, oh my gosh, the amount of knowledge and people, and we're doing it, they're doing it for free. And they come in here because they love the community. They're passionate about it. My first experience seeing five developers in a room sharing information with one another, not competing, but collaborating. I told my husband, I said, what kind of place is this? Because most of the places I come from, you know, people are like, oh no, no, we don't talk about our, you know, proprietary things. Here everybody's like, oh yeah, you know, you have a problem with that? Let me help you with that. That's incredible. Our sponsors rock, okay? Now, I know some people are like, sponsors, I get it really? The swag is cool. I ain't gonna lie. It's really nice to go through the sponsor table, you know, sponsor tables and get the swag. But the sponsors themselves are really cool. I have so many that I have spoken to. My very first person that spoke to me in a WordCamp was actually a sponsor. And it wasn't like to come and sell me anything. He kind of saw me looking lost. This is here in Miami. I'm just kind of walking around and he just walked down and he was like, hey, it started talking to me. He didn't tell me about his table. I asked. He just wanted to know why I was there and what brought me there. And I found out recently that he's also was a member of the community before he ever became a sponsor. So that's where that came from. He saw me. He saw I looked a little lost and reached out and I was like, oh, that's really neat. Wordpress and WordCamps promote diverse representation and inclusivity amongst their speakers, their organizers, their volunteers, and their attendees. This is an incredibly diverse network of people. You can especially hear the first WordCamp I went to that was a U.S. I met someone from Turkey. I met someone else from Israel. And guess what? Every time we go to a WordCamp, we find each other. How amazing is that that you can know someone from Greece or Turkey or Israel and they look forward to seeing you year after year. So this WordCamp is live streamed. So if you couldn't be here live, you can be in person watching the whole camp and closed captioning. Look at that. Right. Awesome. And not for nothing. You know, I'm a DEI teacher for the web. So I'm always trying to teach people how to make their websites and so forth more inclusive or your social media and all of that and closed captioning. I tell people that's not just for the deaf community. That's for people like me. So when you're up here and you're talking low, like me, I have an accent and my voice turns to get low. I go too fast. I love that. That's like, ooh. And accessibility here is a priority all the way across the board. So what are some of the warning signs? This is why I wanted to do this talk. After 20 years, I think what I've seen a lot of is that in general, it's not everybody. The community has become very complacent. It's kind of like, oh, we've already done that. We've done that. No, we don't want to do that anymore because you know, we've done that. You know, you've done that. It doesn't mean that the new person has done that. And that's what I want us to be really very aware of. But for those of you who've been here that have been doing this for a long time, I've heard over and over when people say like the second one, they already know. So when I was an organizer a few times and I've said, hey, you know, we should put this in the handbook or we should say this and people go, they already know. No, no, no. You know. They don't know. Thank you. Thank you. And, you know, and but I want us as a community to think about that because just because you know doesn't mean everyone knows. You know, I don't know the name of the movie. I don't know exact the words, but someone here I'm sure knows. There's a movie where Denzel Washington tells all the people like, tell me like I'm a six year old. Do you know that movie? Okay. That's what I say. Let's handle this like we're all six year olds. Okay. So that everyone can feel comfortable because you know what I might know today, but one of the things I did and I meant to mention in the beginning is that I am an artist. I do all these things, but I also am openly neurodiverse member of this community. So today I know and I ain't gonna lie tomorrow. I may not because my brain just went on the fritz and I don't remember. So it helps me to have a reminder. Okay. The other thing I'm seeing lately is a lot of camps, especially one day camps are really, really heavy developer talks. Beautiful. I know that more people want to be in a developer talk because there's a lot of developers in the community, but there's a lot of non developers in the community. There's a lot of business people in the community. Like I said, a lot of artists, a lot of creatives, we want to know how to build a website. Yeah, but I don't want to know like from a developer. I sat in on one developer talk and I was just sitting there like, okay. And when I left they were like, what did you think? I'm like, I have no idea because all of it was like, you know, another foreign language to me. I have no idea what you talked about. I'm like, I sat in to be polite, but no, I don't know. But the new things that are happening, one of those things that we've gotten right, I know some people don't like Gutenberg and a block editor, but for those of us like me who don't develop, it has made it infinitely easier for me to not only build a website, but to also teach how to build a website. So that's great. How about an organizing team? Now, I know for a lot of people, maybe you don't live in a very diverse neighborhood. You don't live, you know, maybe everyone kind of looks the same in terms of, you know, I know people mostly like me. Maybe you know, you told me they're from the Netherlands and it's very hard to have quote on diversity. But do you know diversity is way more than ethnicity? How about making sure that your organizing team is diverse in terms of who comes from the community? Not just in gender, not just in gender. We're talking social economic status. I tell people, social economic status is a part of diversity. And I'm going to tell you as a teacher and as an educator who works primarily with people in underserved communities, you all have forgotten about us. Okay. Because most of the time when you're thinking about doing things, most of my kids don't have a laptop. They don't even have internet. That means their parents don't have a laptop and their parents don't have internet. How can you include them? How can we have them have a seat at your table as an organizer and invite them into the community and tell them, hey, you may not have this, but we in our community in Jacksonville, we've asked people to lend laptops. You have a laptop you can lend because some of us have two or three. Do you have one that you don't feel uncomfortable bringing to the camp so that we can have more people here so that they can enjoy this experience too? Your library lends laptops. That's another way. Maybe have a meetup in a library or have your meeting there and show them how to do it because sometimes people don't know what they don't know and they don't know what they need because they don't know. Not considering talk submissions because they're not WordPress enough. And I've heard this many times, oh, well, this doesn't include WordPress. Well, maybe it doesn't need to because the rest of the talks include WordPress. Maybe this is a talk that's needed for this community, right? Maybe people need this today. Honestly, I didn't know that WordCamp US was going to choose this talk. I was excited that they chose a community talk. So, yeah, thank you. I was really excited about that. Using jargon, WordCamp speak, WordPress speak, tech talk. So things like CMS, LMS, what's that, API? I mean, these are things that after you guys talk to me, I'm like, I'm on the Google like, okay, what was that? Okay. When you're amongst each other, fine. But if you see someone's Facebook link, go, oh, do you know what a CMS is? Well, let me tell you and explain it. It's okay. We are in a community that this is, you know, this is one of the wonderful things about this community is that we do talk the same language. But if we want new people to come in here and we want them to feel welcome, we got to remember they may not know that language. We do the same thing, you know, in our church. We teach them like, hey, you know, there's certain like church speak that you just, people don't know. So try not to use that predominantly. And if you do, explain it. This last one and this on this page, this frustration when things are explained. Remember when I was saying to everyone says, oh, they already know. They already know. I have heard many times people getting frustrated when you say, can you explain that more? Or can you, can you make that clearer? And I've seen the frustration or heard the frustration or they don't want to because again, going back to, they already know. Please explain and don't be afraid to explain because you know. That's the thing I want you to keep remembering. You know. Going back to the organizer thing with, you know, having diverse groups. This is something that happens with organizations, with businesses, and definitely here amongst the community. When you make the best decision for a group of people, without asking said group of people or asking anyone in that group, if that's a good decision. So this goes back to whether you're, even if you're a business owner, even if you, especially if you're working in a nonprofit and you're working in a community, I have seen so many community initiatives fail because instead of going into the community and saying, hey, what do you need? They say, you know what this community needs? And they go and they make all this plans. They put all this money and all this time. And that's not what the community needed. So I say the same thing for here. Let's think more about how do we find a way to ask? Because I'm not saying anything I'm saying here is easy. But let's find a way to ask the very people we're seeing we want to serve. Because even in our own form with the accessibility, which is great, you have an accessibility need, nine times out of 10 when people are thinking accessibility, they're thinking about the person in the wheelchair. But how about the person with the cane? Or the person with the bad knees that can go up and down the stairs of the very venue that you decided is perfect for the whole community? And they get there and they're like, oh my gosh, I don't even know how I'm going to get around here. Having middle of the week word camps. Have you guys seen that? Oh, we're ready there. So having a middle of the week work camps. This is a very popular thing lately because everybody, a lot of people work with WordPress during the day. But this isn't more than that. We have teachers and people that are working during the day who are part of the community that unfortunately cannot be there during the week. So I did not realize, I'm like chatting here, but we're running short. So I'm going to go through these quickly. Having meetups only one time of the day or evening. I want you to think about having them more often. We have one during the day and the evening in Jacksonville. Making sure that your meetups are on some kind of bus line for those who may have transportation issues. I want you to think about that too. Everyone in the team thinks and looks alike. If your team looks the same, it's time to start looking outside. Okay. Insisting that you do things the way they've always been done. That's another thing. And then new thoughts and ideas feel threatening. I know that when new people come in and they're sharing their thing, you're like, whoa, we've never done it that way. But it'll be okay. Opportunities. Repeat, repeat, repeat. So the announcements that my dear MC made today, remember it's okay to make your announcements, but if you have to make them more often, like she said, you know where to go to the sponsor table. Don't assume that everyone knows. Repeat them if you need to. It reminds people for some people who actually read because I know people are like, oh, we sent it in the email. Oh, we sent it on the website. Most people are not even doing that. It informs others who didn't do that. Okay. Have opening and closing remarks for those of us that are neurodiverse. Sometimes you guys end the meetings or you end the work camp and I'm going, is it over? We done. It's just easier if you just have a quick closing remarks so that I know like, this is the end of this. Okay. Having a quiet space, which we have here. We have a quiet space. A listening room. It's wonderful. These are some great things that we have here. Make space for hallway chats where people can just sit and talk, which is lovely out there. You can sit and chat. Choose a venue on a public transportation route, as I said, and occasionally choose public spaces for meetups. I'm going to go through these a little quick because I do really want you guys to share. So if you want to take pictures of some of this, have a longer call for speakers. Now this, I really want to take one moment for for those that are running international camps or you're inviting people internationally to come to your camp. Remember, people have to get visas and approvals. Let them give a little bit more leeway. Give a little bit more room. We've had people who couldn't come because there wasn't enough time from the speaker call to the approval to get the visa to come. Okay. Thank you. They could not. So you, I want you to think that some people aren't even getting that passport or that ticket. Even if it's a plane ticket, they're not going to get it until they get the approval. Until you say yes, they're not even going to buy this plane ticket. So give them time to be able to do that. Okay. Go beyond social media to get the word out. And I say this because as an older woman working with other older people, some people still read newspapers. Okay. They still read the newspaper. A lot of our older population are into technology. However, they're not into technology in social media. Okay. They may find a different way. They're not looking at social media. So find other ways to get the word out. Okay. Kids workshops introduce to our young introduce WordPress to our youngest people. Consider senior sessions and your meetups so that seniors can come and feel welcome and that they don't feel like, oh, I'm feeling uncomfortable. I don't know all this. Consider having a senior session or consider taking your meetup to a senior group. Okay. Videos are a great way to introduce people who may not feel comfortable reading. And then one day word camps have a beginner session in AM and PM sessions. Make sure that you at least have one beginner session for one AM and PM for those who are at your one day camp. And then please bring back the happiness bar. Yeah. Yeah. I love the happiness bar. It's a great place not only to talk, but I do have issues with my webpage. And I would love to have someone to help me with that. Food. We have great food here, but that's not always the case. And for vegan and vegetarians who are predominantly vegetarian, a salad is not a meal. Okay. I'm like, really? So yes, think about that. They did a great job at U.S., by the way. This is some great options here. Okay. So this is mostly to our sponsors. So if you're a sponsor here, please just, you could take a picture of this. The main thing that I want you guys to know is thank you for being so open. And take a picture because we don't, we only have a few, a little bit of time. Wapu. Please don't forget Wapu. So I only have a few right here. I actually am a Wapu ambassador. I do have a bag with some Wapu with me, but I want you guys to remember that people, this brings people together. Okay. And when I went to Miami, people said, oh, this is your first camp and started handing me Wapu pins. And I fell in love with Wapu. That's my boyfriend. So I got my husband when I was my boyfriend. Okay. So don't forget about him. Okay. I'm going to pass this so that you could just see this real quick, but this is just for you so that you could see if someone is saying one thing, the, what we're going to target is the other. So if someone says, oh, that's too much like, oh, you're too much or this is too much. Remember, we want to make room for more, more aesthetics. Okay. These are more pictures, some things that you could do, but I'd really want to give you just a quick minute. I want to thank you for coming. I want this is my honey. Thank you. Thanks. So many practical tips. Yeah. And we have a time for a little bit of Q&A and we have two microphones, one in each aisle. If you have a specific question that you want to ask, please make your way, start making your way to one of those microphones while we're waiting to see if anybody does that. Do you have one specific tip in actionable item for today? Yes. So for today, so starting today, I want you to look around because you're going to know the new people because they're kind of looking like they're lost. I say, you know, the number one way to meet new people is just say hi. Just walk up and say, Hey, so today I want you to find someone new and say hi, even if they're not new, get to know who they are. And that starts to build community. Be sure you speak into the mic for our live stream friends. Yeah. Hi, I'm Phil from Picture. I'm interested in your thoughts about people who just have never touched digital at all, you know, and they want to make something they got some idea and they're enthusiastic, but they don't know where to start. And I wonder how we could, you know, there's a lot of people like this. And they want to do lots of different things. And I wonder how we could get organized to start doing this. So would you say the that they haven't touched anything like digital? Is that what you said? Yeah, yeah. You know, they know about digital. They know it exists. Yes. Yeah. They know there's this future and they think they're in it. Right. But yeah, how do we get there? So I meet a lot of people who've never done anything digitally. They know it exists. They find it interesting. Older people, people in low, like I said, underserved communities, low income communities that don't have computers. We go out there. And that's the most important thing just like here where I'm telling you go out there to the community, say hello, go out into the community, go to your local library, offer a workshop. That's what my husband and I do. We offer free workshops to just let people know like, Hey, come on down. You want to learn how to I offer workshops on how to use your phone. You know how many people don't know how to use their phone. They just know how to answer their phone. Just offer a workshop and just offer your time and you'll be surprised how many people will just show up just to learn. Thanks. And you're going to be around for the rest of work camp. I am. And I really encourage folks to find you if they have more specific questions. And I hope all of us will keep working on building a better WordPress community. But we thank you for your thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much guys.