 The stage is yours. Thank you very much. I'd like to start with a small background story. I joined Yoast in 2013, and back then I was still convinced that I could be a developer. And so was Yoast. Things turned out differently, but at my very first day at Yoast, he told me, you are going to WordCamp Europe. Well, I had been working with WordPress for about a week, and I had no clue what a WordCamp was, but it was something in Europe, so okay, I'll go. It happened to be in the Netherlands, so slightly less exciting. But I went. I went to WordCamp Europe, and I attended sessions, and there were a great many developers, so many very skilled people, and I felt kind of out of place. I just started at Yoast, and people saw me. We weren't that good at branding back then, but still they knew I was from Yoast, and they started asking questions, and I had no idea. And they were all developers, and it was scary. And then after a day of sessions, and after a second day of sessions, I was like, okay, I'm not sure if this community really is my community. But things happened on Twitter even back in 2013, and we ended up in a local bar in Leiden for the people from the Netherlands, exactly one, North End in Leiden, and I went there and I talked to some people, and at some point I mentioned to a guy named Jeremy Feld that I felt misplaced there, that I didn't know if I should be in that place if I should be in the WordPress community. And he said, famous words, he said, all you have to do to be part of the WordPress community is to show up. You are here, so let me introduce you to a couple of people. Well, I can tell you that escalated. We got thrown out of the very same bar at 4am in the morning, and I made many, many new friends. We did some silly things. Don't say you love tacos when I'm around because stuff like this happens after drinking. But I met so many people that I still run into at WordCamps and I still talk to online from that very first experience. So I concluded, WordCamps, I like that. I want to go to more of them. And then someone introduced me to a concept just like a WordCamp. And they called it a Meetup, which is like a mini WordCamp with a lot less people usually with just one or two talks or maybe no talks at all. And they are not as scary to go to. So if you've never been to a Meetup, you should because they're not so scary as those big WordCamps. But they do add great value to your life as a professional to your working life. So as a professional, let me get to that. Who of you sees him or herself as a professional? That's about half. You're not doing that great. I looked it up. Merriam Webster has a couple of definitions for professional, but the most important one that I found in this list is being a professional means that you act like you're doing something professionally. Well, we all act as if we know WordPress. So you're all professionals. To me, it has a slightly different meaning. When I think of a professional, I think of someone that is trying to do his very best at what he's doing and maybe even more important, he or she is trying to improve that specific thing, whether you're a developer, a designer, a translator, whatever, as long as you're trying to improve yourself, I'll count you as a professional. And what do professionals do? Well, professionals do a lot. But most important, professionals learn. They keep learning new stuff about the things they are interested in. One of the places you can go to learn more is, well, a meet-up or a WordCamp. So you're doing pretty fine. And one of the other things a professional does is meeting peers. Different settings. WordCamps, Karim talked about it earlier today. There may be competition, but you can also partner with the people you meet at WordCamps. They're also, well, pretty famous for after parties. So if you didn't plan on going to the after party tonight, change your schedule, go. This was WordCamp Europe last year. It's a bit of a dark picture, but trust me, it's good. There are no clear pictures. It was great fun, though. And I didn't get eaten. So when we're talking about WordCamps and meet-ups, there is a best meet-up to go to. And that's your local meet-up. You can go to WordCamps in a lot of places. You can go to meet-ups in a lot of places. But your local meet-up is where you meet the people that are able to help you, that are able to help you outside of that specific event. For example, if you want to do business with someone, it can be a lot easier if they're in the same town or the same city. So attend your local meet-up. Gain knowledge there, but also share your knowledge. What you learned today, bring it to your own city and town. And there's another advantage, and that became really clear to me today when I attended a session in Italian, and I didn't speak a single word of Italian. I received a very nice private message on Twitter. Yeah. Thank you, Luca. I was just really focused. I was not in pain. But this is not going to happen if you're at a local meet-up because those people speak your language. And business-wise, you know, if you're looking for a job, looking for employees, maybe, if you're hiring, looking to get hired, looking to partner, your local meet-up might as well be the best place to find people. And if you are interested in working... No, I'm not going to say that. You know, just come to WordPress Meetup Nijmegen and you'll get it. So, what if there is no local meet-up? It happens. And I'd like to quote one of the famous people in the PHP community. That's Kel Evans. And Kel says, if you look around you and you can't find the leader of your local user group, you're it. And I'd like to quote Michelangelo van Dam, he's the founder of PHP Benelux. And he says, if there's no local user group, start one. Actually, that was one of the reasons that we started a local PHP user group in Nijmegen. So, we can apply that to WordPress as well. And I just wanted to be in the list of quotes. So, if there's no WordPress Meetup in your city yet, you are the one to organize it. Not the person next to you, you. So, anyone here from a town or city that does not have a meet-up yet? That's at least one, two, three. There's work to do. Okay. So, what do you do to organize a meet-up? Pretty simple. You pick a name. I'll help you. Make it WordPress Meetup, name of your city. It's not that hard, people. It's not that hard. It is also SEO advice. Yeah. So, next thing you should do, and this is actually the best advice that I can give you during this talk, pick a date. Pick a date for your first meet-up. So, John, there was no meet-up in your town yet. Where do you live? Norwich. Okay. So, on Wednesday, April the 27th, you are going to organize a meet-up in Norwich. It is, by that time, it will be on WordPress.tv. So, there's no backing out. And that's actually my third advice to you. Announce publicly. Make sure that if you pick a date, you tell other people because they will help you meet your deadline, I'm sure. There are also a couple of things you... Awesome. You already put it in this calendar. There are also a couple of things you should never do. Well, for example, cancel your meet-up. You organize something and you cannot find a location. You cannot find a company to host your meet-up. Just go to a local bar. Don't cancel. Never ever cancel because people will stop looking at your meet-up because you're going to cancel anyway. The second thing you should never do is cancel your meet-up. If your speaker, your presenter for the evening, last minute cancels if whatever happens to the program you thought of, don't cancel. Just go to a bar, have a few drinks and it will be fun. Try again next time. And the third thing you should never do, you felt it coming, cancel your meet-up. Whatever happens if you, I don't know, any reason you can find to cancel is not a good reason. You can always go to a local bar, to a local community center and just have fun with the people that signed up. And if no one signed up because that can happen, especially for a first meet-up, for one, you don't have enough friends, but you are going to go anyway because what if no one signed up, but they still show up and you are not there. They're never going to come again. So you are there in that location on the date and you're not going to cancel your meet-up. So you know what to do, what not to do. After today, after the after-party, when you get home, there are a few things to do for your own local meet-up. Find a venue. A bar, a company, a community center, anything that has a space large enough for at least one person, you, but preferably slightly bigger, maybe 10, 15, just, you know, something that fits your goal. You invite people, your friends, your colleagues, people you know from wordcams, from other online events. Invite them and have a fantastic meet-up. That's pretty much it. What you can do, well, invite a speaker, do a contributing evening like the contributing day we did yesterday, or just have a drink. And I'm sure you'll have a great, great meet-up. Thank you very much. Questions. I have one. How about translations? Do you think they're valuable? Yes, I think translations are really valuable and that's even easier because the 24th of April, you don't have to organize a meet-up. You can just join WPTranslationDay.org and you have your Translation Day set. Awesome. Other questions? Yes. My last name is shortened online for a reason, but my last name is Fredonscholt. Practice, and I'll meet you next week in London.