Well once again WordCamp Toronto has come and gone. I got to see a lot of familiar faces and just like last year’s event I met interesting people and enjoyed making new contacts while practicing the art of networking.

Some of those new people include:

• Sue Varty of Wordtree Consulting a copyrighter
• Martha Chan the owner of the Divorce Marketing Group
• Brian Caicco the lead creative and project manager of dtmedia
• Christy Heenan the founder of Virtuall a virtual assistant providing administrative and marketing support
• Mai Peck a mortgage agent from The Mortgage Centre
• Clarence Johnson a photographer and eyewear photoblogger who has a cool concept website called
• Picpu about dudes like me who were glasses (my pic on his blog)
• Laurie (didn’t catch her last name) of Elle Media
• Ruth Maude a freelance web designer (like me) who’s company is called Dandelion Web Design Inc.
• Brian Anderson a content strategist and copywriter from Strategic Content who I first met on twitter and had the pleasure to meet in person
• The mysterious guy Joe from Double Take who I did not get any contact info from, had some good fun and great conversations with you …lol
• The event organizers Mathieu Yuill of Yuill.ca and Melissa Feeney of Mel, do tell thanks for all of your hard work.

Location

This year’s event was held at the Centennial College Student Centre, first time I had been there and I thought it was a pretty good spot to have it. There was a good crowd turnout, it was spacious and wasn’t packed to the point that you felt like a herd of cattle having trouble moving around and it best of all it wasn’t hot and uncomfortable like some of these events can easily become.

The WiFi didn’t have any issues unlike other events I have been to in the past and there was a lot of crowd surfing (online, no mosh pits) and tweets going on throughout both days.

It is getting pretty late, I have (what I usually call) computer butt from sitting in crappy chairs all weekend which is my only complaint, back is killing me and my Aeron isn’t even helping so it is time to go to bed. I will write a little more about the event during the week and get into some of the presentations.

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Wow it is WordCamp time already and I am lucky enough again this year to be speaking at it. From the exposure I got from my presentation last year and a couple of key contacts that were made, Digital Deceptions has by far had it’s most successful year since this crazy ride began.

At this years event I will be speaking with one of my partners in crime Glenn McKnight from Global Catalysts Consulting Service and our topic is “Using WordPress and Social Media to Win an Election”.

WordCamp Toronto 2010 is taking place on March 27 and 28 and will be held at the Centennial College Student Centre. You can find out all about it at the WordCamp Toronto website.

Well WordCamp Toronto is all done for another year. I had an absolute blast learning lots of new things, will probably take a few days for it all to sink in. On Saturday I did a presentation on how Digital Deceptions transitioned from a Flash based website to a WordPress Content Management System and all the benefits and doors it has opened for me over the last year.

You can find my slides here.

And the biggest surprise this weekend was Digital Deceptions taking away the Best Theme Design Award, I’m still in shock.

I would like to thank all the wonderful people I met at the conference Jason from GueRilla Marketers, Glenn from Global Catalyst, Robert from SMO Joe and Alfred from Butterscotch just to name a few. I had some great conversations talking shop.

I would also like to thank Brendan from BackSpaceStudios and Phug and all the volunteers who put on a great show,  here is the link if you want to learn all about the WordCamp Toronto 2009 conference.

Well it is official, on Saturday, May 9 at 10:45AM I will be speaking at WordCamp Toronto 2009. This is the second time Toronto is hosting the event and I have to admit that I missed the first one last year because I only started really using WordPress late last spring.

At the moment I am a little concerned about speaking in front of such a large audience but it is still a couple of months away so I have plenty of time to prepare.

Where Do You Think Will You Be In 6 Months?

This opportunity has come up at an interesting time in my career. Six months ago I restructured my entire business model, switched from a Flash website to WordPress and incorporated (SEO) search engine optimization and online marketing strategies into my game plan and have to say that last September I could never have imagined doing so well or that I would even be doing a presentation at WordCamp Toronto.

Anyways On With the Show

I have been to a few similar type events namely Flash in the Can and absolutely love seeing industry people talking shop, it is one thing following somebody’s work online and in magazines but when you get to see them talk and then get a chance to meet them it is a whole other experience, kind of like stalking…lol.

So Who Am I Going To Stalk At WordCamp?

Brendan Sera-Shriar

Last summer I took a WordPress course at the Rich Media Institute which was taught by Brendan Sera-Shriar who runs BackSpace Studios, Phug – Open Source Culture and who also happens to be the big man behind the show, I learnt so much from him in such a little time so I am looking forward to hear what he has got to say. Also I am really interested in his release of FlashPress which is as you guessed it Flash using WordPress as an CMS engine.

Peter Flaschner

Peter Flaschner from The Blog Studio is another gentleman I am looking forward to hearing speak, he has been doing what I have been recently doing but for much, much longer so I will be like a sponge trying to soak up all he has to say.

Nick La

Nick La of Designer Wall, Best Web Gallery and N.Design Studio who I have followed for a couple of years will also be speaking. Nick is always sharing his knowledge and presenting it in a way that is easy to read and visually pleasing.

Matt Brett

Although Matt isn’t on the list of speakers a little birdie (tweet) told me he will be at the event. He happens to be a big time WordPresser who is also from the Durham Region like myself and I have followed his work for quite a while now, you can find his awesome site at MattBrett.com I have never really spoke to him before but I have been following up on his blog and tweets so I guess I am a true stalker…lol, anyway I look forward to hopefully meeting him at the venue.

That is just a few of the people I want to see, I could go on and on but I will save it for another post. here is the official WordCamp Toronto website.