{"id":198,"date":"2015-12-08T10:40:01","date_gmt":"2015-12-08T05:10:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/2016.mumbai.wordcamp.org\/?p=198"},"modified":"2015-12-08T10:36:16","modified_gmt":"2015-12-08T05:06:16","slug":"story-of-a-young-speaker-at-wordcamp-mumbai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mumbai.wordcamp.org\/2016\/story-of-a-young-speaker-at-wordcamp-mumbai\/","title":{"rendered":"Story of a young speaker at WordCamp Mumbai"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week we announced Call for Speakers<\/a>. Here is Raj Mehta recollecting his journey from volunteering at meetups to becoming a speaker at WordCamp Mumbai.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I took a session about \u201cTypography and WordPress\u201d at WordCamp Mumbai 2015, and although I would just love to go on and on about how awesome it is to speak at a WordCamp, let me tell you a little backstory.<\/p>\n

How it all started<\/h2>\n

Most people discover WordPress as a software first and fall in love with it. Eventually the community factor comes along and people start loving it even more. It wasn\u2019t the same with me \u2014 I discovered the community first and then tried the software!<\/p>\n

It was the beginning of March 2014 when a friend referred me to something called WordCamp Mumbai happening just after 2 weeks. I read a little about WordCamps, and WordPress in general, and decided to give it a shot.<\/p>\n

So here I was, a 17-year-old WordPress noob attending a WordCamp for the first time and it \u2014 was \u2014 amazing! The people I met, the things I learned, and the value I got out of a 2-day-event was too good to be true.<\/p>\n

No longer a noob<\/h2>\n

I got into WordPress, started taking web design clients and, lucky for me, started attending these monthly meetups which are conducted in Mumbai.<\/p>\n

I was no longer dealing with strangers. They all became friends, and eventually one huge family. Months passed by; I was no longer a WordPress noob I had once been.<\/p>\n

My bet at speaking<\/h2>\n

On one such meetup, everybody was planning about WordCamp Mumbai 2015, the next big WordPress celebration in our city.<\/p>\n

WordCamps, by their very nature, are locally focused WordPress conferences that bring together local communities and celebrate the cool stuff they\u2019ve done with WordPress in the last year.<\/p>\n

The organizers were discussing how they would love for local folks to come forward as speakers. And it was at that moment when it occurred me \u2014 maybe I can apply as well! And apply I did.<\/p>\n

Surprisingly, I was not only accepted but encouraged to speak. The organizers were so nice, as they helped me prepare for what would be the biggest audience I would ever address.<\/p>\n

And it happened. I took the session, answered questions and met lots of new folks. One of the things that baffled me was the amount of twitter discussion going on while I was giving the talk<\/em> and later as well.<\/p>\n

In a way, speaking at a WordCamp is a volunteer contribution to the WordPress project. Just like submitting a patch to the core.<\/p>\n

But despite it being a contribution, you get so much in return \u2014 respect from community, people knowing who you are, a chance to convey what you think about WordPress and obviously, free entry to the WordCamp!<\/p>\n

On to you<\/h2>\n

So that\u2019s my story. If a kid like me who was a complete WordPress noob a year back, can speak at a WordCamp, so can you!<\/p>\n

Our call for speakers<\/a> is already out. If you\u2019re in Mumbai, don\u2019t hesitate to apply. I hope I\u2019ll be hearing some of you speak WordCamp Mumbai 2016. Cheers!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week we announced Call for Speakers. Here is Raj Mehta recollecting his journey from volunteering at meetups to becoming a speaker at WordCamp Mumbai. I took a session about \u201cTypography and WordPress\u201d at WordCamp Mumbai 2015, and although I would just love to go on and on about how awesome it is to speak … Continue reading Story of a young speaker at WordCamp Mumbai<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14067660,"featured_media":208,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Story of a young speaker Raj Mehta at WordCamp Mumbai #WCMumbai #WPMumbai","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[29],"tags":[5015,34218],"class_list":["post-198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-speakers","tag-speaker","tag-story"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mumbai.wordcamp.org\/2016\/files\/2015\/12\/raj-mehta-speaker.jpg?fit=960%2C645&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mumbai.wordcamp.org\/2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mumbai.wordcamp.org\/2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mumbai.wordcamp.org\/2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mumbai.wordcamp.org\/2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14067660"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mumbai.wordcamp.org\/2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/mumbai.wordcamp.org\/2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":209,"href":"https:\/\/mumbai.wordcamp.org\/2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198\/revisions\/209"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mumbai.wordcamp.org\/2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mumbai.wordcamp.org\/2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mumbai.wordcamp.org\/2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mumbai.wordcamp.org\/2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}