I was not surprised to hear Ignacio Cruz Moreno, one of the main organizer of WordCamp Madrid, saying, during the opening remarks, that he received more than 200 emails, in the previous weeks of the event, begging for tickets. But everything was sold out. One of these emails was mine… and of course, the answer I got was this one:
But I was determined to make it to this WordCamp, my first in Spain. So I looked for a ticket by any means possible: I made a video with VINUBIS, I wrote a blog post, I shared on social media, I contacted my WPFriends, like Tina Todorovic, the organizer of WordCamp Toronto, who did a great job sharing my post.
Somehow, I was confident. So I booked a flight and an Airbnb to Madrid without ticket to the WordCamp. But I knew I could rely on the WordPress Community. And I was right.
Five days before the event, while waiting for my flight to Madrid, I received several messages at the same time. One was from my PixelRockstar friends, via email. They knew somebody that knew somebody else, Sergio Nieto, that could not come.
At the same time, the great Milan Ivanovic was pinging me on Twitter and Facebook.
Now I had too many tickets! But I was ready to enjoy the few days I had in Madrid, before the event, to tour the city ups and downs with a BiciMad and to experience Spain.
The Spain that I know, and love, from the time I used to live in Barcelona – long time ago – and that I tried to described in this post and to capture in this photobox from million eyez.
Feel free to add your photos of Spain if you have some.
The first day of WordCamp Madrid, I came early for registrations. But nobody could find my badge. Indeed, badges were printed before I found my ticket. So I ended up wearing Sergio Nieto’s badge during the entire event!
Hola @WordCampMad, soy @snieto 😉 #WCMadrid pic.twitter.com/CDabw1z1In
— Isabelle García (@aicragellebasi) April 22, 2017
Thank god I always bring with me my collection of badges from previous WordCamps. But some people actually recognized me without looking at them: “Ah! tu eres la del video que buscaba entrada no?”
Like I recognized certain people. Some legends of the Spanish WordPress community I was longing to meet: Rocio Valdivia, Luis Rull, Fernando Torres, Ibon Azkoitia… among others.
But the most incredible experience was to meet with somebody very special and even more crazy was to interview him. Juan Hernando, coming straight from the future, just to save us!
This was my first WordCamp in Spain and the first WordCamp ever organized in the Spanish capital. So I am really happy I made it. I bet this won’t be my last since there are quite a few coming up, starting with WordCamp Bilbao, where my blog mentor, Yonit Kutz, from million eyez, will be giving an interesting talk. Don’t miss it!
But no worries, if you can’t make it to Bilbao in one month, you have time to organize yourself for WordCamp Santander or even WordCamp Sevilla!
isabelle garcia 