I thrive in a culture that embraces remote and nomadic working, and what better way to enjoy the culture of a city then visiting one of the many WordPress focused events happening around the world, the ‘WordCamp’.
This July I decided to go with some other members of the team to WordCamp Edinburgh, because (and not necessarily in this order):
- There were some great WordPress based talks
- It was my birthday and I wanted a good session in one of my favourite cities
- Edinburgh is one of the most beautiful cities in the world (in my opinion).
- I love whiskey and haggis
- WordCamps have some great ‘merch’
- Make Do sponsored WordCamp Edinburgh 2017
- Wapunicorn!
The Sessions
I contributed to the write-up about WordCamp Edinburgh 2017 over at the Make Do blog. However here are my personal highlights:
- Heather Burns wearing a unicorn horn throughout
- Tom J Nowell doing a talk on the REST API (you can get Tom’s REST API slides here)
- CJ Andrew talking about how he set up his WordPress business (view CJ’s slides about surviving as a new WordPress Service Provider here)
- Dave Green talking about the Make Do WordPress boilerplate: Kapow (view Dave’s Boilerplating WordPress slides here)
- Kimb Jones and Kat Reeve doing an impromptu lightening talk about the upcoming WordPress Gutenberg editor (managing to terrify most of the people in the room).
Scotland, the WordCamp and the Unicorn
If you didn’t know, Wapu is the official mascot of WordPress, but the official animal of Scotland is the Unicorn (I didn’t know this either).

I think my favourite thing about the whole conference was the WordCamp Edinburgh 2017 official mascot, the Wapunicorn! Thanks to Ben Usher-Smith for this amazing concept! Read the story about its conception here.
As you can see from that photo of my laptop cover, I’ve been to one or two WordCamp’s before. However this particular logo took pride of place.