Feeling the love

“What a long strange trip it's been”, sang The Grateful Dead. I can't agree more.

It started back in September. I got the idea to host a WordCamp since nobody else in Las Vegas had done it yet. My initial thought was that once I announced it, others would come to be clamoring for the opportunity to be involved with the planning. I was wrong.

Thankfully, I have some great friends and family. My dad, mom, sister are all coming out from California to help out to help with the event. I've off-loaded the photography and video taping duties to Jeff and Todd. Wifi is being handled by Brent. And my awesome wife will work as my assistant for the event. I envy her job the least. I'm sure there's going to be a lot of running around involved.

I have been unbelievably lucky to have been able to pull together an absolutely amazing lineup of speakers for the event. I am shocked that this call came together as it did. I think if I had half the amount of speakers that we currently have presenting, we'd still be giving the audience more than their money's worth.

In the months leading up to the event registrations had been going slow. Then, the holidays arrived and they certainly didn't help. Now, as we are in the final few days before the event, signups and traffic to the site in general has really picked up. Tonight we event crossed the triple digit line and got our 100th signup. I'm holding out hope that we will get to 150 before registration closes on Friday at noon.

My main goal all along has been to put on a WordCamp that is second to none. At times it seemed like that just wasn't going to happen. This week, however, I'm finally getting a feeling that the show is going to be everything I had in mind… and more.

Even though the planning duties fell squarely on my shoulders, promoting the event has been a group effort. There have been dozens and dozens of blog posts written about the event and hundreds of tweets. The buzz surrounding the event as we lead up to it this weekend is staggering. A heart-felt thanks goes out to all those who have done more than your fair share to help promote this event.

All the key pieces of materials have arrived at this point. I'm still waiting for a banner to arrive, but that's it. I have a lot of work left to do and I don't expect to get much sleep between now and Sunday. I'm OK with that. It's all been well worth it.

If you have already registered for WordCamp:Las Vegas, I look forward to seeing you on Saturday. If you haven't yet signed up, you have until Friday at noon to get it done. Go register now before it's too late.

Thank you for all the kind words you guys have written. It means a lot to me.