So, it looks like I’m presenting the keynote talk at WordCamp Hamburg 2014, which is both an incredible honour, and also a little scary…
The scary bit is that I’ve promised to intro the talk and do the Q&A in German (the bulk will be in English). A brave promise, but what was I thinking? First of all, and despite the fact that I still read enough in German, I have only spoken it sporadically, and usually not about WordPress (yes, I had to go look how to say “upload” in German…). Then, and even more worrying, my German sounds Viennese, a city both culturally and geographically very far from Hamburg; they will make fun of me, des was I scho jetzt, macht oba nix. Case in point, I had to promise not to jodel (which, by the way, shows you how much northern Germany knows about Austria: it’s Vienna, not Tirol: we don’t jodel.)
I am however mostly humbled to be invited to speak at an event organised by one of the oldest, largest, and most active WordPress communities in the world. I hope to make a good case for the planned internationalization push in 4.0, of course, and to “sell” WordCamp Europe 2014.
What I’m not sure of, is how to chronicle the relationship of this community with WordPress throughout the years (including some episodes of which I was part), and how, in the end, it came to represent all the power, graciousness and enthusiasm which has become a flag of WordPress, not only in Europe, but worldwide.
I have 10 days to come up with something brilliant.