Talk from WordCamp Kochi 2017.

1. Why Local WordPress
Communities Are Important
Hardeep Asrani

2. Howdy,
I’m Hardeep Asrani.
I work for ThemeIsle as a theme developer
& a support ninja. I’m one of the organizers
of Kanpur WordPress Community, and now
the lead organizer of WordCamp Kanpur.
That’s right, we got approved.

3. How many of you are
attending your first
WordCamp today?

4. How many of you don’t
have anyone to talk
about WordPress in
your city?

5. And that's why we’re here today at WordCamp Kochi
to find the people who use & love WordPress. To
share what we know, and learn from the other.
And WordCamps are awesome… but they happen
only once a year in a city.

6. Meetup groups are locally-organised events that get
together two or more people, face-to-face, on a regular
basis. It allows us to find people who love WordPress,
in our own city, just as much as we do.

7. But why should I
attend these meetups?
What am I getting out
of it?

8. Notes for the selfish me.
• Escape from Isolation

9. Escape from Isolation
Most of us work remotely,
behind a lonely computer
screen, with little to no human
interaction. Hangout & Slack are
great, but that’s not enough.
WordPress is all about
community. And community is
nothing without people. Real
people, not just usernames and
profile pictures.

10. We aren’t meant to live in silence. By no means
should online conversations over Slack, Twitter,
et al replace in-person community. We’re not
prisoners. We’re remote workers. We are wired
for connection, conversation, and community.
- Bridget Willard (Why should you attend a
WordPress Meetup?)

11. Notes for the selfish me.
• Escape from Isolation
• Networking

12. Networking
WordPress is all about the
community. Local meetups
allow you to explore your
local community and meet
new amazing people.
That’s one of the reasons
why you’re here today in
Kochi.

13. Notes for the selfish me.
• Escape from Isolation
• Networking
• Learning

14. Learning
Everyone knows something you don’t. So why not
learn from them?

15. Notes for the selfish me.
• Escape from Isolation
• Networking
• Learning
• Personal Branding

16. Personal Branding
Meetups are a great way to promote your best product;
yourself. In a honest and friendly way, of course.
We all love knowing new people.

17. Notes for the selfish me.
• Escape from Isolation
• Networking
• Learning
• Personal Branding
• Jobs & Internship

18. Jobs & Internship
One of the main goals of WordPress meetups are to
promote WordPress within your community. And for
the same reasons, it can be beneficial for students to
get jobs & internships.

19. Notes for the selfish me.
• Escape from Isolation
• Networking
• Learning
• Personal Branding
• Jobs & Internship
• Giving back to the community

20. Giving back to the community
If you use WordPress everyday then why not give
something back? It can be anything, from translating
some strings to your native language to giving a
session on something you love and sharing the
knowledge.
That’s one of the best ways we can help others.

21. Last but not the least,
you can’t have a
WordCamp without an
active local
community.

35. I get what you’re
saying.
But there is no active
WordPress community
in my city.

36. ➤ Community is inactive? Try to lead and make it
active again.
➤ There’s no community at all? Go to meetup.com and
start one.

37. BUT,
➤ Meetup.com isn’t free.
➤ We did a meetup and no one showed up.
➤ We can't find a place for our meetup.
➤ Antarctica isn’t ready for it.

38. Thank you.
Got a question?PS: All the meetup groups should start uploading high-quality images.