WordCamp Kyoto 2017 took place on June 24-25. Around 350 people gathered at Kyoto University and enjoyed the time togeter as WordPress enthusiasts.
Day 0: Travel & Speakers Dinner
On the day before the event, two of my colleagues and I took a bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto. We walked around Kiyomizudera Temple and Nineizaka, then went to the Speaker’s Dinner in Sijō.
Kiyomizudrea
Kiyomizudera
Nineizaka
Totoro at Kyoto Nineizaka
Kamogawa at dusk
Day 1: Session Day
Saturday was a session day. We arrived at the venue early to set up Automattic (Jetpack/WooCommerce) tables. All went by fast – I gave a talk about WordPress.com (video/sildes), attended a session about translation, and mostly talked to people at the sponsorship table.
International Science Innovation Building
“Sponsor booth tour” flag
Automattic hiring cards
Jetpack booth
WooCommerce booth
Perler beads table
Perler beads Wapuu
George at the booth
The organizing team did a great job excecuting the event, closely focusing around session while keeping a relatively simple overall setup. They had beautiful and very original swag too!
Handmade Japanese Unbrella
Tea cup, tenugui, & sticker
Keychain & sticker
I received some more Wapuu stickers and postcards from Tachibana-san, who went to WordCamp Europe in Paris.
At the after party, I talked some more people… For someone who work alone for most of the days and use typed words as the main means of communication, it felt as if I was intensely training my vocal cord during these WordCamp days.
After party flash talk
Day 2: Contributor Day
Then on Sunday, about 100 people participated in the Contributor Day. I helped as a mentor for the documentation and polyglots teams.
It was a very well-organized setup and each team got a lot of things done in a day. There were many first-time contributors — it looked like they had a good time while learning how to get involved in many aspects of the WordPress project.
Contributor Day: WordCamp Kyoto 2017
Kyoto University
Contirbutor Day staff meeting
Day 3: Coworking
On the final day, some of us met up at Tenrō-in Bookstore (天狼院書店) for a little bit of coworking. It’s a renovated old house with two floors of coworking/café space.
2nd floor of Tenrō-in
With WC Kyoto main organizer Okamoto-san
1st floor of Tenrō-in
This trip made me realize it again that the WordPress community in the Kansai region (= Kyoto, Osaka, Kobe, etc.) is very strong. With multiple local leaders that have experience in organizing WordCamps and meetups, the team is diverse and giving good infulence to each other.
I’m sure they will put together a great WordCamp next year – you should come and see it yourself, and get to know this part of Japan too!
