We were fortunate enough to be asked to attend the 2nd annual PressNomics conference in Tempe, AZ. The 3 day conference was held at the lovely Tempe Mission Palms, and was led by Josh Strebel (@strebel) and Sally Strebel (@BizGirl) of Page.ly (@Pagely). The goal was to host a discussion with a diverse group of passionate and successful WordPress entrepreneurs and experts who are driving the WordPress economy and ecosystem alike.
The conference was kicked off with an absolutely killer talk by Chris Lema (@chrislema), who inspired us to think about our businesses and staff as a way to “draft and develop” teams and people, and to create and grow well-rounded talent. Following Chris was an entertaining talk by Bill Belew (@billbelew_com) on SEO and marketing, with the takeaway ”Hit the Publish button”, “Hit the Publish button”, “Hit the Publish button”… well you get the idea. Bill was one of the most captivating speakers we’ve ever seen; it’s hard to describe, but his speed and delivery kept us enthralled.
The inspiring talks and speakers continued throughout the two-day conference and moved from theory into practice. Industry leaders offered stories of strategies and innovations that are making an impact for clients, customers and communities and explored what the impact of WordPress can and should be in our economy.
New to the discussion format this year was the introduction of a two-stage setup — essentially allowing a more seamless speaker transition. One speaker would be finishing up on the left side of the stage and the next speaker on-deck would prepare on the right side of the stage. Great idea, great upgrade. One thing we would have liked to see was more small group sessions, with leaders in specific areas of the WordPress-ecosystem chatting more intimately with others about specific topics and concerns that other business owners are experiencing. Our friend Shane Pearlman (@justlikeair) of Modern Tribe (@ModernTribeInc) drove one of these group dialogues in-between speakers. Imagine if this was a standard interactive feature of PressNomics in the future — could be amazing!
Oh and we ran into Pauly Shore TWICE.
