15/07/2024
☀ W H I T L E Y B A Y REVIEW 2 0 2 4
My (quick) WordCamp Whitley Bay diary
Jul 14, 2024
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by David Artiss
in Automattic, WordCamp
It’s traditional for me to write up a post whenever I go on any kind of work-related event. WordCamp Whitley Bay was the only WordCamp occurring in the UK this year, and I was chosen as a speaker. However, it was a one-day only event and all happened quite quickly. So, this is going to be a much shorter than usual summary.
A lack of social media too means I have a lot less to share and, for reasons I’ll get into, I lack personal photos too.
Unlike with most events, this was (just about) near enough that I could justify driving. I haven’t had my new car very long, so this was a chance to give it a good try out on a long trip. It was 3.5 hours each way, so I set off just before lunch on Thursday. I reduced some of my travel time down by using the Tyne Tunnel, something I only found out about just before leaving. For £2.16 each way, it’s not bad value though.
I got to Whitley Bay around 3pm, with my hotel check-in not until 4. The skies over Whitley Bay were grey, so the coastal views reflected that…
The town itself was nice, but nothing really too “seaside town” about it. There were shops further in, but it wasn’t all arcades and souvenir shops (not necessarily a bad thing)
The hotel I was at – York House Hotel – had good reviews, and when I checked in at 4, the man who ran it was really nice, and very accommodating. The inside had a dark, slightly dim light feel. Comfy but a little tatty in places. My room was much the same. It was an odd layout – dumbbell shape in a way, with a slim middle section joining a large area at the top for 2 beds and, at the other end, a kitchenette and bathroom.
The bathroom, for example, was good, but had nowhere to really put anything. The hot tap took a lot of tightening to really turn off and, on top of that, the lighting was not very bright, which isn’t great for that room. Indeed, dim, yellow lighting appeared to be the order of the day, and I found my bedside lamp that night so dim I needed to put on the ceiling light as well to be able to read my book.
Speaking of that night, I initially tried sleeping in the bed on the right, as the other was in more of an enclosed alcove, but the headboard squeaked. A lot. So I had to switch over.
Anyway, going back a bit, I’d just checked in, so I got a little food to tide me over, and then settled into my room for a while before getting changed and heading out to dinner. As a speaker, I’d been invited to a speakers dinner. This was at OMNI, which served Vietnamese food. It really was excellent – the food and the company – and we eventually moved to a bar, The Ticket Office. But, I felt wiped out pretty quickly – I’d been unwell for the previous week and this was the first day since the previous Friday that I’d not actually felt ill, and both that and the drive had really taken it out of me. At around 10:30pm, I walked back to the hotel and settled in for the night.
Sadly, I didn’t sleep well. I don’t know why. The hotel wasn’t particularly noisy, and the bed was comfortable. Nothing was on my mind either. I just struggled to sleep. So, Friday morning, I was already rocking a headache, which wasn’t a great start.
What was a good start, though, was the hotel breakfast. It was really nice – lots of choice and cooked really well. The 2 rounds of toast were very much appreciated!
Registration at the venue started at 9am, so I was showered and ready at exactly that time. It was held at Spanish City, which is this rather fine building near to the sea…
Constructed at a cost of £20,000, the Spanish City opened its doors on 14 May 1910. The funfair attracted many people and continued to do so into the 1970s. After that however, with the rise in popularity of package holidays, visitor numbers to the Dome declined.
The restoration scheme which began in autumn 2016 and was complete by July 2018 has returned the building, as near as possible, to its 1910 glory. This includes reinstating the raised tower tops, roof terraces (loggias) and original style shop fronts.
The biggest change saw the infilled first floor in the Rotunda removed to take the interior back to its heyday. The muted tones of the interior decoration are in keeping with its original style and have seen the infamous green paint removed from the Dome ceiling!
There were 100 people due to attend but unlike even small WordCamps I’ve attended before, there were no sponsor booths, or even multiple tracks. This meant that everything was within in one room. On entry you got a badge and, inside, a small bag greated you with some “swag” in it, although most of that was leaflets and stickers. A pen and a rather nice Jetpack multi-USB connector was the only real thing of real note, other than a couple of free drink tokens for later in the day. But, hey, we’re not here for the freebies – it was the talks we wanted!
Another thing that was unusual for a small WordCamp like this were just how many people there were developers and business professionals – this compares markedly to the mainly bloggers who went to WordCamp Glasgow in 2020.
The talks were really mixed, which was needed when there was only a single choice at any one point – the variety made it constantly interesting.
My talk was at 10:30am and went… okay. I wasn’t feeling the energy I did on stage at WCEU, and I pretty much ignored all my speaker notes, so missed a few things too. But I managed to finish within my 20 minutes (which many others didn’t) and so had time for Q&A at the end. Most of this was probably down to just how tired I was, and I only managed to sit through the remaining talks because of coffee and a lot of self-will – absolutely no insult to them, in fact it was usually how interesting they were that kept me going. But I was flagging badly.
The morning also included a non-WordPress related talk from 2 members of the Greggs IT team. I’d already met Katie the night before, and she was really nice. It was a bit different, but very much in a good way.
Lunch was a cold buffet, and was excellent. I took the opportunity to walk the short way up the road to drop off my backpack at the hotel, so I didn’t have to worry about that for the rest of the afternoon. More talks, followed by a stop for scones, jam and clotted cream (food was very much the theme of the day!) before the final ones, including 3 flash talks. And soon, just after 5, it was over.
There was much chatting and general networking until around 6:30 when local fish and chips were delivered to us all for dinner. Some people had already left by this stage and, once we’d eaten dinner, this only increased. At this point, I realised I had a long evening in my hotel room ahead. When I’d gone back earlier, I’d been greeted by some new guests, all of whom looked like they were there for a weekend of drinking, which made me worried that mu night may be interrupted quite a bit by assorted drunken guests returning in the small hours. So, I made a decision. I left Spanish City early myself and checked out of the hotel. I did the quickest room pack you’ve even seen, loaded up my car (parked literally outside the hotel entrance) and headed home. I left around 7:45pm and was home about 10:30pm, with stops for drinks and fuel.
I didn’t miss not staying another night in the hotel, but I did miss not having the breakfast the next morning!
So, for anybody who attended, particularly my fellow speakers, if I seemed not quite 100%, I hope the above helps explain things a little. I had a great time, though, and hope to see Whitley Bay hosting again next year!
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