Wordcamp? What Do You Mean "WordCamp"?

“Quai Diar!” that was what I told the taxi driver who was smart enough to understand what my broken Chinese meant. I left our flat at 11:30 am even though I know that the conference will not be starting until 1:30 pm. I didn’t want to be late. Wordcamp China 2008 is the first blogger event I’ll be a part of and so I didn’t want to miss any of it.

I arrived at Shanghai’s Fudan University’s main gate at around 12:00 noon. I went to asked one student which building/conference room it’s going to be held but he doesn’t know what I’m talking about and so he referred me to the guard who doesn’t speak one word of English. I stood there for a bit hoping to see any sign of Wordcamp like a banner or people wearing wordpress shirts but I didn’t see any of that. So I grabbed the next “I-can-speak-English” looking person and ask about Wordcamp.

Laura and her friend, Heidi stopped by and offered to help me. Their English were not good but they seem to be friendly so I continue explaining what I came there for. They seem to understand because they told me to follow them so I did. We walked for about 30 minutes but when I realized that we are heading to the students’ residence part of the campus, I stopped and ask them again if they know what I was talking about and they nod in assurance. But they took me to this small office—the kind where incoming freshmen go to ask what courses are offered in the university. They thought I want to enroll for a course!

I started to panic because Wordcamp’s registration is supposed to start at 1:00 at it was already a few minutes to 1:00. I kindly asked one the clerks if I can use his computer so I can show them what Wordcamp is because it seems that the words like “blogging”, “blog”, “bloggers”, “wordpress”, “meeting”, “conference” are not part of their vocabulary. When I got a nod from the clerk I immediately googled “Wordcamp China 2008” and showed them the site.

The site is written in Chinese. There was an English information page but it was not sufficient. Fudan University is huge and we were totally clueless because it was not mentioned which building or which road the Wordcamp will be held. After showing them the site, they still didn’t know where it is so we went out of the building without anything. I continued to walk with them while wishing to see a sign of Wordcamp but there’s none. I’ve seen a geeky white guy who looks like he might be interested in blogging and asked him about Wordcamp but he doesn’t have any idea what Wordcamp is although he blogs, he goes to Fudan University, he can speak Chinese, and such conference is something he would be interested in. He said he’s sorry and left.

I was almost crying because of desperation. Heidi was quiet the whole time but when she noticed my disappointment she brought her cellphone out and called one of her friends. She said that this “friend” works as a student assistant in the university’s computer department (that is what I understood from her broken English). Luckily, her “friend” knows about it and told us to call a number. That’s how we found out the exact place and from where we were, it would take another 45 minutes walk. It was already 1:15 so I told the girls that we should get a taxi instead. I got there at exactly 1:30 pm. It was scheduled to start on that time but it took a few more minutesbefore they finally started it.

I didn’t finish the whole thing. After Matt Mullenweg finished his part, I took off. I would have stayed if I can understand Chinese. The rest of the conference is in Chinese and I would certainly feel a like a big bother if I stayed and asked my seatmate to translate everything.

The keynote of Matt Mullenweg was worth it but I am still utterly disappointed about the fact that  the conference was so (in my point of view) unorganized. No fliers, no banners in boards within the campus. When I got in the conference room, there were like 2 banners there plus two on the hallway… it wouldn’t hurt if they would have placed one somewhere where people can easily see it….like the main entrance of the University. There’s one big banner outside the building but who goes to that building? The banner is not even visible from the road. It’s really no wonder why there were only 40 or so attendees.

I will write about Matt’s speech in my next post because it is something worth sharing. But right now, I just would like to say that those of you who experienced Wordcamp Philippines 2008, consider yourself lucky. I so envy you guys. Looks like you really did have a lot of fun.