Field Notes: Webstock 2014
Reporting back from a successful Webstock conference in Wellington, New Zealand, Growth Engineer Dave Martin shares the view from down under.
Every week, Automatticians — the people behind WordPress.com — participate in conferences, WordCamps, and other community events around the world. Today, let’s hear from Growth Engineer Dave Martin, who just returned from Webstock, in Wellington, New Zealand. Webstock is a WordPress.com-sponsored conference that attracts prominent tech and new-media thinkers from around the world.
This was my first visit to Wellington — a great little city filled with good art, good food, and good people. The morning I arrived, I tagged along with some other Webstock speakers and sponsors to visit Boomrock, a lovely ranch overlooking the Tasman Sea. We shot shotguns, we threw knives, and then we hung out the rest of the evening. With a backdrop like this, it was all a bit surreal, and magical.
The view from Boomrock, near Wellington, New Zealand.
The event itself was wonderful as well. Scott Berkun kicked things off as the first speaker. He talked about his year working at Automattic. Scott’s talk spawned a bunch of great conversations with a variety of people.
A WordPress.com booth doubling as an ice cream stand? Unbeatable.
Overall, it was a fantastic event. I met a lot of great people, and had a bunch of memorable experiences.
Speaking of memorable experiences: a minor suggestion to my future self (and anyone else reading this). If you’re out of the country, and you happen to shoot guns, for the love of all things holy don’t place a spent shotgun shell in your pocket, thinking it’s cool, and then forget about it during your stroll through customs.
Oops.
Stay tuned for more news and updates about upcoming events! Next week, we’ll preview this year’s SXSW conference, and unveil our new events calendar.
- February 27, 2014
- Community, Events, International, Wrapup
WordPress.com News 
Nice! Someone unafraid to express their joy of sport shooting. Thank you.
LikeLiked by 1 person
So what did you shoot shotguns at? And throw knives at?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Nice view…
Thanks for this info!
LikeLiked by 1 person
What a wonderful view!! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Actually I don’t think it’s very cool to “shot shotguns and throw knives”. Against who or what did you throw your knives and guns? I hope you did’t hurt yourselves, cause you are doing a good work @ WordPress. And I hope you didn’t kill animals too.
Why don’t you just try to take some good pothographs next time?
Best regards
Marco Galliano
LikeLiked by 1 person
Did you really walk through customs with that shotgun shell? lol
LikeLiked by 1 person
Holy Smoke! Looks like you had a lovely time though in our fine country.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ok! And the ice cream stand idea is stellar.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yep. Customs peeps get a little twitchy about things like that! 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ah, yeah. That would be a rather bad idea in this day and age.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you for sharing your trip with us! Beautiful scenery. You might also want to remember the next time you fly and shoot to check and make sure your clothes that you wore are in the belly of the plane and not carried on! This happened to my husband one time, made him miss his flight.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I hope you didn’t shoot your mouth off to the customs official. LOL
LikeLiked by 1 person
The photo is beautiful! Like many of my Oregon coastal seascapes. I can’t wait to get the scoop and hear all the music from SXSW!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oops and ouch!! Hope you talked your way through without too much trouble!
LikeLiked by 1 person
lol… I bet when they saw the shell they were like “So… where’s the rest of it?” 😉 What a great picture! I hope to visit New Zealand one day.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I loved it!
LikeLiked by 1 person
so beautiful…:)
LikeLiked by 1 person
It was my privilege to spend about 5 years teaching in Wellington – you’ve made me homesick for my second home!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Alright, alright, allright! Just wanted to comment back to the rest of you who don’t know that shooting guns and throwing knifes is a game! unlike the hunger games you don’t aim at people or animals! just inanimate objects!
LikeLiked by 1 person