As I’m settling back in from my trip to Portland, Oregon for WordCamp US 2024, I’m filled with inspiration, motivation, and gratitude. It’s been a few years since I had traveled to a WordCamp, so it was a particularly energizing trip, even if my feet are telling me otherwise.

Within 5 minutes of walking into the convention hall for the first time, I was approached by an Ollie Pro customer. “You’re the Ollie guy, right?! Can I get one of those little skateboards?”

They were referring to some merch I put together for the convention. In case you don’t know, the term “ollie” is a skateboard term, referring to the act of jumping in the air with the skateboard. So as part of our merch, I put together some little merch packs with holographic Ollie stickers and mini skateboards.

(Fun little side note, the little tail on the O in the Ollie logo represents the tail of a skateboard and the O overall represents the shape of a wheel.)

Needless to say, the merch packs were a hit! I had people coming up to me all week hoping I still had some left. I gave away hundreds of them. It was a silly and fun way of connecting with people and starting conversations. Everyone had a blast picking their favorite board design and contemplating how and when they were going to play with it or which kid they were going to gift it to.

Ollie for the people

From the moment that first person approached me at WCUS to talk about Ollie, it was basically a non-stop conversation with the community about Ollie, block themes, and launching products in the modern WordPress space. It was so non-stop that I have virtually no photos from the event!

I was stopped in hallways, I was yelled at while crossing the street, I was pulled into Ubers, I was berated for not charging enough — it was a whirlwind! It turns out, our little block theme and pattern library is more popular than I could have guessed. People have really enjoyed following the journey of creating a new product in this space.

For me, it was really inspiring hearing the many different ways people are using Ollie. Some people are using it to learn block themes and full-site editing. Some people are starting businesses with it. Some people were inspired by it to build their own products. That just fills me up with so much creative energy to keep going and pushing this thing forward!

I also got a lot of compliments about the video content we’re making for full-site editing. I heard a lot of similar comments about the tone of the videos, the format, and the practical nature of the content. So we’ll keep doing more of that for sure.

Ollie Onboarding

Another topic that was often discussed with other WordCampers was our work on revitalizing the onboarding effort in WordPress. In case you haven’t been following along, our initial version of the Ollie block theme had a really slick onboarding wizard aimed at giving customers a smoother experience setting up their site.

After a back and forth process where we tried to get the onboarding wizard included with the theme, ultimately, we decided to pull it out of the theme and put it into Ollie Pro where we could create the experience we wanted without the limitations of the theme directory. Ultimately, it was the right decision for a lot of reasons, which I outlined in this video update.

The ongoing conversation tells me there is still a lot of excitement and appetite around onboarding and simplifying the user experience. And we’re all about that. Our initial version was akin to a proof of concept, but there’s a lot more we can do there.

In fact, we have the next version of the Ollie site wizard in the works, and it’s going to take things up a notch. For now, we’re calling it Ollie Studio, and it’s going to turn some heads, so keep an eye out for that.

Ollie takes flight

After 3 days of non-stop networking and making new friends, I packed up my suitcase and headed to the airport. As I was walking towards my terminal, I felt a lot of kinship and gratitude for the folks I had just spent so much time with.

When you’re grinding every day, creating a product, contributing to the community, and sharing everything you possibly can along the way, it’s easy to forget about the real people on the other end of the screen. This was a good reminder of that.

At the airport, I was hit with one last surprise. As I’m wearily walking down terminal E at Portland International Airport, I catch a little shimmer out of the corner out of my eye. And sure enough, right there on someone’s very expensive MacBook Pro, is a freshly plastered holographic Ollie sticker. I did a triple take to make sure I wasn’t going crazy, but no — it was real. I was cutting my flight way too close, otherwise I would have stopped and pestered this person.

These surreal moments bring a tangibility to what we do everyday. This is what I love about creating software, especially in a space like WordPress where the software is distributed across the globe. You simply can’t measure the impact or reach. You just build it because you love to build it, and people get swept up in your creation along the way. I’ve been doing this for two decades and that feeling never gets old.

WordCamp US mini awards

Hands down, the people are what make WordCamps worth the trip. I’ve compiled a list of mini awards for as many people as I could possibly remember off the top of my head.

(This is just a silly list — all of these people are worlds more interesting than my simple observations here. More importantly, let this serve as a de facto list of people you should follow if you aren’t already.)

• Nicest Duo – @csbrouwer and @taylor_mosser
• Coolest Glasses – @nickmdiego
• Instant Friend – @alexjvasquez
• Nicest Watch – @carlhancock
• Spiciest Speaker – @photomatt
• Best Bomber Jacket – @richard_tabor
• Raddest Hair – @fjarrett
• Biggest Ollie Fan – @KristinCodesWP
• Best Speed Build Host – @pootlepress
• Most Ripped – @travistotz
• Most Legendary Duo – @theMOLITOR and @jptksc
• Best Audio Tips – @wpbuilds
• Most Thoughtful – @karmatosed
• Most Brave – @zackkatz
• Most Inspiring – @miriamschwab
• Best Mustache – @briancoords
• Most Impactful – @jessicalyschik
• Best Conversationalist – @remkusdevries
• Most Unavoidable – @CroixHaug
• Most Friendly – @brandondove
• Chillest Vibes – @ChrisBadgett
• Shiniest Stickers – @xojessfrick
• Best Marketer – @thekevingeary
• Most Diverse Skillset – @andyfragen
• Most Wisconsin – @mikezielonka
• Most Gracious – @JS_Zao