The drive to the Solar Max building near downtown Riverside, CA wasn’t so bad for I headed out early at around 7:30 a.m. so that I can stop by a Starbucks en route to get my coffee fix. It was an early 8:00 a.m. registration but I managed to get almost on time by 8:05 and the facility has convenient parking.

Upon entering the building with lots space and high ceiling, the sign-up staff were friendly but told me to check back again over the weekend if I am going to get a T-SHIRT because I registered late, just a day before. I enjoyed the coffee as well as the coffee cake before taking a seat. Oh! I got to chat with Verious, the organizer for the event from the Inland Empire Word Press meetup that meets on Tuesday and Thursday. Now that I started college at CSUSB this Fall quarter on those same days did not allow me to attend the WordPress meetup days. As a total beginner, I simply needed to attend the “Word Camp” so I can immerse myself and invest in the practical skill of website creation with WordPress at a mere investment of $50.

As I tried to register yesterday, the tickets got sold out so I truly thought that I missed out on this opportunity to learn and network as well. Verious was kind and helpful to release a few more tickets when I emailed him and even asked about any free tickets or discounted pricing for students. I am just glad to have the chance and being there among other seasoned WordPress folks and motivated learners, a couple gals driving from Sacramento and Bakersfield to attend, made me feel so lucky that Riverside is just so close.

Pumped with coffee, a coffee cake, and bagel, plus helping out moving some tables for the attendees got me quite excited to learn. I have many big ideas for this domain – WowCity.com – to turn it into a useful platform using WordPress. Today is the actual start of my learning journey for after a month of installing thanks to a YouTube video as guide, I have not even touched this website.

It all starts with the basics! The foundation matters and today that is what I learned. Use the tools properly to become a proficient WordPress integrator and with 34% of the internet websites using it, there is power in open-source as it is a community.

All will come into place as I learn to develop my workflow in getting the website ready for my future development plans. This is all for today and I will post something again tomorrow.