The weekend started with a train journey up to the Scottish capital. I managed to get some first-class tickets for a reasonable price. I must admit there is something about first-class that is a bit better. I light lunch, larger seats, free WiFi and a beer make all the difference, for the right price of course.
Arriving just before tea time I chilled out in my room for while watching some TV and catching up on some emails. My room, at a city centre Travelodge, was clean and tidy but extremely small with the only window point directly at a brick wall of the building opposite. Still, it served its purpose as I was not going to be spending much time there at all.
Friday evening social
As I was speaking at the event, I was invited to the Friday night speakers, sponsors, organisers and volunteers dinner. It is a way of saying thank you to everyone that gives their time to make these events possible.
I had a drink and caught up with friends over some finger food but actually left pretty early at just before 9pm as I wanted to get a good nights sleep so I had plenty of energy for the next day.
WordCamp Edinburgh Day 1
The first day was the main day of talks at the event and there were lots that I wanted to attend. I spent much of the day in Track 2, the more developer track listening to a wide variety of talks. I learnt a lot as you always do at these events.
Lunch was lovely. Some great soup, I went for Leek and Potato along with some Sandwiches and snacks. A really nice spread.
My talk
I thought my talk went really well actually and my audio and video setup worked well. I was recording my own talk with my new video setup, and everything worked well apart from the silly auto focus on the camera. I think I have corrected this now.
You can watch my talk on Transitioning to a block-based editor in a pre-Gutenberg world on our Highrise Digital blog.
The Saturday social
After the first day we all stayed at the venue for the social. There was some lovely food and an amazing Prosecco van for some drinks!
I also managed to get in some table tennis with some friends. I love playing but only seem to get the chance at WordCamps.
The city of Edinburgh
The city is a lovely place to visit and I took some photos of the parts I briefly visited. Nothing spectacular though.
My banjo video stabiliser
Throughout the weekend I was carrying around my video stabiliser to shoot some footage on. I must have been asked about 20 times by different people what this was, as I must admit the case does look like a mini guitar!
A short video of the weekend
Taken on my iPhone 8, some using my Smooth Q video stabiliser.
