This is the fifth post in a series to help you get to know our 2016 WordCamp Sacramento organizers a little better! You’ve already met Jose Castaneda, Bill Mead, John Locke, and 2016 Lead Jennifer Bourn, and today we’re introducing you to Jake Goldman.
Jake Goldman is the President & Founder of 10up, a web agency focused on outstanding content management experiences, with full time designers, engineers, strategists, and systems experts. Jake bootstrapped 10up from a 1 man show to a leading force in the WordPress market with over 120 employees, and customers like ESPN, Microsoft, Google, TED, Dropbox, and AARP — to name just a few — in 4 years. He has been building websites since the mid 90s, and his analyses have been quoted on publications like Fast Company and c|net. He is a core contributor to WordPress, and maintains some of the highest rated plug-ins on the official repository; cumulatively, they have been downloaded nearly 1 million times. He’s also a proud web community volunteer: he co-organized the first WordCamp Boston in 2010 while living in Rhode Island, started the Providence WordPress Meetup in late 2010, and rebooted the Sacramento WordPress Meetup in 2013.
Be sure to give Jake at shout out on Twitter and don’t forget to use our hashtag #wcsac.
Get To Know Jacob Goldman
To help you get to know our organizers a bit better, we asked them to answer a few questions…
Here’s what Jake had to say:
What was your favorite part of WordCamp 2015?
In 2015, I was impressed by our local community’s presence in speaking, volunteering, and engaging with the sessions, and with the strength of the material in our “advanced” developers track. I’ve been to long established WordCamps with much weaker material in the developer track and a much heavier dependence on out-of-state speakers.
This year I’m excited by the scale: Sacramento sometimes suffers by comparison to our neighbor, San Francisco, and I’m proud to see Northern California’s only WordCamp — with over 300 attendees — in my “home city.”
Why should people come to WordCamp?
If you’re looking for freelance or full time opportunity, to level up as web beginner, entrepreneur, or developer, or just want to network with fellow web geeks, coming to a WordCamp like ours is a no brainer. The food and swag alone is worth more than the price of admission!
Any advice for those attending their first WordCamp?
Expect a very casual, open atmosphere, but don’t be deceived by the laid back attitude and attire: if you take the time to talk to your fellow attendees, you’ll be blown away by what they’re building.
How has WordPress Or WordCamp Impacted you?
Betting on and investing in WordPress as our platform of choice turned my company, 10up, into one of the largest web-focused agencies in the world. You could say it’s had an impact.
The WordCamp theme this year is “discovery” — What does that mean to you?
Everyone still has something to learn, if they take the time to listen, meet new people, and approach the event with the right mindset and humility.
What does it mean in the context of WordPress?
There are so many inspiring ways makers use WordPress; even veterans can still be wowed if they take the time to look outside their bubble.
What do you like to do for fun?
I have a 9 month old, so that’s pretty much my “night job,” right now. When I do get a little time outside of the virtual office or away from the baby, I enjoy cooking and experimenting with new recipes, traveling near and far, and catching-up on my growing Netflix queue. I’m also a bit of a gadget geek, and have been gradually working on making my home “smarter.”