Introducing Cami Kaos

Cami Kaos works at Automattic. She lives, works, and parents in the rainy city of Portland, Oregon.

Show Notes

WordPress Community Website | make.wordpress.org/community

WordCamp Schedule | central.wordcamp.org/schedule

Blog | camikaos.com

Twitter | @camikaos

Episode Transcript

Liam: This is Hallway Chats, where we talk with some of the unique people in and around WordPress.

Tara: Together, we meet and chat with folks you may not know about in our community.

Liam: With our guests, we’ll explore stories of living – and of making a living with WordPress.

Tara: And now, the conversation begins. This is episode 11.

Liam: Hi! Welcome the hallway chats. I am Liam Dempsey.

Tara: I am Tara Claeys. Today we are very excited to have Cami Kaos with us. Cami lives, works, and parents in the rainy city of Portland, Oregon. She tells me that she walks around the streets wearing her WordPress t-shirt and carrying a banana. I am hoping she’ll tell us a little bit more about that. Cami works at Automattic, and she is a frequent sight at WordCamps. We’re really happy to have you with us today.

Cami: Hi!

Liam: Hi Cami. So we got the brief overview from Tara but tell us a little bit more about yourself. Tell us about life and fill in some of the gaps that we haven’t covered yet.

Cami: My name is Cami, which you already told everybody. I do work at Automattic, but I am leant out. Essentially, I was given to the open source project. So while I work for Automattic, I work on the open source WordPress project. Specifically in WordCamps and Meetups (primarily in WordCamps). I like to say that I organize the organizers. Because our organizers are all volunteers, I help them and give them the tools that they need to get their very hard volunteer work done.

Tara: We’re glad that you are there to help them with that because we had heard over and over again how important WordCamps are for people in this community. They are really life-changing. We have heard that more than one time. I had that experience myself. Tell us how you got involved and how you were introduced to WordPress. Tell us your WordPress story.

Cami: My WordPress origin story is not so different than a lot of people. In Portland Oregon, we have a very vibrant startup and technology scene. We have been long known for our camps. It was joked that if we could, we would have a camp camp because we had every sort of camp imaginable. A person who I worked with on a community blog many years ago decided to run a WordCamp. I never used WordPress. I was on blogger at the time. This was way long ago. It was the first year that WordCamps were happening outside of San Francisco. He needed a hand. He needed some volunteers that he could trust to help with the WordCamp. I said I have absolutely no idea. I’ve never used WordPress. He said it is better than what you are using so why don’t you move your blog over and see if you like it. Oh, by the way, I need you to come and help me anyway. So the night before the event I moved my blog over from blogger to a self-hosted site. I spent the entire next day handing out t-shirts, attending sessions, and helping people move their blogs over to WordPress.

Tara: Wow! That’s a really interesting way to be introduced it. I think I have not heard that before. After that WordCamp how did you progress with WordPress and Wordcamps?

Cami: I kept blogging. I was a prolific mommy blogger, and it wasn’t just about being a mommy. I had a site called Mommified Me.