I got to go there along with Mark and Noel from Automattic.

WordCamp Fukuoka T-Shirts

The main hall presentation opened from a talk by Ned Watson. He was funny and really enthusiastic. He’s already planning for WordCamp Fukuoka 2011 I liked what he said: “Bring a friend, and we’ll have 400 people next year”

I went to watch Yasuhiro Yamada talk about the difference between WordPress and Movable Type.

In he afternoon, I presented on a topic about the power and appeal of WordPress, covering its openness, expansibility, and community. My slides are in Japanese but it’s on Slideshare.

Presentation by Contact Form 7 Author Takayuki Miyoshi

I really enjoyed Takayuki‘s presentation a lot. It was only for 30 minutes but I wish he kept talking! It was about how he got involved in WordPress and how his plugin Contact Form 7 grew to become one of the most popular ones. It was nothing about big promotion or even a well-planned strategy. He just kept making it better for users, and provided a way for others to help him in areas like translation.

Later on, I got on the stage to interpret Noel’s “Directed Design” presentation and Mark’s lightening talk on the official Plugin Directory. I heard a lot of good feedback about both of their talk.

There was an after-party with 100+ people at a nearby hall. There were some mini-presentations, sushi, beer, shochu and WordCamp cake

WordCamp Fukuoka Cake

Local bakery Strawberry Fields did an amazing job with the logo. Tasted great too…

WordCamp Fukuoka seemed to have inspired many people in Fukuoka as well as visitors from all around Japan. I was certainly impressed with the WordPress user & web developer community in Fukuoka. Now the organizers of WordCamp Yokohama (scheduled for May 29th this year) are getting busy planning for an even better one!

Awesome organizer/facilitator/babysitter Masanori Hashimoto of Nulab had written a report w/ photos: WordCamp Fukuoka 2010 finished!

You can see more photos on Flickr tag #wcfukuoka2010.

The speaker includes Contact Form 7 plugin author Takayuki Miyoshi (takayukister), P2/Monotone/Duotone theme author Noel Jackson, Time, Inc. consultant/developer Ned Watson, Frogman Office designer Yuki Yamaguchi, and paperboy&co. engineer Manno Junji (ecogrammer).

The idea for this WordCamp started from last year’s WordCamp NYC. Masanori Hashimoto, attendee & sponsor of WCNYC was so inspired by the event that he decided doing a WordCamp in Fukuoka. I’m excited to see such influence from one WordCamp to another, because that’s how I got involved in organizing WordCamps myself after attending one in San Francisco in 2007. I’m sure a lot of good things will come out of this event too.

Some Facts:

• This WordCamp is the 4th one in Japan (hopefully followed by more in other cities later in the year!).
• Almost 200 event attendees & 100 after-party signups at this time. Largest attendance for WordCamp in Japan so far.
• The “Genius Bar” will be held at a Japanese tearoom. I’m sure that’s the first time ever

You can follow their Twitter account @wcfukuoka2010 or #wcfukuoka2010 hashtag.