There were a lot of people at CSUN 2024 – apparently more than 5,000. I only got to meet a few – well, quite a few, actually.
TPGi colleagues I met face to face for the first time
Doug Abrams
Matt Ater
Alice Barriciello
Kashana Bridgeford
Martin Bowman
Rachel Buchanan
Bob Ciminera
Jeanne Erickson Cooley
Carolina Crespo
Stefani Cuschnir
Brian Elton
Wesley Estes
Alicia Evans
Aaron Farber
Matt Feldman
Roxana Fischer
Sarah Fewtrell
Shubhashree Ghosh
Mark Miller
Ben Knolles
Brett Lewis
Ian Lloyd
Leilani Mason
Laurie Pagano
Charu Pandhi
Charlie Pike
Sriram Ramanathan
Jeremiah Rogers
Anne Scallan
Peter Schiller
David Sloan
Justin Stockton
David Swallow
Kirby Tucker
Elizabeth Whitaker
Jan Williams
Contact ranged from a quick handshake through longer chats, drinks, lunches, dinners, and formal meetings. I’m sure there were more but I didn’t always catch someone’s name.
For contrast, TPGI colleagues I’ve previously met face to face
Hans Hillen
Ryan Jones
Old friends
Steve Faulkner
Derek Featherstone
Doug Schepers
I was fortunate to have good chats with each of them, so good to see them.
The Aussies – we see each other more overseas than at home
Andrew Arch
Zoë Haughton
Stewart Hay
May Fei Lee
Ross Mullen
The first four are valued former colleagues at Intopia, and Ross is an old OZeWAI buddy who is also thriving.
People I’d met before because they came to Australia
Lainey Feingold
Susanna Laurin
Matt May
People I’d previously only known online
Jennison Asuncion
Markku Häkkinen
Jack McElaney
Mike Paciello
Shane Paciello
Adrian Roselli
With a special mention to Adrienne Grace, a (very recent) colleague on the WordPress Accessibility Day committee who lives in Anaheim and who took me out to Disneyland for pizzas, cocktails and trinket-buying.
Other people I’d known of but not connected with before
Dylan Barrell
Rob Carr
Sarah Horton
People I connected with from presentations
Mamadi Corra
Jamie Herrera
Øystein Moseng
Kim-Frederique Viens (who was at way more of the sessions I was at than is statistically likely)
Marita Vindedal
And then there the opportunities I missed.
TPGI colleagues who were there but I didn’t get to meet
Dennis Deacon
Jonny James
Travis Brown
Other people I’ve known online and didn’t get to meet
Rachele DiTullio (too many admirers after her terrific presentation)
People I recognized and should have introduced myself to (most of whom I’m connected with on LinkedIn!)
Dax Castro
Gerard Cohen
Jon Farrell
Carie Fisher
Dave Herr
Chris McMeeking
Jared Smith
Lastly
As well as the unnamed people who congratulated and thanked me after our presentation, a shoutout to the young woman I met at the reception who saw my name badge and said, “Oh wow, you’re the guy who writes all those cool articles!”
Quirky fact: as I was chatting with Doug Schepers, we were joined by Ian Lloyd and Andrew Arch, who both turn out to leaplings – what are the odds on that happening?